The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul, Memorial of St. Pius V, 30 April 2020
Acts of the Apostles 8:26-40 <*(((>< 000 ><)))*> John 6:44-51
Photo by Mr. Raffy Tima of GMA-7 News, 2020.
It is the last day of April 2020 and we still cannot rejoice, Lord, because we still have to continue with our enhanced community quarantine until the 15th of next month to further control the spread of the dreaded COVID-19 virus.
Yes, it is very difficult and sad for everyone but deep inside each one of us is the excitement too of seeing that day finally when the pandemic is finally over and the corona virus wiped away.
And that is why we have to believe in you, O God our Father for you alone is the God of history, you have the final say at how things are in this life and the good news is, you always ensure that even tragedies and miseries end for our own good.
“Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.”
John 6:47
Yes, Lord Jesus, we believe in you because we want to see how all these things will end, if not in this life then in the eternity.
We have to believe to understand further and accept how things are in this life.
Like St. Pius V, the first Dominican Pope, he believed in your presence and power in the praying of the Holy Rosary that helped the Spanish Armada crushed the Ottoman Turks in Lepanto Bay to finally stop them from getting into Europe any further.
Incidentally, every Rosary begins with the Credo, “I believe in God…”
He believed in your works, O Lord, that despite the gargantuan tasks ahead of him, St. Pius pushed for the reforms of the Council of Trent that revitalized the whole Church after the Protestantism movement that swept the whole of Europe at that time.
We have to believe because believing is the starting point of everything in you; without it, we can never see through and look beyond to discover more meanings in life here and thereafter. Amen.
Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 29 April 2020
Photo by author, 2010.
This is again for my brother priests and fellow workers in Church communication: our extended “enhanced community quarantine” is a call for us to rediscover the contemplative spirit so essential in our communication apostolate. It is best that before we go in front of the camera, before we post anything at all, or even before we go out doing our social action, let us first have Jesus Christ in us.
After all, it is always Jesus and only Jesus we bring as priests in everything we say and do. Jesus is our life as priests and without him, our works mean nothing. Worst, it may be happening that it is not Jesus whom we are following when we fail to spend time with him in serious prayers that unknown to us, we are already replacing him by creating our own ministry apart from him.
Incidentally, we are celebrating today the Memorial of St. Catherine of Siena who is considered as one of the patron saints for those working in telecommunications and TV stations.
In one of her numerous “ecstatic” visions, it is said that when she was so sick in her room, she begged the Lord to give her a glimpse of the celebration of the Mass in their chapel. The Lord heard her prayer and thus, she became the first person in history to have celebrated Mass by “remote telecast”!
From Google.
Faith and technology
We have mentioned in our previous reflection that we now live our faith in a mass-mediated culture. Media is all around us. And there is always that intense temptation by the devil to put us on TV and the internet to be popular.
So, how do we interact with technology on a daily basis?
What are we posting on Facebook? Are we like the rest who are also hooked into TikTok with all the inanities that go with it?
How much time do we spend for social media and Netflix these days?
And how many hours do we spend before the Blessed Sacrament, excluding our Liturgy of the Hours and praying of the Holy Rosary?
From Google.
We are familiar with Marshall McLuhan’s dictum “the medium is the message”.
This we have seen in the past very evident in our ministry when some priests have transformed the South American telenovelas and later Koreanovelas into a gospel too that people felt like listening to reviews during the homily. And it had given some people the idea that every homily of the priest must say something about television shows! In fact, about three years ago, some priests have to be reminded by the CBCP during the Simbang Gabi to focus only on the Word of God and not on TV shows and jokes to get the attention of their congregation during Mass.
But let us not forget that later in his life, McLuhan added to his dictum that “the medium is the massage” to warn us that sooner or later, we can be eaten up by media that everything is reduced into a show – or a palabas in Filipino that means outward.
That is what a show is, a palabas which is empty or walang laman.
And shallow, mababaw.
That is the sorry state of our many social communication efforts in the Church when we have Masses that have become like entertainment shows, priests becoming entertainers, church buildings and decors that look like videoke bars evoking none of the sacred, and tarps and posters that are all hype without any evangelical meaning.
Observe also how our presentations and shows in our Catholic schools and parish halls have become mere repetitions of what are on television that have left many of us now stuck in Emmaus who could no longer find the way back to Jerusalem, even to Jesus because all we see are the fun and excitement, the glitz and the glamor of media.
And of our massaged ego.
Road to Emmaus from clarusonline.it
Keeping technology in its place in the Church
We are not saying modern communications is evil; the Church has always been clear that these modern means of communications are in fact a gift from God. Vatican II asserts that it is Church’s “birthright” to use and own these modern means of communication for evangelization (Inter Mirifica, 3)
Our challenge in the Church is to keep these modern technologies in its proper place.
A technological culture is not the most hospitable environment for religious belief, but neither is it necessarily hostile. If we are to find a way of expressing our faith in this technological culture and of speaking to and with the people formed by this culture we need to take time to consider how we, as individuals and as a faith community, interact with technology on a daily basis.
James Mcdonnell, Communicating the Gospel in a Technological Age: Rediscovering the Contemplative Spirit (1989)
In a story posted by the CBCP News two days ago, it reported the experience of Filipino priest Fr. Jun Villanueva who contracted the dreaded COVID-19 disease in New York City last March shortly after he had arrived to study there.
Assigned in a parish in the heart of the Big Apple, Fr. Villanueva tells how he spent his days of being “alone literally and emotionally” as “moments with God”. But, his turning point came after recovering from the corona virus when he began celebrating Mass alone:
“I really cried when I first celebrated Mass without churchgoers. There’s no one in the Church except Jesus,” he recalled. “Then I realized that the Mass is not a show but our union with Jesus, whether there are people or none,” he said. “I started to look at the situation from that perspective”.
Fr. Jun Villanueva, CBCP News, 27 April 2020
That is the first step needed to put technology in its proper place in the Church: that we bring back Jesus Christ whom we have banished in the name of our ministry and vocation. The more we think of putting so much “art” and other things to “enhance” our liturgies, then we banish Jesus Christ.
This is the other pandemic we have refused to stop in the Church: triumphalism, the overdoing of things for God that in the process we actually put more of ourselves in the ministry and liturgy than of the Holy.
Is there anyone or anything greater than the Lord?
Remember St. Theresa of Avila: Solo dios basta!
And, like our saints who guide us closer to God, the only way to have Jesus and bring him back in our lives and ministry, in the church as institution and building is through the contemplative spirit of the priests.
It is a good thing that the catch call these days is that the “return to normal” is actually a “return to basics” like washing of hands, covering of mouths when sneezing, and most of all, a return to God.
From Google.
The spirits of modernity characterized by constant changes and technological efficiency do not jibe so well with the demands of the Gospel of Jesus Christ who have always reminded us of guarding against the temptations of the material world.
Jesus tells us to practice poverty but the world tells us to be wealthy.
Jesus asks us to forget ourselves and follow him but the world tells us to be popular and follow the limelight.
Jesus tells us to go down and be humble but the world tells us to rise up and go higher!
The other day, Jesus reminded us in the gospel:
“Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him the Father, God, has set his seal.”
John 6:27
Most of the time in the Church and in our lives as priests, we have to be “inefficient” like “waste time” doing nothing in front of the Blessed Sacrament; have less of everything like food, money and clothing; be silent to listen more than to speak and talk more.
The contemplative spirit is about poverty and going down while the world tells us to be wealthy and to rise and go upwards.
The contemplative spirit is to be silent and trusting always in the Lord rather than relying on our own powers and abilities.
Here is James McDonnell again on the need to rediscover the contemplative spirit in communicating the gospel in this modern time.
“The contemplative spirit is an attitude of mind and heart that enables us to focus on the essential, important things. It refuses to be hurried or rushed into premature rejection or acceptance of technology. If we Christians allow it to inform our use of communication technologies we shall learn to be realistic, but always hopeful, able to love and reverence our culture even as we strive, with God’s help, to transform it.”
Communicating the Gospel in a Technological Age: Rediscovering the Contemplative Spirit (1989)
Take heart, my dear brother priests: we are representatives of Jesus Christ, our Eternal Priest. We are not entertainers and pleasers of anyone but of God alone. We do not need followers and likers. And we have so many other things to do than TikTok and Facebook or Instagram.
Let us go back to Nazareth to be silent and hidden so we can return to Jerusalem to await for further instructions from the Lord. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul, Memorial of St. Catherine of Siena, Virgin and Doctor of the Church, 29 April 2020
Acts of the Apostles 8:1-8 ><)))*> 000 <*(((>< John 6:35-40
Our empty church since March 17, 2020.
Once again, O Lord Jesus Christ, your Body the Church is facing severe trials and difficulties at this moment of history with the pandemic COVID-19 that have closed churches worldwide even in Rome, Italy which is one of the worst hit countries of the corona disease.
Since the martyrdom of St. Stephen, the Church has always been persecuted but never defeated. On the contrary, it was during the persecutions when your Church had really grown beyond leaps and bounds, so to speak.
St. Catherine lived at that time when she was able to unite warring factions in Europe as well as in the Church with her counsels while through her, many individuals found directions in life with her holiness, teachings and directions.
And while churches remain closed with dim prospects of opening soon, you never fail to send us men and women full of devotion to you who continue to work tirelessly in building your Body, the Church.
One of them is Fr. Jun Villanueva from the Diocese of Balanga in Bataan who was infected with COVID-19 while serving in New York.
As he recovered from the deadly disease celebrating Mass in his parish, he had a wonderful realization that many of us priests have seem to forget:
“Then I realized that the Mass is not a show but our union with Jesus, whether there are people or none… from then on I started to look at the situation from that perspective”.
CBCP News, 27 April 2020
In the first reading we are told of the zeal of Saul in destroying the early church alongside the devotion of the early disciples in keeping the young church alive.
Devout men buried Stephen and made a loud lament over him.
Acts of the Apostles 8:2
Only St. Luke used that adjective “devout” in the New Testament to describe people of “good heart, ready to believe, and then act openly and with courage” according to Timothy Clayton of the book “Exploring Advent with Luke”.
Devout people make thing happen for God like St. Stephen and the early Christians.
From Google.
Devout people give themselves to God wholly like St. Catherine and all the saints who remained attuned with the Holy Spirit like Philip in the first reading today, ready to follow its promptings and leads.
Give us the same gift of devotion to you, Jesus, the “Bread of Life” who had come down from heaven so we can build up your Church as your body here on earth.
Help us avoid the pitfalls of pride and self-centeredness that tend to destroy the unity of your Body, the Church.
Most specially, keep us devoted to you in the Blessed Sacrament like St. Catherine of Siena with whom you have shown in a vision while she was sick the celebration of the Eucharist in their chapel making her a patroness of those in television. Amen.
Thank you… and forgive us also, Lord Jesus, in this time of the corona virus.
Thank you in giving us the much needed time to be with you and with our loved ones in this time of quarantine. Thank you most of all, Lord, in giving us this chance to meet our true selves too.
The enhanced community quarantine has brought out the best in us, like with St. Stephen in the first reading who was filled with the Holy Spirit while being stoned to death by the people in proclaiming your gospel.
Thank you for the gifts of humility and courage to confront our true selves to see your true glory.
Forgive us also, Lord, because this same quarantine period has brought out the worst in us: every day in the news we see disturbing reports of people getting into all kinds of troubles displaying arrogance and pride that have wounded many bloated egos and, sadly even led to death.
We have been playing gods more than ever in this time of the corona virus, Lord Jesus.
Are we the ones also being referred to by St. Stephen in the first reading?
Stephen said to the people, the elders, and the scribes: “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always oppose the Holy Spirit; you are just like your ancestors.”
Acts of the Apostle 7:51
On the other hand, sometimes we act like the people of your time in Capernaum who, despite the many signs you have shown as being the Christ, we continue to doubt you, Lord Jesus, even daring you to do more than Moses and others!
The crowd said to Jesus: “What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you? What can you do? Our ancestors ate manna in the desert, as it is written: He gave them bread from heaven to eat.”
John 6:30-31
Forgive us, Lord Jesus in playing gods when we neither see you among others nor in your very self because the sad truth, all we can see, that we choose and insist on seeing is only our very selves.
Open our eyes, dear Jesus. And if needed, humiliate us so we may be humble again to see you are our Lord and our God and nobody else before we end up inflicting more harm to one another than the corona virus . Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul, Monday, Easter Week-III, 27 April 2020
Acts of the Apostles 6:8-15 <*(((>< 000+000 ><)))*> John 6:22-29
Photo by Mr. Jim Marpa, Panglao Beach, 2019.
Thank you very much, our loving Father for this very different Monday: it is the last for the month of April, but most of all, so unlike of all the other Mondays of our lives as we continue to stay home under our enhanced community quarantine extended until May 15, 2020.
We have been so used in our entire lives that Monday is always the start of work, the start of everything when in fact, Sunday is the first day of the week.
Due to COVID-19, we have started to lose track of dates and days, thus making us less mechanical and more natural, giving us with enough time to review our selves and our lives, to see the peoples and things we value most, and finally, to make a stand on so many things we have taken for granted and even disregarded in the past.
We have never been like your deacon Stephen in the first reading who at a very young age chose to stand for Jesus Christ and his teachings, never giving into the fear of going against prevailing thoughts and sentiments. Most of all, he never gave into the lies thrown against him by his many detractors.
Enlighten us, dear Jesus, to seek for “food that endures for eternal life so we can accomplish your works, O Lord” (Jn.6:27-28).
Let us believe in you always, Jesus.
Nourish and sustain us with your words of life so that we can remain firm in our faith and conviction in you, always willing to go back to Jerusalem and Galilee to start anew in you like the two disciples you walked with to Emmaus on Easter. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul, Saturday, Feast of St. Mark the Evangelist, 25 April 2020
1 Peter 5:5-14 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Mark 16:15-20
Statue of St. Mark and his symbol the lion below him at the western facade of St. Mark Cathedral in Venice, Italy. Photo from Google.
Lord Jesus Christ, as we move into the final week of April and face – with dismay – the extension of this enhanced community quarantine into May 15, the celebration of the feast of your evangelist St. Mark today gives us the much needed boost to persevere in these trying times.
In writing the first gospel account, St. Mark stressed two important things that are very helpful for us today in this time of the corona virus: urgency in proclaiming your gospel and trust in you.
It is something very similar to Stephen Covey Jr.’s concept of “the speed of trust” that when there is trust among people like in a relationship or a team, speed goes up wherein costs are minimized, productivity is increased due to trust.
Give us the grace to trust in you, Lord Jesus, so we can urgently proclaim your gospel of salvation most especially at this time when people are feeling worn out by this lockdown.
So many people are already suffering not only physically but also emotionally and spiritually.
Help us to bring them more joy and hope, healing and renewal not only through our gifts and financial aid but also with our presence and concern for them.
Let us not worry in doing your work with the assuring words of St. Peter in the first reading:
The God of all grace who called you to his eternal glory through Christ Jesus will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you after you have suffered a little.
1 Peter 5:10
Like in the beginning of the gospel by St. Mark, may we always proclaim your good news Lord whenever and wherever there is a wilderness, emptiness, and weariness among peoples for you are always faithful in enabling us to fulfill your work. Amen.
Nuns bringing relief goods to remote villages in this time of Luzon-wide lockdown due to COVID-19.
The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul, Friday, Easter Week-II, 24 April 2020
Acts of the Apostles 5:34-42 ><)))*> + 0 + <*(((>< John 6:1-15
Photo by Ms. Jo Villafuerte, Atok, Benguet, September 2019.
Praise and glory to you, O God our loving Father in heaven!
I have been taught since childhood that you dwell up in the sky and that is why like all the others, I always point up to you whenever we refer to your dwelling place, O God.
And I am certain, too, that you are indeed up there that every time we wake up, every time we feel happy or troubled, we always glance upwards like praying to you, calling to you, and looking for you.
Indeed, Gamaliel was absolutely correct when he cautioned his fellow Pharisees in the first reading to remind us too of this certainty:
“Fellow children of Israel, be careful what you are about to do to these men… But if it comes from God, you will not be able to destroy them; you may even find yourselves fighting against God.”
Acts 5:35, 39
Give us the gift of discernment of your Holy Will, Father, that we may always know what to do, that we may always decide according to your plan.
As we look up to you in the sky where believe heaven is, the more we also look down inside ourselves and everyone to find you among us in your Son Jesus Christ.
Yes, loving Father, you have sent us Jesus so that as we look up to you in the heavens, the more we shall search and probe our hearts, our lives, our situations, and our brothers and sisters to find you dwelling among us in Christ like there in the wilderness when he fed more than 5000 people.
Jesus went across the Sea of Galilee. A large crowd followed him, because they saw the signs he was performing on the sick. Jesus went up on the mountain, there he sat down with his disciples. The Jewish feast of Passover was near. When Jesus raised his eyes and saw that a large crowds was coming to him, he said to Philip, “Where can we buy enough food for them?” He said this to test him because he himself knew what he was going to do.
John 6:1-6
What a lovely scene repeated to us daily, especially in this time of the quarantine!
Jesus raising his eyes, seeing a large crowd hungry, sick, afraid… and then talking to us where to find bread in order to test us — because he always knows what he is going to do….
If we could all be like that little boy who looked into himself, into what he had, no matter how little they may be like the five barley loaves of bread and two pieces of fish….
O Lord, keep us looking for you first within us, into whatever we have, and unto others so we may let you do your work in us to feed and heal the people locked in this quarantine.
Give us the grace, Lord, to always search and find you and follow you not only up in the heavens most especially down deep in our hearts, in the face of the people we meet, in our situation in this time of the corona virus.
It is in finding you in our hearts, on the face of one another, and in the situation we are into when we truly dwell in your house, O Lord. Amen.
Sunrise at the Sea of Galilee, Israel. Photo by author, May 2017.
The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul, Thursday, Easter Week-II, 23 April 2020
Acts of the Apostles 5:27-33 ><)))*> 0 + 0 <*(((>< John 3:31-36
Photo by author, Mt. St. Paul Spirituality Center, La Trinidad, Benguet, February 2020.
Yesterday Lord was so humid but it was a lovely sight while the sun was about to set, you sent some rains to quench the thirsty earth, to remind us you have never left us, that you are still with us in the midst of this lockdown due to corona pandemic.
Thank you, O Lord!
Give us the same fervor and attitude of Peter and companions after being arrested as they stood before the Sanhedrin in the first reading, so that like them we may boldly declare:
“We must obey God rather than men.”
Acts of the Apostles 5:29
How sad, O Lord, in this time of pandemic while so many are attesting and witnessing to your saving power, there are still some who refuse to recognize you, or even believe you.
On the other hand, there are those who ride on your goodness and kindness, taking upon themselves all your blessings, claiming everything in their name on the pretext of working for you, doing your work.
Lord Jesus Christ, please clear our minds and our hearts that the very reason why we should rather obey God than men is what you have told Nicodemus that night:
“For the one one whom God sent speaks the words of God. He does not ration his gift of the Spirit.”
John 3:34
Yes, dearest Jesus, you never ration your gift of the Spirit to us.
You always pour out unto us your many gifts that indeed, you have given us with so much and we have given so little.
And in spite of that, we still complain!
Please forgive us, Lord, when we feel so afraid, so unsure, even insecured to the point of being delusional that we might be forgotten that we choose to obey men than you. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe, Wednesday, Easter Week-II, 22 April 2020
Acts of the Apostles 5:17-26 <*(((>< +++ 0 +++ ><)))*> John 3:16-21
Photo by Mr. Jim Marpa in Carigara Market, Leyte, 2019.
Lord Jesus Christ, everybody is talking about the “new normal” these days, of how the corona virus pandemic imposed on the whole world a paradigm shift in the way we live, the way we deal with others and even way of thinking.
It is funny, Lord, when as they speak of this “new normal”, it is actually a return to the old ways when we have more of love and kindness, more of compassion and empathy, more of persons than things, and most of all, more of you, O God, is it not?
But during the night, the angle of the Lord opened the doors of the prison, led them out (Peter and company), and said, “Go and take your place in the temple area, and tell the people everything about this life.”
Acts 5:19-20
And what is “this life” you have always insisted since then that we must all preach up to the present generation?
It is the sharing in God’s life through you, Jesus Christ our Lord who suffered and died for us in our sins so we may rise with you and in you to new life grace and holiness, fulfillment and meaning!
For God so loved the world that he gave us his only-begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.
John 3:16
This is the life you have always told us to preach but unfortunately we have always rejected and refused to accept because we have turned away from you, when we do not believe in you, when we would rather hide in the dark thinking we have the light that momentarily shines for us, but never for you.
Forgive us Lord in turning away from you, despite your many graces poured out on us like your angels opening our prisons to set us free from sin and bondage, from ignorance and darkness, from meaninglessness and lack of directions in life as we succumbed to the lures of the world.
Today as we battle the corona virus, help us to be more faithful to you, that we may represent you more even without using our lips, we may “tell the people everything about this life” of simplicity and humility, fidelity and charity, of sacrifice and love without expecting anything in return.
Most of all, with the many lessons of COVID-19, may we start telling the world anew of your love. Amen.
First Mass of the first priest from our Parish, Fr. RA Valmadrid, December 2019.
The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe, Tuesday, Easter Week-II, 21 April 2020
Acts of the Apostles 4:32-37 ><)))*> +++ 0 +++ <*(((>< John 3:7-15
Posted by Marivic Tribiana on her Facebook 18 April 2020 when a huge fire hit “Happyland” in Tondo district, Manila, leaving 450 families homeless with one fatality.
Artwork by Fr. Marc Ocariza using Digital Art Timelapse after seeing photo at left, claiming it was like seeing Jesus Christ carrying the old man as he contemplated the Divine Mercy that Saturday.
Glory and praise to you, O Lord Jesus Christ for coming to us, and continuing to come to us most especially amid this COVID-19 pandemic.
Increase our faith in you, awaken our being “born from above” in you in the Holy Spirit so that we may continue to find you and follow you in the ordinary things that happen to us.
It is not enough that we as a “community of believers be of one heart and mind, having everything in common” (Acts 4:32).
As a community united in you, Lord Jesus, keep us strong in fulfilling our mission from you.
Remind us always that we merely represent you in this mission.
We are not the ones who will change the world but you, O Lord.
Give us the grace to forget ourselves and carry our cross daily so we can follow you more closely every day.
Most of all, give us the courage to seek your ways and follow wherever your Holy Spirit leads us to so we can best serve you without ever thinking of our very selves or anything in return except that we are doing your most holy will. Amen.
The Facebook post by Marivic Tribiana that inspired Fr. Marc to make a digital representation of the scene amid the huge fire with thick, black smokes billowing above visible kilometers ahead in a city under an extended lockdown due to Covid-19.
He dubbed his artwork “Nag-aalab na Pag-Ibig” (Burning Love), an interplay between the raging fire in the area and the burning love of Jesus to the old man being carried.
That is why we need to be “born from above” to be able to understand teachings of Jesus about heavenly things on earth (Jn.3:12), remaining open to leading of the Holy Spirit to follow the Lord closely, not our selves, nor our plans, nor our personal agenda.
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