The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul, Wednesday, Easter Week-VI, 20 May 2020
Acts of the Apostles 17:15, 22-18:1 ><)))*> + <*(((>< John 16:12-15
From Facebook, 18 May 2020.
As I prayed over the readings for today, dear Jesus, I felt the great similarity of the time of St. Paul in Athens and of the world in this time of the corona virus that made me wonder what would your apostle tell the people of today who have made the malls as their new temples of worship.
Or, what would St. Paul tell those in government who see businesses as most essential needs, totally disregarding the need to open houses of worship where people can find spiritual nourishment?
What would St. Paul tell us your priests and Bishops who have suddenly become less assertive in pushing for the opening of churches so people may celebrate and receive the sacraments so essential in this time of crisis?
Lord Jesus, you know how like St. Paul we have always stressed to the people that
“The God who made the world and all that is in it, the Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in sanctuaries made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands because he needs anything. Rather it is he who gives to everyone life and breath and everything.”
Acts of the Apostles 17:24-25
…. and yet, they continue to consider you anything spiritual as non-essential?
Tell us Lord what we must do these days so we may reach the modern pagans and Athenians of this age who have turned to worship to other gods aside from you, O Lord.
May we probe more the reasons why like the Athenians at that time people today still “scoff and leave” when they hear about you, your Resurrection and other spiritual things.
Is it because we would rather massage ourselves with our own thoughts about you and the Divine that seem so magical and more delightful like Hollywood?
How sad that until now, we cannot accept and believe you truly love us so much that you rose again from the dead to bring us back to life too!
Dear Jesus, teach us to be patient and be opened to the Holy Spirit who enables us to understand slowly in your own time at our own pace the realities and truth of your Resurrection.
May the Holy Spirit open us to more imaginative ways like St. Paul in preaching you to the modern pagans and Athenians of today. Amen.
St. Bernardine of Sienna, pray for us!
The “IHS” Christogram: the ancient way of writing the name “Jesus Christ” with the first three letters of his name in Greek substituting the sigma with “S” in Latin. It was St. Bernardine of Sienna who popularized reverence to the Holy Name of Jesus, encouraging Christians to put the letters “IHS” on their doors. Later St.Ignatius of Loyola adopted the Christogram to symbolize his newly founded Society of Jesus that eventually became a part of our Christian art and tradition.
The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul, Monday, Easter Week VI, 18 May 2020
Acts of the Apostles 16:11-15 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> John 15:26, 16:4
Photo by author, Parokya ni San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Bagbaguin, Santa Maria, Bulacan, January 2020.
Open our hearts, Lord, to the truth that it is you who truly works in us and through us in changing the world. We are your instruments, your lips, your voice, your arms, your body… And you remain the Message we have to deliver.
But it seems, there is another more important reason why we have to pray to you to open our hearts in this time of the corona pandemic: after more than 60 days of staying home due to quarantine, many of us have grown callous and cold inside like zombies.
Many of us do not seem to care at all for our less needy brothers and sisters.
Many of us still go on our own selfish ways, thinking only of each one’s own good.
Nobody seemed to care at all, especially our government leaders who refuse to admit their negligence in handling this pandemic trying to win the peoples’ hearts with monetary assistance that have bred corruption. They are more concerned with material needs, giving into the temptation of the devil in the wilderness as a fast solution in making stones into bread.
Now, they have allowed to open businesses especially malls over the weekend in order to spur economic activities, forgetting the other essential need of people for spiritual nourishment in their houses of worship.
Many were left in total disbelief how this government arrogantly preferred to keep churches and other houses of worship to remain closed when so many hearts and souls are dried up, longing to experience you again in the celebration of the sacraments?
More than the opening of our minds, please open our hearts in this time of pandemic when minions of this government are more concerned in silencing their critics than mass testing the people for the virus, when all they have in their minds are money and food forgetting the spiritual nourishment that teaches contentment and charity among people.
Open our hearts, Lord, for us to be more loving and kind to one another like the women in Philippi who listened to the preaching of St. Paul in the first reading.
Most of all, Lord Jesus, open our hearts to welcome your Holy Spirit who would lead us to the truth and be one in the Father so we may find him in the face of every person we encounter.
It is only in opening our hearts that we can truly be kind and charitable with others because that is when you and the Father in the Holy Spirit truly dwell in us, abide in us in your great love. Amen.
Photo by author, Sleeping Santo Niño, January 2020.
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe, Easter Week VI-A, 17 May 2020
Acts of the Apostle 8:5-8, 14-17 ><)))*> 1 Peter 3:15-18 ><)))*> John 14:15-21
Nuns bringing relief goods to a remote village. Photo from Facebook.
We are about to end two great seasons in our liturgy and still, here we are in our enhanced community quarantine due to COVID-19. Prospects remain dim as experts say the corona virus may never be totally eradicated despite the discovery of vaccines and medicines later this year.
It is in this background we find our readings this Sunday so reassuring, reminding us of how so often in history that tragic or painful events in the lives of individuals and societies have led to happy endings.
In our first reading, we have seen how the persecution of the Church at Jerusalem so tragic but at the same time also helped spread Christianity so fast led by the Holy Spirit promised by Jesus Christ before he was betrayed and arrested on that Holy Thursday evening.
All this is possible if we believe in Jesus, if we love Jesus.
Jesus said to his disciples: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth, which the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows it. But you know it, because it remains with you, and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.”
John 14:15-18
Photo by author, flowers at Church of Gallicantu near Jerusalem, May 2019.
Intimacy with Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit
For the first time, Jesus promised during their Last Supper the sending of the Holy Spirit when he fulfills his mission.
In most translations, the Holy Spirit is referred to as Advocate although some prefer the transliteration Paraclete from its original Greek Parakletos to truly capture its full meaning or context.
Only St. John used the word Parakletos to denote the Holy Spirit. In its Hellenistic context, Parakletos had come to be known as Advocate like a lawyer or a friend who speaks on behalf of the “accused” like Jesus in a hostile world (Jn.16:7-11).
However, St. John also used parakletos in different contexts like in our gospel today.
See how before introducing to us the sending of the Holy Spirit, Jesus speaks more of a grand instruction – in fact, a reality, a truth in the life of his every disciple: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (Jn.14:15).
Without specifying any commandments to keep, Jesus further explained that “Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me” (Jn.14:21). He would be speaking of this like a refrain four more times later to stress that loving Jesus is keeping his commandments.
It is a very difficult task to fulfill and most often, more difficult to understand or interpret especially when we are in real life-situations like loving an arrogant president or loving officials who break the rules of quarantine!
This is so because Jesus himself is the law, the commandments which is his very person; therefore, to love him is to be like him and that is always keeping his commandments of love.
And that is why Jesus made sure to inscribe this lesson and reality into his disciples’ memory and hearts during their last supper by promising the Holy Spirit he called as Parakletos who would be acting as his Advocate, Counsellor, and Comforter when he returns to the Father.
It is the Holy Spirit who leads us now into an intimacy with Christ that we are able to love Jesus, love like Jesus, and love in Jesus. This is the same Holy Spirit who binds the Three Persons of the Trinity in love who also makes us one with God and with others.
Photo from Facebook post by Ms. Marivic Tribiana, 17 April 2020 fire in Tondo area.
Making Jesus present in our love
We make Jesus most present when we love because when we love, everything changes for the best, even the most difficult and worst situations in life.
Albert Camus rightly said when he wrote in his 1947 novel The Plague now being reread due to the corona virus, that “A loveless world is a dead world.”
Without love, we would have gone extinct by now.
Because of love, every tragedy, every suffering and problem we go through leads to happy ending primarily because we discover something, someone beyond far more important than any situation or plight we may be into.
Artwork by Fr. Marc Ocariza upon seeing the FB post by Ms. Marivic Tribiana above on the eve of Divine Mercy Sunday 2020.
Most of all, love has a distinctive characteristic that moves the lover to become like the beloved. This is the reason why we who love strive harder, persevere and forge into every obstacle and fight until we are one with our beloved!
And who is ultimately our very love?
God.
The God revealed to us by Jesus Christ his Son who became human like us to be one with us in everything including death except sin so that we become like him – divine – in his Resurrection.
Jesus Christ whom we “sanctify as Lord in our hearts” (1Pt.3:15) is the one we imitate and follow, the one we see and, most of all, the only one we (must) share when we love, when we serve especially in this time of the corona pandemic.
Sometimes, it is still difficult to believe how these pandemic and quarantine are happening to us when all of a sudden here comes typhoon Ambo that wreaked a path of destruction in the Visayas and Bicolandia the other day, making us wonder what is happening in the world right now?
Making things worst that have stressed us all so much is our government at all levels lacking preparations, with some officials into alleged corruptions while the enforcers of the laws are the ones breaking all the rules of quarantine!
We just keep on hoping things would get better by starting right at our own end.
Sometimes it can be funny although painful when some people forget us or take us for granted, thinking we are fine or doing great without any hint of the sufferings within.
But the grace is always there because Jesus is within each one of us who believes in him and tries hard to keep his commandments.
“In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me, because I live and you will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father and you are in me and I in you.”
John 14:19-20
We just have to do our part, to keep on believing in Jesus, loving Jesus, and most of all, keeping his commandments because Jesus is the “explanation to anyone who asks us for a reason for our hope” (1Pt.3:15).
This does not mean the world is lacking the Lord’s presence.
He has not left us indeed and sooner or later, we shall see how he, the God of history, will direct everything according to his greater plan for us.
Today’s gospel reminds us of his assurance to be with us always in the Holy Spirit.
It is now our turn to pick up the pieces and make him more felt, especially in comforting those affected severely by the many storms that hit us in this time of the corona virus.
Have a blessed Sunday and stay safe! Amen.
Photo from CBCPNews of the debris left by Typhoon Ambo in Arteche, Eastern Samar, 14 May 2020.
The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul, Tuesday, Easter Week-V, 12 May 2020
Acts of the Apostles 14:19-28 ><)))*> +++0+++ <*(((>< John 14:27-31
Photo by author, a bass relief of the Agony in the Garden by Jesus at the Church of All Nations beside Gethsemane near Jerusalem, May 2017.
Lord Jesus Christ, I pray for more faith and trust in you today to experience your peace within so we can truly appreciate the beauty and meaning of life.
Jesus said to his disciples: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid. You heard me tell you, ‘I am going away and I will come back to you.’ If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father; for the Father is greater than I.”
John 14:27-28
So many sufferings, so many uncertainties in life but indeed, Lord, you have never left us.
It is so difficult to rejoice – even absurd – when “you are not with us because you are with the Father”.
I could just imagine the increased fears and anxieties your apostles must have felt when you told them to not let their hearts be troubled or afraid when you were to be betrayed and arrested, and eventually suffered and died.
I always wonder, Lord, why during this quarantine period, as I reviewed my life, there are so many painful memories coming back to me that I thought I have transcended or even outgrown, and hoped forgotten and deleted in my memory bank. Worst, the longer the time had lapsed, the more painful these memories become, like death and other losses in life.
but, no word can ever be enough to express and explain how in these painful past you have stayed in us, now coming back to remind us you will always be with us. And that is when we finally feel your peace within.
Your peace is not found outside us but within us – right in our hearts where we allow you to dwell, to reign in us amid all our trials and sufferings that we continue to forge on in this life, to keep the struggle alive.
Grant us the courage and wisdom you have given Paul and Barnabas who, despite the physical harm and emotional distresses they went through, they never wavered in their mission of proclaiming your Gospel because they have you in their hearts.
Please, Lord Jesus, reign in my heart and fill me with your humility, justice, and love. Amen.
Photo by author, garden beside St. Anne’s Catholic Church in Jerusalem, May 2017.
The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul, Monday, Easter Week V, 11 May 2020
Acts of the Apostles 14:5-18 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> John 14:21-26
Photo by Ms. Ria De Vera, Blessed Sacrament Procession in our Parish during quarantine, May 2020.
As we brace ourselves, O Lord, for the announcement this week of another possible extension of our quarantine period, we pray for more of your grace of presence and indwelling in us during this time that our churches remain closed to public worship.
Give us the fire and zeal of Paul and Barnabas in proclaiming your Gospel in words and in deeds.
Most especially, give us the same humility and decency to direct all praise and glory to your Divine Majesty and not to us.
Let us abide in you, O God our Father so that we may be your indwelling in Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Photo by author, our closed church in time of corona virus, March-May 2020.
Jesus answered and said to him, “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; yet the word you hear is not mine but that of the Father who sent me.”
John 14:23
May we always have the courage, O dear Jesus, to accept your invitation to belong to you wholly, to be at home in you.
Most often, we are so anxious of so many things, peace and calmness become elusive because we cannot rest in you, we cannot persevere and wait in finding you here in our very selves, in our daily life, in our worries and concerns.
Let us come home to you, Jesus, and abide in your love so that we become your indwelling of the Father and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe, Easter Week V-A, 10 May 2020
Acts of the Apostles 6:1-7 ><)))*> 1 Peter 2:4-9 ><)))*> John 14:1-12
Photo by Ezra Acayan for gettyimages.com, 2020.
Our Sunday celebration today is a confluence of things that perfectly jibe with our situation during this pandemic – the quarantine call worldwide to “stay home, save lives”, Mother’s Day, and Jesus telling us in the gospel we are one family going “home” to the Father.
Jesus said to his disciples: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be.”
John 14:1-3
Photo from istock.com
Home is where the heart is
One good thing with this COVID-19 pandemic is how it has driven home so hard one lesson modern man has forgotten: the importance of home, of family life.
It is hoped that during this quarantine period, we do not merely stay home to prevent spread of corona virus but most of all to build anew our relationships in our family that we have neglected in our pursuits of so many things in life.
A home is more than a house; it is about relationships, of love and acceptance, kindness and forgiveness.
From Google.
Our Filipino word says it all – tahanan, from the root tahan which is to stop crying.
Tahanan or home is where you stop crying because that is where you are loved and accepted, safe and secured from any harm or danger.
Jesus assures us today in the gospel that we have a home in heaven where there is a room for everyone. This is the reason the same gospel text is the favorite in funeral Masses.
But there is something more about heaven than being a house with many rooms.
It is good that our lectionary used the modern translation of the Greek word “monai” or rooms into “dwelling places” because Jesus in this passage is not merely referring to a place or location but more specifically of a relationship with him in the Father.
In fact, the word “monai” is used only twice in the New Testament, both in the fourth Gospel: at this part and later when Jesus reprimands Philip in verse 23, “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him”.
Home and room are a dwelling — a relationship and a privilege of abiding in God’s presence!
Lent 2019 in our parish.
When Jesus said, “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be”, he never meant it to be taken in the literal sense because if it were so, that would be the only thing he has been doing in heaven these past 2000 years!
What Jesus is telling us along with the Twelve at that time is that by his going to his Passion, Death, and Resurrection after their supper, we are able to dwell, to abide in the loving presence of the Father even here on earth in this very life.
Such was the immense love of Christ when he assured the Apostles, including us in this time of pandemic to “Do not let your hearts be troubled” because his pasch is for our own benefit as our passageway into being with the Father in Jesus when we join him at the Cross.
Remember our gospel last week of Jesus as the “gate of the sheep” because he is “the way and the truth and the life” that now comes into full circle in the Last Supper.
It is in our sharing in his sufferings and pains on the Cross we enter heaven, we dwell in his loving presence that he also becomes manifest in us in this life.
Photo by Mr. Jim Marpa, 2019.
Mothers know best
Connecting now our quarantine slogan of “stay home, save lives” and Sunday gospel with Mother’s Day celebration today, we are reminded of the importance of ties and relationships that we keep especially in this period of pandemic.
In the Old Testament, God is revealed to us like a mother because she is the epitome of fidelity:
“Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb? Even should she forget I will never forget you. See, upon the palms of my hands I have written your name.”
Isaiah 49:15-16
How unfortunate that again, the song based on this part of Isaiah “Hindi Kita Malilimutan” (I Will Never Forget You) has become a favorite song in funeral Masses when in fact it is best sung in weddings because it is a pledge of love and fidelity by God who is like a mother.
The mother is the premiere homemaker also referred as the “light of the home” who seem to always have that magic touch in everything, in turning out little things, even scraps, into something lovely and beautiful, and delicious!
Her love and dedication can never be measured and nothing can ever make her happy except the abiding love and presence of her husband and children.
Photo by author, painting of “Our Lady of the Grotto in Bethlehem”, May 2019.
And we all know of our mother’s presence that transcends time and space, not to mention their intuition that defies logic but always true!
No wonder, there is a Jewish saying that “God created mothers because he cannot be everywhere”.
When we are sick, when we feel low, mothers know them all. Nothing can be hidden or kept secret with our moms because they are a home, a dwelling place for each of us all.
In the first reading we have heard the “ordination” of the first seven deacons of the church whose primary task was to take care of the widows as the Apostles were busy proclaiming the Gospel.
Eventually, it paved the way for the many services and ministries in the church that have become the clearest signs of God’s presence in the world. There is no need to publicize the countless efforts of the Church in reaching out to all the marginalized sectors of the society in the whole world that is truly a sign of her being a mother to all.
Now more than ever, in this time of the corona pandemic, we in the Church are challenged to continue being the signs of the living and loving presence of Jesus Christ in the world that has become so materialistic, less humane, even loveless and so unkind.
Let us be a mother, a living and loving presence of God so that people may find a home in us in Christ Jesus through the Holy Spirit dwelling in us. Amen.
A blessed happy Mothers’ Day to all moms!
Photo by author of the entrance to the original chapel of Our Lady of Grotto in Bethlehem, May 2019.
The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul, Friday, Easter Week-IV, 08 May 2020
Acts of the Apostles 13:26-33 ><)))*> +++0+++ <*(((>< John 14:1-6
Photo by Ms. Jo Villafuerte in Atok, Benguet, 2019.
Your words today, O Lord Jesus, are so assuring, so refreshing like the rains last night. Even if all our problems and worries remain, your words are more than enough to banish their power over us as we gain that trust and confidence to forge into this day we do not know where it would lead us to.
Jesus said to his disciples: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me.”
John 14:1
Keep us by your side, Jesus.
Let us take your path of love and humility, kindness and mercy especially in this time when patience is running out among many of us and emotions in everyone go high that we lose sight of the other persons going through troubles similar with ours.
Sometimes we fail to recognize you like what St. Paul said in the first reading because we always seek something more tangible, someone we can talk to like another person.
Let us be calm and trust in you that no matter what happens, you will never leave us alone and eventually lead us home to the Father’s house in heaven. Amen.
Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 03 May 2020
Photo by author, Parokya ni San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Bagbaguin, Santa Maria, Bulacan. April 2020.
Against the advice of good friends, I went out to distribute Holy Communion in the streets to some parishioners who have participated in our Sunday Mass early this morning at Facebook Live.
I know the risks involved despite our best efforts in having all the precautionary measures but, what convinced me to go on with it is a beautiful Psalm so appropriate during this quarantine period.
As the deer longs for streams of water, so my soul longs for you, O God.
My being thirsts for God, the living God. When can I go and see the face of God?
And when our quarantine period was extended for the second time before the end of Holy Week last month, I began praying again Psalm 42 every night for that is when I truly long for God so much, most of the time lamenting to him our situation, my condition of being alone in my rectory.
This is the first time I felt like this, so different from those so-called “desolation” or “dryness” because I could feel God present in my prayers but… he is not “fresh”.
Like the deer longing for streams of water, my soul longs for God too.
Not just like the water we buy from a filling station but exactly what the deer yearns for — fresh water that is refreshingly cool not only on your face but deep into your body when sipped amid the burbling sounds of the spring, babbling through rocks and branches of trees with the loamy aroma of earth adding a dash of freshness in you.
Admittedly, sometimes I wonder if I still know how to pray or if I still pray at all!
I can feel God present but he is like someone stacked there in my mind, in my memory, in my ideas shaped by my years of learning and praying.
What I am longing for is a God so alive, so true not only in me but also in another person.
And that is when I realized, most likely, my parishioners must be longing for God too in the same way — the God we all come to meet and celebrate with every Sunday in our little parish, among the people present who are so alive, so vibrant, so true, so touching.
Our empty church since March due to COVID-19.
Psalm 42 is believed to have been sang by David when he was prevented from coming to the tent of God either during the reign of King Saul who plotted to kill him or during the revolt of his own son Absalom when he was already the king of Israel.
Like David or the psalmist, I miss celebrating Mass with my parishioners.
And maybe it is safe to assume that two or three of my parishioners are also feeling the same way with me and David, saying these to the Lord:
My tears have been my food day and night, as they ask daily, “Where is your God?”
Those times I recall as I pour out my soul,
When I went in procession with the crowd, I went with them to the house of God,
Amid loud cries of thanksgiving, with the multitude keeping festival.
Psalm 42:4-5
If there is one very essential thing this pandemic has brought back to us in our very busy lives, it is most certainly God. And if ever this is one thing people need most in this time of corona virus, it is spiritual guidance and nourishment from God through his priests.
Of course, people can pray and talk to God straight as the Pope had reminded us before Holy Week.
But, human as we are, we always experience God and his love, his kindness, his mercy, his presence among other people who guide us and join us in our spiritual journey. They are special people like friends or relatives or pastors with whom they can be themselves, let off some steam, get some rays of light of hope and encouragement.
And that this is why I try to keep in touch with my parishioners in various ways in this time of corona: even I myself can feel so low and dark despite my prayers and very condition of living right here in the house of God who can still feel alone and desolate, even depressed.
If I – a priest – go through all these uncertainties and doubts this in this time of quarantine, how much more are the people, the beloved sheep of Jesus the Good Shepherd?
Why are you downcast, my soul; why do you groan within me?
Wait for God, whom I shall praise again, my savior and my God.
Psalm 42:6
Photo by Ms. Ria De Vera, 10 April 2020.
After our Mass this morning when we set out to distribute the Holy Communion, there was a little drizzle. It did not last long that I just wore a hat and left my umbrella in the rectory.
There were about 30 people who waited for us to receive Holy Communion, most of them along the main highway that stretched to about 2 kilometers. Some families gathered with a little altar at their front gate while a waited a couple waited in a gas station along our route.
In less than 20 minutes, we have completed our mission and as we headed back to the parish, the rains fell again, this time stronger than before.
My driver commented, “The weather cooperated with us, Father”1
I just nodded my head to him inside his tricycle but deep inside me, I felt joy because God answered my prayer, my lamentations for he was crying too, – for me and his people.
May this lamentation be an answer to your lamentations during this pandemic of COVID-19.
Continue with your lamentations to God our Father for this very act of crying out to him is the working of the Holy Spirit he had sent us through our Lord Christ Jesus. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul, Feast of St. Joseph the Worker, 01 May 2020
Genesis 1:26-2:3 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Matthew 13:54-58
Photo by author of the site of St. Joseph’s shop in their home at Nazareth found beneath the Chapel of St. Joseph near the Basilica of the Annunciation, Nazareth, Israel. May 2019.
As we start the third extension of our quarantine period, you have gifted us O God, our loving Father, with this Feast of St. Joseph the Worker to guide many of us working at home during this time of the corona pandemic.
St. Joseph must have been a very good father to Jesus at Nazareth and a very wonderful carpenter too to their neighbors that long after he had died, the people still remembered him being the father of the Lord.
Jesus came to his native place and taught the people in their synagogue. They were astonished and said, “Where did this man get such wisdom and mighty deeds? Is he not the carpenter’s son? Is he not his mother named Mary and his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas? Are not his sisters all with us? Where did this man get all this?”
Matthew 13:54-56
Remind us always, O Lord, that like St. Joseph, our main task in life is to do your work in the way you would want it to be done because all our work is just a sharing in your creation completed in six days, setting aside the seventh day of sabbath as a day of rest in you.
In this time of the corona virus when many of us are working at home with almost all establishments including churches are closed, may we find again the true meaning and value of all work and material endeavors in the light of Jesus Christ who did and spoke only what you willed, our heavenly Father.
May we break free from our works and be not their slaves that have destroyed our personal and family lives as well as our environment as we pursued in recent years material wealth and fame now useless in the face of COVID-19.
May we always find you, Lord, in all our work and undertaking as our only fulfillment. Amen.
Photon by Mr. Raffy Tima of GMA-7 News, March 2020.
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.
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