Category: life

Discipleship is embracing the Cross of Jesus Christ

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul, Wk. XIV-C, 07 July 2019
Isaiah 66:10-14 >< }}}*> Galatians 6:14-18 >< }}}*> Luke 10:1-12, 17-20
Photo by Lorenzo Atienza, Malolos Cathedral, 12 June 2019.

Please forgive me for my curiosity: lately I have noticed the sudden sprouting of many “breastfeeding stations” and “lactation sections” in many public places that I feel so tempted getting inside them just to see how the mothers would react.

One of the joys of prayer is how God would communicate with us even with the most crazy ideas we have like that thought of entering a breastfeeding station. I recalled this thought as I dwelt deeply into Isaiah’s prophecy in our first reading today presenting God like a mother comforting her children the Israelites who were exiled to Babylon.

It was one of the lowest points in the history of the Jewish people when they lost everything – family and friends, country and nation, and most of all, their Temple in Jerusalem that they felt they were forsaken by God. As exiles, they were slaves without any freedom at all.

Thus says the Lord: “Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad because of her, all you who love her, exult, exult with her, all you who were mourning over her! Oh, that you may suck fully of the milk of her comfort, that you may nurse with delight at her abundant breasts! As nurslings, you shall be carried in her arms, and fondled in her lap; as a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you; in Jerusalem you shall find your comfort.”

Isaiah 66:10-11, 12b-13

Sometimes, God allows us to experience several blows and beatings in life not because he punishes us or he takes delight in seeing us suffer; sometimes, we need to be like infants and children again to trust God more, to rely to his goodness. It is the surest way to remind us who we really are. That we are not god.

In our second reading, St. Paul bolstered this imagery of our being children of God by reminding us that the only bragging rights we have as disciples of Jesus is to be one with him in his Cross.

Brothers and sisters: May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

Galatians 6:14
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

As children of the Father and disciples of Jesus, our mark of distinction is not found in our greatness, achievements and success but in our being weak, in our being wounded and bruised, always needing the comfort by God like a mother to her children. This is very clear with St. Paul not only in our second reading today but most especially in his second letter to the Corinthians:

“I will rather boast most gladly of my weaknesses, in order that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and constraints, for the sake of Christ; for when I am weak, then I am strong.”

2 Corinthians 12:9-10

It is in our weakness when God is most manifested.

Try listening to anyone bragging about his or her achievements and talents: for a time, we get impressed, we admire them but in the long run, it becomes both convulsing and convoluting. But when we come to learn or hear the sacrifices and sufferings of people even those we do not personally know, we feel uplifted. We remember God and his goodness, his mercy and love.

Crucifix at the side wall of the chapel of St. John Evangelist at Cana, Galilee. Photo by author, 06 May 2019.

Only the disciples of Christ who join him in his Cross can be filled with the gift of peace, the only possession of every disciple. See how how when Jesus sent out the 72 other disciples, he asked them not to bring anything at all. The only thing they must have is the peace of Jesus Christ that they have to share with everyone they visit.

“Go on your way; behold, I am sending you like lambs among wolves. Carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals; and greet no one along the way. Into whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this household.'”

Luke 10:3-5

Remember that when Jesus visited his Apostles in the locked upper room on the evening of Easter Sunday, he also greeted them with “peace” or “shalom” which is God’s greatest gift to anyone. Shalom in Hebrew means having a good relationship with one’s self, with others, and with God. Peace is always borne out of love and only those willing to sacrifice, suffer and even die for someone are the ones who truly love.

Mt. St. Paul Retreat House, June 2017.

There can be no peace in our hearts when we are filled with pride and ego. We need to be like children again, relying solely in the powers of our parents.

Last Thursday we brought our niece to her doctor at UST Hospital. While waiting for my sister when she left to get the lab results, I saw my niece feeling sleepy. I asked her to sleep on my lap as I gently rubbed her shoulder until she fell asleep soundly and peacefully.

What an attitude of not being bothered by her sickness because she must have great trust in me her uncle, my sister her mom, and also her doctor!

When we embrace our crosses in life and rely solely in Christ, we can also experience peace within. That is when we can rejoice as Jesus assured us, “your names are written in heaven” (Lk. 10:20).

A blessed week ahead to everyone! Jesus loves you, entrust to him all your worries and woes. Amen.

Trusting God

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul
Wednesday, Week XII, Year I, 26 June 2019
Genesis 13:2, 5-18 >< )))*> >< )))*> Matthew 7:15-20
Petra in Jordan, 30 April 2019. Photo by author.

Almighty God, did you really appear to Abraham when you promised him to be the father of a great nation and made that covenant with him in the desert? What did he see in the desert that he put his faith in you so much, Lord?

The word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision…

Abram put his faith in the Lord, who credited it to him as an act of righteousness.

Genesis 15:1, 6

To have faith in you, O God, like Abraham is to see more what our eyes can perceive. To have faith in you, O God, like Abraham is to see and experience the fruits of believing in you. To have faith in you, O God, like Abraham is to see nothing at all except you.

When I think of your Holy Land, O Lord, there is really nothing much to see around but its vast wilderness. Most likely during the time of Abraham, it must have been more barren than today. It was in that nothingness that he saw your greatness, O God, that he put his faith in you.

How ironic that it is only when there is nothing left with us that we can truly see your great gifts for us, Lord: our being special, our being loved and cherished by you, our being simply ourselves that we are alive that truly make us have more faith in you than all the things you can shower upon us.

It is in our nothingness, in our simplicity that we become fully aware of your abundance blessings that we start to have faith in you.

Open our eyes of faith to always look for your fruits of love and kindness, mercy and forgiveness, life and fulfillment in us. Amen.

Where are you leading me, Lord?

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul
Solemnity of the Birth of John the Baptist, 24 June 2019
Isaiah 49:1-6 >< }}}*> Acts 13:22-26 >< }}}*> Luke 1:57-66, 80
St. John the Baptist Church in Ein Karem, birthplace of St. John the Baptist. Photo by author, 05 May 2019.

Praise and glory to you, O God our almighty Father! Thank you very much for the gift of life, for the gift of being born into this world to see and experience your majesty. Indeed, it is always good to be alive, no matter what our condition or status in life may be.

Unfortunately, Lord, there are so many times in life that we fail to see life’s beauty because we have taken control over ourselves and everything, leaving no room for you to work in us, with us and through us. So many times, Lord, we wonder what we would be like what the neighbors and relatives of John the Baptist said when he was born.

All who heard this these things took them to heart, saying, “What, then, will this child be?” For surely the hand of the Lord was with him.

Luke 1:66

Perhaps, it will be best for us today to be silent as we celebrate John the Baptist’s birthday to let your hand be upon us too, O God, so we may ponder and pray where you are leading us.

It is the start of work and studies for another week. Some of us are getting tired of the routine, some of us could no longer find meaning and direction in life. And some of us are on the brink of giving up on our many plans and even with our very lives!

Let your hand be upon us, Lord, and lead us to your direction. Guide us with your Holy Spirit. Teach us to lay aside our plans and personal agenda to allow you to take us where you would want us to be. Give us the courage to take that plunge into the unknown, trusting you alone wherever you may be leading us.

So many times Lord, we are like John the Baptist’s father Zechariah who believe so much with ourselves that we forget to trust you.

And many times, too, we are like the relatives and neighbors of Elizabeth who always interfere with your plans, insisting on following traditions and patterns, preventing you from surprising us.

Keep us silent today, Lord, to hear you more, to follow you more wherever you are leading us. Amen.

Pilgrims outside the Church of St. John the Baptist in Ein Karem waiting for their turn to enter his birthplace. What a beautiful sight of people still patiently waiting for God to lead them closer to him.

Ang paboritong laro ni Hesus

Lawiswis ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Ika-21 ng Hunyo 2019
Larawan mula sa Google.

Tinanong sila ni Hesus,
“Hindi pa ba ninyo nababasa
ang talatang ito sa Kasulatan?
‘Ang batong itinakwil ng mga
tagapagtayo ng bahay
Ang siyang naging batong
panulukan.
Ginawa ito ng Panginoon,
At ito’y kahanga-hanga!'” †

Mateo 21:42
Madalas sa ating buhay
Tayo'y nanamlay sa maraming 
Dagok at kabiguan
At ating nalilimutan itong katotohanan:
Kagandahan at kabutihan 
Ng Diyos sa ating nagmamahal
Kanya tayong sinasamahan 
Kung saan hindi nating siya inaasahan.
Pangunahin niyang katangia'y
Magtago at magkubli sa mga tabi-tabi
Na sa tingin nati'y mga walang silbi
Sa pag-aakala nating Diyos ay naroon lang sa malalaki.
Kaya nang Siya ay magkatawang-tao
Hindi siya dumating na malaki
Kungdi sinilang na munting baby
Inaruga at pinalaki.
Nang si Hesus ay magsimulang magsilbi
Doon siya natagpuan sa mga tabi-tabi
Humirang mga lalaki na wala namang sinabi
At nakisama sa mabababang uri ng babai.
Larawan mula sa Rappler sa pamamagitan ng Google.
Kaya kung ang buhay ay isang laro
Natitiyak ko paborito sa lahat ni Kristo
Ang taguang pung at hindi patintero 
Lalo nang hindi ang tumbang preso.
Pag masdan ninyo nang matanto:
Abalang-abala tayo sa paghahanap
Ng kung anu-anong natatago 
Gayong tayo naman ang nabuburo.
Palaging taya, palaging kawawa;
At kung minsan nama'y nadaraya.
Kaya kung si Hesus ay iyong matagpuan at... 
Pung!  Siya na ang taya, ikaw ang malaya.

God loves a cheerful giver

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul, Wednesday, Wk. XI, Yr. I, 19 June 2019
2 Corinthians 9:6-11 >< )))*> >< )))*> >< )))*> Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18
Photo by Jim Marpa, 2018.

Our loving Father in heaven:

Lately I have been complaining a lot. And even if I keep it to myself, you know it very well because you see everything that is hidden.

I’m getting tired of helping and giving.

I’m getting tired of teaching and listening.

I’m getting tired of… living and doing everything.

I just want to stop and rest, Lord.

And the moment you give me that moment to stop and rest to start praying, I realize that whatever little or much do I have in this life is all yours. Nothing is really ours.

Even this very moment of stopping and resting in you. There is nothing we can claim to be totally ours to keep to ourselves. Not even a split second smile or a simple gesture of recognizing the other person.

Even that act of making the sign of the Cross is all yours and from you, Lord.

Moreover, God is able to make every grace abundant for you, so that in all things, always having all you need, you may have an abundance for every good work. You are being enriched in every way for all generosity, which through us produces thanksgiving to God.

2 Corinthians 9: 8, 11

Thank you, O Lord, for everything.

Take everything that I have, even the littlest thing I keep to myself as mine because it is still yours.

You see whatever is hidden and for us to see that too, is a pure grace from you.

Let us give more, love more, and most of all, see you more. Amen.

Wildflowers in the desert of Petra in Jordan. Photo by author, 30 April 2019.

In the light of the gospel

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul, Tuesday, Wk. XI, Yr. I, 18 June 2019
2 Corinthians 8:1-9 >< )))*> >< )))*> >< )))*> Matthew 5:43-48
Ceiling of the altar of the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, Malolos City. Photo by Lorenzo Atienza, 12 June 2019.

How great and deeply spiritual is your servant St. Paul, Lord Jesus Christ! No problem is too ordinary for him as he resolves them in the light of the gospel. He shows us in so many instances like in our first reading today how the gospel sheds light on seemingly secular matters like sharing treasures.

Now as you excel in every respect, in faith, discourse, knowledge, all earnestness, and in the love we have for you, may you excel in this gracious act also. I say this not by way of command, but to test the genuineness of your love by your concern for others. For you know the gracious act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that for your sake he became poor although he was rich, so that by his poverty you might become rich.

2 Corinthians 8:7-9

Here in St. Paul is the answer to our perennial question to your gospel teaching of how can we “love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us”? (Mt.5:44)

First, dispose us always to prayer, to communing in you and with you. Detach us from this world once in a while in silence and hiddeness. Just be with you. Alone. Listening to you, feeling you.

Then, open our hearts and minds to your words. Enflesh your words in us, through us and with us.

Once we have been emtpied of ourselves and filled with your words and spirit, move us, guide us, O Lord, to your will and direction like St. Paul. Make us your instrument in doing charity for others.

Cleanse our hearts and our lips that we may worthily proclaim your gospel in words and in deeds. Amen.

Rev. Bp. Jesse Mercado of Paranaque blessing the people with the Gospel book during a Mass. Photo by Lorenzo Atienza.

Songs on Father’s Day

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music, 16 June 2019
Photo by edwin josé vega ramos on Pexels.com

It is Father’s Day and I cannot help being nostalgic because I lost my father 19 years ago at around this time of the year. It was June 17, 2000, the eve of Father’s day when my dad died of a heart attack before dawn. It was also the birthday of my mother.

And that is why I have always loved Luther Vandross Jr.’s “Dancing With My Father” he had co-written with Richard Marx released May 30, 2003.

It is the perfect song on this Father’s Day as it speaks of the tenderness and love of a father to his wife and children. No wonder, when Jesus taught us how to pray, he told us to call God “Dad” or “Daddy” which is the more literal translation of “Abba”.

What I like most in “Dancing With My Father” is at the end of the song:

Sometimes I’d listen outside her door
And I’d hear how mama would cry for him
I’d pray for her even more than me
I’d pray for her even more than meI know I’m praying for much to much
But could you send her
The only man she loved
I know you don’t do it usually
But Dear Lord
She’s dying to dance with my father againEvery night I fall asleep
And this is all I ever dream

My father loved my mother so much. Since childhood until I became a priest, he never ate without my mother with him at the table. He does her coffee and he is our chef. It was doubly hard losing him because he died on her birthday. Every time I would visit my dad’s grave, I asked him only one question: why did you die on mom’s birthday? After two years, I felt his answer that he died on my mom’s birthday so I would also love her as he had loved her. And that is what I have always tried to fulfill.

My father never asked me to become a priest but it was him who unconsciously planted the seeds of my vocation when I would always see him praying before our altar before leaving for work and upon arriving home in the evening. It was from him I have learned and realized what true love is and most of all, that indeed, God is love. He loved us so much and even though it has been 19 years since he died, I can still feel his love.

For all the faithful and loving dads especially those with God our Father in heaven, here’s one for you….

Our second song is another tribute to a late father, Bread’s 1970 hit “Make It with You”.

According to its composer David Gates, he got the inspiration for “Make It With You” not from his girlfriend but from his late father. Gates claimed that during an interview, a reporter asked him with whom would he want to share his success in music with? Right away, he answered it would be his late father, of how he would want to “make it with him” so his dad would see his successful career in music.

Perhaps, that’s what we all miss with our late dads who worked so hard to give us good future, a good career: we all want them to see the fruits of their labors in us, to share with them whatever good things we now have is because of them. It is from these experiences with our loving dads that we have had glimpses of our personal God who became human like us in Jesus Christ, joining us in our pains and sufferings to be one with him in his triumphs and glory.

As we celebrate today the Solemnity of the Blessed Trinity, may we get into the very selves of our dad in Spirit to realize how immense that love God has for everyone meant to be shared with others too. Cheers to all dads!

We are God’s earthen vessels

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul, Friday, Wk. X, Yr. I, 14 June 2019
2 Corinthians 4:7-15 >< )))*> >< )))*> Matthew 5:27-32
Photo by Quang Nguyen Vinh on Pexels.com

Thank you very much Lord Jesus Christ for this Friday, for another weekend.

As the days moved on since Monday, we didn’t know how this week would move on for many of us: the pressures and stress at home, in the office and the school with all kinds of problems.

Some of us almost gave up life, Lord, because of sickness and loneliness, pains and sufferings, neglect and feelings of being misunderstood and unloved or unwelcomed.

But you were always there, Jesus, loving us, comforting us, assuring us of your presence and grace.

We hold this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing power may be of God and not from us. We are afflicted in every way, but not constrained; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not abandoned, struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the Body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body.

2 Corinthians 4:7-10

Let us continue your work Jesus. There are still plenty of things to be done this day: so many loving and acts of kindness, a lot of caring and understanding, some forgiving and asking sorry over there, with a lot of smiles and hugs to share so that those in despair may realize life is so beautiful, that it is good to be alive, that there is beauty even in our dirt and brokenness.

Every Cross is a plus sign, O Lord: afflictions and darkness, suffering and pains in life are an addition, never a minus or a subtraction! Amen.

Dominican Hills, Baguio, January 2019. Photo by author.

The Nearness of God

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul
Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ, 02 June 2019
Acts 1:1-11 >< }}}*> Hebrews 9:24-28; 10:19-23 >< }}}*> Luke 24:46-53
The Chapel of the Ascension believed to be the site where Jesus stood before ascending into heaven while his disciples looked at. Photo by author, 04 May 2019.

Outside the old city of Jerusalem on the Mount of Olives is the Chapel of the Ascension believed to be the site of Jesus Christ’s Ascension into heaven. Though the octagon-shaped structure is massive and very high, it is quite small inside with just one door for entrance and exit. Immediately upon entering that door on the floor is a framed slab of stone called the “Ascension Rock” venerated by pilgrims because that is where Jesus stood before going up to heaven.

The Ascension Rock. Photo by author, April 2017.

But personally, in the two occasions I have been there in 2017 and last month, my focus have always been more on the four windows of the chapel’s dome.

The rays of light coming through them have always evoked in me the beauty of Christ’s Ascension with a feeling that is so uplifting. The morning rays of the sun gently filling the room with light warms your heart as if angels are keeping you company like what we heard from the first reading during the Ascension of Jesus.

A window at the dome of the Chapel of the Ascension. Photo by author, April 2017.

As I prayed this week on the meaning of the Solemnity of the Ascension by recalling my two pilgrimages to the Holy Land in the light of our readings today, it is only now have I realized that the key to this feast is not found in looking up to the skies or looking down on where Jesus stood before going up to heaven.

It is in looking more into our hearts, looking deep inside us can we truly find the meaning of the Ascension of the Lord.

This feast is an invitation to get inside our hearts, not just into our minds and imagination to appreciate the words of Jesus Christ these past two Sundays about his “going and coming in a little while” (Jn.13:31, 33;14:25;16:16,20).

Remember how Jesus these past two weeks kept on speaking about his leaving and his coming at the same time? Of how we reflected last Sunday that in life, we do not really leave but simply come into new level of existence and new level of relating with God and with others?

Then he led them out as far as Bethany, raised his hands, and blessed them. As he blessed them he parted from them and was taken up to heaven. They did him homage and then returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and they were continually in the temple praising God.

Luke 24:50-53

Normally, it is sadness that we feel most in every leaving and departures: when kids leave home to pursue college somewhere, when a father or a mother leaves abroad to work over a long period of time, or a beloved dies. Though the cliche may be right sometimes that “parting is such a sweet, sweet sorrow”, the fact remains there is always sadness whenever we leave or somebody leaves us.

That is why St. Luke’s account of the Ascension is strange when he tells us that Christ’s disciples “then returned to Jerusalem with great joy” after the Ascension. St. Luke does not give any hint or a tinge of sadness among the disciples when Jesus left them to sit at the right hand of God almighty Father in heaven. And, the Holy Spirit has not come down yet. Where did the disciples get this great joy after Jesus had left?

Detail of a 15th century Greek Orthodox icon of the Ascension of Christ with Mary so calm while the apostles very animated, eager to proclaim the gospel. From Google.

We do not have the details at how this great shift happened that the disciples were filled with great joy after Ascension but, the Scriptures and the stories of the saints as well as those of some true heroes provide us with some answers and reasons.

According to St. Luke as well as the other evangelists, Jesus came to see his disciples for many days (40 according to Luke) after Easter. The Lord taught them with some more lessons preparing them for his coming Ascension. Most of all, Jesus made his disciples experienced his new mode of presence in his glorious body. He showed them his wounds and dined with them so often to convince them that he had really risen.

In all instances of his appearances, there was always joy among the disciples. Slowly, the disciples’ joy in knowing Jesus is risen deepened into great joy at the Ascension when this truth sank deeper into their hearts too that they have finally and truly accepted Jesus is alive!

When a truth or a reality stays only in our minds, that is always open to doubts. But, the moment that truth or reality we know is brought down to our hearts, that is only when we truly accept it as really true. And that is when we are filled with great joy because we are already convinced without any doubts of the truth or reality we have received.

Saints and heroes alike find great joy in their sufferings and death because of their convictions in their hearts that what they knew in their minds are very true. They lead “authentic” lives because what they knew in their minds was what they felt in their hearts that they eventually say and do. It is only in authentic living can we find great joy in living, no matter how painful or difficult it may be.

15th century Greek Orthodox icon of the Ascension. From Google.

And that is the great joy in the Ascension of Jesus Christ: the disciples, like us, start living authentically because we are deeply convinced that the Lord had not left us but had in fact launched a new level of nearness with us. His Ascension is the finality of the redemption he had won for us coming right into our hearts when we realize that Jesus did not simply die and rose again for a nameless mass of people. He did everything personally for each one of us.

This is what social media can never give us. Despite its great popularity, social media have left many of us still sad and even sick with various forms of mental illnesses. Everything that happens in the Net often remains up in our heads, rarely sinking into our hearts that still keep us apart despite our connections.

In his message for the 53rd World Communications Sunday we also celebrate today, Pope Francis invites us to connect deeper into the human community and not just in social network communities. The Holy Father stresses that interconnection must go down into personal encounters in the flesh, not just in virtual reality, calling for a shift from “likes” to “amen”.

Poster by Kendrick Ivan Panganiban.

How ironic that all these modern means of communications were invented to bring us all closer together but it seems the opposite is happening. We are growing apart and have become more impersonal than ever! We are all guilty of so often clicking the “like” button without having read the complete post or seen the photos of our relatives and friends. We rarely take time to “process” what we read and see on Facebook by people we call “friends” who often number to thousands. What an inauthentic way of living!

The Ascension of the Lord is a call to authentic living as it launched a new level of nearness of God with us and us with him and with one another. Unlike in the Old Testament as the author of the Letter to the Hebrews explained, Jesus did not enter a sanctuary made of human hands, referring to the old Temple worship that was never complete due to human imperfections. When Jesus came and went through his pasch, he brought God closest to us. We can rise up or ascend to his new level of relationship, new level of existence by rising up also from our infirmities and limitations in him who dwells in our hearts. A joyful month of June to you! Amen.

Jesus our Way

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul
Friday, Easter Week IV, 17 May 2019
Acts 12:26-33///John 14:1-6
Stations of the Cross at the wall of the Catholic chapel inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Photo by author, 04 May 2019.

Praise and glory to you, O Lord Jesus Christ! Thank you for another week about to close with another one soon to start. Most of all, thank you, Jesus, for always standing by our side especially in our moments of crisis and darkness.

So many times we find ourselves like your Apostle Thomas the Twin in today’s gospel who ask you with so many questions that are often simple and even silly. But, you always answer them filled with profound truth.

Thomas said to him, “Master, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

John 14:5-6

O Lord, forgive us for being so slow sometimes like Thomas with our level of understanding your words and teachings, even your very self.

However, we pray also for the sincerity of Thomas in asking that question that now defines you as “the way, the truth, and the life.” In answering that question, you have assured us of never abandoning us, of always fulfilling your words and your plans for us that so often we could not see nor understand at the start.

Help us to be faithful to your words as Paul preached in the synagogue of Antioch in our first reading today. May we always trust your words, Jesus, by following your path of the Cross for you always fulfill them and crowned it with your glorious Resurrection. Amen.

Ninth Station of the Cross before entering the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Photo by author April 2017.