The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul, Wk. XI, Yr. I, 17 June 2019
2 Corinthians 6:1-10 >< )))*> >< )))*> Matthew 5:38-42
Ordination of our new deacons, 12 June 2019, Minor Basilica and Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Malolos City. Photo by Lorenzo Atienza.
Our feast is still a month and a half away but Lord Jesus Christ, I just feel like telling you today along with my brothers in ministry that we are happy to be your priests!
Thank you for the gift of vocation, thank you for the gift of three new deacons, and thank you for the gift of a new bishop!
St. Paul’s words in today’s first reading are so touching, reminding us of your great love for us to be your ministers of the word. But, they are also very challenging especially when there are some of us who have received your grace in vain, so attached with the trimmings and perks of your call, forgetting you Jesus, our Caller.
Forgive us in failing you, Lord, and help us find our way back to you.
Thank you for our faithful priests who lead and inspire us especially our fellow workers silently shepherding the flock, smelling like the sheep as Pope Francis had asked us to be, always avoiding the limelight now so glaring in the Church.
Thank you also for our old and sick priests, especially those who have aged gracefully, embracing retirement without much complaints and whines.
With St. Paul, we commend ourselves to you O Jesus “through much endurance, in afflictions, hardships, constraints” (2Cor.6:4) that many of us now evade or, deny.
It is a very interesting time to be your priests today, Lord, when people no longer believe us and your Church, when people doubt and malign us, and when the “faithful” are not so faithful at all, deserting us. Keep us to remain standing by your side at the Cross like the beloved disciple with Mary our Mother.
We are treated as deceivers and yet at truthful; as unrecognized and yet acknowledged; as dying and behold we live; as chastised and yet not put to death; as sorrowful yet always rejoicing; as poor yet enriching many, as having nothing and yet possessing all things.
2 Corinthians 6:8-10
Fill us with Holy Spirit, Jesus our Eternal Priest, so our minds and hearts may be enlightened to seek and follow and stand by your truth always. Amen.
The Gospel Book on which every new deacon and priest professes his faith before the Bishop shortly before the Mass of his Ordination. Photo by Lorenzo Atienza.
It is Father’s Day and I cannot help being nostalgic because I lost my father 19 years ago at around this time of the year. It was June 17, 2000, the eve of Father’s day when my dad died of a heart attack before dawn. It was also the birthday of my mother.
And that is why I have always loved Luther Vandross Jr.’s “Dancing With My Father” he had co-written with Richard Marx released May 30, 2003.
It is the perfect song on this Father’s Day as it speaks of the tenderness and love of a father to his wife and children. No wonder, when Jesus taught us how to pray, he told us to call God “Dad” or “Daddy” which is the more literal translation of “Abba”.
What I like most in “Dancing With My Father” is at the end of the song:
Sometimes I’d listen outside her door And I’d hear how mama would cry for him I’d pray for her even more than me I’d pray for her even more than meI know I’m praying for much to much But could you send her The only man she loved I know you don’t do it usually But Dear Lord She’s dying to dance with my father againEvery night I fall asleep And this is all I ever dream
My father loved my mother so much. Since childhood until I became a priest, he never ate without my mother with him at the table. He does her coffee and he is our chef. It was doubly hard losing him because he died on her birthday. Every time I would visit my dad’s grave, I asked him only one question: why did you die on mom’s birthday? After two years, I felt his answer that he died on my mom’s birthday so I would also love her as he had loved her. And that is what I have always tried to fulfill.
My father never asked me to become a priest but it was him who unconsciously planted the seeds of my vocation when I would always see him praying before our altar before leaving for work and upon arriving home in the evening. It was from him I have learned and realized what true love is and most of all, that indeed, God is love. He loved us so much and even though it has been 19 years since he died, I can still feel his love.
For all the faithful and loving dads especially those with God our Father in heaven, here’s one for you….
Our second song is another tribute to a late father, Bread’s 1970 hit “Make It with You”.
According to its composer David Gates, he got the inspiration for “Make It With You” not from his girlfriend but from his late father. Gates claimed that during an interview, a reporter asked him with whom would he want to share his success in music with? Right away, he answered it would be his late father, of how he would want to “make it with him” so his dad would see his successful career in music.
Perhaps, that’s what we all miss with our late dads who worked so hard to give us good future, a good career: we all want them to see the fruits of their labors in us, to share with them whatever good things we now have is because of them. It is from these experiences with our loving dads that we have had glimpses of our personal God who became human like us in Jesus Christ, joining us in our pains and sufferings to be one with him in his triumphs and glory.
As we celebrate today the Solemnity of the Blessed Trinity, may we get into the very selves of our dad in Spirit to realize how immense that love God has for everyone meant to be shared with others too. Cheers to all dads!
Proverbs 8:22-31 >< )))*> Romans 5:1-5 >< )))*> John 16:12-15
From Google.
I know.
You must be saying our title is from a hit song by the late Luther Vandross Jr. with Richard Marx, “Dance with My Father”.
Since its release in May 2003, I have always loved that song. Like Vandross Jr., I sometimes ask God to return my father even for a while not only for me but most especially for my mother who was celebrating her birthday when he suddenly died of a heart attack in 2000.
Though my father did not dance much like Vandross Sr., one of the things I miss so much from him were how he would discuss so many things to me especially whenever I would join him in our library. And when I could not understand everything, he would always tell me, “paglaki mo maiintindihan mo rin yan, anak” (you will understand that when you grow up, son).
Eventually those words came to sound like music to me as a I grew up until later in life I realized that indeed, I have come to understand the many things we have discussed when I was still a child! Most of all, now that I am a grown up man still having a hard time comprehending many things in life, my father’s words still soothe me. Although he is no longer around, I always tell myself when facing difficult situations or questions that someday, I’m going to understand this – “paglaki ko maiintindihan ko rin yan”.
Jesus said to his disciples: “I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth.”
John 16:12-13
Jesus during his Last Supper Discourse telling the Apostles his departure and sending of the Holy Spirit. From a depiction found on the Maesta in Siena by Duccio (1308-1311). From Google.
On this Eleventh Sunday in the continuation of our Ordinary Time after Lent and Easter, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Blessed Trinity. In the past Sundays we have been slowly introduced by the Lord in his teachings about the Holy Spirit. Today we come to full circle with this celebration of the Holy Trinity, the highest mystery in our faith that there are three Persons in One God.
For many Christians, especially Catholics, they feel that believing in One God is enough. To speak of God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – matters very little for them that they fail to see what the mystery of the Trinity evokes concretely in our lives.
It is true that we cannot find an explicit statement in the whole Bible telling us there is One God in Three Persons. It is a doctrine that slowly unfolded in the Sacred Scriptures reaching its highest point of revelation in Jesus Christ’s Incarnation and sending of the Holy Spirit.
This is the essence of Christ’s farewell discourse during their Last Supper together: the Holy Spirit will not introduce anything new to them. The Holy Spirit will just enlighten and bring out to the open the many dimensions of the teachings of Jesus that were mostly found also or rooted in the Old Testament. Sometimes in life, there are so many realities already present but we do not recognize right away because of so many factors that hide them from us. But the moment we discover some new dimensions of life’s truth and reality, the more we find its beauty! That is why we have to somehow understand the Trinity to fully appreciate the beauty and wonder of God in our lives.
In the Old Testament, God did not speak about himself being a Person per se, as a full, conscious relating Being like humans. Moreover, God never spoke about his being One in Three Persons to the people at that time because they would never even feel such mystery as they were surrounded by polytheistic nations. It was enough at that time to insist on the people that there is only One God who relates personally like humans, seeking intimacy.
thus says the wisdom of God: “…then was I beside him as his craftsman, and I was his delight day by day, playing before him all the while, playing on the surface of his earth; and I found delight in the human race.”
Proverbs 8:22,30-31
In the first reading, God presents himself as a person, one who relates with others personified in wisdom juxtaposed in two images equally evocative, as an artisan or creator and as a child happy and proud to be around his parent.
Here I find Luther Vandross Jr.’s “Dance with My Father” so applicable: he was seven and a half years old when his father died of complications in diabetes. But his fondest memory of him was how he would dance with his mother at home and would always pull him to dance with them!
Isn’t that beautiful, three people dancing together like one entity?
Incidentally in theology, we also have this explanation of the Trinity as a “circle dance” called perichoresis. It is a way of seeing the Trinity as action than definition. If you ahve been to Turkey, you must have visited Cappadocia where once lived great thinkers of the Church called Cappadocian Fathers who thought of perichoresis.
According to the Cappadocian Fathers, in perichoresis, each Divine Person is like a dance partner who contributes and has a specific role in the choreography so that what they do together make up the dance. The Persons like partners in the dance pull and push against one another, not in resistance or force but in support and unity. The dance is in constant motion and the partners are not focused on themselves but on the others. Likewise as we experience in “club party”, the dance circle is never closed so that more people are invited to join in the celebration until each becomes a part of the dance, sharing in the joy and unity.
From Google.
In perichoresis, the Trinity is presented more as a relationship of Persons: the Father is the Creator, the Son is the Redeemer and the Holy Spirit is the sanctifier. Applied to us, we are all children of the Father who are brothers and sisters in Jesus as indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The Blessed Trinity invites us to their dance of life and grace as we find here the gist of St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans today that through our faith in Christ, we have found the peace of God through the outpouring of so many gifts upon us by the Holy Spirit that we now have a relationship of friendship and trust in him, culminating in participation “in the glory of God” (Rom.5:2).
This Sunday, we are all invited to join in the dance of God, the dance of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. In that dance, the Father reveals to us his hidden plans for us in Christ through the Holy Spirit of how he wants us to live to the fullest in him. It is only in dancing in him and with him can we know this mystery of God, mystery of self, and mystery of life in general. Though we cannot fully understand his mystery, God slowly unfolds to us his many dimensions that little by little, we see more of him, nmore of ourselves, and more of others.
That is when we find GUIDANCE, for God-U-and-I Dance.
When there is guidance, we find direction and do not get lost.
Lawiswis ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, ika-14 ng Hunyo 2019
Mula sa Google.
Mula pagkabata hanggang pagtanda Ikaw na San Antonio aming nagisnan Tinatawagan nang matagpuan Ano mang nawawala o naiwan saan-saan.
Minamahal naming pintakasi Tulungan nawa kami sapagkat dumarami At lalong lumalaki aming mga isinasantabi Na maski mawala tila wala kaming paki!
Kami'y nagagalit kapag nawawaglit Mga mumunting gamit at anik-anik Pinalalaki para nang buong sarili inapi Ngunit kaunting buti para sa katabi kinukubli?
Hindi kami mapakali at agad bibili Kapag nawala'y gamit na kawili-wili Ano't lagi naming hanap ay aliw at kaluguran Walang pakialam sa mga tiyan na kumakalam?
Nawawala na respeto at pag-galang Pati hinhin at kahihiyan di malaman kung nasaan Kinamimihasnan kalaswaan at kasalahulaan Mas hinahanap kasamaan kaysa kabutihan?
Sana kami'y iyong tulungan Muli naming matagpuan Daang pabalik sa Kabanal-Banalan Na palagi naming tinatalikuran at iniiwanan.
Kami po ang nagkulang Ni hindi na namin Siya namamasdan Wala na kaming nilalaang panahon Upang Siya ay dasalan.
Mahal naming patron sa amin lumingon Nawawala kami sa landas ng Panginoon Unti-unting nilalamon ng aming kapalaluan Nalulunod sa kayamanan, karangyaan, at kapangyarihan.
Kami ang nawawala, di namin alintana Buhay at kapwa amin nang binabalewala Poong Maykapal amin nang tinalikuran Gayon Siya ang aming uuwian at hahantungan.
Thank you very much Lord Jesus Christ for this Friday, for another weekend.
As the days moved on since Monday, we didn’t know how this week would move on for many of us: the pressures and stress at home, in the office and the school with all kinds of problems.
Some of us almost gave up life, Lord, because of sickness and loneliness, pains and sufferings, neglect and feelings of being misunderstood and unloved or unwelcomed.
But you were always there, Jesus, loving us, comforting us, assuring us of your presence and grace.
We hold this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing power may be of God and not from us. We are afflicted in every way, but not constrained; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not abandoned, struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the Body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body.
2 Corinthians 4:7-10
Let us continue your work Jesus. There are still plenty of things to be done this day: so many loving and acts of kindness, a lot of caring and understanding, some forgiving and asking sorry over there, with a lot of smiles and hugs to share so that those in despair may realize life is so beautiful, that it is good to be alive, that there is beauty even in our dirt and brokenness.
Every Cross is a plus sign, O Lord: afflictions and darkness, suffering and pains in life are an addition, never a minus or a subtraction! Amen.
Dominican Hills, Baguio, January 2019. Photo by author.
The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe, Thursday, Wk. X, Yr. I, 13 June 2019
2 Corinthians 3:15-4:1, 3-6 >< )))*> >< )))*> Matthew 5:20-26
Man “losing his head in prayer”. Photo by JJ Jimeno of GMA News, 27 May 2019.
Today we are celebrating, O Lord Jesus Christ, the feast of one of your most loved Saints, Anthony of Padua, the patron of those searching for any thing that is lost.
Most of the time, it is you Jesus whom we could not find. We always lose you not because you abandon us or hide from us but because we turn away from you. And that is why, in our pursuit of so many things of the world, we eventually end up more lost in life.
Help us to find our way back to you, Jesus. Transform us into your image by making us “gaze with unveiled face on your glory Lord” (2Cor.3:18) in prayerful meditation of the Sacred Scriptures and of the Blessed Sacrament like St. Anthony of Padua.
When the Israelites who were bitten by the snakes in the desert gazed at the bronze serpent Moses hanged on the cross, they were healed of their illness.
When Peter denied you thrice on Holy Thursday, your loving gaze on him made him sorrowful with his sin.
When St. John Vianney was asked by a farmer why he always spent a Holy Hour before you in the Blessed Sacrament, the holy priest said he simply looked at you as you looked at him too.
Lord Jesus Christ, the more we look at you, the more you look intently on us full of love. And the more we look at you, according to the Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen, the more we look like you!
Give us the grace to keep looking at you so that the more you look intently to us full of love and mercy, we experience your healing and comfort, wisdom and counsel, peace and joy. Amen.
Lawiswis ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Ika-12 ng Hunyo 2019
Mula google.
Tuwing sasapit petsa dose ng Hunyo Problema sa ating mga Filipino Nahahayag sa pagdiriwang na ito Na tila hindi natin tanto kahulugan nito.
Ano nga ba ang wasto, Araw ng kalayaan o araw ng kasarinlan? Parehong totoo at magkahawig sinasaad ng mga ito Ngunit malalim at malaki pagkakaiba mga ugat nito.
Mula sa Wikipedia.
Kung pagbabatayan ating kasaysayan Araw ng kasarinlan ang petsang ito Nang bumukod at magsarili tayo bilang isang bansa Pinatatakbo ng mga sariling mamamayan at kababayan.
Ngunit totoo rin namang sabihing Higit pa sa kasarinlan natamo natin sa petsang ito Kaya nararapat tawaging araw ng kalayaan Nang lumaya ating Inang Bayan sa pang-aalipin ng mga dayuhan.
Larawan mula sa ABS-CBN News.
Maituturing bang may kasarinlan ating bayan Kung wala namang kalayaan linangin at pakinabangan Kanyang likas na yaman lalo na sa karagatan Gayong tayo ay bansang binubuo ng mga kapuluan?
Tayo nga ba ay nagsasarili at masasabing may kasarinlan Kung turing sa atin ay dayuhan sa sariling bayan Walang matirhan lalo na mga maliliit nating kababayan Dahil sa kasakiman ng ilang makapangyarihan sa pagkamkam?
Gayon din naman sana'y ating matingnan Kung tunay itong ating kalayaan Marami pa rin ang nabubulagan at hindi matagpuan Dangal ng kapwa na madalas ay tinatapakan.
Ang tunay na kalayaan ay ang piliin at gawi'y kabutihan Kaya ito ma'y kasarinlan dahil ito'y kakayahang Kumawala at lumaya sa panunupil sa sariling pagpapasya Walang impluwensiya ng iba kungdi dikta ng konsiyensiya.
Larawan mula sa Google.
Kalayaan at kasarinlan kung ating pagninilayan Dalawang katotohanang nagsasalapungan Kung saan mayroong pagtatagpo ng kabutihan Paglago at pagyabong ng buhay tiyak matatagpuan.
The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul, Wednesday, Wk. X, Yr. I, 12 June 2019
2Corinthians 3:4-11 >< )))*> >< )))*> Matthew 5:17-19
Detail of “Ordination of the Seven Deacons” by Fra Angelico, 1447-49, Cappella Niccolina, Palazzi Pontifici, Vatican. From Google.
My dearest Lord Jesus Christ, our Eternal High Priest: Like your Blessed Mother, my soul proclaims your greatness and my spirit rejoices in you O Lord on this great gift of ordination as deacon of our parishioner, Rev. Roel Aldwin and his two classmates, Rev. Howard and Rev. Laurence.
As his ordination day got nearer, the more I realized your goodness, your love and your mercy. So true are the words of St. Paul in our first reading today:
Brothers and sisters: such confidence we have through Christ toward God. Not that of ourselves we are qualified to take credit for anything as coming from us; rather, our qualification comes from God, who has indeed qualified us as ministers of a new covenant, not of letter but of spirit; for the letter brings death, but the Spirit gives life.
2 Corinthians 3:4-6
Thank you very much for new brothers in the ministry, for new co-workers in your vineyard, Lord. Indeed, you do not call the qualified but you do qualify your calls! As St. Paul had said, no one can lay claim for this great gift of being your “alter Christus” at the altar.
And so, I thank you for this rare gift of having a new deacon in my parish during my tenure. You know how much I have loved your parish amid the many difficulties and pains that continue up to this moment. I hope and pray that your people here would realize this immense gift of a deacon you have called from among them to serve your Church.
But what I like most Lord in your gift of the first deacon from our Parish is also your gift to me to be a better pastor to encourage Rev. RA to strive and persevere in his vocation with so much love and dedication. I am a sinner, Lord, and you know very well how I have discouraged with my words and actions some members of my flock. And despite all this, you have used me to guide our new deacon in his journey.
Soon, he shall find so many flaws among us priests in the ministry. Soon he shall find the many crosses and many crucifixions we shall go through. Soon he shall find that ultimately, no one else is to be followed except you alone, Jesus.
I pray that our new deacons may be the signs of your fulfillment of the Laws of love and mercy. Keep them faithful and obedient to your commandments, Lord, that they may be your indwelling, your presence in this world slowly plunging into darkness and coldness, like what you described as “a sheep without a shepherd”.
I pray for our new deacons to love you more, Jesus our Caller – and not your call so that as they serve in your name, it is you whom they proclaim, it is you whom they make known above all.
Jesus our High Priest, let us your priests and deacons decrease so that you may increase. Amen.
Tuesday, Week X, Year II, Feast of St. Barnabas, 11 June 2019
Acts 11:21-26;13:1-3 >< }}}*> >< }}}*> Matthew 5:13-16
From Google.
As we resume the longest season in our liturgical calendar called Ordinary Time, you give us a wonderful guide O Lord Jesus Christ in your Apostle St. Barnabas whose feast we celebrate today.
St. Barnabas lived out the meaning of his name, “son of encouragement” or “son of consolation” when he became instrumental in bringing Saul from Tarsus after his conversion to join the Apostles in Jerusalem. St. Barnabas was the first to vouch for the sincerity of Saul’s conversion who later came to be known as St. Paul.
When controversy arose among the early Christians, St. Barnabas encouraged St. Paul to join the discussions at the Council of Jerusalem so as to encourage too the Apostles to accept gentile converts into Christianity without going through the Jewish ritual of circumcision for men.
Eventually after that meeting, St. Barnabas encouraged St. Paul to direct their missionary efforts to the Gentiles that helped spread Christianity throughout the world.
When things went so wrong between him and St. Paul later due to their companion Mark at their second missionary journey that they have to part ways, eventually later before the death of St. Paul in Rome, St. Barnabas was able to encourage them to reconcile and let go of their differences before.
Grant us, Jesus Christ, the same gift of encouragement of St. Barnabas so we may be willing to transcend our weaknesses and sinfulness to cooperate with others to fulfill your work and mission.
We pray also for those losing hope, being discouraged by so many failures and events in their lives that push them to give up and abandon all your plans and dreams for them. Fill them with your Holy Spirit to be encouraged to persevere and to trust in you. Amen.
People with Disabilities being encouraged by Christian groups in Jordan to work in mosaic shops so they could hone their skills and earn for their family. Photo by author, May 2019.
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