Seeing Jesus, Seeing God

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Saturday, Easter Week IV, 18 May 2019

Acts 13:44-52///John 14:7-14

Facade of the wall enclosing the St. Katherine Monastery in Sinai, Egypt. At its back is Mt. Sinai where pilgrims begin their ascent to the mountain where God met with Moses. Photo by author 06 May 2019.

So many times, Lord Jesus, we desire to see your Father. But so many times, too, we forget that whoever has seen you has also seen the Father…

Philip said to Jesus, “Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you for so long a time and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?”
John 14:8-9

But, what is really to see you, Lord, that we may also see the Father?

If seeing the Father is seeing in our lives its unity and oneness with you, then, let us imitate you Jesus that our lives may also be like yours.

If seeing the Father is seeing in our lives your mercy and forgiveness of our sins, then, let us be merciful and forgiving with others so we see more of you Jesus among us.

If seeing the Father is seeing in our lives the grace to rise above our lowly selves to become better persons, to be holy like the Father in heaven, then, let us strive to get closer to you Jesus by following you faithfully in loving service with others.

Through you, O Christ, you have brought the Father closest to us; and in you, O Jesus, the Father approaches us, drawing us unto him by leading us beyond ourselves into his infinite greatness and love.

Like what you did through the Holy Spirit to Paul and Barnabas in the first reading today, help us to keep our cool amid many adversaries, filled with joy in the face of many crises and obstacles because we have seen seen you and the Father too! Amen.

Kept inside this chapel in the Monastery of St. Katherine in Sinai, Egypt is said to be the burning bush where God first appeared to Moses. Photo by author, 06 May 2019.

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.

We are the mosaic of God

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Thursday, Easter Week IV, 16 May 2019

Acts 13:13-25///John 13:16-20

Madaba Mosaic Map on the floor of the Byzantine church of St. George in Madaba, Jordan dating back to 560 AD, one of the oldest maps of the Holy Land discovered in late 19th century. Photo by author, 02 May 2019.

Your readings for today, Lord Jesus, remind me of that wonderful experience you gave us to see so many beautiful mosaics in your Holy Land. Some are very old, some are new. But they are all so lovely not only for our sight to behold but also for our hearts to reflect and cherish.

It was only then when I realized in the production of a mosaic that each stone represents every one of us who has rough edges cut into a tiny piece then glued together to form one big picture by highlighting each one’s smooth and shiny surface.

Just one shiny, smooth surface needed to complete a beautiful picture.

Just one good character or trait of us, never mind our rough and uneven edges and sides, to portray your beauty, your majesty, your glory.

Thank you, Lord, for looking more on our beautiful side like in a mosaic.

Thank you for washing us of our sins so we may be smoother and shinier.

Thank you for that long story of salvation Paul summarized in the first reading at how you patiently waited in time to fix everything until you came to save us. It is the same kind of patience and love you must have put on each of us to be a part of your big picture, Lord.

May we always see the bigger picture of you among us who are tiny pieces of little stones with many rough sides with just one good side needed to portray you. May we keep in our minds and our hearts that “no slave is greater than his master nor any messenger greater than the one who sent him” (Jn.13:16) so we may always focus on the brighter and smoother side of us and of life to reflect you more. Amen.

The Madaba Mosaic Factory in Jordan employs disabled persons with a large part of its earnings supporting other disadvantaged people in the area. Photo by the author, 02 May 2019.

Going back to our roots

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Wednesday, Easter Week IV, 15 May 2019 (Feast of St. Isidore Labrador)

Acts 1224-13:5///John 13:16-20

Plants growing on walls along the Palm Sunday Path of Jesus in Jerusalem. Photo by author, 03 May 2019.

You know O Lord Jesus Christ how grateful I am and my fellow pilgrims for the gift of coming to your Holy Land last week. And you know how we felt later when we were so eager to come home, to get back to the Philippines.

Partly it was homesickness but largely I think due to our “rootedness”, to our desire to get back to our roots in our home, with our family, with my parishioners.

Yes, we have felt and experienced you Lord in the Holy Land but you are felt most when we all go back to our roots, when we touch base to our home, family and friends.

After Barnabas and Saul completed their relief mission, they returned to Jerusalem… While they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”
Acts 12:25, 13:2

This touched me so much,Lord: Barnabas and Saul began to venture far and wide in their mission to the Gentiles while they were praying with the others in Jerusalem. It happened when they returned to Jerusalem, their home, their base where you first gathered them together after Easter!

Yes… you are most present whenever we come home and touch base with our roots like family and relatives, friends and neighbors, even schools or places where we first met you!

You can boldly claim that whoever believes in you believes also in the Father who sent you because you remained rooted in the Father, Lord Jesus.

Help us, Lord, to find our way back home to you in the Father. Give us the courage to touch base with our roots, to find you in our selves, in others around us including our places of work and study.

Like St. Isidore Labrador who always prayed and visited you, touching base with you as his roots always before farming, may we come to realize that ultimately, our rootedness is in God alone. Amen.

The Our Father Church in Jerusalem. Photo by the author, 03 May 2019.

Replacing the traitorous Iscariots

The Lord Is My chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Tuesday, Easter Week IV, 14 May 2019, Feast of St. Matthias the Apostle

Acts 1:15-17, 20-26///John 15:9-17

Today we are celebrating O Lord Jesus Christ the feast of St. Matthias, the one chosen by your eleven Apostles to replace your betrayer Judas Iscariot. We do not know so much about him except that he was also a witness to all your “earthly events remaining faithful to you until the end” (Acts 1:21-22).

However, from his unique role of replacing Judas Iscariot to complete your 12 Apostles after Easter, St. Matthias teaches us today that we never run out of good men and women in the Church as well as in the society who can always replace the many traitors among us.

There will always be many Judas Iscariots everywhere who betray you, O Lord, and us with their selfishness.

Teach us, Jesus, to truly love you in the most concrete manner like St. Matthias who counterbalanced the traitorous Judas Iscariot found among many of us. Teach us to discern your will in finding the Matthias among us who will continue your work to offset the many evils done by your betrayers in the Church, in the society and in the family.

Forgive us, O Lord, that despite the chance to choose more St. Matthias among us in our recent elections, it seems many of us still prefer to bring back or keep the many Judas Iscariots.

Help us to be your witnesses in this world now plunged into so much darkness where lies and superficiality have become a way of life. Amen.

Icon of the election of St. Matthias. From Google.

Entering Jesus, our Gate

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul, Monday, Easter Week IV, 13 May 2019 (Fatima)

Acts 11:1-18///John 10:1-10

Amen, amen, I say to you, I am the gate for the sheep… Whoever enters through me will be saved.
John 10:1-10

Dearest Lord Jesus Christ:

Today we go to the polls to choose our lawmakers and local executives.

We pray for wisdom and enlightenment to use this great power and freedom you have given us. Let us listen to your voice, follow your voice. Let us enter through you in exercising our rights in choosing our shepherds for you are our gate who leads us to true development and growth as a nation.

Help us realize that to enter you as our gate means to keep always in our minds that ultimately, we all belong to you. That every decision we make in this life, be it in politics or in economics or any field of humanity always has an impact to our ultimate end which is to be with you in eternal life.

Help us realize that to enter you as our gate means ultimately, to follow you alone in love and sacrifice, in suffering and in death on the Cross. That there is no such thing as easy way or shortcuts in this life; keep us on guard with those thieves who try to seduce us with so many promises of a better life as they clearly use power to escape the harsh realities of life.

Let your Holy Spirit enlighten us like those who confronted Peter in Jerusalem after learning he had interacted with Gentiles in Joppa.

May your Mother who appeared in Fatima 102 years ago today lead us back to you, Jesus. The message of Fatima has shown us that you continue to work in our lives in these modern time. Most of all, any change in the world and in our lives can only happen when each one of us returns to you in love and penance, O Lord, our gate. Amen.

The Crucifix at the main altar of Basilica di Santissima Trinita in Fatima, Portugal; at the altar is a painting of Mary with the three children of the 1917 apparitions at left and the Apostles with John the Baptist to the right. A beautiful imagery to show that in Fatima, Mary points us all to Jesus who remains our gate. Photo by Arch. Philip Santiago, October 2018.

Coming and coming

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe, Saturday Easter Wk. III, 11 May 2019

Thank you very much Lord for the gift of pilgrimage to your Holy Land. Thank you for the gift of experiencing you, meeting you not only at your holy sites but among our fellow pilgrims and the people we have met.

Most of all, thank you for a glimpse of you in our hearts, in our selves and being. There is something we cannot express or say for they are too deep for words.

Like Simon Peter, all we can say is, “Lord, to whom shall we go. You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God” (Jn.6:68-69).

Life is a series of coming and coming. Every time we leave, we also come. We leave the Holy Land to come home.

But home is where the heart is and where our heart is, there our treasure is.

May you remain in us Lord Jesus and let us come to you always. Amen.

Top photo mosaic of Joseph’s dream to bring Mary and child Jesus to Egypt outside Church of St. Sergius; above, the flight to Egypt of the Holy Family at entrance to the Cavern Church where they stayed. Both churches are Coptic Catholic.

Things we quarrel

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul, Friday of Easter Wk. III, 10 May 2019

Our loving Father:

The city of Cairo reminds me of your story of creation – of how order comes out of chaos!

One of the things I have learned here in Cairo is to be more patient with our traffic situation in the Philippines.

Cairo is a bedlam where pedestrians and drivers alike seem to be blind, guided only with their horns. Yet nobody seems to quarrel because of the traffic.

Our readings today Lord teem with instances of quarreling. Saul in the first reading is on his way to Damascus to arrest Christ’s followers. It was a big quarrel! More so when you called Saul to spread the Way?! I could imagine the big quarrel with that but, nothing much as told by Luke except the issue of circumcision.

In the gospel, John tells us “The Jews quarreled among themselves” after Jesus declared his Flesh is true food and his Blood is true drink.

So often we quarrel among ourselves, but never with you.

We quarrel with others – not with you – because we can always insist with others what we want. The more others do not give in to our desires, the more we quarrel, the more we insist.

We do not quarrel with you because you do not “insist” on us. You always invite. And wait.

No insistence, no quarrel. Like here in Cairo. They just blow their horns but never their tops.

Teach us Lord to always give in to your will, to always step back and let you lead the way like Ananias who welcomed Saul. Most of all, Lord, let us not quarrel with anyone by learning to give way to others, even by deferring to them if what they insist are nothing at all but simply a power trip of our ego. Amen.

Traffic at Cairo; the peaceful Nile River. Photos by the author.

Going down with Jesus

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul, Thursday, Easter Wk. III, 09 May 2019

Dearest Jesus:

In today’s readings, I was struck by the verb “to go down”.

The first reading tells us how the Ethiopian eunuch “went down into the water” to be baptized by your Apostle Philip on the road from Jerusalem to Gaza (Acts 8:38).

In the gospel, you mentioned twice Lord that you are “the bread that comes down from heaven” (Jn.6:50-51).

It is something very opposite with our mindset today when we all want “to go up” and rise, to be on top, always the best, the most.

We believe more in ourselves than believing in you our Lord and our God.

Make us realize Lord Jesus that you chose to come down to show us the way up to you by always going down in humility and simplicity. Help us rediscover that beautiful reality of having someone and somethings above us always, that it is coming down, in being lowly in you Lord are we truly exalted. Amen.

Top photo chapel of the third station of the Cross at Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem (Jesus falls the first time); above is part of the Sinai Mountain range.

Sharing Jesus, Our Bread

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul, Easter Wk. III, Wednesday, 08 May 2019

Praise and thanksgiving to you, O Lord Jesus Christ as we enter the final stretch of our Holy Land pilgrimage today.

It is very different experience to be in the wilderness of the Sinai desert – so cold, so barren, most of all, so isolated.

Lord, we are tired and longing for home. Now we can imagine the extreme difficulties and hardships of your people in the desert.

But you are so loving and merciful, so generous that you gave them bread from heaven, manna.

Now we have you Jesus as our bread, our life.

Like your first followers who were scattered following Saul’s persecution of the Church, they still went preaching the word – YOU.

We pray for more strength and courage to remain faithful to you, Lord, when we go through our desert in life. Let us share you as our bread to nourish the weak, gladden those who are sad and tired so that we may all persevere to meet you like Moses in the burning bush. Amen.

First photo is the Mt. Sinai mountain range at sunrise while the one above is the enclosed site of the burning bush Moses saw now under the care of Greek Orthodox monks at the St. Catherine Monastery.