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.
Our loving Father, today I pray to you for more understanding of your words like the first reading.
Twice successively Nehemiah told us how
Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly which consisted of men, women, and those children old enough to understand.
Nehemiah 8:2, 3
Then, a few more verses, your prophet tells us
Ezra reads plainly from the book of the law of God, interpreting it so that all could understand what was read.
Nehemiah 8:8
Until, finally, Nehemiah concludes today’s reading with a solemn pronouncement:
Then all the people went to eat and drink, to distribute portions, and to celebrate with great joy, for they understood the words that had been expounded to them.
Nehemiah 8:12
Dearest God, I pray for all who read and pray our blog each day. I pray that they may understand your words.
Most especially, I pray for us priests and lay preachers to always read, study, and pray your words.
Let us be the first to understand your words by praying that you, being the “harvest-master”, to send more laborers for your harvest.
Most of all, to truly understand your words, O God, let us be emptied of ourselves so we may only be focused on Jesus Christ, the word who became flesh. He alone is the one we must preach and share in word and in deed. Amen.
“See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father.”
Matthew 18:10
Almost all the religions in the world believe in the existence of guardian angels who guide people and protect them from harm.
From the Greek angelos that means “messenger”, angels are exactly that: messengers from God or “divine apps” who work like Messenger!
Last summer break, I have learned something “millennial” and at the same time very theological or spiritual when some of our former teachers in a school where I used to be assigned reprimanded me – even scolded me – for putting them always on “seen zone”. If you are a dinosaur like me, seen zone is when you send somebody a message (PM) and that person sees it but refuses to give any reply, to the extent of ignoring not only your message but most of all, you. I still have contentions against this but, that’s how most of people take a seen zone: a kind of disrespect, that you are not important.
What was so embarrassing with my new learning was the realization of how stupid I have been until recently when I would “seen zone” people with pathetic late response saying, “sorry just saw your message now”. How I wish I could turn back the time…
Anyway, I have learned my lesson so well that since May I have been very careful with “PM’s” as I tried to be more kind and gentle in Messenger.
But, there is something very interesting in this popular app in relation with our celebration today of the memorial of the guardian angels.
So many times, we give our guardian angel or God’s messenger with the “seen zone” like in Messenger. We ignore the angel’s admonition to avoid sin and do what is good. Like in Messenger’s seen zone, we totally ignore and disregard our guardian angel until we get into the “sin zone”.
Ignore what you have read in Messenger, you go into a seen zone that may be temporary and not really that serious at all. But, lo! worse is the “sin zone” when you ignore the Divine messenger because you ignore God who sent us his angels with his messages of love and mercy, peace and salvation!
Today we are reminded that inasmuch as we try to behave properly in social media where we interact virtually in real time, God and his angels do relate with us in real time but not in virtual but actual reality.
If we try hard doing everything not to hurt our friends with seen zone, all the more we must try to avoid the sin zone that have more serious repercussions up to eternal life. Amen.
Your gospel today, Lord Jesus, brought me with mixed feelings of embarrassment and joy.
Embarrassed because like your disciples then, until now we are still preoccupied with the same old question of “who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” (Mt.18:1).
How funny – and shameful too, Lord, that as we grow older, the less we believe or at least disregard your guardian angels assigned to each one of us. As we get older, we feel we know everything, we can do everything, and we can be on our own.
How sad that in similar manner of dismissing our parents and elders as guardians, we have also abandoned belief and acceptance of angels.
Thank you for never abandoning us despite of this attitude, O dear God!
Thank you most of all, dearest God, for not withdrawing from our side our guardian angels!
Joy fills my heart today on this feast of the Guardian Angels that even if so many times in the past I have turned away from you, my guardian angel never left me, guiding me back to you in those many instances of discovering your wonder anew.
Our guardian angels remind us O Lord of your great love for us.
I can still recall so many instances in my life how I felt someone I do not see yet so personally present with me, personally saving me from so many occasions and situations that were harmful and even fatal.
Yes, guardian angels are not only for kids but for everyone who believe in you, Lord, to remind us of you.
Teach us to be child-like, humbly admitting there is an angel on our side, and most of all, you are always with us, Lord Jesus Christ.
As your messengers who are very close to you and closest with us, teach us to be like our guardian angels always close to you too and with others guarding and protecting them from harm. Amen.
Tuesday, Memorial of St. Therese of the Child Jesus, 01 October 2019
Zechariah 8:20-23 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Luke 9:51-56
White roses for you, dearly beloved devotee of St. Therese of the Child Jesus. Christ heard your prayers and had asked St. Therese to send you these white roses as the sign you have been asking regarding what you have been praying for through our daily prayer blog, The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul. God bless you more today, my friend! (Photo by Ms. Jo Villafuerte at the Atok Blooms, Benguet, 01 September 2019.)
On behalf, O Lord, of the many people praying for a “little miracle” today through St. Therese of the Child Jesus, thank you very much for these beautiful white roses. And most especially for answering our prayers!
Thank you again for the gift of another saint today close to our modern time, a woman so young, and most of all, so simple in her faith and in her ways. Just like you, God, when she proclaimed…
“O Jesus, my love, at last I have found my calling: my call is love. Certainly I have found my proper place in the Church, and you gave me that very place, my God. In the heart of the Church, my mother, I will be love, and thus I will be all things, as my desire finds its direction.”
St. Therese of the Child Jesus, from the Liturgy of the Hours
It is this simple yet profound truth of being love, of doing everything in love that we always forget or take for granted that elevated St. Therese to be the youngest and one of the only five women Doctors of the Church.
In her life you have showed us the need to find the points of convergence of doctrine and experience, of teaching and practice in order to truly be holy and filled with God that fulfilled the Lord’s own words spoken among the crowds more than 2000 years ago:
“I thank you Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding, and revealed them to babes.”
Matthew 11:25
Born Marie-Francoise-Therese Martin at Alencon, France in 1873, St. Therese entered the Carmelite monastery of Lisieux at the age of 15 following a special permission from Church officials. She claimed no visions or extraordinary moments except that she followed a simple path to faith, especially after contracting TB that caused her death in 1897 at the young age of 24. Photo from Google.
Open our minds and our hearts, our very selves, Lord, like St. Therese to humbly embrace this simple truth of love by intensely and passionately living in love, doing ordinary things in the most extraordinary way of love. May we follow your Son Jesus as “he resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem”(Lk.9:51) to face his passion, death, and resurrection out of love for you and for us. Amen.
Para sa henerasyon ngayon wala sa kanilang isipang puntahan ni pasyalan mga perya at karnabal ng kabukiran; katawa-tawa at walang kuwenta sa kanila ang sumakay sa tsubibo at ruweda, panoorin mga salamangkero at payaso at mas gusto maglaro ng mga video.
Mga dambuhalang kahon ng sapatos na ginawang pamilihan, tinaguriang mall naging pasyalan kung saan natatagpuan pinagtatawanang perya at karnabal ng kabukiran naging sosyal na pasyalan ng mga kabataan.
Ngunit hindi alintana, lingid sa mga mata higit katawa-tawa mga pormahan at pasiklaban masahol pa sa mga peryaan at karnabal ating kalagayan nang mismo ating buhay naging isang malaking palabas na lamang mistulang mga salamangkero at payaso na rin tayo inaasam-asam ay palakpakan at hangaan.
Saan man pumunta ay kapuna-puna tila ang lahat nang-aagaw pansin ibig sa kanya lamang nakatingin kaya anu-ano gagawin, iba-iba sasabihin pananamit at asta di mawari ngunit kung susuriin, agad mabubuking parang ampaw, wala kungdi hangin.
Hindi na ba natin napapansin nangyayari sa atin saan man tumingin tila lahat nagiging palabas na lamang walang laman ni kahulugan mga pinagtutuunan; nahan ang kadluan ng karunungan at kabutihan na pinabayaang matuyuan maubusan ng katangiang kapitag-pitagan?
Walang nasasagwaan ni kinikilabutan pangangalandakan ng kapalaluan at kawalang kabuluhan loob kinalimutan, panlabas pinahalagahan perya at karnabal di na nga pinupuntahan dahil tayo na mismo ang katatawanan! Hindi ba natin alam iyan ang malagim na katotohanan dapat tayong kabahan kung di sumasagi sa ating kalooban?
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.
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music, 29 September 2019
Our gospel today speaks a lot about our eyes, of what we see and recognize, of sights and vision. For the third straight consecutive Sunday, we hear again another parable by Jesus proper only to St. Luke called “the rich man and Lazarus”.
Jesus said to the Pharisees: “There was a rich man who dressed in purple garments and fine linen and dined sumptuously each day. And lying at his door was a poor named Lazarus, covered wit sores, who would gladly have eaten his fill of the scraps that fell from the rich man’s table. Dogs even used to come and lick his sores. When the poor man died, he was carried away by angels to the bosom of Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried, and from the netherworld, where he was in torment, he raised his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side.”
Luke 16:19-23
The rich man went to hell because amid his affluent lifestyle, he did nothing to help the poor Lazarus. He was so blinded by his wealth that he was so oblivious of the plight of Lazarus. Sadly, the same scene continues in our days despite the social media around us.
The famous blind American Helen Keller wrote, “the only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.”
Very true!
Many people are like the rich man who only have sight that can only see what is material and temporary, failing to see the face of God especially among brothers and sisters in need. Only a few people are like Lazarus with a vision who dare to look at things beyond what can be seen, even beyond time. They are the visionaries who dream with eyes wide open, working hard to make their dreams a reality.
Having a vision, of seeing beyond what is material and physical is essential in being a Christian tasked with a mission to lovingly serve others especially those living at the margins of the society.
No one can truly love and serve without having a vision, of seeing beyond the ordinary and the present moment. This is the reason why I always tell young people in choosing a wife or a husband, choose someone with a vision who would always look beyond sights and time.
This is the message too of American singer-songwriter Joshua Kadison’s 1993 hit “Beautiful in My Eyes” that delighted the romantic side of us Filipinos in 2009 and 2007 when Christian Bautista and Jericho Rosales respectively covered the song.
The song speaks of the great vision of the lover in seeing in his beloved everything wonderful and lovely. Most of all, the man is also a dreamer and a visionary who could see their future as a couple still in love because she’s always “beautiful in his eyes”.
You’re my peace of mind, in this crazy world. Your’re everything I’ve tried to find, your love is a pearl.
You’re my Mona Lisa, you’re my rainbow skies, and my only prayer, is that you realize, you’ll always be beautiful, in my eyes.
The world will turn, and the seasons will change. And all the lessons we will learn, will be beautiful and strange.
We’ll have our fill of tears, our share of sighs. My only prayer, is that you realize. You’ll always be beautiful, in my eyes.
You will always be, beautiful in my eyes. And the passing years will show, that you will always grow, evermore beautiful, in my eyes.
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe XXVI-C, 29 September 2019
Amos 6:1.4-7 ><)))*> 1 Timothy 6:11-16 . ><)))*> Luke 16:19-31
Photo by Mr. Jim Marpa, 2018.
Last Sunday we focused on our hands that we use to pray and serve in reflecting the parable of the wise steward. Today, let us “look” into our eyes that see God in others as we reflect on another parable only St. Luke has, the rich man and Lazarus.
Eyes are the “windows of one’s soul”.
Eyes reveal what is inside us: how we look and move our eyes, the sparkle or dullness in our eyes indicate the kind of person within. Eyes never lie for they reveal if we are telling the truth or not. Most of all, eyes do not only direct us to sights outside but even visions to beyond what we can see.
This is very clear in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, inviting us to take a deeper look into ourselves, on others, and with the things we possess like money and wealth.
Jesus said to the Pharisees: “There was a rich man who dressed in purple garments and fine linen and dined sumptuously each day. And lying at his door was a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who would gladly have eaten his fill of scraps that fell from the rich man’s table. Dogs even used to come and lick his sores. When the poor man died, he was carried away by angels to the bosom of Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried, and from the netherworld, where he was in torment, he raised his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side.”
Luke 16:19-23
Photo by Mr. Jim Marpa, September 2019.
For the third consecutive Sunday, we again heard another well-known parable proper to St. Luke like the prodigal son two weeks ago and the wise steward last Sunday. Today’s parable of the rich man and Lazarus follows the same thread of last week’s wise steward which is about the thorny issue of money. But again, there is something deeper than that which is the call for daily conversion by always looking beyond what we can see.
In this parable, Jesus never said the rich man was bad that is why he went to hell or the “netherworld”. Neither did he also claim that the poor man was holy that led him into the “bosom of Abraham” which is heaven. Jesus only described their daily life: the rich man lived in affluence with fine clothings and sumptuous meals while the poor was very destitute feeding on scraps falling from the former’s table as dogs licked the sores that covered his body.
The only critical clues Jesus gives us are the name of the poor man – Lazarus – which means “God has rescued” or El’azar in Hebrew and the final scene in the afterlife.
Let it be clear that the issue here is how people, rich and poor alike, can be blinded by money and wealth that they fail or even refuse to see God and others as brothers and sisters that lead them into evil and sins.
Abraham replied (to the rich man), “My child, remember that you received what was good during your lifetime while Lazarus likewise received what was bad; but now he is comforted here, whereas you are tormented. Moreover, between us and you a great chasm is established to prevent anyone from crossing who might wish to go from our side to yours or from your side to ours.”
The sad reality is that this parable continues to happen in our days when so many of us are oblivious of the poverty and miseries afflicting many of the poor among us.
We are that rich man who has no name but have eyes that refuse to see and recognize Jesus in everyone especially the poor and suffering. How tragic in this age of social media where everything and everyone is exposed and seen, we have become blind to the plight of those around us. No need to look far but right in our own family when members are on their own without bothering to know how everyone is doing in life.
In my 21 years of priesthood, I have realized that most often, the people who truly suffer are often the Lazarus among us who prefer to be silent, to bear all their pains trusting only in God who would vindicate and raise them in the end. The Lazarus are the poor not just in material wealth but “poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Mt. 5:3) who completely trust in God.
Reading further that version of the Beatitudes of St. Matthew, we find Jesus saying
Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God.
The clean of heart are the Lazarus, the poor who try to find God in this life even amid the many sufferings. Our minds and intellect, including our eyes can never see God. As the Little Prince would say, “what is essential is invisible to the eye; it is only with the heart that one can truly see”. Very true!
A clean heart is a loving heart. When we speak of the heart, we also mean person for the heart embodies the whole person. Therefore, a loving heart is the Lazarus, the one who tries to see God, the one who envisions the end that he is willing to sacrifice, to forgive and to welcome the lost.
Lazarus the poor beggar went to heaven because he has a clean heart unlike the rich man who refused to see beyond himself and his affluence. They are the ones being reprimanded in the first reading by the Prophet Amos, the “complacent” people who may have also included the priestly class of Israel unmindful of the real situation of the people because they have been insulated from realities by the perks and good life of wealth and power (Amos 6:1).
Most people have eyes that have sights but only a few have a vision in life. People with a vision in life are the ones who can see beyond the ordinary, they are the dreamers who dream with eyes wide open working hard to make their dreams happen in reality.
Lazarus is a visionary and a dreamer who saw beyond the door of the rich man, beyond his hunger and sickness the glory of God in eternal life. The rich man on the other hand only had sights for what is “here and now”; and, that is what he is so afraid of with his five brothers still alive who have no vision of the afterlife, no vision of God among others in the present life like him.
My dear friends, Jesus is inviting us today while there is still time to go back to the path of conversion, to see beyond ordinary things and see the more essential, the more lasting things that according to St. Paul in the second reading prepare us for eternal life like “righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience, and gentleness” (1Tim. 6:11).
Let us listen to the words of God found in the Sacred Scriptures that Abraham referred to in the parable as “Moses and the prophets” (Lk.16:29).
Most of all, let us listen to Jesus Christ, the only one who had risen from the dead (cf. Lk. 16:31) who enables us to see him on the face of everyone we meet, giving us a vision of heaven by helping us in fulfilling our mission as his disciples in proclaiming the coming of the kingdom of God. Amen.
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.
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