The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Thursday, Week VII, Year II in Ordinary Time, 24 February 2022
James 5:1-6 ><)))*> + ><)))*> + ><)))*> Mark 9:41-50
Photo by author, salt at the shore of the Dead Sea, Israel, May 2017.
Lord Jesus,
as I prayed your words
today, I remembered our
dear Pope emeritus,
Benedict XVI telling us
in his book "Jesus of
Nazareth, Holy Week"
how Luke strangely recorded
that you "ate salt" with your
disciples in Acts 1:4;
according to this most holy
and learned Pope of modern
time, "Salt is regarded as a
guarantee of durability. It is a
remedy against putrefaction,
against the corruption that
pertains to the nature of death...
of preserving life" (page 271).
I have always loved that piece of
information and deep reflection by
Pope Benedict XVI that when you,
O Lord, mentioned this most common
commodity in the gospel, I just felt
joy and assurance from you:
Everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good, but if salt becomes insipid, with what will you restore its flavor? Keep salt in yourselves and you will have peace with one another.
Mark 9:49-50
"Rub" us with your salt,
Jesus, to purify us and make us
durable in being faithful to you
always, never becoming a scandal
for others to commit sin.
Keep us salted, Lord,
always flavorful and tasty,
so alive filled with zest for life
with your presence, with your
love and mercy for others
that truly lead us to peace
and harmony; do not let us be
"corroded" by the world as
St. James warned in the first
reading. Amen.
Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
A Wedding Homily for Cristopher T. San Pedro & Fatima Macam
National Shrine of St. Jude, Manila, 22 February 2022
Photo by Ms. Jo Villafuerte, 21 February 2022.
You must have heard the saying that “God writes straight crooked lines”. And today that proves so true not only with how God wrote so crooked his straight lines in your life, Cris and Tim, but even wrote in circles to make this date your wedding day – 22 February 2022!
Cris and Tim, God has always been so sure in calling you before his altar on this date, which will similarly happen again in 200 years – 22 February 2222!
God writes straight crooked lines because everything in him is perfect, like numbers. Precise and exact.
Like this date you never chose, 02-22-2022.
When you consulted me last month when priests here offered you this date due to their recent lockdown, right away I told you it is the most wonderful date for your wedding being the Feast of St. Peter’s Chair… St. Peter as in San Pedro like Cristopher Tabafunda San Pedro and later, Mrs. Fatima Macam San Pedro!
It was God who willed in all eternity that you, Cris and Tim, be married today — not last year, not the other week nor next week because today is the day that the Lord has made!
From Facebook of couple.
You are both good with numbers like God, a mathematician who is very precise and exact like an economist and stock trader (Cris) and a marketing and sales executive (Tim) who used to do a lot of chemical research before.
But God has better and deeper plans for you that numbers cannot count nor quantify.
God wants you to always go back to basic numbers, not to those found in equations only you two can understand or multiple digits only you can count.
Jesus said it so well in the gospel today: two is equal to one, just like 1 + 1 + 1 = 1 of the Trinity.
“For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, no human being must separate.”
Matthew 19:5-6
Life is not about having the most but the least. That is where faith grows and deepens.
Photo by Ms. Jo Villafuerte, 21 February 2022.
When we have so much in life, when we feel so sufficient, when we are so filled with things, we forget God. We stop believing in him, we believe more in ourselves.
And when we stop believing in God, we lose our faith and then, we stop loving, too. Sooner or later, we become empty and miserable.
So, be simple, Cris and Tim.
Reduce everything to the barest and simplest. Simplify, simplify, simplify as Henry David Thoreau said: “let your affairs be two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand.”
When we get complicated like our Facebook, life becomes difficult as we can’t find right away who and what matters most to us.
Kaya nga isa lang ang asawa, Cris at Tim, kasi hindi puwede marami.Hindi lang magulo. Magastos pa. Imagine kung dalawa o tatlo wedding rings? Pag isa lang, kita agad at alam na this – married na ang mamang ito na may cute na dimple o itong girl na ito na naka glasses at dalawa pa ang dimples! Hayaan ninyo sabihin ng mga makakita singsing ninyo na sayang at taken na pala siya!
You see, the lower the number, the simpler, the better. Madaling tumaya at manampalataya.
That’s faith. Parang PBA game kung saan kayo nagkakilala. And you have both experienced, walang tatalo sa faith in God ninyong dalawa!
Photo by Ms. Jo Villafuerte, 21 February 2022.
God is greater and more than the numbers the wizkids and supercomputers of the world can calculate and predict. His thoughts are not our thoughts, nor his ways. He first created just one man and one woman – just two – to be one with each other in him, and to be faithful to him and each other.
Because the more we become faithful, the more we become loving.
That is the message of this Feast of the Chair of St. Peter which is the “Primacy of Rome” or of the Pope: it is the primacy of faith and the primacy of love together which cannot be separated.
Forget all those numbers Cris and Tim, focus only in the One – God in Jesus Christ. Just focus on Jesus, always Jesus.
Love is not about counting or keeping tabs and tallies, like how many “likes” and “followers” we get in our posts.
The true measure of love is when we love without measure, when we simply love, love, love. And love.
That is why we only have one heart so we can love with all our heart. Forget Sana Dalawa ang Puso Ko. It is just a song.
When you have LQ (lover’s quarrel), who should blink first, or smile? Who should take the first move to reconcile, the first to offer the hand of peace?
Photo by Ms. Jo Villafuerte, 21 February 2022.
Whenever lovers and couples or even friends quarrel, I always say, whoever has more love to give must be the first one to initiate reconciliation, the first to blink, or smile, the first to offer the hand of peace.
To have the most love to give and share does not mean to be better or superior than the other; to have the most love to give and share is to have more faith, to have a deeper faith the he/she is ready and willing to lose everything for the sake of the loved one.
Like Jesus Christ who gave everything for us on that Cross because of love.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Tuesday, Feast of the Chair of St. Peter, 22 February 2022
1 Peter 5:1-4 ><}}}}*> + ><}}}}*> + ><}}}}*> Matthew 16:13-19
Photo from en.wikipedia.org.
Glory and praise to you,
O Lord Jesus Christ,
as we celebrate today
a most unique feast,
the Chair of St. Peter
your anointed leader of
your Church here on earth.
It is so unique especially
in this time
when we are so concerned
where we sit - whether at home,
in school, in offices, in churches,
and in buses and planes - everywhere!
because every seat is about position,
rank, power and convenience,
always having the "keys" so to speak.
Sadly, as we seek the comfort
of our "asses", we have forgotten
that more important than where we seat
is where we stand.
Remind us, dear Jesus,
on this Feast of the Chair of St. Peter,
especially us your priests
of that beautiful example
you have shown at the Last Supper
when you left your seat
to wash the feet of the Apostles.
How sad and shameful, O Lord,
when we your priests fail to realize
that the throne of the Eucharist
is not a seat of power or prestige
but a seat of loving service to everyone.
St. Ignatius of Antioch said it so well
in his Letter to the Romans (year 110)
that the Primacy of Rome
is the Primacy of Love
because primacy in faith
is always primacy in love,
two things we can never separate.
May we all heed the call of St. Peter,
the designated “owner” of that Chair,
that we “Tend the flock of God in your midst,
overseeing not by constraint but willingly,
as God would have it,
not for shameful profit but eagerly.
Do not lord it over those assigned to you,
but be examples to the flock” (1Pt.5:2-3).
Lord Jesus,
as we grow deeper in faith,
make us more loving too!
Amen.
Lawiswis ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, ika-21 ng Pebrero 2022
Mula sa Facebook post ni P. Marc Ocariza, Abril 2020.
Kay daming nangyayari
palaging panawagan sa isa't-isa
ay pang-unawa at pang-intindi
ngunit hindi sasapat at laging kapos
ating kaisipan upang isang tao
ay lubusang makilala at maunawaan.
Kapag mayroong may-sakit
mayroong nagigipit
ano ba ang ating nasasambit?
Mag-usisa at magsalita
huwag lang walang masabi
sa akalang makapagpapabuti?
Kamakailan sa mga talakayan
mainit pinag-uusapan
respeto daw ang kailangan;
tama din naman
at nararapat lang
igalang bawat nilalang.
Ngunit paano na lang
kung sa ating pag-respeto
at pag-galang mayroong
ibang nalalapastangan
o nasasaktan at natatapakan,
sasapat ba itong panawagan?
Sa ating kasalukuyan,
marahil higit nating kailangan
kilalaning kapwa-tao isa't-isa
na katulad ko, higit sa respeto,
pang-unawa at pang-intindi
mayakap at matanggap kay Kristo.
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Sunday Week VII-C in Ordinary Time, 20 February 2022
1 Samuel 26:2, 7-9, 12-13, 22-23 ><}}}*> 1 Corinthians 15:45-49 ><}}}*> Luke 6:27-38
Photo by author, 15 February 2022.
Jesus continues with his sermon on the plains, going into the details of his main lesson, the Beatitudes which is about love. But not just love as we know and practice: twice Jesus tells us to “Love your enemies” (Lk.6:27, 35).
His instruction to “love your enemies” captures all the other moral injunctions in his lessons this Sunday meant to teach us to love like God as revealed by Jesus Christ. Recall how these past three Sundays we have been assured of the grace of God of the paradoxical happiness in life’s many contradictions we as disciples of Christ are invited to adopt by being poor, hungry, weeping and persecuted.
Jesus is teaching us his disciples to trust in him always, to look at everything in his perspective so that we may live and act like God our Father who loves everyone without measure. And to love without measure even one’s enemies begins in foregoing revenge as shown by David in the first reading.
In those day, Saul went down to the desert of Ziph with three thousand picked men of Israel, to search for David. So David and Abishai went among Saul’s soldiers by night and found Saul lying asleep within the barricade, with his spear thrust into the ground at his head and Abner and his men sleeping around him. Going across to an opposite slope, David stood on a remote hilltop at a great distance from Abner and the troops. He said: “Here is the king’s spear. Let an attendant come over to get it. The Lord will reward each man for his justice and faithfulness. Today, the Lord delivered you into my grasp, I would not harm the Lord’s anointed.”
1 Samuel 26:2, 7, 13, 22-23
Photo by author, Dead Sea desert, 2017.
Imitating Christ in his love
David is a type of Jesus Christ, a prefiguration of his coming, of someone who completely trusts in God and his words promised to him. If we read on further, this scene beautifully ends with Saul blessing David for sparing his life as they parted ways while David tells the king, “As I valued your life highly today, so may the Lord value my life highly and deliver me from all difficulties” (1 Sam. 26:24).
To avenge one’s self on an evil doer is a “fairly” spontaneous reaction, something so automatic with our human nature. But to renounce punishment, to not retaliate like the Bishop of Belgium who was recently attacked and mocked by half-naked women recently for his stand against homosexual lifestyles is something so different and unusual. That is why the Bible teems with so many stories of similar accounts how men of God patiently bore all humiliations and pains to educate and form our conscience, forego vengeance and retaliations by trusting in the Lord always who will render to each one his and her due.
One of the most unforgettable story in modern time of such trust in God is by St. John Paul II who went to forgive assassin Mehmet Agca a year after seriously shooting him at the Vatican Square in 1981. Pope emeritus Benedict XVI shows the same confidence in God as his Savior in his latest pronouncements following recent attacks by some people regarding his handling of a sexual abuse case in Germany, not to mention his old age and sickness.
Photo by author, Tagaytay City, 15 February 2022.
Love begins with respect, seeing the worth of a person
Jesus is not asking us to be passive nor resigned in the face of injustice and violence happening around us; very clear at the inauguration of his ministry in the synagogue at Nazareth how Jesus declared he had come to heal our sickness and liberate those oppressed.
In asking us to return good for evil, to love one’s enemies is above all to love like God like he had shown us in its highest expression at the Cross. It is not something reserved only for Jesus as the Son of God nor for the saints or holy men like St. John Paul II, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI or that Bishop in Belgium.
God does not love only those who do good or finds worthy; God loves everyone because of our very existence.
This is what Jesus is telling us to always look at, to find and see in everyone. We are persons to be loved, not things and objects to be owned and possessed that when no longer useful nor “good” who can be simply dismissed or thrown away.
An important component of love is respect which literally means “to look again” from the Latin words “re” for again and “specere” to look or see. From specere came the words spectacle/s, spectator, and spectacular.
It is when we fail or refuse to look and see an individual as a person – somebody like us with feelings and dreams, someone who cannot be simply defined by history or background, color or creed but another being with life who is from God alone – that is when we sin, that is when we fight and quarrel, making enemies.
When there is no respect, when we refuse to look and see the other as another person with a face reminding us of our very selves and God as our common Source and End, that is when hate and revenge get out of bounds because we have judged the other as somebody not like us or less than us.
It is from respect for the other person where all other virtues like justice and kindness, love and forgiveness spring form because it puts us at the same level despite the wrongs done to us. Respect is recognizing and affirming the personhood of each one of us in God that must guide us in relating.
Now that COVID seems to be waning in the country, may we keep the lessons of the face mask and social distancing which is the value of every person, to always reach out to others, and most of all, to look into the eyes, to find and feel the warmth of every person’s face as image and likeness of God.
To love is to find Jesus in everyone
All the teachings and moral instructions in the Bible – from the prophets to Jesus Christ – are not only doctrines and precepts to be followed but actually the self-revelations of our personal God who relates with each of us in every person. This is why at the end of his teachings this Sunday, Jesus reminds us that the “measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you” (Lk.6:38).
Let us not look beyond for any other basis for our love and respect. Jesus alone is the One why we love without measure, even our enemies because in him we find the new Adam, the spiritual One according to St. Paul presents in the second reading whom we find in everyone as well as in our very selves. Amen.
You are loved. Have a blessed week ahead.
Photo by Mr. Vincent Go, 2020, Mang Dodong of Caloocan City who was forcibly quarantined in Navotas for a month after being caught without an ID while buying some fish to peddle in his neighborhood while a police general got free of any punishments celebrating his birthday mañanita.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Friday, Week VI, Year II in Ordinary Time, 18 February 2022
James 2:14-24, 26 ><)))*> + ><)))*> + ><)))*> Mark 8:34-9:1
Photo from inquirer.net, 2021.
Awaken us, O Lord,
from our mistake and
error of insisting
that our pious and religious
exercises are the "good works"
that express our faith in you;
let us realize that it is not
enough that we simply
celebrate Mass, recite the
Rosary, join processions and
pilgrimages and keep other
devotions that make us good
practicing Catholics; these are
not the good works that St. James
is asking from us in the first reading:
faith is the true living out
of our faith in you, Jesus Christ!
For just as a body without spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.
James 2:26
True faith in you,
O Lord, is forgetting
one's self to reach out
to those in need, fighting
for justice and peace,
being more loving and kind,
forgiving and understanding
of others just like you, dear Jesus.
True faith in you,
dear Jesus, is being
your disciple which is
a call to deny one's self,
to take up one's cross in life,
and to follow YOU always
(Mark 8:34).
Give me the grace
this day, Jesus,
to sincerely look into
myself and examine
how true is my
faith in you,
how my very life
and actions reveal
the faith I have
or simply do not have
at all. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Thursday, Week VI, Year II in Ordinary Time, 17 February 2022
James 2:1-9 ><]]]]*> + ><]]]]*> + ><]]]]*> Mark 8:27-33
Photo by author at Jaffa, Israel 2017.
Your words today, Lord Jesus,
are disturbing, even shocking,
jolting us to our very core of
being because they are very
true, and happening among us.
Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters. Did not God choose those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom that he promised to those who love him? but you dishonored the poor. Are not the rich oppressing you? And do they themselves not haul you off to court? Is it not they who blaspheme the noble name that was invoked over you?
James 2:5-7
Lord Jesus,
what is most disturbing
in James' letter is not his
indictment of the rich for
their greed and other sins;
what is very shocking is how
most of the people who have
shown partiality to the rich,
allowing them to oppress
the poor.
This sad reality continues
among us, dear Jesus when
we are shocked and refuse to
accept, when we prefer to be
blind than to see your true
person as a suffering Messiah,
when we insist in recognizing you
as a royalty of the world who must
be served and honored, not
realizing that true wealth is
being poor before God, trusting
only in him. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Wednesday, Week VI, Year II in Ordinary Time, 16 February 2022
James 1:19-27 ><}}}}*> + ><}}}}*> + ><}}}}*> Mark 8:22-26
Photo by Mr. Jim Marpa, 2018.
Please bear with me,
O Lord Jesus, for being
playful today like a child:
first thing that came to my
mind while praying is how
things have really changed
so much in our time.
If your Apostle James were
with us today, he might have
written us first with the admonition
to "Think before you click..."
and then proceeded with his timely
reminders:
Know this, my dear brothers and sisters: everyone should be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, for anger does not accomplish the righteousness of God. Therefore, put away all filth and evil excess and humbly welcome the word that has been planted in you and be able to save your souls. Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deluding yourselves.
James 1:19-22
So much have really changed
among us, dear Jesus: we have
been so glued to our TV and
computer screens and cellphones
and other gadgets, so detached from
God and from others; we no longer
listen nor hear your voice, Lord, and
worst, we speak so much that we
have come to dread silence where
we can hear you loud and clear;
as a result, we gone out of touch with you
and others too, isolated, alone and
distant not only from everyone
but with reality.
Touch us again, Jesus,
pull us away from all the noise and
screens of media that hinder us from
experiencing you and your presence;
let us pray and listen first to your words,
then think before clicking the computer;
most of all, be patient with us, Jesus,
like the blind you healed away from others
and help us find our way home
to the Father and one another. Amen.
QuietStorm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Homily for the 55th Anniversary of Our Lady of Fatima University and
Fatima University Medical Center, 14 February 2022
From Facebook, 14 February 2022.
Every anniversary is a celebration for the heart, of the heart.
Every anniversary is an occasion to look and examine our hearts, to fill our hearts with gratitude and joy for the gift of life and existence, of mission that continues despite and in spite of so many things; a time to cleanse our hearts of pains from the hurts of the past; and, most of all, to open our hearts anew to more challenges and opportunities for deepening and fulfillment.
In keeping with our tradition, we gather on this Valentine’s Day to praise and thank God for his outpouring of blessings in the past 55 years to Our Lady of Fatima University and the Fatima University Medical Center.
Despite the disruptions and problems COVID-19 had caused us that continues to this day, our hearts are overflowing with thanksgiving and great hopes for better tomorrow for our beloved OLFU and FUMC.
Consider it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you encounter various trials, for you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. And let perseverance be perfect, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
James 1:2-3
Photo from Facebook/OLFU.
St. James reminds us today of yesterday’s sermon on the plains by Jesus Christ that truly blessed are those who are poor, hungry, weeping, and maligned and persecuted for standing for what is true (Lk.6:20-26).
Inasmuch as we greatly dislike inconvenience and sufferings, failures and powerlessness, poverty and sickness, we have experienced that true growth and maturity can only happen by going through difficulties that bring out the best in us through time than the instant gratifications and feel-good sensations offered by the world.
Those who have been with us for over 30 years have witnessed how our University and Medical Center have grown from initially two buildings – the old hospital and nursing school – here at the Valenzuela campus along McArthur Highway now composed with 16 buildings with five other campuses in Quezon City, Antipolo (with another medical center), San Fernando, Cabanatuan, and Sta. Rosa in Laguna.
There were so many difficulties and even mistakes during those years but everybody persevered, hurdling all the trials to establish Our Lady of Fatima University and the Fatima University Medical Center as one of the leading centers of learning and medical sciences in the country with its innovative courses and programs available to more people.
We strived. And we never stopped.
Photo from Facebook/OLFU.
When the COVID-19 pandemic came in 2020, many of our plans were deferred but we continued to persevere in this modern crisis. It is still the most difficult trial we have ever faced in our lives, changing so much the way we live these days.
Despite the uncertainties and yes, fears, we sought ways and new methods in dealing with the crisis, becoming the first school of medicine to offer limited face-to-face classes. Eventually, we opened many of our courses to limited face-to-face classes last year still ahead of other schools and universities.
It was during these difficult years of the pandemic when our vision and mission have become most clear than ever to be a fount of “truth and mercy” during this great period of crisis by “rising to the top” through innovative new methods and approaches in the fields of education, medical sciences and management.
Truly, trials perfect and make us complete as men and women ready to serve and lead others to achieving their dreams and caring for the sick.
St. John of the Cross said “The soul that walks in love is never tired and never tires others.”
On this day of the hearts as we celebrate our 55th anniversary, let us borrow from this great mystic of the Church his words with a slight twist, “The heart that walks in love is never tired and never tires others”.
Our Lady of Fatima University and Fatima University Medical Center in Antipolo, photo from OLFU/FB.
In the gospel we have heard the story of the Mary’s visitation of her cousin Elizabeth then six months pregnant with John the Baptist. Mary had just conceived through the Holy Spirit our Lord Jesus Christ and she hurriedly went to visit Elizabeth.
A beautiful scene of two great women together, conversing and rejoicing in God. Very rare in the bible do we find two women together in one scene and Luke presents this to us to remind us of the wrong perception at that time – that sadly persists to this day – of women taken for granted and looked down upon. Most especially the Virgin Mary who came from the obscure town of Nazareth and compared with her cousin Elizabeth who came from a family of priests, the Blessed Mother was a “nobody”, a simple, country maiden.
But in Mary’s simplicity, we find an important aspect of the heart – of being open to God, of always welcoming Jesus into our hearts to allow ourselves to be his instruments of change. What a beautiful coincidence or divine will that largely behind the success of Our Lady of Fatima University and Fatima University Medical Center are three great women too! – our late co-founder Mrs. Juliet Santos, our President, Dr. Caroline Santos-Enriquez and Chairperson of the Board of Trustees, Dr. Yvonne Santos-Guevarra.
Filled with love for God and for her cousin Elizabeth, the Blessed Virgin Mary went in haste to visit her to show support and recognition to the plan of God to the baby in her womb; filled with love in her heart, Mary visited Elizabeth to share in God’s divine plan of saving mankind.
Aside from facing trials with perseverance, Elizabeth tells us today another thing about true blessedness through Mary: believing that the words of God will be fulfilled!
Photo from OLFU/FB.
My dear friends, the Administrators and Board Directors of Our Lady of Fatima University and Fatima University Medical Center, our dear students and faculty members, fellow employees, and alumni: on this Valentine’s day we not only look into our hearts but also give our hearts to Jesus as the Blessed Virgin Mary had told us at Fatima, Portugal over a hundred years ago.
Like our Lady of Fatima, let our love for God flow to our love for one another.
Like Mary at Fatima, let our love for others be more intense and encompassing in leading men and women into knowledge and wisdom, well-being and health.
Like Mary at Fatima and through her prayers, let our hearts be cleansed and purified to make our faith more firm and our hope more vibrant in Christ who calls us to follow his truth and imitate his mercy. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Tuesday, Week VI, Year II in Ordinary Time, 15 February 2022
James 1:12-18 ><))))*> + <*((((>< Mark 8:14-21
Photo by Philip Santiago, Lourdes, France, 2018.
Lord Jesus,
please remove the many
blindness I have in myself
that prevent me from seeing you
from understanding you
from following you.
Please remove that one
particular blindness in me
about temptations: they
do not come from God nor
God wills anyone of us to be tempted;
temptations come from deep
within each one of us!
No one experiencing temptation should say, “I am being tempted by God;” for God is not subject to temptation to evil, and he himself tempts no one. Rather, each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his desire. Then desire conceives and brings forth sins, and when sin reaches maturity it gives birth to death.
James 1:13-15
Thank for this clarification and
reminder by St. James that
temptations originate from
one's self in three stages:
desires, sins, death.
Please open my eyes, Jesus,
enlighten my mind, my heart
and my soul to see the sources
of evil in me to see where these
are leading me.
At the same time, Lord,
let me count my blessings too
at how "God willed to give us
birth by the word of truth
that we may be a kind of
firstfruits of his creatures"
(James 1:18).
Open my eyes, dear Jesus,
remove my many blindness
like your apostles who readily
jumped into conclusions and
missed your whole point about
hypocrisies of the Pharisees,
thinking you were worried with
their lack of bread, totally forgetting
how you have multiplied bread twice
to feed thousands.
Sometimes too, we are so blinded
with our high regard for ourselves,
seeing more ourselves that we no
longer look at you nor see you
as our sole sole reference in
everything and everyone.
Amen.
