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.
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.
Tuesday, Advent Week I, Memorial of St. Francis Xavier, 03 December 2019
Isaiah 11:1-10 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Luke 10:21-24
What a blessed Tuesday we have today, O Lord, despite the threat of a super typhoon approaching us!
Your words console us, assure us of your protection and grace.
You give us today two beautiful images of greatness in being small which is the true spirit of Christmas, of you our God coming to us a child born in Bethlehem more than 2000 years ago.
First image is the “shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse, and from its roots a bud shall blossom” (Is.11:1).
Every great thing always starts small. Most of all, they always happen where we least expect them like shoots sprouting from the stump of a tree! Help us to keep this in mind especially when we are losing hope.
How sad that in today’s world, people insist that “size always matter” that we always want to be the biggest in everything.
Second image, O Lord, that you have given us today of greatness in smallness is being childlike, your favorite:
Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I give you praise, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike. Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will.
Luke 10:21
Photo by Mr. Jim Marpa, 2018.
Being like a child is the very essence of your life and teachings, O Lord Jesus which we seem to fail to grasp and accept. All our lives we have always insisted on being so wise and learned that have often led us to more problems and disunity among us.
Teach us to be childlike, full of trust and confidence in you and most especially, with that sense of awe.
Like our Saint for today, that great child in faith of St. Ignatius of Loyola, St. Francis Xavier who kept that spirit of being childlike in his going to mission as far as China and Japan working tirelessly for the faith.
O blessed St. Francis Xavier, pray for us to remain small and simple before God our Master like you so that his greatness and majesty be seen more in us. Amen.
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.
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music, 01 December 2019
Photo by Mr. Jim Marpa, 2018.
A blessed Sunday to you my dear follower and reader!
It’s the first day of December, the final month of the year but at the same time the start of a new year in our Church calendar with the Season of Advent, the four Sundays before Christmas.
From the Latin adventus that means coming, Advent has a two-fold character on the two comings of Jesus Christ: beginning today until December 16, all readings and prayers are focused on his Second Coming; from December 17 to the 24th, we shift our sights to the first Christmas when Christ was born in Bethlehem 2000 years ago.
Jesus said to his disciples: “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. In those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day that Noah entered the ark. They did not know until the flood came and carried them all away. So will it be also at the coming of the Son of Man.”
Matthew 24:37-39
Nobody knows when Jesus Christ is coming again but he assures us that it will be sudden and unexpected like in the days of Noah. It is useless to know exactly when it would be because it may be any time. According to St. Bernard of Clairvaux, between the two comings of Christ is his third coming – that is, in every moment of our lives.
Contrary to common beliefs, the Second Coming of Christ at the end of time known as parousia will not necessarily be catastrophic. It all depends to our attitude: if we are negligent of our Christian duties to love and serve those in need, then we end in disaster like what Jesus tells us in the gospel today.
Jesus is coming again not to destroy the world but to bring it to perfection, into new heaven and new earth. What he is asking us is to be like him, Christ-like, to be his presence by allowing us to let his light shine through our words and deeds.
Here to inspire us to glimpse Christ’s coming to our daily lives is Johnny Nash in his 1972 hit “I Can See Clearly Now”.
Composed and produced by Nash himself, I Can See Clearly Now evokes a very Advent spirit of active waiting and vigilance. Its musical arrangement laced with reggae influences from Nash’s earlier collaborations with Bob Marley gives the song with some touch of solemnity that makes it so perfect for this First Sunday of Advent.
Happy listening and may the song open your eyes too to Jesus Christ’s love for you!
Isaiah 2:1-5 ><}}}*> Romans 13:11-14 ><}}}*> Matthew 24:37-44
From Google.
A blessed first Sunday of Advent to you my dear reader and follower! Today we begin another new year in our Church calendar with this season of Advent. Both the word “Advent” and its concept were borrowed from ancient Rome when provinces prepared for the coming, or “adventus” of the emperor to visit the occupied territories of his empire.
But, Jesus is more than any emperor of the world for he is true God and King of kings, the one who had come, always comes, and will be coming again at the end of time to judge us, both the living and the dead. This Season of Advent gives us the opportunities to intensely prepare for the Lord’s adventus that always begins in our hearts.
Advent has a two-fold character: beginning today until December 16, the readings and prayers set our sights to the Second Coming of Christ at the end of time or the parousia. From December 17-24, focus shifts to the first Christmas when Jesus was born in Bethlehem more than 2000 years ago.
According to St. Bernard of Clairvaux, between these two comings of Christ is his third coming that happens daily in our lives, so ordinary but very sudden like in the time of Noah.
Photo by author, sacristy of our Parish, Advent 2018.
Jesus said to his disciples: “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. In those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day that Noah entered the ark. They did not know until the flood came and carried them all away. So will it be also at the coming of the Son of Man.
Matthew 24:37-39
Staying awake, actively waiting for the Lord.
Jesus is definitely coming at the end of time. It is useless to be concerned when that would be because it will be sudden and unexpected. What matters most is our attitude of “staying awake, actively waiting” for the Lord’s coming again.
The Lord cites to us the example of Noah whom God had instructed to build an ark in the Old Testament for the coming great flood meant to cleanse the earth of sins and evil.
To actively wait for the Lord’s parousia means to be a sign of contradiction like Noah who faithfully obeyed God’s will in building an ark and later gathering into it all the animal species of earth.
Imagine the insults Noah had to endure from people laughing at him while building the ark. Yet, he never wavered and faithfully fulfilled his task before the Lord.
From Google.
Jesus cites three other instances of displaying the right attitude in actively waiting for his Second Coming: the two men out in the field, the two women grinding, and the master of the house.
One of the two men in the field was taken while one of the two women grinding was also taken because they were responsibly fulfilling their tasks when the parousia comes; their respective counterparts were most likely doing nothing or very lazy that they were left behind.
The mini parable Jesus inserted at the end shows us the imagery of the master of the house staying awake to keep the thief from breaking into the house in the middle of the night.
These are all about having the right attitude as disciples of Jesus actively awaiting his return. From Noah to the other man in the field, the other woman grinding, and the master of the house, we find from their attitudes of active waiting budding forth their hope in God.
Generally speaking, the way we live our lives determines also how we hope in the Lord.
And this we find in St.Paul’s exhortation to the Christians of Rome:
Brothers and sisters: you know the time; it is the hour now for you to awake from sleep. For our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed; the night is advanced, the day is at hand. Let us then throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us conduct ourselves properly as in the day, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in promiscuity and lust, not in rivalry and jealous. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provisions for the desires of the flesh.
Romans 13:11-14
Altar table at the Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Bagbaguin, Santa Maria, Bulacan, Advent 2018.
Putting on Christ to show his light to dispel darkness.
St. Paul wrote the Christians in Rome more than 2000 years ago to remind them of the fierce spiritual warfare between good and evil, light and darkness while they were living in the midst of a pagan world and culture.
It was a very difficult time to be truly Christians but St. Paul felt the need to remind everyone of the ever-present reality of the parousia. Like in most of his letters, he captured by the grace of the Holy Spirit the beautiful imagery of disciples with the right attitude awaiting the Second Coming as “putting on the Lord Jesus Christ”.
Putting on our Lord Jesus Christ is not just a mere call to be morally perfect persons but for us to strive in making the light of Christ shine on us so that we may manifest Jesus more in us and in our lives.
Simply put, it is becoming “Christ-like”, a true Christian who is “dead to sin but alive for God in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 6:11), one who lives differently by making Jesus more present especially in these difficult and troublesome times.
The time of St. Paul was no different with our present age with growing materialism and consumerism among peoples, including Christians afflicted with Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s “dictatorship of relativism” that have removed God from every aspect of human life, including Christmas itself!
See how we are so focused on Christmas countdowns than with the very reason of the Season, Jesus Christ. See how the media equate Christmas with material things, sugarcoating it with sentimental feelings as most Christmas songs nowadays indicate.
Advent is seeing more of Jesus, than of time.
On this first Sunday of Advent, our sights are redirected anew into Christ’s Second Coming with our important task of making him present in our very selves.
As children of the light, we slowly discover and realize how our definitive salvation is slowly moving towards its fullness in Christ’s parousia when everything is totally changed by God with peace finally reigning supreme over all.
Violets on the pedestal of our Patron Saint, John the Evangelist.
This was the vision of Isaiah a long, long time ago.
It had been fulfilled in Christ’s first coming in Bethlehem over 2000 years ago and it is being fulfilled daily through people filled with hope in God’s justice and love.
In the days to come, the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established as the highest mountain and raised above the hills. All nations shall stream toward it; many people shall come and say: “Come, let us climb the Lord’s mountain…” They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; one nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again. O God of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!
Isaiah 2:2-3, 4-5
People who keep on wondering and asking when will Jesus come again are not really interested with the Lord’s Second Coming but only with themselves like the people during the time of Noah – oblivious to anything else and busy with their own pursuits.
The more we think of the WHEN, the less we think of the WHO of Advent. Let us put on the Lord Jesus Christ to be filled with his light until all darkness in life is dispelled. Amen.
Daniel 7:2-14 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Luke 21:29-33
Praise and glory to you, O God! Thank for this blessed Friday, the last working day of November 2019. Most of all, thank you for keeping us safe always in your protection despite our sins and being stubborn.
Like the vision of Prophet Daniel in the first reading, so many “beasts” have tried destroying us. In fact, these “beasts” are so “horrible” that so many people have come to believe them, accepting them and all their lies and malice.
Red Wednesday 2019, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Bagbaguin, Santa Maria, Bulacan.
There are times that we lose hope, fearing that everything is going to nothing.
Sometimes, it is so difficult to find meaning in life at all amidst all the sufferings and miseries around us and even within us!
May we always trust in your Word, Jesus Christ who became flesh to be with us.
In the many trials and tribulations that come our way, may we always hold on to his assurance:
“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”
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.”
Red Wednesday in Memory of Persecuted Christians, 27 November 2019
Revelation 15:1-4 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Luke 21:12-19
From Google.
Today, O dear Jesus, we gather as one nation to remember the 300 million Christians worldwide who are persecuted in various forms because of their faith in you: those who were denied of work, housing, liberty, and most especially, life.
We remember and pray for our Christian brothers and sisters who were unjustly tortured and murdered because of carrying a cross and confessing their love for you, Jesus Christ.
Jesus said to the crowd: “You will be hated by all because of my name, but not a hair of your head will be destroyed. By your perseverance you will secure your lives.”
Luke 21:17-19
May those who have suffered and those still suffering be consoled with your love and peace, Lord.
Have mercy on their persecutors, let them realize that religion should bring us together and not apart.
Most especially, Lord Jesus, teach us to remember in carrying and embracing our crosses in the midst of these persecutions. Wash away our sins of indifference. Give us courage to follow promptings of your Holy Spirit in working for genuine peace and justice.
Empty ourselves of hatred and mistrust of one another to always remember we are all brothers and sisters in the Father. Amen.
Red Wednesday poster of Bacolod Diocese last year.
Lawiswis ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Ika-26 ng Nobyembre 2019
Ang Krus ni Kristo sa tuktok ng simbahan sa Birhen ng Lourdes, France. Larawan ay kuha ng dati kong estudyante si Arch. Philip Santiago noong Setyembre 2018.
Panginoong Hesu Kristo tunay ngang kay dakila mo nang gawin mong trono ng pagkahari itong Krus na pinagpakuan mo.
Kakaiba sa gawi ng mundo pagkahari mo'y pakikiisa sa aming abang pagkatao upang kami'y mahango at makasama sa luwalhati ng pagkabuhay mo.
Sa Krus ikaw ay pumasok sa aming pagkatao; sa Krus mo rin kami'y pinapasok sa iyong kabanalan nang kami'y bahaginan ng iyong pagkabuhay.
Dating sumpang dulot ng kamatayan sa iyong Krus naging pagpapala at ito ay nagsimula nang iyong ipinangako ang Paraiso sa kasamang nakapako.
Itong Krus ni Kristo hindi lamang trono ng kanyang pagkahari kungdi pintuan din patungo sa Paraiso; nawa tantuin ng bawat tao saan mayroong Krus, naroon din si Kristo!
Altar ng Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Bagbaguin, Santa Maria, Bulacan, 17 Nobyembre 2019.
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