Category: Presence of God

Blessed be God forever!

The Lord Is My Chef Simbang Gabi Recipe, 24 December 2019

2 Samuel 7:1-5, 8-12, 14, 16 ><)))*> <*(((>< Luke 1:67-79

Marker on the Church where St. John the Baptist is believed to have been born in Ein Karem, Jerusalem. Photo by author, May 2019.

At last!

These are most likely the two words we must be saying today on this ninth day of our Simbang Gabi.

Finally, we have completed the nine day novena to the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ for tonight will be Christmas.

But, more than being the last day of our novena, today is also the beginning of better days ahead for us all starting with Christmas!

From this day on, let us imitate Zechariah in his new found faith, hope and love in God expressed in his song of praise and thanksgiving after recovering his sense of hearing and speaking after nine months of forced silence.

“Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, for he has come to his people and set them free. He has raised up for us a mighty Savior, born of the house of his servant David.”

Luke 1:68-69
Sunrise at the Lake of Galilee, the Holy Land. Photo by author, May 2019.

Three canticles of praise, three prayers of faith

Popularly known as the Benedictus from its Latin opening verse “Blessed be God”, this is the second of the three canticles St. Luke tells us Zechariah had sang after naming his son “John”.

The other two songs are the Magnificat by Mary during her Visitation of Elizabeth and the third is the Nunc Dimittis by Simeon upon seeing the child Jesus during his presentation at the Temple of Jerusalem.

These canticles or songs make up the beautiful Christmas story by St. Luke who put them onto the mouths of Mary, Zechariah, and Simeon to signify their being filled with the Holy Spirit in experiencing the coming of Jesus Christ: Mary sang “my soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord” during the Visitation in response to the praises by Elizabeth (Lk.1:46-55) while Simeon the prophet prayed to God to “let him go in peace” – to die – after seeing the coming of the Savior (Lk.2:29-32).

These eventually became part of the prayers of the Church (Liturgy of the Hours) we priests and religious are obliged to pray day in, day out:

  1. Benedictus in the morning to show how willing are we to face the new day by making our Savior Jesus Christ present in our lives like St. John the Baptizer, his precursor;
  2. Magnificat in the evening to praise and thank God in working his salvation in us through Jesus Christ;
  3. Nunc Dimittis at night before bedtime to signify our readiness to die and finally be one with God in Jesus Christ.

They are our “spiritual vitamins” that fill us with the Holy Spirit to strengthen and deepen our relationship with the Father in Jesus Christ which every Christian may pray too to experience and be one with God daily.

Pilgrims waiting outside the Church of St. John the Baptist in Ein Karem, Jerusalem. On the walls are the translation into different languages of the world, including Filipino, of Zechariah’s Benedictus. Photo by author, May 2019.

Why God is blessed according to Zechariah

The Benedictus signifies Zechariah’s coming to full circle after nine months of forced silence after doubting the angel’s message that he and Elizabeth would finally have a son.

Our sacristy, Advent 2019.

In singing the Benedictus, Zechariah did not only recover his power of speech but most of all showed the fruits of his nine months of silence and prayer preparing for the birth of his son John as well as, ultimately, for Christ’s coming (his song indicates it).

Finally, Zechariah has been healed of his pains and hurts that prevented him in experiencing God, in believing in his powers again, giving him more reasons to hope and be joyful.

This is the reason we also have the Advent Season when we try to dispose ourselves more to Christ’s coming to us not only at Christmas but everyday in our lives.

Zechariah mentions three powerful verbs why he praised God: for he has come to his people, set them free, and has raised up a mighty Savior.

God has come to us

Zechariah first experienced God coming to him when the angel announced to him John’s birth while incensing at the temple during the Day of Atonement. Unfortunately, he was “absent” at God’s “presence” that he questioned how Elizabeth would bear a child.

Everything now changes not only because he had seen his own son but he himself experienced God’s coming in his life.

Sometimes, our pains and hurts, frustrations and disappointments, defeats and failures blind us, numb us that we cannot see, we cannot experience God coming to us in every brand new day he gives us, through the people we meet with their smiles and greetings, with our family and friends who have have stayed with us in good times and bad.

Every morning we wake up to reminds us God has come to us. Rise and meet him in joy, entrust the new day to him, and ask for the grace to remain in him!

God has set us free

Every time God comes, there is always freedom – freedom from evil and sin, freedom from the past and all its pains and hurts, freedom from guilt feelings, freedom everything that prevents us from being truly free to be our own, good sel, to be free and faithful to love and forgive others too.

Carmelite Monastery, Guiguinto, Bulacan. Photo by author, November 2019.

Literally speaking, Zechariah felt free again to speak and express himself fully. But more than that is the experience to go and live fully in God.

We can never experience Christmas if we cannot assert this freedom Christ had won for us when he died on the Cross. Forget all those “hugot” lines and move forward with life.

The name of God is “I AM” because he is always in the PRESENT, never in the past nor in the future.

That is why each new day is a gift, a present from God who as set us free from yesterday’s mistakes and failures and sins.

Go and be free for God!

God has raised up for us a mighty Savior

Christmas is not a date but an event, a person we experience in Jesus Christ who is a dialogue himself according to Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. Jesus is always communing with us, inviting us to be one in him in his love.

In his Benedictus, Zechariah is also professing the saving work of God in Jesus Christ who became human like us in everything except sin. God is so blessed because of his great love for us, he chose to enter, or intervene into human history to bring us into eternal life by faith in Christ Jesus.

To raise up is a strong term also indicating the Paschal mystery Christ will go through, the ultimate communion of God into our own lowliness of suffering and death to bring us into the glorious victory of his resurrection.

Every morning, every day we are reminded by Zechariah of the words of the angel Gabriel to Mary regarding the birth of John: nothing is impossible with God.

And Zechariah had experienced this first hand when his barren and old wife Elizabeth conceived their child John.

May we have a renewed faith, hope and love in God at the closing of our Simbang Gabi this year. Like David in the first reading, rest be assured of God’s plan for each of us. Let us be patient to wait and prepare always for his coming like Zechariah even in his old age. Amen.

Birthplace of St. John the Baptist at Ein Karen, Jerusalem. Photo by author, May 2019.

God is gracious

The Lord Is My Chef Simbang Gabi Recipe, 23 December 2019

Malachi 3:1-4, 23-24 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Luke 1:57-66

Facade of the Church of St. John the Baptist in Eim Karen where the precursor of the Lord was born. Not to be confused with Church of the Visitation at its other side in the same town. Photo by author, May 2019

Two days before Christmas, St. Luke brings us back to the continuation of his first story about Christmas: the birth of John the Baptizer.

When the time arrived for Elizabeth to have her child she gave birth to a son. Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown his great mercy toward her, and they rejoiced with her. When they came on the eighth day to circumcise the child, they were going to call him Zechariah after his father, but his mother said in reply, “No. He will be called John.” But they answered her, “There is no one among your relatives who has this name.” So they made signs, asking his father what he wished him to be called. He asked for a tablet and wrote, “John is his name,” and all were amazed. Immediately his mouth was opened, his tongue freed, and he spoke blessing God.

Luke 1:57-64
Site where St. John the Baptist is believed to have been born. Photo by author, May 2019.

Where is God leading me?

Christmas is almost here. And it is not yet too late in these last two days of Advent that we try some “last ditch efforts” to spiritually prepare ourselves for this joyous season by asking just one question following the story of John’s birth:

“Where is God leading me?”

See the artistry of St. Luke, at how he began his Christmas story with the annunciation of the birth of John to his father Zechariah while incensing the Holy of Holies of the Temple in Jerusalem.

He doubted the good news and he was silenced by the angel until John was born.

Today, after three days, or nine months to be exact, St. Luke brings him back into the scene set free from his punishment. Zechariah was able to speak again when he concurred with his wife’s desire to name their child John by writing it on a tablet.

The name John in Hebrew is Jehohan which means “God is gracious” or “graciousness of God”.

Advent and Christmas are a story of how each one of us is a John, a graciousness of God, of us people so blessed by God to fulfill his promise of salvation in Jesus Christ.

But do we realize the many blessings we have from God?

The other night I saw an interesting post on Facebook from one of my former students in high school. It was from a woman sharing her experience while waiting in line at an ATM that has now gone viral.

She claimed that at first, she felt so bad at what was taking three people so long at the ATM to withdraw their cash. But when she got nearer, she overheard their conversations.

It turned out the three were given a bonus of Php 2000.00 each by their boss.

And they were extremely happy, so thankful, telling each other how they would prepare spaghetti and fruit salad on Christmas eve!

And the woman who posted the photo realized how those simple folks were so thankful for Php 2000.00 bonus when she and others like her who get more than that amount still complain?!

Very nice reflection!

Advent gives us four weeks to remember God’s graciousness to us this past year. The bountiful blessings we have had which we take for granted. Worst, we even complain with!

Altar of the Church of St. John the Baptist, Israel. When we came there last May, it was being closed for major restorations expected to last for years.

Whenever we see and count our blessings, do we ever thank God and ask him too where he is leading us to?

Zechariah was already old, had a great chance of incensing the Holy of Holies at their most important feast, doubted God’s grace but eventually still received it after nine months of silence.

By his action, Zechariah had shown how he had grown in faith during those nine months of “forced silence”, of how he had start to believe again in God, hope again, and practically live life anew!

Tremendous graces in just nine months being silent. Imagine that.

And we can have more grace today until tomorrow being silent, reflecting, praying as we count one by one the many blessings we have received this year.

Call it ageing gracefully, a grace in itself wherein as we grow old, we continue to find direction in life, we continue to find God leading us to him, for a specific mission to fulfill.

Dome of the Church of St. John the Baptist in Israel. Photo by author, May 2019.

Yesterday we have reflected that we are like St. Joseph entrusted with a special mission from God. That God “needs” us to bring Jesus, to care and protect Jesus here in the world. Each of us has a special part or role to play in God’s Divine plan in Jesus Christ.

Never lose hope in life. No matter what is our situation in life, God continues to work in us, working for us, inviting us to work with him.

It is interesting to know that the name Zechariah means “God remembers” while Elizabeth means “God has promised or vowed”.

If their names are brought together, we can see the complete picture why St. Luke started his Christmas story with Zechariah, Elizabeth, and John and not with Jospeh or Mary right away: they all mean “God is gracious because he remembers his promise always”!

May we always trust God and ask him where he is leading each of us this Christmas no matter what is our status in life. Amen.

Holy presence in hiddenness

The Lord Is My Chef Simbang Gabi Recipe, 19 December 2019

Judges 13:2-7, 24-25 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Luke 1:15-25

The Walls of Jerusalem, May 2019. Photo by the author.

From St. Matthew, we now move to the Christmas story by St. Luke that starts in the temple of Jerusalem. And surprisingly, not precisely with Jesus or his parents.

In the days of Herod, King of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah of the priestly division of Abijah; his wife was from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. Both were righteous in the eyes of God, observing all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blamelessly. But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren and both were advanced in years. Once when he was serving as priest in his division’s turn before God, according to the practice of the priestly service, he was chosen by lot to enter the sanctuary of the Lord to burn incense. Then, when the whole assembly of the people was praying outside at the hour of the incense offering, the angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right of the altar of incense.

Luke 1:5-11

We know what happened, of how Zechariah doubted the good news announced to him about the birth of his son John the Baptizer.

Many times in our lives, especially in this age of too much communications in the social media where everything is exposed, we hardly notice the best and nicest things in life happening in silence, mostly in hiddenness.

And the saddest part of this present reality is that it is God whom we miss in this “overexposures” we have in social media because he always comes to us hidden in the most ordinary and simple things in life.

Yesterday St. Joseph taught us the need to value silence and stillness in the Lord as an important lesson in facing life’s many adversarial situations.

Today we hear Zechariah forcibly silenced to experience the Lord’s power and grace, his very presence in fact.

An inside section of the remaining Walls of Jerusalem. Photo by author, May 2019.

God’s presence hidden in our time and space

Advent is the season that reminds us that God comes to us always hidden in our very time and space. Unless we know how to be silent and simple, we shall never experience the Divine presence that has covered the whole world ever since.

Of the four evangelists, St. Luke is the only one who claims to have “investigated everything accurately” about the life and teachings of Jesus Christ (Lk.1:3). That is why he has the most stories and details about Christmas.

For St. Luke, Christmas begins with the coming of St. John the Baptizer, Jesus Christ’s precursor. In a very unique manner, he tells us how God’s presence came through a husband and wife yearning so much to have a child of their own, Zechariah and Elizabeth, both belonging to the upper crust of the Jewish society having descended from the priestly families.

In fact, Zechariah was a priest who was so blessed that Day of Atonement known as the Yom Kippur of the Jews that happens around September 18-24. (That is how we come to celebrate Christmas on December 25: Elizabeth conceived John in September, giving birth to him in June 24; tomorrow, we shall hear in the Annunciation to Mary that Elizabeth was six months pregnant which falls on March 24. Simple math, we arrive at December 25 as Christ’s birthdate.)

Praying at the Wall, May 2019.

During the Yom Kippur, priests drew lots on who would incense the Holy of Holies where the “Ark of the Covenant” was kept containing the stone tablets of God’s commandments given to Moses. It was the closest thing they have as signs of God’s presence among them. Hence, until now they venerate and pray at the “wailing Wall” of Jerusalem because that is supposed to be the only remaining structure of their temple destroyed in 70 AD closest to that part of the Holy of Holies.

It was so rare at that time to be assigned to incense the Holy of Holies because there were so many priests drawing lots and only one would be chosen for the rite that happens about twice daily for the whole week. It was a tremendous blessing indeed to be chosen to incense the Holy of Holies.

Here we find St. Luke setting the stage of his Christmas story to remind us all that God comes right into our time and space, in our history, in our here and now.

See his descriptions:

  1. It happened in a specific time during during “the days of Herod, King of Judea”, when Zechariah was “chosen by lot to enter the sanctuary of the Lord to burn incense” while people were outside praying and waiting.
  2. It happened in a specific place, the temple of Jerusalem.
  3. Most of all, it happened to real people, “Zechariah of the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was from the daughters of Aaron.”
A view from the Walls of Jerusalem of the Jewish section; dome is the Moslem section, Mount of Olives at the background. Photo by author, May 2017.

The Presence of God, the Absence of Man

When we are deeply hurt and disappointed, we are usually less rational. Worst, although we try to keep our faith alive, that is also when we doubt God, refusing to recognize his presence among us, and even right in us.

In this story of the annunciation of the birth of John the Baptizer, we find God giving Zechariah the tremendous grace to approach his Divine presence by having the rare opportunity to incense the Holy of Holies.

Most of all, at their most important feast when priests gather in the temple to pray for the people and for their personal intentions, God sent Zechariah the angel Gabriel to personally tell him his and Elizabeth’s prayers have been heard and granted!

But what happened? Zechariah doubted, even questioned God!

“How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.”

Luke 1:18

That’s the problem with us: God is always present but we are always absent that we never meet him. And every time he comes to visit us, we are so busy with so many other things.

If we cannot see and experience God in the most ordinary things and events in our lives, nothing would be enough to convince us of his love and mercy, of his presence and power.

That is why Zechariah was silenced by the angel, who, by the way, is already the presence of God yet Zechariah doubted.

This remaining week before Christmas, let us try to have some silence, or better, let us create a space for silence and solitude to experience God’s loving presence among us, in us.

It is only in silence where we can truly learn how to trust and be intimate with God and with our loved ones because it is only in silence where we can dare to open our selves to God and to others.

Let “the spirit of the Lord stir” you like Samson in the first reading (Jgs.13:25) this Christmas by creating silent moments with Jesus. Amen.

Advent is seeking, seeing Jesus

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Friday, Advent Week-II, Memorial of St. Lucy, 13 December 2019

Isaiah 48:17-19 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Matthew 11:16-19

The eagle symbolizing our Parish Patron St. John Evangelist, Advent 2018.

Thank you very much Lord Jesus Christ for never giving up on us. You sound so exasperated in our gospel today at how so “slow” we have become in recognizing and believing you but you never lost your cool.

Please continue to open our minds and our hearts to realize you have come, you are coming and you are always with us.

Forgive us Lord when we are so concerned with the mundane things, the shallow concerns we are so preoccupied with forgetting the more crucial of recognizing your presence and your works among us.

Jesus said to the crowds: “To what shall I compare this generation? It is like children who sit in marketplaces and call to one another, ‘We played the flute for you, but you did not dance, we sang a dirge but you did not mourn.’ For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they said, ‘He is possessed by a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking and they said, ‘Look, he is a glutton and drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But wisdom is vindicated by her works.

Matthew 11:16-19

Grant us Lord Jesus Christ the gifts of silence and wisdom, of “masticating” always your words so we can be properly guided in answering your call and mission.

Give us the grace to see things as they are, to set aside our many biases and visions of things to come so we can be contented with what we are having, of what God has provided us with.

Let us heed your words and work faithfully for their fulfillment in us and through us.

Thus says the Lord, your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I, the Lord, your God, teach you what is for your good, and lead you on the way you should go. If you hearken my to my commandments, your prosperity will be like a river, and your vindication like waves of the sea; your descendants would be like the sand, and those born of your stock like its grains, their name never cut off or blotted out from my presence.

Isaiah 48:17-19

Give us O Lord, the courage to be different, to make a difference for Jesus Christ by opening our eyes of faith so we may always seek you, see you, and follow you.

Saint Lucy, patroness of diseases of the eyes, heal our many blindness to be focused in Jesus alone. Amen.

Photo by Noelle Otto on Pexels.com

Advent is looking forward

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Friday, Advent Week-I, 06 December 2019

Isaiah 29:17-24 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Matthew 9:27-31

Advent in our parish, 2019.

Time flies so fast, O Lord, and we are almost over with the first week of Advent! How reassuring are your words today especially in the first reading of the wonderful things coming soon, in fact happening now in Jesus Christ’s coming.

Thus says the Lord God: but a very little while, and Lebanon shall be changed into an orchard, and the orchard be regarded as a forest! On that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book; and out of gloom and darkness, the eyes of the blind shall see. The lowly will ever find joy in the Lord, and the poor rejoice in the Holy One of Israel…

Isaiah 29:17-19

I know, Lord, and yes, I can see clearly now that great things are coming for us who faithfully await your coming. There shall be joy and justice, healing and consolation for those who suffer and cry.

Keep our eyes opened, remove our blindness to see the more essential things in life especially you so we may always experience your presence, your coming. Amen.

Staying in the house of the Lord

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Thursday, Advent Week-I, 05 December 2019

Isaiah 26:1-6 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Matthew 7:21, 24-27

Chandelier of the Malolos Cathedral, 04 December 2019.

Let me stay in your “house”, O Lord, and help me keep your house rules, too. I am sorry when most of the time I simply want to rest and drop by your “house” with no plans of really living there, of listening to your words and doing your will.

Jesus said to his disciples: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.”

Matthew 7:21

Forgive me Lord when I have become so complacent as your disciple, as a Christian, relying solely on my name and affiliation with you without working so hard to be like you.

Help me to be holy like God our Father, listening to your words intently and faithfully acting on it at all time so that I may be wise and most of all, be filled with your peace:

A nation of firm purpose you keep in peace; in peace, for its trust in you. Trust in the Lord forever! For the Lord is an eternal Rock!

Isaiah 26:3-4

So many times, Lord Jesus, we take you for granted… just like the people in our own homes. But when things go wrong, they are the only people we can count on to receive us, to love us, and to forgive us. Very much like you, Jesus.

May this Season of Advent make us more open to you not only to receive you but also to keep you. Amen.

Petra in Jordan, May 2019.

Joy to the world

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Wednesday, Advent Week I, 04 December 2019

Isaiah 25:6-10 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Matthew 15:29-37

The Manor House, Camp John Hay, Baguio City, 2017.

Praise and glory to you, O Lord Jesus Christ for coming to us, in fulfilling our lives, in making our joy complete. Unfortunately, no one seem to be waiting for you or worst, we live as if you have not come at all.

How sad, O Lord, that often even if we are so excited with Christmas, it does not necessarily mean we are excited of you as a person coming to us. Even if we love to sing and hear that carol “Joy to the World”, we are not really joyful because our hearts are far from you.

Forgive us, Jesus, in being focused with time and dates, than with your person and with your coming.

The more we get focused with dates and gifts and carols and other trimmings of Christmas, the less we think of you and of others too.

Open our hearts to receive you in us.

On that day it will be said: “Behold our God, to whom we looked to save us! This is the Lord for whom we looked; let us rejoice and be glad that he has saved us!” For the hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain.

Isaiah 25:9-10

Open our hearts to you, Jesus, that you are more than enough than anything we could wish for.

Make us desire more of you than of things so we may always have an abundance of you as our “bread” or everything in this life. Amen.

Loving shades of God

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Monday, Advent Week I, 02 December 2019

Isaiah 4:2-6 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Matthew 8:5-11

Sunrise at the Lake of Galilee, the Holy Land, 2017.

O God our loving Father, who among is truly worthy to receive you under our roofs?

Who among us is truly worthy of receiving you in our sinful selves?

No one, O dear God!

Yet, you still sent us your only Son Jesus Christ to live among us, to dwell among us sinners so that unworthy as we are, we may be worthy to receive him.

Just say the word, Lord, like with the centurion’s request to you in today’s gospel.

Cleanse us, our minds, our lips, and our hearts so that we may be worthy to receive you into our lives in your daily coming. Most especially in your Second Coming, Lord Jesus.

Unworthy as we are, let us come to you with clean hearts and receive you Jesus in your sacred banquet of the Holy Eucharist, the foretaste of that banquet in the Kingdom of heaven.

For over all, the Lord’s glory will be shelter and protection; shade from the parching heat of day, refuge and cover from storm and rain.

Isaiah 4:6

Come, Lord Jesus! Amen.

Trees at the Sacred Heart Novitiate in Novaliches, Quezon City, 2017.

Jesus in our destructive world

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Thursday, Week XXXIV, Year I, 28 November 2019

Daniel 6:12-28 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Luke 21:20-28

Red Wednesday 2019 at our Parish.

Thank you very much Lord Jesus Christ for making us remember our persecuted brothers and sisters in faith at last night’s “Red Wednesday” celebrations.

One of the lasting impressions it had left me is the sight of those lighted candles amid the darkness and the red light that bathed our churches.

Keep our eyes open, Lord, like the Prophet Daniel who tried to find you even inside the lions’ den.

Make us realize that we belong to you and would always be safe with you even in this world full of destruction and troubles like a lion’s den.

Let us live in constant communion with you, Jesus, so that we may always find you, trust you, and rest in you amid the many turmoils that happen daily in our lives in this crazy world.

Give us the grace of being one those blessed people who would find you coming in time of our trials and tribulations.

“And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. But when these signs begin to happen, stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand.”

Luke 21:27-28

Come, Lord Jesus! Amen. Amen.

Living in the present

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Tuesday, Week XXXIV, Year I, 26 November 2019

Daniel 2:31-45 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Luke 21:5-11

It is again the approaching end of the month, end of the year, Lord. Everybody is talking about the coming ultimate end of the world, the apocalypse, with or without you, O God our mighty Father.

How funny that we spend so much time thinking about the end of the world, so fascinated with predictions and doomsday scenarios forgetting the present moment and most especially you, O God.

Pagans and Christians alike entertain it because deep within ourselves is the reality that everything comes to an end for that is our orientation and direction. if we have you in our sights.

Open our eyes, O Lord, like Daniel in the first reading to see that only you shall remain in the end: everything and everyone, no matter how powerful and greatly endowed with power will ever remain in control of everything. Worst, even those we tend to ignore as so little and so small in stature could one day topple us!

Likewise, widen our horizons, Lord, and let us not be so fixed with certainties like dates and signs on the coming end. May we always see everything in your light, Jesus Christ, so that we may always see every here and now as your coming.

Most of all, let us keep in mind that your coming is always the end of our old selves and the beginning of a new person in you. Amen.