Category: Virgin Mary

Transforming presence of God

The Lord Is My Chef Simbang Gabi Recipe, 20 December 2019

Isaiah 7:10-14 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Luke 1:26-38

Manor House, Camp John Hay, December 2017. Photo by author.

One reason Christmas is the most favorite time of the year is its colors. From houses to malls and almost every building, one can find a spectacular display of different colors and lights that brighten everyone.

But everything changes when one enters the church.

Advent is so different. Color is violet near the deep blue shade to signify the importance of conversion and penance that lead into transformation while the colors of the world found in malls are about money and material things.

Our parish sanctuary area, Advent 2019.

God takes initiative

We have seen yesterday in St. Luke’s first Christmas story how God entered through human activities and history for the coming of Jesus Christ by first announcing the birth of his precursor, St. John the Baptizer.

But today, in his second Christmas story which is the Annunciation of the birth of Jesus to the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Lukes shows us how God is now acting on his own. Of course, God always takes the initiatives in life being the “prime mover”.

But in announcing the birth of Jesus, God went “out of his way” so to speak to bring us this tremendous grace of Christmas as he would always do in many instances in our lives.

In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary. And coming to her, he said, “Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with yo.” But she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus .”

Luke 1:26-31
Mosaic of the Annunciation to Mary at the Shrine of St. Padre Pio at Rotondo, Italy. Photo by Arch. Philip Santiago, 2018.

So different from yesterday’s story of the annunciation of the birth of John the Baptizer to Zechariah, let us see how God took the initiative in the annunciation in the birth of Jesus to Mary.

  1. Zechariah was a priest while Mary was a commoner. It was natural for God to work through his ministers but in choosing Mary an ordinary woman was something else not because of any special quality she had but simply because God is good. The angel clearly told this to Mary, “you have found favor with God”. God does not call the qualified but he qualifies the call!
  2. God used the setting of the Temple of Jerusalem in yesterday’s account because that is where he is supposed to dwell but today, everything happened in a very simple house in Nazareth, the only place of significance and importance in the New Testament never mentioned in the Old Testament. It was a place looked down upon by many like St. Bartholomew asking Philip, “can anyone good come from Nazareth?”
  3. There was a major feast going on, the Yom Kippur, with a lot of people present when Zechariah was informed of the birth of John; Mary was alone in her house when the angel came to announce to her the birth of Jesus on the six months after going to Zechariah.

Intense Presence of God and of Mary

Usually, as we have seen yesterday in the annunciation of the birth of John, God always acted in silence and hiddenness. He blends and flows with world history as well as with our own personal histories.

But, there are times even in our own experiences when God really pulls something extraordinary, a miracle to bless us, to save us.

That was the case in the Annunciation to Mary. God “freely acted on his own” for the good news to happen, regardless of whoever was the king of Judea or emperor of Rome. He set the stage and everything for the fulfillment of his plan of salvation for us.

And the very good thing here is we find a perfect congruence or an equilibrium wherein, God was intensely present and so was Mary.

In the annunciation of John’s birth, God was very much present answering the prayers of his parents but Zechariah was miserably absent, doubting the good news!

Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.

Luke 1:38

God is always coming to us in many instances and persons who come to our lives. Are we present to him?

Notice how she entered into a dialogue with the angel Gabriel in explaining how things would happen. She was so open and so absorbed too as if the Holy Spirit must have had a perfect landing on her that she became pregnant with Jesus!

It sounds funny but that was how it happened because tomorrow, we would hear St. Luke telling us how Mary hurriedly went off to see her cousin Elizabeth, meaning there was a transforming change that occurred in Mary right away!

And that is how God truly works – if we can be truly open like Mary with God’s intense presence, we can experience overnight conversion and transformation that we have heard experienced by many unbelievers, sinners, addicts of all kinds. All they could say was there was a very brief moment when they felt God so intensely present and boom! everything changed for the best.

Mary believed

Mary was not only open to God but most of all, she has always believed in him. See how St. Luke tells us after the Annunciation, “then the angel departed from her”, never to come again to inform her of special messages from God unlike St. Joseph.

After the Annunciation, Mary was left on her own in the sense that all she had was her firm faith in God through Jesus Christ her Son.

Mary believed in everything that was spoken to her! It was all she had up to the foot of the Cross when Christ died, when she waited with the apostles in Jerusalem for the Pentecost and in all her other apparitions later. She has always believed in Jesus her Son.

Today, we complain a lot of people no longer believing in God, leaving the Church, refusing to pray and celebrate the sacraments.

Perhaps it is about time for us to ask our very selves too, especially us your priests and pastors as well as the parents: do we truly believe what we are doing, what we are practicing as Catholics?

It is always easy to say we believe in God like King Ahaz in the first reading who refused to ask God for signs that Israel would be delivered from the advancing Babylonians.

It was merely a “show” because Ahaz had already entered into alliance with small kingdoms to fight the Babylonian invaders. He had never believed God or his Prophet Isaiah; hence, Israel was conquered and crushed as a nation, thrown into exile in Babylon for a long time.

A Filipino painting of the Annunciation to Mary on a wall facing the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth. Photo by author May 2017.

God’s power and his intense presence can only work in proportion with the faith we have. This is what Jesus had told the apostles when they asked him to “increase their faith”: “If you have the faith the size of a mustard seed, you would say to the mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and panted in the sea,’ and it would obey you” (Lk.17:5-6).

In another instance, the apostles failed to cast away the demon possessing the son of a certain man. After Jesus had driven away the evil spirit, his apostles came to him in private to ask, “Why could we not cast it out? And Jesus said to them, ‘Because of your little faith'” (Mt.17:19).

Like Mary, let us believe wholly to God by giving our whole selves to him. Let us create a room in ourselves for God so he can be present in us and transform us like Mary. Amen.

Believing like Mary

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Monday, Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, 09 December 2019

Genesis 3:9-15, 20 ><}}}*> Ephesians 1:3-6, 11-12 ><}}}*> Luke 1:26-38

Every year, O Lord Jesus Christ, we celebrate on your birth month the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of your Most Blessed Mother Mary who was conceived without the stain of original sin.

Until now, many are still confused with this feast especially when our Gospel speaks about the annunciation of your birth, dear Jesus.

Nonetheless, it is the single most important part of your lives both that truly give us a valuable lesson about Mary’s blessedness – later to be expressed by Elizabeth at the visitation, “Blessed is she who believed that the words spoken to hear will be fulfilled”.

Her Immaculate Conception teaches us the importance of faith especially at this time when we face a great crisis in faith in the Church.

And so, we pray to you O Lord for the gift of faith like that of your Mother Mary, a faith that is deeply personal yet communal.

The first is subjective and the second is objective.

Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.

Luke 1:38
Malolos Cathedral, June 2019.

Unlike Eve in the first reading, Mary had always believed in God.

Her faith is a total entrusting of herself to God on a person-to-person relationship. It is subjective faith where emphasis is on believing itself than on what is believed.

However, Mary did not believe in a purely subjective manner as if God is a personal God detached from others and exclusively revealing only himself to her in secret.

Mary’s faith is also objective because when the angel explained everything to her, she believed the good news proclaimed to her is part of the bigger whole, of the coming new covenant, of the fulfillment of the promise of God made to Abraham and the fathers of Israel as she would later express in her Magnificat.

It is only in believing like Mary can we truly give ourselves to you, Jesus, to the Church so that what we believe may truly be fulfilled in us like Mary. Amen.

Malolos Cathedral, June 2019.

Going out of our families and friends

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Thursday, Memorial of the Presentation of Mary to the Temple, 21 November 2019

Zechariah 2:14-17 ><)))*> <*(((>< Matthew 12:46-50

Feast of the Presentation of Mary at the Temple originated from the Eastern Church where it is known as “The Introduction of the Theotokos (Mother of God) to the Temple”. Photo from Google.

Dearest Lord Jesus Christ:

As we celebrate the memorial of your Mother Mary’s presentation at the Temple, I am deeply struck by the gospel scene for this feast.

Someone told Jesus, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, asking to speak with you.” But he said in reply to the one who told him, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?” And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, and sister, and mother.”

Matthew 12:47-50

This is so striking to me, Lord because here you are asserting your authority outside your family circle. Here you are telling us of the need to eventually leave our family and friends in order to join you in your mission and journey.

It is very true that we find our first sense of belonging in our family and circle of friends but as we get older like you in Nazareth, our larger sense of belonging to God our Father can only happen when we break free from our family and friends.

Not because we do not love them but primarily because each of us has a calling and mission from you that must be followed and fulfilled. And to do so, we have to leave our family and friends in order to heed and follow your call, O Lord.

In this age of social media, there are some family and friends who get the wrong notion that belonging and possessing or ownership go together, that parents own their children, and friends own each other.

I pray for all parents to imitate St. Joachim and St. Anne who clearly knew they did not own Mary their daughter, that she is God’s that they have to offer her to him at the temple.

May we all grow into maturity that there comes a time when we have to leave our family and friends, even say “no” to them to be like you to freely say “yes” to the Father. Amen.

Betania Tagaytay, 2017.

Remembering Mary and our own mother on this month of Rosary

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Friday, Feast of St. Luke the Evangelist, 18 October 2019

2 Timothy 4:10-17 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Luke 10:1-9

From Google.

Lord Jesus Christ, on this feast of your Evangelist and Apostle St. Luke that falls in the month of the Holy Rosary, we remember your Mother and our Mother too, the Blessed Virgin Mary.

It is so edifying to learn that St. Luke did not only write a two-part series of your gospel but is also considered as the first iconographer of the Blessed Mother Mary.

Mother of Perpetual Help. Photo from Aleteia/Google.

How wonderful that there are four popular icons of Mary attributed to him: the Our Mother of Perpetual Help, the Our Lady of Czestochowa, the Our Lady of Vladimir, and the Salus Populi Romani or Mother of the Savior of the Roman People.

These are considered as the earliest icons of Mary and although there are not enough historical proofs to ascertain these traditions of whether St. Luke could have painted these icons or not, one thing clearly remains: St. Luke had a particular trait of the Blessed Mother of being faithful in Jesus Christ.

Our Lady of Czestochowa. Photo from Aleteia/Google.

St. Paul tells us in our first reading this wonderful distinction of St. Luke that is so similar with the Virgin Mary for being faithful and true to Jesus most especially during his darkest moments in life while there on the Cross. See how St. Paul narrated in the first reading his sad plight with no one else left to accompany him but St. Luke.

Our Lady of Vladimir. Photo from Aleteia/Google.

Beloved: Demas, enamored of the present world, deserted me and went to Thessalonica, Crescens to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia. Luke is the only one with me.

2 Timothy 4:10-11

Mary stayed at the foot of the Cross of Jesus Christ, remaining faithful and true to her Son and Lord. Like Mary, St. Luke stayed behind with St. Paul in prison.

Too often, O Lord, we feel like St. Paul, of being so alone and abandoned with no one to turn to in times of trials and sufferings.

Like that famous tune by the Beatles, we find solace in the warmth and love of our own mother who has become like Mother Mary to us. Paul McCartney admitted that those lines of their last famous song was inspired by his own mother and the Blessed Mother herself.

When I find myself in times of troubles

Mother Mary comes to me.

Speaking words of wisdom: Let it be.

Paul McCartney, “Let It Be”

Maybe, St. Luke must have developed that devotion and love for the Blessed Mother Mary from the great love he had experienced from his own mother who must had been so loving and merciful, faithful and simple in her ways.

Salus Populi Romani. From Aleteia/Google.

Most of all, in both his gospel and Acts of the Apostles accounts, St. Luke never failed to mention the important role Mary played in giving birth to Jesus and taking care of his infant community, the Church, after he had Ascended into heaven.

Mary has always been there, her presence inspiring the Apostles and early Christians to strive further in the mission of evangelization.

And so, we pray for all mothers, especially our own mother who taught us our first prayers, narrated our first stories from the Bible, and taught us as well as made us feel the immense love of Jesus for each one of us.

Behind every evangelist and missionary is always a faithful and loving mother like Mary. In response to calls by Jesus Christ to pray that the Master of harvest may send out more workers for his harvest, bless all mothers to ensure that children continue to experience the love of the Father for everyone.

Always misunderstood in her ways and concern for us, we pray for all mothers may have the strength and patience to stand by their children even in their old age. And when their final hour comes to leave this earth, we pray Lord Jesus that you make it peaceful as you grant them eternal rest with your Mother Mary. Amen.

St. Luke, pray for us to genuinely love our mother and the Blessed Mother Mary too!

Salamat po, Birhen ng Santo Rosario

Lawiswis ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 07 Oktubre 2019

Larawan ay kuha ni Rdo. P. Gerry Pascual sa Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Washington, DC, 09 Setyembre 2017 .
Maraming salamat,
mahal naming Ina,
Birheng Maria sa iyong pagsama 
sa amin tuwina
ngayong inaala-ala
iyong himala 
sa pakikipag-digma ng mga Kastila
sa Look ng Lepanto
dinarasal iyong Santo Rosario.
Kay sarap namnamin
damang-dama namin
sa bawat butil ng Rosario
pakikiisa mo sa amin
upang higit naming sundin
butihin mong anak 
at Panginoon namin
na siyang kapanatilihan
ng Diyos sa piling amin.
Dahil kay Kristo Hesus
na isinilang mo sa amin,
Panginoong Diyos naging kapiling namin
palaging dumarating 
maging sa gitna 
ng mga unos at sigwa 
nitong karagatan 
ng buhay namin
tumatawag para kami ay sagipin.
Mula sa panganib
ng karagatan at latian
hanggang sa katihan
kailanman ay hindi kami
iniwan ni Kristo Hesus
na iyong isinilang
upang kami ay pangunahan
pabalik sa aming tahanan
doon sa kalangitan ikaw ngayon nakapisan.
Maraming salamat
Mahal naming Ina 
Birheng Maria
nawa amin kang matularan
si Hesus ay masundan
sa nakakatakot na karagatan
at kapanatagan ng kapatagan
kanyang mukha sa ami'y mabanaagan
kami rin mismo maging misteryo ng iyong Santo Rosario.

God with us, Mary beside us

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Monday, Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary, 07 October 2019

Jonah 1:1-2:1-2.11 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Luke 10:25-37

Part of a painting in a church in Seville, Spain depicting the Battle of Lepanto Bay won through the intercession of Our Lady of the Rosary. From Google.

O God our loving Father, as we celebrate the memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary, you have assured us again through the readings of today of your abiding love and presence among us.

In the first reading, you remind us how you continue to call us and send us to many missions and tasks in life even if we often doubt and refuse to follow you like Jonas.

Sometimes, we have to wait for the storms to hit us in this sea of life before we can realize that indeed, you are calling us, that you do believe in us to entrust us with specific tasks and mission in life.

Photo by Mr. Raffy Tima, Batanes, 2018.

And yet, in the many turbulence in this sea of life we are into, you never fail to save us and assure us of your love and mercy like at the Battle of Lepanto Bay in 1571 when the Holy League of Christians crushed the much feared and powerful navy of the Ottoman Turks.

Thank you in giving us the Blessed Virgin Mary as our Mother too to calm our many fears while in the high seas of life.

On the other hand, you dare to challenge us dear God to find you and share you among the most needy of this long and perilous road of life in the Parable of the Good Samaritan.

From Google.

So often, we refuse to leave the security and comfort of our lives than cross the road to reach out to those in the margins left to die in sickness, hunger, and pain- alone.

Through the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Christ, may our eyes be opened, our faith be deepened to find and serve you Lord and Master in the storms of the high seas and in the security of the roads ahead us. Amen.

Jesus is the crown of Mary the Queen

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Queenship Of Mary, 22 August 2019

Isaiah 9:1-6 ><}}}*> ><}}}*> ><}}}*> Luke 1:39-47

“Coronation of Mary as Queen of Heaven” mosaic on the apse of St. Mary Major Basilica in Rome.

Lord Jesus Christ, thank you very much in sharing with us, in giving us your Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary. Thank you very much for being our King of Kings that we now have also a Blessed Queen.

Remind us always O Lord that her queenship is because of your Kingship!

We always forget that fact that have led us to almost worshipping her, even “crowning” her – episcopally or canonically?!

Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom there will be no end.”

Luke 1:30-33

Did the Father truly crowned Mary like our earthly queens?

Or, are you Jesus her crown that she has become your channel of grace?

Teach us to be like her always open to you, to always respond to your calls, and most of all, to act on your words.

Reign in our hearts and in our lives, Lord Jesus Christ so Mary your Mother may truly be our Queen of heaven and earth when you are our only crown of glory. Amen.

Mary’s song is our song too!

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Thursday, Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary, 15 August 2019

Revelations 11:19; 12:1-6, 10 >< )))*> 1 Corinthians 15:20-27 ><)))*> Luke 1:39-56

“Assumption of the Virgin” by Domenico Piola (1627-1703) at the Church of St. John the Baptist, Chiavari, Genoa, Italy. Photo from Google.

“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. For he has looked with favor on his lowly servant. From this day all generations will call me blessed; the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name.”

Luke 1:46-49

Glory and praise to you, O God our loving Father in giving us Jesus Christ through Mary – for without the Mother, there can be no Son.

On this Solemnity of her glorious Assumption into heaven body and soul, you remind us also of our blessedness like her, of her being your Divine Presence that she was able to sing the Magnificat.

Fill us with your Holy Spirit, Father. Let your Son Jesus reign in our hearts so we can boldly proclaim “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord”!

Let our lives proclaim your greatness, O God!

We were wrong, O Lord, we were so wrong when we thought that without you life could be greater and better for us. We were wrong when we thought in this age that disregarding you, O Lord, and your precepts like morality life can be better for us.

We were wrong, O Lord, to think, to believe, and to assert that we are the master of our own fate and destiny when we set you aside, assuming you are dead.

Why, despite all the affluence and comforts of modern world and all those liberal ideas that have swamped us, we are still lost and empty?

Because our body and soul are nothing without you!

On this Solemnity of her Assumption, teach us to empty ourselves of our pride and bloated ego, let us be humble before you and welcome you anew into our hearts, into our very selves.

Let us sing anew your greatness, O God with our body and soul in loving service with one another.

We pray also in a special way for our brothers and sisters who are sick, the elderly, and those with disabilities that they may realise their worth is not in being strong or complete or young, but in being alive, in being persons created in the image and likeness of God. May they persevere in their sufferings with eyes focused on that great gift that await us all like the Blessed Mother at the end of time with the “resurrection of body and life everlasting.” Amen.

Praying In Our Difficult Century

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Wednesday, Memorial of St. Maximilian Kolbe, 14 August 2019

Deuteronomy 34:1-12 >< )))*> >< )))*> Matthew 18:15-20

From Google.

My dear Lord Jesus,

Is it part of your grand design that this August which the pagans consider as “ghost month” is when we also celebrate the feasts of two great saints martyred at Auschwitz?

At a time when people thought you where absent, Lord, there was St. Benedicta Teresa dela Cruz (Edith Stein) witnessing to your presence in her works and courage when she offered her life to the gas chambers on August 09, 1942.

Today we remember the Polish Catholic priest St. Maximilian Kolbe who also died at Auschwitz a year earlier than her in 1941 when he volunteered to replace a married man who was rounded up for execution following the escape of a prisoner.

Like Moses in the first reading, you filled St. Maximilian with your radiance that prisoners and guards alike were stunned when he offered himself for the painful punishment.

His great love for you Jesus and deep devotion to your Blessed Mother kept him busy praying and comforting his fellow prisoners despite his frail health proving your words that “where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them” (Mt.18:20).

After surviving two weeks of starvation and hard labor, St. Maximilian cheerfully offered the executioner his arm for the lethal injection of carbolic acid and died instantly in your bountiful grace, O Lord.

Your servant St. John Paul II declared in his 1982 canonization that St. Maximilian Kolbe as the Patron Saint of our “difficult century” where a culture of death continues to prevail in the name of economic progress and a wrong understanding of freedom.

Give us the courage and enthusiasm of St. Maximilian Kolbe to uphold the value of every person and to fight erroneous beliefs that disregard and remove God and morality from life.

We also pray on this day of his feast for the drug addicts and political prisoners who, because of their situation and beliefs, are taken for granted as lesser beings by some may still accorded with equal respect and dignity. Amen.

From Google.

A painting of St. Maximilian Kolbe with his prison jacket number “16670”, holding two crowns with the prison jacket of Francis Gajowniczek, the married man he volunteered to replace after being rounded up for execution following the escape of another prisoner.

In a vision when he was 13 years old, the Blessed Mother appeared to St. Maximilian asking him to choose a crown. He chose both, white and red crowns as he promised to enter the seminary to become a priest. Unknown to him, the crowns would symbolise later his martyrdom.

A day after his execution his body was cremated on 15 August 1941, a date that would later be declared as the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary whom St. Maximilian loved so dearly. Likewise, it fulfilled his desire to immolate himself completely when he wrote, “I would like to use myself completely up in the service of the Immaculate, and to disappear without leaving a trace, as the winds carry my ashes to the far corners of the world.”

God makes all things new

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul
Monday, Feast of the Dedication of St. Mary Major, 05 August 2019
Revelation 21:1-5 >< )))*> <*((( >< Luke 11:27-28
Mural painting of Mary and Child Jesus at Monte Sant’ Angelo, Citta Longobarda, Italy. Photo by Arch. Philip Santiago. 2018.

Praise and glory to you, our loving Father in heaven for this new day, Feast of the Dedication of St. Mary Major, the first Marian Shrine and one of the Mother Churches in our eternal city of Rome.

Indeed, you make all things new as St. John had seen in his vision at Patmos when he wrote the Book of Revelation.

And the best part of it is how you make all things new with Mary, the Mother of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

Give us the grace to be like Mary intimately one with you and your will in Christ Jesus.

Help us to be open in receiving your word, bearing fruit in words and in deeds as we share it with others. Amen.

Dome of St. Mary Major in Rome. Photo by Arch. Philip Santiago, 2018.