The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Thursday, Week XXXI, Year II in Ordinary Time, 05 November 2020
Philippians 3:3-8 >><)))*> + >><)))*> + >><)))*> Luke 15:1-10
From Google.
So many times I wonder, O God, why do you have to let us go on first with our lives, see and experience and have everything in the world before we realize that less is always more, that in losing that we truly gain?
Thank you for being so kind and generous with us! You are truly a Father who allows us to discover life by ourselves without forgetting to teach and remind us all the important things like faith, hope, and love.
There are times our values are misplaced but you take time before intervening like with the experiences of St. Paul and the other saints. You “let us” get lost only to seek and find us later so we learn your lessons first hand.
But whatever gains I had, these I have come to consider a loss because of Christ. More than that, I even consider everything as a loss because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.
Philippians 3:7-8
Yes, dearest God: less is always more when all we have is you in Jesus Christ who had come to fulfill our lives, our longings and our emptiness.
Teach us to appreciate the value and importance of little things, of the small ones we take for granted because in life, they are the ones who complete, who make everything a whole again.
Most of all, one is always too many to lose because each of us is so unique, so special and “irreplaceable”.
May we keep that in mind to be like Jesus the Good Shepherd always seeking and caring for the lost and the sick. Amen.
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Spirituality Center, Novaliches, 2018.
The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed (All Souls' Day), 02 November 2020
Wisdom 3:1-9 >><)))*>|+|>><)))*> Romans 6:3-4, 8-9 >><)))*> |+| >><)))*> John 6:37-40
Dearest God almighty Father: this All Souls’ Day is so special, so unique for us just like the rest of the other feasts and celebrations we have had so far this 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic when we do not have much of our rites and rituals and traditions but more of their meaning.
Thank you, Lord, for making us realize and experience the essence and beauty of our celebrations like yesterday’s All Saints’ Day and today’s All Souls’ Day that are both a “festival of hope” – a virtue we have always taken for granted and misconstrued as something like optimism.
Thank you for the gift of hope, loving Father, that even if we feel everything is lost and gone for us, it is never the case with you. In fact, the more we lose ourselves and everything, the more we give up our beloved to death and eternal rest, the more we are all found in you!
In hope, we are assured that you will never reject us when we come to you:
Jesus said to the crowds: “Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and I will not reject anyone who comes to me, because I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me. And this is the will of the one who sent me, that I should not lose anything of what he gave me, but that I should raise it on the last day.”
John 6:37-39
How lovely to keep in mind, Lord, that hope is never empty because to hope is to rely on your promise and fidelity, on your love and compassion, on your mercy and forgiveness; to hope means keeping our ties and relationships with you who is Life itself.
As we remember our departed loved ones, we not only look back to our happy memories with them but most of all look forward into the future in eternal life Jesus promised us all.
May we stop saying we have “lost” a loved one when a beloved dies because we never “lose” anyone even to death as you assured us in the first reading:
The souls of the just are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them. They seemed, in the view of the foolish, to be dead; and their passing away was thought an affliction and their going forth from us, utter destruction. But they are in peace.
Wisdom 3:1-3
Teach us to hope always in you by living in Jesus (Rom. 6:8), never to steer away from his ways for that is when we truly get “lost” in life.
Also today, we thank and praise you, Lord Jesus, for not “rejecting” our prayers to spare us from the wrath of yesterday’s super typhoon “Rolly” as it weakened in category while passing through our region last night.
However, we continue to pray for our brothers and sisters in the Bicol region who have suffered so much from the impact of the super typhoon. Enlighten our minds and our hearts on how we can help them rise and start again to recover their material “losses” while at the same time, heal their memories in “losing” their loved ones.
May they find comfort and strength in you that they have not “lost” loved ones but have found you.
And for those injured, may your healing hands touch them, Jesus, be witnesses of hope in you. Amen.
Photo by author, sunrise at Camp John Hay, Baguio City, 2018.
Photo by author, CICM Retreat House, Taytay, Rizal, 2007.
Praise and glory to you, O God our loving Father! Please, keep us open to your coming in Jesus Christ. Surprise us always with your simplicity, silence, and hiddenness.
You know how we are always attracted with people’s credentials and titles, outward appearances, and great talents in speaking and explaining things that we get carried away, leaving you behind.
I came to you in weakness and fear and much trembling, and my message and my proclamation were not with persuasive words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of spirit and power, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.
1 Corinthians 2:3-5
Let us come to you and meet you in Jesus by forgetting our self, taking our cross and following him in his passion and death.
Sometimes we forget your simple invitation to come to you with our sinful selves minus our pretensions and masks because all you want is our total selves. You do not ask for our perfections but imperfections, nor for our virtues and talents but for our lacking and sins.
And through this all, Lord, you give us life and freedom, fulfillment in you in our hearing:
Photo by Fr. Gerry Pascual at Yvoire, France, 2018
Jesus unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written: The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord. Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him. He said to them, “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.”
Luke 4:17-21
Come, Lord Jesus, you are most welcomed in me. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Friday, Memorial of St. Augustine, Doctor of the Church, 28 August 2020
1 Cortinthians 1:17-25 <*(((><< ||+|| >><)))*> Matthew 25:1-13
Philippe de Champaigne’s painting “Saint Augustine” (1645-1650) from wikimedia.org.
Whenever I look back in my life, Lord, the more I realize the truth that it is YOU who finds us when we are lost. Even before we searched for you, you have been asking us to come home to you. In fact, to look for you is a grace in itself because that is when you have finally found us!
Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which you created. You were with me, but I was not with you… You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness… You touched me, and I burned for your peace.
From the Confessions of St. Augustine
Thank you dearest Jesus in giving us the great St. Augustine, another version of St. Paul who started so wrong in life but ended right on your side.
Please be patient with us, Lord, specially in those times we feel so wise, thinking we know everything, that we can direct our own lives without you.
Open our hearts and our minds that we may heed the words of St. Paul like St. Augustine:
For Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are called, Jews and Greeks alike, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.
1 Corinthians 1:22-25
We pray, O Jesus, for the gift of wisdom like the wise virgins of your parable that even in the darkness of our lives, our hearts may always be aflame with your love. Amen.
Photo by author inside our parish at sunset, 25 August 2020.
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Week XIX, Cycle A in Ordinary Time, 09 August 2020
1 Kings 19:9, 11-13 >><}}}*> Romans 9:1-5 >><}}}*> Matthew 14:22-33
Photo by Mr. Raffy Tima of GMA-7 News, Batanes, 2018.
I have always loved the sea and lately my thoughts have always been about the beach as I miss it so much after COVID-19 had robbed us of our summer vacation.
In ancient time, the sea evoked fear because it was largely unknown that even in the bible, it is the symbol of evil and its powers over man. That is why our gospel today is very significant when Jesus walked on water to show God’s greater power over evil and sin.
And like our gospel last week, our story today tells us a lot more about Jesus walking on water in the midst of a storm to reveal himself and most of all, his desire to meet us his disciples.
Place and location as non-verbal communication of one’s presence
Every meeting and encounter presupposes locations or places, a locus; but, everything is “levelled up” or elevated in Jesus in whom things do not remain in the physical level.
Proxemics is the non-verbal communication that refers to places and location, its nearness and orientation. How we arrange our furnitures, designate the rooms and sections in our homes, offices, schools and every building we stay and gather communicate and reveal who we are.
For example, Catholic homes are easily identified in having a grotto at the garden, an altar of the Sacred Heart or any saint at the sala, and the Last Supper painting in the dining hall.
But for Jesus, a place or a location is more than the physical site because in him, proxemics takes on a deeper dimension and higher meaning when we meet him in situations and places. That is why after feeding the more than five thousand people last week, he ordered the Twelve to cross the Sea of Galilee (which is actually a lake) ahead of him while he dismissed the crowds.
After doing so, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When it was evening he was there alone. Meanwhile the boat, already a few miles offshore, was being tossed about by the waves, for the wind was against it. during the fourth watch of the night, he came toward them, walking on the sea. When the disciples saw him walking on the sea they were terrified. “It is a ghost,” they said, and they cried out in fear. At once Jesus spoke to them, “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.”
Matthew 14:23-27
Photo by author, Sea of Galilee at Capernaum where Jesus used to preach, May 2019.
Crossing to Jesus, crossing with Jesus
I love that scene very much, of Jesus getting his disciples into the boat to precede him to the other side of the lake while he dismissed the crowds. Again, St. Matthew never bothered to tell us why Jesus sent the Twelve ahead of him as he stayed behind, dismissing the crowds and later praying alone at night atop the mountain.
Let us now reflect the proxemics or non-verbal communication of our gospel scene this Sunday.
We need to cross to the other side to meet Jesus.
To meet Jesus Christ, we always have to “cross to the other side” by leaving our “comfort zones”.
More than going to the other side of the lake physically, we have to move over to unchartered areas of life, be bold and daring to try new things, new situations in order to mature and find fulfillment by meeting Jesus Christ.
And sometimes, we really have to literally cross the sea or get to the other side of the country or the world to find our self and meet Christ.
Fifteen years ago I went on vacation to Toronto for some soul-searching as I went through a burn-out. While serving at St. Clement Parish, I met many Filipinos serving as lectors, choir members, catechists and volunteers.
Graph shared by sugarindustryfoundationinc.org.ph.
They would always confess to me with both a sense of pride and little shame that they never went to Mass regularly when in the Philippines and now in Canada, they were amazed at how God had brought them there to be involved in parish activities and be closer to Jesus than ever!
As I listened to their stories, I realized the many sacrifices and hardships they have to endure in that vast and cold country with no one to turn to except God. If given the chance, many of them admitted they would return to the Philippines for there is no place like home!
Though I have found so many things I have been searching for in my initial three months of stay there on top of other opportunities given me, I still felt empty. That raging storm within continued. As I prayed and reflected guided by an old, Polish priest who claimed to have been the student of St. John Paul II, I saw myself more, eventually leading me to God anew who refreshed my vocation that I finally decided to go back home after six months of my supposed to be one year leave.
Sometimes in life, we need to get away from our comfort zone, cross to the other side, especially when life becomes so artificial. Jesus invites us to go ahead and cross to the other side of the lake or sea to experience life at its “raw” so we can feel again our souls within and desire him anew until we finally meet him wherever we may be in the world.
It is when we are at the other side of the sea in the midst of a storm when Jesus comes, immediately answering our cries for help – At once Jesus spoke to them, “Take courage; it is I” – because when we are reduced to emptiness and nothingness, then our faith kickstarts again. Faith, like love, is always an encounter with God.
Try going to the other side, leave your comfort zone to meet Jesus and finally have meaning and direction in life!
Silence is the presence of God.
In the first reading we have heard that beautiful story of Elijah meeting God at the mouth of a cave — not in the strong and heavy wind nor earthquake nor fire like Moses before him.
After the fire, there was a tiny whispering sound. When he heard this, Elijah hid his face in his cloak and went and stood at the entrance of the cave.
1 Kings 19:12-13
Silence is the place of the presence of God because silence is his language too. Wherever there is silence, we can surely find and meet God there.
That is why Jesus wants us to cross to the other side, to be silent and listen to him.
Photo by author, crossing the Lake of Galilee, May 2019.
In his silence, God teaches us that except for sin, he never considers everything as being finished; everything is a “work-in-progress” even if he seems to be silent that some think he must be absent or even dead.
The world thrives in noise, loud talks, and screams with each voice trying to dominate another resulting in cacophony of sounds. Shakespeare’s Hamlet said it well when he told Polonius what he was reading were “Words, words, words” — nonsense!
Some people like those in power think that the more words they say, the more meaningful their thoughts and ideas become. Worst, they thought that using foul and filthy language make them so natural and credible, not realizing the more they look stupid with their crazy thoughts and ideas not even clowns and comedians would ever attempt to imitate.
But when our words come from deep silence, they come with power and meaning, touching everyone’s heart and inner core.
That is when silence becomes fullness, not emptiness or mere lack of noise and sound.
Like when our medical frontliners and medical experts spoke with one voice last week airing their thoughts about the pandemic — we were all moved and reawakened to realize how we have been going about with our lives almost forgetting them these past five months!
What a tragedy at how our officials in government and Congress reacted negatively, feeling hurt deep inside with the painful truth of how they have been irresponsible from the beginning. Sapul!
Pico Iyer wrote in a TIME magazine essay 30 years ago that “silence is the domain of trust”.
True. The most trustful people are the most silent; those who speak a lot trust no one and most likely, cannot be trusted too.
Jesus invites us to cross to the other side to be silent and learn to trust him. It is only then when we can meet him. In silence.
Photo by Mr. Raffy Tima of GMA-7 News, Manila Bay with Mt. Samat’s Cross at the background, April 2020.
Jesus meets us in darkness.
Jesus asks us to cross to the other side of the lake or sea like his disciples in order to meet us in darkness. This is a paradox because Jesus is the light of the world.
But, note the most notable moments in his life happened in darkness: he was born on the darkest night of the year, he died when darkness covered the whole city of Jerusalem, and he rose from the dead when it was still dark on the first day of the week.
Jesus had overcome darkness! So, what happened to Peter in this episode after being called by Jesus to walk on water too?
Jesus said, “Come.” Peter got out of the boat and began to walk on the water toward Jesus. But when he saw how strong the wind was he became frightened; and, beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!”
Matthew 14:29-30
Imagine how everything was going so well with Peter doing another crossing while crossing the lake! But when he saw how strong the wind was he became frightened; and, beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!”
Jesus calls us into the dark so that we only look for him and upon finding him, focus on him alone. Peter saw the strong wind, not the stronger and powerful Jesus walking on water, that fear overtook him.
That’s the whole point of St. Paul in our second reading today: he was telling the Romans how some people in Israel trusted more in their physical descent from Abraham than in God’s promise of salvation fulfilled in Jesus they have refused to see and recognize as the Christ (Rom.9:1-5).
When in the dark, be silent and still for Jesus is near! Keep your sights at him, not on anything else. Problem in darkness is not God but us who follow other lights or have become delusional.
Photo by Mr. Jim Marpa, 2019.
That is the tragedy we are into as a nation while crossing to the other side of the sea of pandemic in just one boat when our officials see only themselves as always being right. Worst, they all want to be on the stage with all the lights on them as they speak and sing in cacophony like psychopaths.
All the more we must hold on tight, trust and focus in Jesus who is “now here”, not “nowhere” for he will never allow us to perish.
Let us trust Jesus overcoming all these evil, leading us to the shore. Amen.
A blessed rainy Sunday to you and your loved ones!
The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Monday, Week XVI, Year II in Ordinary Time, 20 July 2020
Micah 6:1-4, 6-8 <*(((><< )) + (( >><)))*> Matthew 12:38-42
Praise and glory to you, O God our loving Father for this beautiful Monday! We are midway through the month of July in this challenging year. Yes, 2020 is heavy for most of us with all the various problems we are going through but you have never left us, O Lord.
And that is why, Father, we also wonder what else have we not done that would set things right again?
Let us heed your words, O God.
Let us be reminded of your ways, of your very self by nature around us!
Hear what the Lord says: Arise, present your plea before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voices! Hear, O mountains, the plea of the Lord, pay attention, O foundations of the earth! For the Lord has a plea against his people, and he enters into trial with Israel. O my people, what have I done to you, or how have I wearied you? Answer me! You have been told, O man, what is good, and what the Lord requires of you: Only to do right and to love goodness, and to walk humbly with your God.
Micah 6:1-3, 8
Forgive us, merciful Father, for being “an evil and unfaithful generation” always looking for signs of your loving presence.
Teach us to trust you even if we cannot understand your plans.
May we learn from nature around us that thrives so well in your loving care – full of life, full of zest even without so much attention, reminding us of your saving power in Jesus Christ. Amen.
All photos by author except bougainvillea with our parish church by Gelo Nicolas Carpio in the collage above.
The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Wednesday, Memorial of St. Bonaventure, Bishop and Doctor, 15 July 2020
Isaiah 10:5-7 >><)))*> >><)))*> >><)))*> Matthew 11:25-27
Photo by author, Pyramids of Egypt, May 2019.
Praise and glory to you, O Jesus Christ! With you we praise God our Father, Lord of heaven and earth, in revealing to the little ones your power and majesty, hiding these from the wise and learned of this world.
Thank you for the gift of faith and simplicity, dear Jesus, in making us find in our smallness and sinfulness your love and mercy, your presence and comfort especially in this time of the pandemic when so much pride and power trip are going on not only in our country but also abroad when almost everyone is claiming to be the best and the brightest, of knowing everything.
Just like during the time when Assyria was threatening Israel and Judah, lording it over smaller nations and kingdoms, forgetting there is a God above us all.
Remind anew the proud and arrogant among us today that they are not gods, that they are nothing, that you O God is always above for you are the Lord of heaven and earth.
Will the axe boast against him who hews with it? Will the saw exalt itself above him who wields it? As if a rod could sway him who lifts it, or a staff him who is not wood! Therefore the Lord, the Lord of hosts, will send among his fat ones leanness, and instead of his glory there will be kindling like the kindling of fire.
Isaiah 10:15-16
Teach us, dear Jesus, to be like St. Bonaventure who showed us true wisdom and brilliance shine best in sharing in your pasch or passover by journeying with you in your pains and sufferings in order to see the Father.
Most of all, teach us to follow you more closely as your disciples, desiring only you so we may share you with others especially those suffering and those forgotten not only by their loved ones but even by the society. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Monday, Week XV, Year II in Ordinary Time, 13 July 2020
Isaiah 1:10-17 <*(((><< >0< >><)))*> Matthew 10:34-11:1
Dearest Lord:
Today I pray to you so I may see more clearly your will, your plans for us amid this great darkness cast over us last Friday.
You have seen them all, Lord: they were all too much for me that I find so difficult to focus my sights this Monday as we embark for another week of work and studies, apostolates and ministries, prayers and reflections.
Until now, I am still overwhelmed by the fire that razed the historic Pandacan Church and that infamous death by 70 lawmakers to ABS-CBN’s bid to renew their franchise.
Though very painful and sad, I can take the Pandacan fire; in fact, it had strengthened my faith in you. The devotion and tears shed by responding firemen and supportive parishioners were so moving, positively giving me hope for the eventual rebuilding of the church.
But, totally different Lord was the ABS-CBN incident: it was so repulsive to have happened right before us on television’s daily news with men and women claiming to be “honorable” shamelessly handed a decision grossly unfair and unjust. Making things worst are those who rejoice at the victory of evil, unmindful and numb to the sufferings of more than 11,000 employees about to lose their jobs with the network’s going off the air.
I have been waiting for your inspiration, Lord, trying so hard to pray but my mind kept on wandering while my heart continues to cry because the issue here is more than the franchise of a broadcast network but our soul as a nation, as a community of your disciples.
Have you turned your back on us, Father?
When you spread out your hands, I close my eyes to you; though you pray the more, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood! Wash yourselves clean! Put away your misdeeds from before my eyes; cease doing evil; learn to do good. Make justice your aim redress the wronged, hear the orphan’s plea, defend the widow.
Isaiah 1:15-17
Through your Son our Savior Jesus Christ, teach us O God our Father to look more inside ourselves, examine our priorities in life.
Let us look for you within us first before looking outside to see clearly those who need most our loving service in you — not just our family and loved ones or colleagues, or lords and masters in politics and business.
Let us look inside ourselves for you so we can truly find you in others. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Monday, Memorial of St. Maria Goretti, Virgin and Martyr, 06 July 2020
Hosea 2:16, 17-18, 21-22 >><)))*> >><)))*> >><)))*> Matthew 9:18-26
Photo by author, procession cross, 2019.
Today, O God our loving Father, your words have invited me to reflect about “separations” — something we are always afraid of, sometimes beyond our control, but one thing for sure, many times needed in life.
Usually, we dread separations because it means being detached, being away from people we love or, situations we are familiar with.
Like with death, the ultimate separation in this life.
While Jesus was speaking, an official came forward, knelt down before him, and said, “My daughter has just died. But come, lay your hand on her, and she will live.” Jesus rose and followed him, and so did his disciples.
Matthew 9:18-19
Death as a separation is most painful when committed in cold blood, like the martyrdom of the young St. Maria Goretti who was only 12 years old when an older neighbor stabbed her to death in their home near Ancona, Italy after she had refused to give in to his sexual advances in 1902.
Death as a separation is painful and sad because it is “the end” in our running story, when we lose somebody so special, so close to us with whom we have special plans and dreams to be together but suddenly gone.
Sickness and diseases also separate us from others.
Often, people regard sickness as a kind of slow death. And here lies its agonizing pain when due to some medical conditions we are separated from others, unable to fully interact and relate with them even if they are near us. Its worst part is how we can only look from afar at the activities and things going on among our brothers and sisters because we are bedridden, stuck on a wheelchair, disabled, or sometimes deep inside us cannot fully integrate because of the sickness within like bleeding or some form of cancer or deafness.
A woman suffering hemorrhages for twelve years came up behind him and touched the tassel on his cloak. She said to herself, “If only I can touch his cloak, I shall be cured.”
Matthew 9:20-21
Thank you for sending us your Son Jesus Christ who have not only come to lead us to life eternal but also to heal our sickness and mediate in bridging the gaps among us and within us.
By giving himself on the Cross, Jesus has made us whole again, brought us together in unity both in time and eternity for nothing can now separate us from you and from others through his immense love poured upon his death.
Photo by author, Petra in Jordan, 2019.
Give us the grace, O Lord of heaven and earth, to seek and follow your voice always, that sometimes, we on our own separate from our daily routines, from others to be one with you in the desert so we may know you more, love you more and follow you more.
Thus says the Lord: I will allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak to her heart. She shall respond there as in the days of her youth, when she came up from the land of Egypt. I will espouse you in fidelity, and you shall know the Lord.
Hosea 2:16, 17, 22
There are still other forms of separations we experience in life, both good and bad.
Grant us the grace of courage, dear God our Father, to face every separation in life we experience, whether good or bad, permanent or temporary, our choice or imposed upon us — always trusting in the uniting power of your Son Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Friday, Feast of St. Thomas, Apostle, 03 July 2020
Ephesians 2:19-22 >><)))*> <*(((><< >><)))*> <*(((><< John 20:24-29
Thank you very much, dearest Jesus, in founding your church upon your Apostles who were all like us: full of flaws and weaknesses, faults and failures, sins and imperfections.
Every time we celebrate their feasts, you remind us of your call to be near you like the Apostles despite our sins and inadequacies, to be sorry and make amends to return to you to be built into a dwelling of the Holy Spirit.
Brothers and sisters: You are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone. Through him the whole structure is held together and grows into a temple sacred in the Lord; in him you are also being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
Ephesians 2:19-22
Help us, Lord Jesus, to be like St. Thomas your Apostle who came but doubted, returned and saw you a week later and believed, declaring “My Lord and my God” upon seeing you.
But what did St. Thomas really see that he believed?
Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and out it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.” Thomas answered and said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
John 20:27
Through St. Thomas, you have blessed us and helped us, dear Jesus to believe in you not in seeing your face but more in seeing and feeling your wounds.
How wonderful, O Lord!
It is not your face but your wounds that enable us to recognize you and believe in you.
We will never see your face in this lifetime, Lord, but every day in our trials and sufferings, in our pains and hurts, in our wounds and woundedness, in our brokenness — there you are most present in us and among us.
Heighten our awareness of your presence, to accept pains and sufferings for your love and mercy so we may deepen our faith in you, following you always in your path of the Cross.
Like St. Thomas, may we follow you closely at your Cross, offering ourselves like you to be broken and shared so that in our wounds and woundedness, others may find healing, most especially you, sweet Jesus. Amen.
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