Forgiving from the heart

40 Shades of Lent, Tuesday, Week III, 26 March 2019

Daniel 3:25, 34-43///Matthew 18:21-35

Praise and glory to you, O Lord Jesus Christ!

Here we are now O Lord being confronted by this topic of sin and forgiveness. Every day we pray the “Our Father” and you know very well how mechanical it had become for us asking God “to forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sinned against us.”

Like Peter, we often feel at a loss at how to forgive those who have hurt us. No… not just hurt or wronged us but, hurt or wronged us so deeply.

The pain is so deep in our hearts, Jesus. And that is why you want us all to forgive from our hearts, not from our lips or from our minds but from our hearts where the pains hurt us most.

We really do not know how. Your parable seems inadequate though you make an absolutely valid point of forgiving others because we have been forgiven too.

Like Daniel your prophet in the Old Testament, we beg you to “Deliver us by your wonders” – surprise us O Lord with your gentle mercy, with your kindness that like you we may be moved to forgiving those who have terribly wronged us. Amen.

From Google.

Lent is always a gift of life

40 Shades of Lent, Friday, Week II, 22 March 2019
Genesis 37:3-4, 12-13, 17-28///Matthew 21:33-43, 45-46

Glory and praise to you O God our loving Father for the gift of life! As I celebrate my 54th birthday today which I welcomed last midnight, let me pray this to you: Lord God, you have given me with so much and I have given you with so little.

I have never been like Joseph a dreamer in the first reading. It was late in life – after I have met you or you have found me, Lord – when I started dreaming like Joseph, envisioning myself in the future with you my God.

You have entrusted me with so much and I have wasted so many of these in the past like those tenants in the parable of Jesus today. I feel so unworthy being your servant in those times I have refused to give your share of the many fruits of your vineyard by being more loving and merciful, more kind and humble with others. There were times I have rejected your Son Jesus Christ when I would insist on my own ways than your will.

Yet, despite all these, loving Father, you have always been gentle and generous with me. That is why I have stopped asking you for many things for myself because whatever I need, you always provide. Indeed, you have done so many for me that I never asked for that are “so wonderful in my eyes” (Mt. 21:42)!

Lord God, all I pray again on my 54th birthday today is that you help me to share more of myself and most especially more of YOU with others, that in every here and now, I may always say Yes to your Holy Will. Amen.

Thank you for your prayers for me too, my dear readers and followers. May God bless you always!

Sunrise at Lake Tiberias, the Holy Land, April 2017 photo by the author.

Lent is for repairing the heart

40 Shades of Lent, Thursday, Week II, 21 March 2019
Jeremiah 17:5-10///Luke 16:19-31

“More tortuous than all else is the human heart, beyond remedy; who can understand it? I, the Lord, alone probe the mind and test the heart, to reward everyone according to his ways, according to the merit of his deeds.”
Jeremiah 17:9-10

Thank you very much, O Lord, for this season of Lent, giving us time to examine and repair our hearts that have turned away from you in sin and indifference.

Forgive us in trusting more our selves, our strength, our powers, our intelligence. We have turned away from you, believing only in our selves and fellowmen.

How ironic that while we trust more with human, our hearts are too far away from most people who are poor and suffering! We have not only turned away our hearts from them like Lazarus in the gospel today. We have become indifferent to their plight.

Help us, dear God, through your Son Jesus Christ, to regain our natural hearts that know how to suffer with the poor and dying, hearts that cry with those in pain, and hearts inclined to your Holy Will. Amen.

When goodness is repaid with evil

40 Shades of Lent, Wednesday, Week II, 20 March 2019
Jeremiah 18:18-20///Matthew 20:17-28

Our loving Father, today we share with Jeremiah in crying out to you, “Heed me, O Lord, and listen to what my adversaries say. Must good be repaid with evil that they should dig a pit to take my life? Remember that I stood before you to speak in their behalf, to turn away your wrath from them” (Jer. 18:19-20).

It is so difficult, O Lord, to understand and accept such a reality that after all the love and kindness, the compassion and concern we did for some people, we are repaid with evil.

Help us remain in you in this journey to Jerusalem with our crosses, serving one another without counting the costs or expecting to be paid in return with good favors even recognition.

May we be contented in simply walking with you, trusting in you, sharing with you.

Clear our minds and our hearts of the belief or inclination that every good deed must be rewarded by anybody. May we not be like the mother of James and John in the gospel today who asked that her sons “sit at your right and the other at your left, in your kingdom” (Mt.20:20).

The greatest reward in doing good is becoming like YOU. Amen.

Lent is Radical

40 Shades of Lent, Monday, Week II, 18 March 2019
Daniel 9:4-10///Luke 6:36-38

Praise and glory to you, O God our Father that despite our sinfulness you continue to bless us! Teach us the true meaning of penance especially in this season of Lent by getting into the root of our sinfulness, that is, by being radical which is from the Latin word radix or root.

Give us the courage and humility of your prophet Daniel to admit wholeheartedly how wicked we have been, rebelling and departing from your commandments.

We feel shamefaced like Daniel before you, loving Father, for our many sins like when we neglected you among our brothers and sisters in need, unmindful of their great sufferings, be it physical, emotional or spiritual.

We are shamefaced, loving Father, in thinking the good times would never end, when we lived in excesses, bloating our egos as if we were gods.

Help us to return to you, our Root and Being, to turn our hearts back to you so that like you we may become merciful too. Amen.

The Ides of March

40 Shades of Lent, Friday, Week-1, 15 March 2019
Ezekiel 18:21-28///Matthew 5:20-26

Lord Jesus Christ, it is “the Ides of March” and like “Friday the 13th” some of us are thinking of so many misfortunes and bad things that could befall us on this date made notorious by the assassination of the Roman emperor Julius Ceasar. Forgive us in professing our faith in you yet continue to subscribe to so many superstitious beliefs.

Remind us O Lord of the ironic twist that the Ides of March is not gone if we continue to live in sin, or, if after leading a virtuous life we turn into evil deeds because in both instances we shall die. It is true that you “never derive joy in the death of the wicked” (Ez. 18:23) because you have come to forgive us from our sins so we can lead holy lives as children of the Father.

Indeed, Shakespeare was absolutely right when Cassius voiced out in his play Julius Caesar that “the fault my dear Brutus is not in the stars but in ourselves.”

Give us the courage to look into our hearts to examine our lives and see if our worship of You and our dealing with others are in congruent with each other. Let us stop our attitudes of blaming and complaining to start changing our ways according to your will O Lord. Amen.

Objective of Prayer

40 Shades of Lent, Thursday in Week-1, 14 March 2019
Esther C:12, 14-16, 23-25///Matthew 7:7-12

God our loving Father, if there is one thing we wish to tell you today, it is the Psalmist’s song for today, “Lord, on the day I called for help, you answered me.”

So many times, we felt like “Queen Esther, seized with mortal anguish” with no other recourse but to you O God. We know our limits and our weaknesses as well as sinfulness, yet, you keep on trusting us, giving us so many responsibilities and missions in life. Not because we are great or so good but simply because we trust in you.

Teach us to discover anew that in prayer, our lone objective is You alone, O God: not things like money and wealth, power and honor. It is you alone whom we seek, whom we ask for, whom we knock doors for.

Give us the grace to strive to for your Person for you are more than a concept.

Give us the grace to experience your Person as you are not according to our belief or imaginations.

Just to feel your presence O God is more than enough for especially when we are in great need. Stay with us, remain in us always. Amen.

God’s Word, God’s Sign

40 Shades of Lent, Wednesday of Week 1, 13 March 2019
Jonah 3:1-10///Luke 11:29-32

Open “the ears of our hearts”, O Lord, to always heed your words especially in this holy season of Lent when your readings are so rich and meaningful. So many times we are like your contemporaries, “an evil generation always seeking signs.” (Lk. 11:29)

Or, like your reluctant prophet Jonah: we cannot believe your words, always trying to escape responsibilities and mission from you to proclaim your word.

The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: “Set out for the great city of Nineveh, and announce to it the message that I will tell you.” So Jonah made ready and went to Nineveh, according to the Lord’s bidding.
Jonah 3:1-3

How funny and even insane, Lord, for us to run away from you, hide from you like Jonah because we find your words so simple, doubting its powers to move and change people.

But when like Jonah we proclaim your words, we are amazed and surprised at its efficacy not only with the people they are directed to but most of all with us. Your words indeed are alive and so powerful especially if our whole heart is humbled and contrite from our sins.

Help us to always recognize your presence in your words for you are the Word who became flesh. Take away our stony hearts and give us a natural heart that beats with firm faith, fervent hope and unceasing charity and love. Amen.

When prayer becomes like rain and snow

40 Shades of Lent, Tuesday of Week-1, 12 March 2019
Isaiah 55:10-11///Matthew 6:7-15

May our prayers, O God, be like rain and snow that soak and soften earth to allow seeds and plants to grow, bloom and bear fruit.

Soak and soften our hearts hardened with pride and sin with your love and divine mercy that we may eventually go back to you. Soak and soften our hearts, O God, with our prayers that we may recognize others as brothers and sisters in you our Father. Soak and soften our hearts with our prayers, O God, that we may learn to forgive others as you forgive our sins.

We have so many things to learn about prayer, O God. And perhaps, the most important of these is to keep in mind that every prayer is a God-centered activity, not man-centered. Indeed, even before we pray to you, you already know what we need; we pray so that we may know what we need most, and that is you as a Person, not as a concept but as our Father.

Like Jesus your Son and our Savior, may we always be attentive – docile – to your words O God our Father for man does not live by bread alone. Amen.

Sin is having more “I”, less God and others

40 Shades of Lent, Monday, Week 1, 11 March 2019
Leviticus 19:1-2, 11-18///Matthew 25:31-46

Your readings today, O Lord, invite us to examine the choices we have made recently in our lives. It is always easy to say “I love you, Lord” but when we examine the decisions we have made, it seem to show we really do not love you at all because we have been selfish. Most of the time in making choices, we think first of our self. And that is when we sin.

Every time we have more of our selves – that big, personal, pronoun “I” – in every choice and decision we make, we s-I-n.

When we refuse to be like you who is holy, when we disregard you as our Lord and God whom we must see in everyone, we s-I-n because we see only our self.

When we disregard the hungry and the thirsty, the stranger and the naked, when we do not care at all to those ill or in prison, we s-I-n because we refuse to love.

Help us, Lord Jesus, to have less of our self and more of your Holy Spirit so that we may be attentive and docile to the Father speaking to us in our hearts and crying out to us among the suffering people around us. Amen.