Category: saints

Befriending Jesus

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Tuesday, Memorial of St. Teresa of Avila, 15 October 2019

Romans 1:16-25 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Luke 11:37-41

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

“If Christ Jesus dwells in a man as his friend and noble leader, that man can endure all things, for Christ helps and strengthens us and never abandon us. He is a true friend.

Many, many times I have perceived this through experience. The Lord has told it to me. I have definitely seen that we must enter by this gate if we wish his Sovereign Majesty to reveal to us great and hidden mysteries. A person should desire no other path, even if he is at the summit of contemplation… All blessings come to us through our Lord. He will teach us, for in beholding his life we find that he is the best example.

St. Teresa of Avila, from the Breviary

Many times in our lives we have always believed that holiness is just for a few people you have chosen, O God. We feel excluded from holiness, from being a saint.

Because we refuse to try to get near you, doubting you despite our belief in you as God!

“For what can be known about God is evident to them, because God made it evident to them.

They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and revered and worshipped the creature rather than the creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.”

Romans 1:19, 25

Sometimes we have tried befriending you through Jesus Christ your Son.

And like the saints, we have indeed experienced your presence, your reality, your blessedness but unfortunately we stopped striving further as St. Teresa tells us.

O dear Jesus, you always come to me, you always make me experience you but I always try explaining everything, letting my mind work more than my heart and soul that I fail to feel and experience you inside me like those Pharisees bent on finding faults in you.

Give me the grace to be silent and still in you, to wait for you as a friend full of love and trust like St. Teresa of Avila. Amen.

Prayer for those persecuted

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Friday, Memorial of St. Pope John XXIII, 11 October 2019

Joel 1:13-15; 2:1-2 ><}}}*> <*{{{>< Luke 11:15-26

Photo by author, Holy Family Chapel, Sacred Heart Novitiate in Novaliches, 2016.

Dearest Lord Jesus Christ:

Today I thank you for consoling those persecuted when in the gospel episode after you have driven out a demon, some of the crowd said:

“By the power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons, he drives out demons.”

Luke 11:15

Very consoling, Lord, because despite your exercise of divine power, some people still maligned you, accusing you of working with the devil?!

How could we not feel consoled when we have done nothing that can be compared close to your exorcism and yet we are also falsely accused of so many things?

I really wonder, Lord Jesus, what evil had possessed so many among us that they can fabricate so many lies, insist on their myopic views of things and events, and totally disregard the truth without any qualms at all?

From cbcpnews.net

From the ordinary verbal rumours spread by backstabbers daily everywhere to cyberbullying by trolls to spurious whistleblowers and state officials silencing those standing for what is true and just, more and more people are persecuted like you.

It is very disheartening, Lord, and we have no one to turn to except you whom the psalmist describes as the one who “would judge the world with justice”.

“Gird our loins, Lord, as we weep” (Joel 1:13), trying to bear these persecutions in your name. Help us to persevere for we know “the day of the Lord is coming” (Joel 2:1).

Through the intercession of St. John XXIII who helped so many Jews persecuted during World War II and called for world peace (Pacem in Terris) when he became the Pope in 1958, we pray in the most special way for those persecuted in our country especially our Bishops and priests, as well as professionals like doctors and teachers silently serving your flock.

Keep them close to your heart, Jesus, because you told us

“Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me.”

Matthew 5:10-11

St. Pope John XXIII, pray for us. Amen.

From Google.

Ang mabuting balita ng karukhaan

Lawiswis ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 04 Oktubre 2019

Mula sa Be Like Francis Page sa Facebook.
Minsan daw ay nagimbal
kaibigang Kardinal ni San Francicso
na banal 
nang kanyang malaman
dukha nilang pamumuhay
na sa kanyang palagay
labis na kahirapan hindi naman
dapat nilang pagdaanan.
Katuwirang ipinaliwanag
ni San Francisco kay Kardinal Hugolino
kay gandang pagnilayan 
sa malalim nitong kahulugan:
"kung tayo'y maraming kayamanan,"
aniya ng ating banal
"kakailangan din natin mga sandata 
upang mga ito'y ipaglaban at pangalagaan." 
Sa kanyang isipan 
at banal na kalooban,  
ang pag-ibig ay namamatay 
kapag tao'y nagkamal maraming ari-arian;
hanapin kanyang paliwanag
kung masasagot kanyang mga katanungan 
na tila bugtong di lamang sa isipan
kungdi pati na rin sa puso at kalooban:
"Mapagnanakawan mo ba
na tao na walang ano man?
Maari mo bang gutumin 
ang nag-aayuno?
Mayroon ka bang sisirain
sa taong namumuhi
sa parangal at pagkilala?
Ano nga ba magagawa sa taong aba at dukha?"
Para kay San Francisco
ang mga dukha ang tunay na malaya
kayang ipaubaya lahat
pati sarili sa Bathala
upang makagawa 
ng kabutihan sa kapwa
na siyang simula ng ating kapatiran 
at ugnayan pati sa kalikasan.
Mula sa Reuters.
Sa ating panahon ngayon
karukhaan ay pinag-uusapan 
batay sa kawalan 
ng ari-arian na kabaligtaran
ng kung ano mayroon 
ang mayayaman na kadalasan 
mga bagay nabibilang 
at nabibili gaya ng kapangyarihan. 
Ngunit kung ating pagninilayan
ano mang mayroon ang mayaman
ay wala pa rin o "NOTHING"
kung Inglesin natin
dahil ang higit na mahahalaga
ay hindi nakikita 
ni nabibili o nabibilang 
gaya ng pera at iba pang kayamanan.
Gayun din naman
hindi masasabi ng sino man
na siya ay dukha
at "walang wala" ika nga
dahil kung tutuusin natin
ang lahat ay palaging mayroon pa rin
o "SOMETHING" 
kung Inglesin din natin.
Harinawa'y mapagtanto natin
sa pagdiriwang ng kapistahan
ni San Francisco na butihin
ito mismong buhay natin
ay dakilang kayamanan 
na dapat ipagpasalamat natin
sa karukhaan ng loobing maialay 
gaya ng Panginoon Hesus natin.
Ang Krus ng kapilya ng San Damiano na isinaayos ni San Francisco batay sa tinig na kanyang narinig habang nananalangin doon. 


	


	



			
				


			

			
To listen like St. Francis of Assisi
		
	
	

		

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul





Friday, Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, 04 October 2019





Baruch 1:15-22  ><)))*> 0 <*(((><   Luke 10:13-16





One of the scenes from Benozzo Gozzoli’s series of frescoes from the life of St. Francis (1450) that captures the saint’s “Sermon to the Birds” and the dedication of his basilica at Assisi.  Photo from Google.





Praise and glory to you, Lord God our loving Father for this week about to close with the celebration of another great saint, Francis of Assisi.





Two things I wish to thank you in giving us St. Francis of Assisi.





First is his total dedication in listening to you alone.  





St. Francis accomplished so much for you and had so much impact not only to the Church but for the whole world until now because he intently listened to your voice, to your calls, and to your instructions.










It does not really matter if he got your words literally or figuratively speaking like when he was praying inside San Damiano chapel and heard your voice saying, “Go, Francis, and repair my house, which you see, is falling into ruins.”





Or, when St. Francis finally found his vocation in life after listening to Matthew 10:9 in the Mass and felt you Jesus speaking directly to him to go preach the kingdom of God without extra clothes and money that right after that, he threw everything away to preach penance, brotherly love, and peace.





How ironic that in this world of modern means of communications, the more we have become fragmented than ever because we have lost the values of silence, prayer and listening to self, others, and you, O Lord.





Jesus said to them, “Whoever listens to you listens to me.  Whoever rejects you rejects me.  And whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.”
Luke 10:16





Teach us, dear Jesus to be poor and empty like St. Francis so we may always open our ears and our hearts to seek your voice, to listen to your words, and most of all, to follow your will.





From Be Like Francis at Facebook.





Second thing I am so grateful with you Lord in giving us St. Francis is his deep sense of gratitude to you that he was able to see our universal brotherhood in you God our Father.





Did he really preach to hundreds of birds and told them to be thankful to you dear God for their freedom and for your care to them?  I believe it must be true because where there is gratitude, there comes peace and serenity that attract than dispel people and animals alike.





Teach us to be grateful with whatever we have, Lord because the moment we learn to thank you and anyone here on earth, then we we realize our being one.  In his gratitude for your wonderful gifts to him, St. Francis not only embraced you Jesus on the Cross but also saw everyone as family with brother Sun and sister Moon, brother Wind and sister Water.  And even cousin Death.





Again, O Lord, in this age of affluence, the more we feel empty and lacking as we tend to acquire more of material things.  Teach us to repent for our sins like St. Francis and Baruch in the first reading, to acknowledge everything we have including our sins.





It is only in being thankful that we are able to realize who truly reigns in us like St. Francis.  Amen.









	


	



			
				


			

			
Hope for our difficult personality
		
	
	

		

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul





Monday, Memorial of St. Jerome, 30 September 2019





Zechariah 8:1-8  ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*>  Luke 9:46-50





St. Jerome painting by El Greco portrayed as wearing the Cardinal’s robe to represent his highly esteemed works and contributions to the Church as one of the Four Western Fathers along with St. Augustine, St. Ambrose of Milan, and St. Gregory the Great.  Photo from Google.





Praise and glory to you, God our loving Father!  Thank you very much for giving us saints, men and women like us who were sinners with so many weaknesses but through your grace were able to lead holy lives.





Through your saints, you give us so much hope to be become better persons despite our many imperfections like our great Doctor of the Church, St. Jerome, the Father of Catholic biblical studies who immersed himself in the study and prayer of the Sacred Writings right in the Holy Land.





Considered as one of the great theologians of the Church, St. Jerome is said to be approachable but notorious for being a difficult person too due to his temper as well as sarcasm and being argumentative at times.





I confess, O God, that I am exactly the opposite of the kind of person Jesus Christ is telling us to be like – a child.  Instead of being childlike, many times I have become childish, difficult to handle with my burst of temper and sometimes annoying sarcasm.





Like St. Jerome, fill me with your grace, with courage and willpower to conquer my irascibility and direct all my negative energies in pursuing you in prayers and good works.





Help me to follow St. Jerome in his call to “let us translate the words of the Scriptures into deeds.”





Fill me with your words, O Lord, cleanse me of my sins and iniquities so that your Holy Spirit may dwell in me, suffuse me with your holiness.  Amen. 





My favorite depiction of St. Jerome by Italian painter Antonello da Messina (c.1430-79), “St. Jerome in his Study.”  Again, we see St. Jerome in red robe and hat like a Cardinal at his study desk with his faithful lion in the background which tradition says he had helped in the forest by removing a thorn in its paw.  At the foreground are two birds:  a peacock which is an ancient Christian symbol of eternal life that our saint meditated often (reason why he always has a skull in other paintings), and a partridge, a reference to St. Jerome’s notorious temper as the bird often represents jealous rage.  Photo from Google. 

	


	



			
				


			

			
Prayer for our co-workers in the Church
		
	
	

		

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul





Saturday, Memorial of St. Lorenzo Ruiz and Companions, 28 September 2019





Zechariah 2:5-9, 14-15  ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*>  Luke 9:43-45





From Google.





Today, O God our loving Father, we praise and thank you for the gift of our first Filipino saint, San Lorenzo Ruiz along with his companions martyred in Japan on this day in 1637.





What a great blessing too, dear Father, that our first saint is a layman, someone we need these days to look up to and follow your universal call to holiness.  





Bless our lay people who make up most of our faithful who are also our most essential co-workers in your vineyard, Lord.





We need them so much in this world that has become very secularized.





Restore their faith not only to you O God but also to us your priests, their priests and teachers and guides to you.  May the lay people be faithful to your teachings through the Church they now question in the name of progress and liberalism.





Like San Lorenzo Ruiz, may the faithful trust again their priests and bishops despite the scandals that continue to rock our wounded Church.





What a beautiful sight to behold the martyrdom of San Lorenzo Ruiz with other fellow lay faithful and Dominican priests who all comprise the Body of Christ, the Church.  In them were fulfilled your words to the prophet:





“People will live in Jerusalem as though in an open country, because of the multitude of men and beasts in her midst.  But I will be for her an encircling wall of fire, says the Lord, and I will be the glory in her midst.”
Zechariah 2:8-9





May we all trust you, O Lord, especially in this time of varied forms of persecution against the Catholic Church here and abroad.  May we have the courage of San Lorenzo Ruiz and companions to suffer with you, and to suffer for you.  Amen.

	


	



			
				


			

			
The gift of poverty
		
	
	

		

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul





Friday, Memorial of St. Vincent de Paul, 27 September 2019





Haggai 2:1-9  ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*>  Luke 9:18-22 





“Hapag ng Pag-Asa” painting by the late Joey Velasco.  From Google.





Dearest Lord Jesus Christ:





Thank you for coming to us poor, for giving us the poor.  But, tragically many times we have refused to see you among the poor.





On this feast of St. Vincent de Paul who faithfully and lovingly served you among the poor, we pray for the same gift of seeing you and loving you among the poor.





“It is our duty to prefer the service of the poor to everything else and to offer such service as quickly as possible… this very service is performed for God.  Charity is certainly greater than any rule.  Moreover, all rules must lead to charity.”
St. Vincent de Paul, from the Breviary





In the first reading from Haggai today, your people the Israelites were so poor with literally nothing left to rebuild your temple in Jerusalem.  What a gift for them to still see you among the ruins, in their poverty feeling your “spirit in their midst” assuring them with your “peace in the temple to be rebuilt” (Hag. 2:5, 9).





Empty us of our pride, let us appreciate and embrace the poverty within us like Simon Peter and all the saints like St. Vincent de Paul that we may boldly proclaim you are the “Christ of God” (Lk. 9:20) not only in words but also in deeds.  Amen.






	


	



			
				


			

			
Praying like San Padre Pio
		
	
	

		

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul





Monday, Feast of St. Padre Pio, 23 September 2019





Ezra 1:1-6  ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*>  Luke 8:16-18





Chapel of San Padre Pio at San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy.  Photo by Arch. Philip Santiago, 2017.





Praise and glory to you, O Lord our God and almighty Father!  You never cease to amaze us, doing great marvels for us your people.  Despite our sins, you always make yourself present among us in so many ways.





In the first reading from Ezra, you have used the pagan king of Persia, Cyrus, to be the instrument in fulfilling your promise to Israel to bring them back home from their Babylonian exile.





In our modern time, you have sent us San Padre Pio to prove and show to us that worrying is useless in this age when we believe and rely more with science and technology than with you, a loving and personal God who had come to us in Jesus Christ.





Teach us to be like San Padre Pio to “pray, hope and not worry” by embracing Christ crucified, by bearing all the pains and sufferings in love contrary to the ways of the world seeking power, wealth, fame, and pleasures.





From Google.





May we befriend silence and prayer than the noise of the world; may we persevere in patiently waiting for you than be in the foolish “rat race” with no winner at all; and, may we believe in things we cannot see with our eyes contrary the modern dictum to see is to believe.





Give us the courage of San Padre Pio to bring out your light, Lord, especially at this time when people claiming to be liberal and progressive are calling for so many rights that are outrightly wrong, destroying the human person, family, and society.





May our hands bear the wounds of your crucifixion, Lord Jesus, like San Padre Pio in praying to you and serving you through those most in need.  Amen. 

	


	



			
				


			

			
Confessing Jesus Christ
		
	
	

		

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul





Feast of St. Andrew Kim Taegon and Companion Martyrs, 20 September 2019





1 Timothy 6:2-12  ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*>  Luke 8:1-3





St. Andrew Kim Taegon, first Korean priest with his lay associate St. Paul Chong Hasan with 113 other Koreans died as martyrs between 1839 and 1867.





Thank you very much Lord Jesus for this wonderful Friday… not because it is the end of another week of work and studies but most of all, to remind us in this modern time how we must still confess our faith in you with the feast of the first Korean martyrs led by their first native-born priest St. Andrew Kim Taegon and his lay associate St. Paul Chong Hasan.





Every time we think of Korea, first things that come to our minds are their modern technologies and their very hip K-Pop culture.





How beautiful to reflect that deep in their modernity are the blood spilled and values instilled by their early Christians who have truly followed St. Paul’s admonition to St. Timothy.





But you, man of God, avoid all this.  Instead, pursue righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience, and gentleness.  Compete well for the faith.  Lay hold of eternal life, to which you were called when you made the noble confession in the presence of many witnesses.
1 Timothy 6:11-12





Amid the modern life we now have, remind us always Lord like St. Paul that our fulfillment lies in you alone who is coming back again at the end of time.  As we await for your return, may we live out our faith in you amid the changing times, always holding on to things of the above and eternal that never change and shall remain the same.





Like your women companion in your ministry, teach us Jesus to remain simple in following you without much fanfare and pomp pageantry.  Amen.





Photo by James Lucian on Pexels.com

	


	



			
				


			

			
The grudges that fester within us
		
	
	

		

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul





Thursday, Passion of John the Baptist, 29 August 2019





Jeremiah 1:17-19  ><}}}*> ><}}}*> ><}}}*>  Mark 6:17-29





Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com





Today, O Lord, I pray for my hardening heart.  I have a festering anger deep in my heart against some people who have hurt me.  And I am harboring a grudge against them like Herodias, the mistress of Herod.





Herodias harbored a grudge against John the Baptist and wanted to kill him but was unable to do so.  She had an opportunity one day when Herod, on his birthday, gave a banquet for is courtiers, his military officers, and the leading men of Galilee.  Herodias’s own daughter came in and performed a dance that delighted Herod and his guests.  The king said to the girl, “Ask of me whatever you wish and I will grant it to you.”  So she went out and said to her mother, “What shall I ask for?”  She replied, “The head of John the Baptist.”
Mark 6:19, 21-22, 24





What is so shameful, O Lord, like Herodias, I want to have the heads of those people.  I want to get even with the pains they have inflicted against me.  I want revenge.





But more shameful, Lord Jesus, is, unlike Herodias, I have not done anything wrong against these people.  And no amount of pain can justify my grudge, my anger, my hatred against them.  





This is what makes it more painful with me:  the festering anger in my heart is slowly poisoning my soul, my very being.





Teach me, Jesus, to bear all pains like John the Baptist, suffering for you, suffering with you.





Give me the courage and strength to “gird my loin” as you told the Prophet Jeremiah so I may be able to control myself and be on guard against becoming like Herodias or, worst, Herod, who beheaded John in prison.





Let me rise above my instincts and feelings to be not like the evil doers and fake people who fight and malign me  because you have assured me that they will never prevail over me, that you will deliver me for you are always with me.  Amen. 





“The Severed Head of John the Baptist”, a sculpture by the French artist Auguste Rodin in 1875.  This is probably a representation of a guillotined criminal’s head during that time.  From Google.