Wisdom 2:1, 12-22 ><)))*> +++ <*(((>< John 7:1-2, 10, 25-30
Photo by Ms. Ria De Vera, Parokya ni San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Bagbaguin, Santa Maria, Bulacan, 22 March 2020.
“The Lord is close to the brokenhearted; and those who are crushed in spirit he saves. Many are the troubles of the just man but out of them all, the Lord delivers him.”
Psalm 34:19-20
God our heavenly Father, we come to you today, begging you for more strength, more courage, more faith in you as the pressures and stress increase and worsen due this COVID-19 pandemic the whole world is suffering with.
Like your Son Jesus Christ in today’s gospel, we can feel so strongly the tremendous pressure he was going through from his enemies in the weeks leading to his Passion, Death, and Resurrection that he could not openly go to Jerusalem.
But, still he went there in secret to continue his mission of proclaiming the good news, trusting in you, our Father in heaven, who alone designates each one’s “hour”.
So they tried to arrest him, but no one laid a hand upon him, because his hour had not yet come.
John 7:30
Give us the grace, Lord, to withstand all the pressures and stress going on within us, in our family and community as we enter the second week of lockdown.
Most especially, we pray for our frontliners in health and medicine who are subjected to intense pressures by the pandemic. Some of them have lost their lives fulfilling their mission. Bless their souls, bless their loved ones left behind.
We pray, Lord, for those who have to work today so we can have food on our table, electricity and communication lines, water, and also security we have seem to take for granted these days.
May this lockdown provide us with the much needed rest to fight all the stresses and pressures we have been carrying on our shoulders for a long time.
May this lockdown be a Sabbath for us like you have envisioned in the beginning when you created everything. Amen.
Photos by Mr. Raffy Tima of GMA-7 News, 26 March 2020. See Mt. Samat and the 1,821 feet Memorial Cross in Bataan as seen from the GMA Network Bldg. in Quezon City across the expanse of Manila Bay. Used with permission.
Painting ng Pagbabalita ng Anghel kay Maria ng Pagsilang ni Hesus sa harapan ng Basilica ng Annunciation sa Nazareth, Israel. Larawan kuha ng may-akda, Mayo 2017.
Wala akong kahilig-hilig sa ano mang countdown ngunit kagabi sa aking pagninilay ng Dakilang Kapistahan ng Pagbabalita kay Maria ng Pagsilang ng Mesiyas, bigla ko naisip siyam na buwan na lamang mula ngayon ay Pasko na ng Pagsilang!
Kaya… Merry Christmas sa inyong lahat ngayon pa lamang!
Naisip ko tama lang isipin na natin ngayon siyam na buwan bago ang Pasko ng Pagsilang sa gitna ng lockdown sanhi ng COVID-19 upang magbago ating kamalayan sa Christmas countdown sapagkat higit pa sa petsa ang Disyembre 25 — ito ay isang kaganapan o “event” wika nga sa Inggles na nangangahulugan din ng “fulfillment” o kabuuan.
Ang Pasko ay si Hesu-Kristo, ang Diyos Anak na nagkatawang-tao!
Sinasabi na maraming binabago sa buhay ang COVID-19 at una na rito ang “back to basics” tulad ng paghuhugas ng mga kamay palagi, pagsasama-sama ng pamilya, at taimtim na pananalangin.
At isa sa mgapangunahing basic ng buhay ay ang Diyos na nagkatawang-tao, si Hesus. Dapat nating mapagtanto muli na bagaman dumating na si Hesus 2000 taon na nakalipas, patuloy pa rin siyang dumarating sa piling natin at muling darating sa wakas ng panahon.
Paglibot ng Santisimo Sakramento sa Parokya ni San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Bagbaguin, Santa Maria, Bulacan noong 22 Marso 2020. Larawan kuha ni Bb. Ria De Vera
Si Kristo ay dumating, dumarating, at darating sa tao na bukas ang puso at kalooban
Isang mabuting halimbawa ang ipinakita sa atin ng Mahal na Birheng Maria nang ibalita sa kanya ng Anghel Gabriel ang mabuting balita ng pagsilang niya kay Hesus na ating Tagapagligtas. Tatlong bagay ang ating nakikita rito.
Una ang kanyang pagiging bukas palagi sa salita at kalooban ng Diyos.
Kapag pingninilayan ko ang tagpong ito ng ebanghelyo ayon kay San Lukas, palagi ko naiisip na mas malamang nananalangin noon ang Birheng Maria.
Kaya paulit-ulit ko na sinasabi sa inyo mga ginigiliw ko, lalo na mga magulang na gamitin ang pagkakataong ito ng lockdown na ituro muli ang mga dasal na nakalimutan na ng mga bata. Higit sa lahat, magdasal ng sama-sama tulad ng pagrorosaryo. Mamyang alas-7:00 ng gabi, sabay-sabay tayo sa buong daigdig makiisa sa panawagan ni Papa Francisco na dasalin ang “Ama namin” kontra sa COVID-19.
Tanging sa pananalangin lamang natin mapapakinggang tunay ang kalooban ng Diyos sa atin.
Ikalawa ang pagtanggap ng Mahal na Birheng Maria sa salita at kalooban ng Diyos.
Hindi sasapat ang pananalangin lamang; kung hindi rin naman pumayag si Maria sa hiling ng Diyos na maging Ina ni Hesus, wala ring Pasko at hanggang ngayon marahil inaabangan pa natin ang Kristo.
Katulad ng Mahal na Birheng Maria, nawa tayo man ay pumayag at sumang-ayon sa hinihiling sa atin ng Diyos. Gaya ni Maria, masabi rin natin ang matamis na pananalita niya sa anghel matapos mapakinggan ang mabuting balita, “Maganap na nawa sa aking ang iyong mga sinabi” (Lk.1:38).
Ikatlo, pinangatawanan ni Maria ang kanyang “Oo” o “Opo” sa Panginoon.
Masdan mabuti ang huling talata ng ebanghelyo sa araw na ito: “At iniwan siya ng anghel” (Lk.1:39).
Tingnan ninyo ang lahat ng nasusulat sa Bagong Tipan: wala nang ibang pagkakataon na ang anghel ay nakipag-usap pa muli kay Maria! Kay San Jose at mga Apostol tulad ni San Pedro, ilang ulit nagpakita ang anghel upang liwanagin mga gawain nila. Nguni’t si Maria pagkaraan nito ay naiwan nang mag-isa sa kanyang matibay na pananampalataya sa Diyos!
Ang tanging sigurado lang si Maria ay ang pangalang ibibgay sa kanyang sanggol na Hesus. Maliban dito ay pawang pagtitiwala at pananalig ang umiral kay Maria na naging tapat sa pagsunod sa Diyos hanggang sa mapako sa Krus si Hesus. Kaya naman sa kanya unang nagpakita si Hesus na muling nabuhay sapagkat si Maria ang unang tunay at lubos na nanalig sa kanya, sa salita at sa gawa.
Ang lugar kung saan binati ng anghel si Maria na ngayon ay nasa ilalim ng Basilica ng Annunciation sa Nazareth. Larawan ay kuha ng may-akda, Mayo 2019.
Hamon ng Ebanghelyo
Nakakatuwa ang maraming balita ng mga taong nagsasakripisyo, naglalaan ng sarili para sa kapwa sa gitna ng pandemiyang COVID-19. Una na sa kanila ang mga tinaguriang frontliners na health workers – mga duktor, nars, med tech, at lahat ng naglilingkod sa mga pagamutan.
Kahapon ay naikuwento ko sa inyo isang tindero ng saging na hindi nagtaas ng presyo bilang tulong niya sa lockdown na umiiral.
Kaibayo naman nito ang napakalungkot at masakit – at nakakapikon! – na mga balita ng mga mapagsamantalang tao sa gitna ng krisis.
Unang-una na ang mga halal na upisyal ng bayan sampu ng kanilang mga pamilya na nagpa-VIP treatment para sa COVID testing. Gayun din iba pang upisyal ng bansa na hanggang ngayon ang inaatupag ay sariling kapakanan habang buong bayan ay nagdurusa.
Sila ang mga makabagong Haring Acaz na noon ay kunwari tumangging humingi ng palatandaan mula sa Diyos kung tunay niyang ililigtas ang Israel. Ang totoo, nakipag-alyansa na si Haring Acaz sa mga katabing bansa laban sa Assyria gayong kabilin-bilinan sa kanya ni Propeta Isaias na magtiwala sa Diyos lamang. Batid ng Diyos ang katotohanan at kunwari’y tiwala si Haring Acaz sa kanya!
Kahapon sinabi ng Punong Ministro ng Italya na siyang bagong sentro ng COVID-19 na lahat ay nagawa na nila sa lupang ibabaw laban sa pandemiyang ito; inamin niyang wala na silang maaring takbuhan ng tulong kungdi ang Diyos sa langit.
Alalahanin natin na hindi sapat ang basta manalangin.
Katulad ni Maria, atin nawa maisabuhay ang pagiging bukas palagi sa Diyos sa pakikinig sa kanyang tinig at higit sa lahat, pagsang-ayon dito at paninindigan sa pamamagitan ng ating mabubuting gawa.
Manalangin tayo:
Larawan kuha ni Bb. Anne Ramos, 22 Marso 2020, paglibot ng Santisimo Sakramento sa Parokya ni San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Bagbaguin, Santa Maria, Bulacan.
O Diyos Ama naming mapagmahal, kami ay nagpapasalamat sa pagbibigay mo sa amin sa iyong Anak, ang Panginoong Hesu-Kristo na siyang aming kaligtasan lalo’t higit sa panahong ito ng COVID-19.
Buksan po ninyo aming puso at kalooban katulad ni Maria upang manahan din sa amin si Hesus, gawin niyang luklukan ang aming mga puso at kalooban.
Bigyan mo rin kami ng tapang at pananampalataya tulad ni Mari upang lahat ng aming sasabihin at gagawin ay pawang nilalayon at kalooban ng Panginoong Hesus.
Maging matatag nawa kami tulad ni Maria na samahan si Hesus hanggang paanan ng Krus upang mapanindigan kanyang kalooban sa kapangyarihan ng Espiritu Santo. Amen.
40 Shades of Lent, Wednesday, Solemnity of the Annunciation, 25 March 2020
Isaiah 7:10-14; 8:10 +++ Hebrews 10:4-10 +++ Luke 1:26-38
Mosaic of the Annunciation to Mary at San Giovanni Rotondo Church, Italy. Photo by Arch. Philip Santiago, 2019.
Glory and praise to you, O God our Father as we celebrate today the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Birth of Jesus Christ to Mary. What a celebration so appropriate in this time of COVID-19 amid the ongoing lockdown not only in our country but in many parts of the world.
You know how I am not into any countdown whatsoever, Lord; in fact, I do not even keep tabs of how many days we have been locked down except that I really miss my parishioners, the normal grind of each day.
But as I prayed on this Solemnity, the first thing that I realized is that we are nine months from Christmas!
Jesus is coming, Jesus has come, Jesus is never gone — especially in this lockdown!
Photo by Ms. Ria De Vera during our procession of the Blessed Sacrament in our Parish, 22 March 2020.
What an honor and grace, O Lord, that despite our sinfulness and failures, you continue to offer us salvation, of starting all over again, of picking up the pieces of our lives, of hoping for that great day when all these lockdown and pandemic are gone.
We pray for all the health workers who sacrifice their very lives in saving the sick and all the other unsung heroes who do their share in helping us unburden the heavy crosses we are carrying following COVID-19’s wrath.
Thank you for the many among us who have opened like Mary to receive Jesus and share Jesus in these trying times.
But we also pray, O Lord, for those many of us who remain closed and cold to you and to others.
The people who continue to ignore “social distancing” and those who have remained spiritually and emotionally distant from family members, friends, and neighbors.
We pray most especially for our officials in the government who continue to bring more shame and dishonor to themselves to the detriment of the people.
The leaders who think more of themselves, who regard themselves as more important than others. The modern “King Ahaz” of our time who rely more on their own power, on their alliances with their foreign and local lords and masters.
Have mercy on them, Lord.
Come quickly and save us.
Open our hearts, teach us humility to be able to say to you like Mary, “Be it done unto me according to your word.” Amen.
Photo by author of the site where Mary received the Good News of Christ’s coming from Archangel Gabriel beneath the Basilica of the Annunciation, Nazareth, 2019.
40 Shades of Lent, Sunday Week IV-A, 22 March 2020
1 Samuel 16:1, 6-7, 10-13 +++ Ephesians 5:8-14 +++ John 9:1-41
Photo by author, Laetare Sunday 2019, Parokya ni San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Bagbaguin, Santa Maria, Bulacan, Philippines.
Today is the Fourth Sunday of Lent known in its Latin verb form “Laetare Sunday” when the liturgy calls us to rejoice because Easter is fast approaching.
But how can we rejoice in the midst of an “enhanced community quarantine” or lockdown, when we cannot even come to church to celebrate the Sunday Mass together, when so many people are dying while millions of others face uncertainties with the widespread disruptions and problems in life caused by COVID-19 worldwide.
On this date is also my 55th birthday – but, no worries, the more I rejoice in the Lord almost alone. Thank you for all the greetings that have been pouring since yesterday. As I was telling you last Sunday, COVID-19 has brought some blessings or good news too for us.
Let us rejoice in the Lord today because he has not left us, the more we feel him present with us, thanks or no thanks to Corona virus.
As Jesus passed by he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither he nor his parents sinned; it is so that the works of God might be made visible through him.”
John 9:1-3
Our “blaming game” vs. light of Christ
More than ever as we suffer through this pandemic of COVID-19, many of us have again resorted to that old myth that whenever something bad happens to us, especially sickness, it is always taken as a punishment from God.
It is totally untrue because nothing bad can come from God. Many times in our lives, we become artificially blind that despite our gift of sight we fail and even refuse to see the truth and realities in us and around us, even in front of us!
What happens is our tendency to blame others like in that question to Jesus, who sinned – the parents or the man himself that he was born blind?
This is the problem with our “blaming game” : we are blinded from taking responsibilities for our acts that we would rather blame others even God for everything bad that happens to us. There are more times that there is no one to be blamed at all like our genes or Mother Nature; we just have to accept things as they are.
And that’s one lesson we must learn fast: there can be no rejoicing when there is no self-acceptance.
How funny and sad that less than a week since our Luzon-wide lockdown, many of us have been quarreling on-line on almost everything we see and hear on TV and the social media that has led to bashing and nasty exchanges of words, even breakdowns. Very funny, and tragic when we focus on non-essentials, almost forgetting COVID-19.
How tragic that some chose to hide facts and truths that have caused the lives of others, too. This is the dark reality of our blaming game – we never admit anything wrong about us.
See beyond external things. Try seeing also how God is working in our midst as Jesus offers us in this holy season of Lent the best way to deal with our present situation by returning to him, by believing in him.
Photo by author, Baliwag, Bulacan (25 February 2020).
Have you noticed the many little miracles happening in some families now together, praying together, staying together?
One reason for rejoicing this fourth Sunday of Lent is perhaps everyone’s hope that after this COVID-19 episode, we all start a new chapter of renewed relationships and bonds, of fresh outlooks after rediscovering the value of life and every person again.
Jesus spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva, and smeared the clay on his eyes, and said to him, “Go wash in the Pool of Siloam”- which means Sent. So he went and washed, and came back able to see.
John 9:6-7
Here again is the presence of water like in last Sunday’s story to remind us of the Sacrament of Baptism which is closely tied with the season of Lent. St. John had translated the meaning of Siloam as “Sent” to stress that Jesus is the Christ, the One sent to cleanse us and wash away our blindness caused by sins and evil.
Another reason to rejoice this Sunday! Most especially now many of us realize the value of the Holy Mass, especially the Sunday Eucharist we used to take for granted before. Every time we celebrate the Mass, we perfect the Baptism we have received when we are washed and refreshed anew in Jesus through his words and Body and Blood.
It is only when we stop blaming others when we begin to see our true selves, when changes finally begin to happen in us.
Like God, let us try to see things and persons beyond what is physical. In the first reading, God chose David over his elder and better brothers who would later defeat Goliath to become Israel’s greatest king from whose lineage came Jesus Christ.
Jesus on the Cross, our true joy
Photo by author, Lent 2019, Parokya ni San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Bagbaguin, Santa Maria, Bulacan, Phils.
The moment we remove Jesus in our lives, when we refuse to acknowledge him as our Lord and Savior, that is also when we are blinded by sin, especially by pride.
Do we not see this so true that led one way or the other to this pandemic?
We have totally turned away from God and his ways, following our greedy paths of power and wealth. We have long been distant from one another despite the great advances in modern communications that have also brought us farther away from God as we spend more time with our gadgets.
We can never rejoice for ourselves and for others when we are far from Jesus Christ. In his very unique manner of looking at things, St. John presents to us some funny contrasts in the story of the man born blind that we also see happening in this COVID-19 pandemic.
Our Tabernacle, Laetare 2019.
First is when the people doubted the man healed by Jesus was himself the one “who used to sit and beg”, despite his clear declaration of “I am”. We have experienced this so many times when others doubt we can rise and become better.
How sad these past days we have seen how some people have been so mean especially with younger and newer leaders who have risen against the threats of COVID-19, shooting down their efforts, even to the point of maligning and even threatening them. It is as if they are the only “anointed ones” with whom God can work with.
Second is the attitude of the parents of the man born blind: betrayers are the worst kind of artificially blind people. Like the parents of the man born blind, they refused to vouch for his identity and healing for fears of being banned from temple worship.
Ouch! for us in the church with our “holier-than-thou-attitude” especially with those closest with us like family members and friends. Like Judas Iscariot, sometimes those supposed to be dearest to us are blinded by money, power, and fame that they also betray and dump us.
Where has all the love gone for one another, for the country?
In the sacristy, Laetare 2019.
Lastly, there are those supposed to be learned ones but unfortunately blinded simply by lack of faith in God like those Pharisees who refused to believe the man born blind’s story of healing as well as to recognize Jesus as the Christ.
Observe the attitudes of the Pharisees who claimed to know “this man, Jesus, is a sinner” because he healed on a Sabbath while the man born blind retorted “I do not know (Jesus) but how come he had healed me?”
What a tragic comedy! It is the root of the mess we are into today of so many learned men and women pretending to know so much but totally incompetent and ignorant of the realities going on, who do not care at all with the plight of the masses!
Both the whole world and our country are in deep darkness today with so many blind leaders and followers alike. Let us heed St. Paul’s reminder not to be blinded, to stop blaming others and to start confronting ourselves in the light of Jesus Christ.
“Take no part in fruitless works of darkness; rather expose them, for it is shameful even to mention the things done by them in secret; but everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for everything that becomes visible is light.”
Ephesians 5:11-14
Rejoice for an enlightened Sunday and new week for everyone despite COVID-19. Amen.
40 Shades of Lent, Saturday, Week III, 21 March 2020
Hosea 6:1-6 <*(((>< +++ ><)))*> Luke 18:9-14
Photo by author, Mount St. Paul, Trinidad, Benguet (04 February 2020).
Your words today, O Lord, are so true.
And so painful, too.
What can I do with you, Ephraim? What can I do with you, Judah? Your piety is like a morning cloud, like the dew that early passes. For this reason I smote them through the prophets, I slew them by the words of my mouth. For it is love that I desire, not sacrifice, and knowledge of God rather burnt offering.
Hosea 6:4-6
We could feel your sadness, O Lord, speaking to us who have become like your people Israel. Slay us with your words as we close the first week of our heightened community quarantine deep in confusion and loss when our leaders fail – or refuse – to rise to maturity and statesmanship when concern for ego and turfs have become their main preoccupation while others are nowhere to be found.
Where is the love, O Lord, they have promised us, our country?
But the more painful question we all have to answer really is where is our love? Where is our love for our country expressed in electing all these officials we now have? Where is the love we have promised to one another, of husband and wife, of parents and children, of siblings, of friends?
We have sinned, O God our Father, because we have failed or refused to love and share your immense love for each one of us.
Forgive us, for we have lost the essence of love, of forgetting one’s self in favor of the beloved. We have loved our selves too much, thinking we are always just and right, truly the ones for whom today’s gospel is meant for without exceptions.
Jesus addressed this parable to those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else. Two people went up to the temple area to pray; one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector.
Luke 18:9-14
We have thought that love is when the good times roll, when there is laughter and pleasure, when there is affluence. Worst of all, we have thought that love is a material expressed in things or mere feelings we always show in sweet nothings.
Teach us again to remember that love is a person … because you are love, O God!
Deus caritas est (1 John 4:8).
Let us love, love, and love truly like Jesus your Son who gave himself for us on the cross. Amen.
Parokya ni San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, 2019.
40 Shades of Lent, Friday, Week III, 20 March 2020
Hosea 14:2-10 ><)))*> +++ <*(((>< Mark 12:28-34
Photo by author, Mt. St. Paul, Trinidad, Benguet, 04 February 2020.
Unbelievable.
That’s the only word you spoke to me Lord in my prayers last night and this morning.
Unbelievable.
As the days move on, God our Father, the more I could not believe all these things going on. What have happened with us, Lord?
Bakit kami nagkaganito at paano kami humantong dito, Panginoon?
Your words today, O Lord, are so true. It is you indeed who speaks to us especially in the first reading through the Prophet Hosea. You have spoken so well — we have all sinned.
We have disregarded you and others. We have relied so much in our own powers and abilities. We have insisted on doing things our own ways totally discarding your teachings.
But more unbelievable in this unbelievable situation is your immense love and mercy for us, O God our Father.
Thus says the Lord: Return, O Israel, to the Lord, your God; you have collapsed through your guilt. Take with you words, and return to the Lord… I will heal their defection, says the Lord, I will love them freely; for my wrath is turned away from them. I will be like the dew for Israel: he shall blossom like the lily.
Hosea 14:2-3, 5-6
Lent Week-III 2020 in our Parish.
Help us, Father through your Son Jesus Christ that we may look more inside ourselves these trying times, that we may see you more and as we see you as the most essential, the most important of all, we also see our value as persons.
Let us experience that love you have for us that we ought to share with one another, beginning in our family, in our neighborhood.
How unbelievable that some of us, like that scribe who asked Jesus “which is the first of all commandments”, we keep on categorizing, ranking things and even persons to determine who or what is the most important — the first.
Unbelievable but true, this pandemic is happening because we have forgotten you and we have forgotten others too. We have forgotten YOU are always first, always great. Semper Primus, semper Major!
Teach us to see more of you so that we also see you among one another. Amen.
Photo by author, Parokya ni San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Bagbaguin, Santa Maria, Bulacan, Lent 2020.
Once again, our loving Father, I take the computer as my point of comparison for my prayer reflection on this second Friday of Lent.
Thank you in giving us this blessed season of Lent when we are able to “debug” our “internal hard drive” – the heart – to be cleansed of bugs and virus as well as unnecessary materials that slow us down to be holy and perfect like you.
Your words are very reassuring of how you want us to be “fixed” always, to be in good condition, filled with life and holiness.
Thus says the Lord God: “Do I indeed derive any pleasure from the death of a wicked?” says the Lord God. “Do I not rather rejoice when he turns from his evil way that he may live? Hear now, house of Israel: Is it my way that is unfair, or rather, are not your ways unfair? When someone virtuous man turns away from virtue to commit iniquity, and dies, it is because of the iniqity he committed that he must die. But if the wicked, trning from the wickedness he has committed, does what is right and just, he shall preserve his life; since he has turned away from all the sins that he committed, he shall surely live, he shall not die.”
Ezekiel 18:23, 25-28
Educate our hearts, O Lord.
Help us “surpass the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees” in Jesus Christ who have come to perfect the laws in himself, in love.
May your purifying love, sweet Jesus, cleanse us of our sins, delete our painful memories that continue to hold us back, preventing us to move forward and forgive others and especially our very selves.
Make us rejoice, O Lord, in your immense love and share it with others so that we may grow more in holiness in you. Amen.
40 Shades of Lent, Thursday, Week I, 05 March 2020
Esther C:12, 14-16, 23-25 +++ 0 +++ Matthew 7:7-12
Photo by author, Parokya ni San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, 01 March 2020, Bagbaguin, Santa Maria, Bulacan.
O God our Father, you know very well how ignorant I am with computers and the Internet. But, somehow, Lord, I have learned something very important with computers like the “default system” whereby a computer setting is on a desired preexisting configuration useful to the user.
On this season of Lent, help us to restore our default system in you, O God!
Make us stop “surfing” the universe for better default systems for there is no one better than you whom we must always have as our first option in everything, whether in good times or in bad.
Like Queen Esther in our first reading today who only had you as her recourse in seeking help for her countrymen:
“Now help me, who am alone and have no one but you, O Lord, my God… come to help me, an orphan. Put in my mouth persuasive words in the presence of the lion, and turn his heart to hatred for our enemy, so that he and those who are in league with him may perish. Save us from the hands of our enemies; turn our mourning into gladness and our sorrows into wholeness.”
Esther C: 13, 24-26
Create a clean heart in me, O God, so that I may always seek and follow you.
Most of all, incline my heart to you always so you may dwell in me to let justice and love and mercy reign in me. Amen.
Leviticus 19:1-2, 11-18 +++ 0 +++ Matthew 25:31-46
Photo by author, Mt. St. Paul Spirituality Center, Baguio City, 03 February 2020.
“Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life.”
Responsorial Psalm
Today, Lord, I borrow your psalmist’s words for they summarize the two beautiful readings on this first Monday of Lent 2020.
Thank you for reminding us that we are your Holy Spirit’s indwelling, that we must be holy for you, O God, are holy (Lev.19:2).
Continue to fill us with your holiness so that we continue to do whatever is good to our brothers and sisters, especially the least among them for whatever we do to anyone, that we do also to you, dear Jesus (Mt.25:40, 45).
May your holy season of Lent remind us that it is our nature to share and give life because we have you Jesus in us. That’s the implication of those like the sheep on your right side, Lord, who were surprised and could not believe asking “when were you Lord hungry we gave you something to eat, when were you Lord…?”
When we let your Spirit of holiness animate us, that is when we are never bothered to think of anything else upon seeing the poor and suffering except to love, to practice charity.
May our Lenten practices of fasting and abstinence, sacrifices and alms-giving empty us of our selves and be filled with you, sweet Jesus, the Word who became flesh to dwell in our hearts for you alone are Life and Spirit.
Teach us to examine today our attitude towards everyone who may be unknown to us silently poor and suffering. Let us reacquire that nature in us we fondly refer to as “second-nature” of being kind and charitable to everyone because he/she has you, Jesus, in him/her.
That need not be difficult for us because in the first place, YOU, O Lord, is in us too! Amen.
lordmychef.com 