Tag: heart

“You’re In My Heart” by Rod Stewart (1977)

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music, 16 February 2020

From Google.

I have always been a big fan of Rod Stewart since my elementary days when his 1977 hit “You’re In My Heart” was released. Since then I have followed his career, saving on my baon to buy some of his records and cassette tapes that some of my relatives doubted if I would ever become a priest with my kind of music!

But, when I entered the high school seminary in 1979 and heard our rector and spiritual director playing Rod Stewart’s music, that’s when I realized I could still become a priest with my kind of music.

And so, I finally became a priest in 1998 after leaving the seminary in 1982 – not because of rock music – that 21 years after, here still rockin’, now blogging to relate secular music with our Sunday gospel.

Pilgrims entering the Church of the Beatitudes with a painting of the Jesus giving his Sermon on the Mount. Photo by author, May 2019, the Holy Land.

This Sunday, Jesus continues his Sermon on the Mount, inviting us to look deeper into our hearts to see how much love and respect we have there for God and for others.

He cites four grave sins – murder, adultery, divorce, and lies – that all begin in our hearts.

Like what Jesus would later tell us, it is not what enters us that defile us but what comes from our hearts.

All troubles and sins outside like the wars and famines, the corruption and injustices that happen begin right inside our hearts.

And that is why we have chosen Rod Stewart’s classic “You’re In My Heart” that speaks of the great love – perhaps a crush or first love to a high school classmate.

Rod Stewart wrote this song and the lyrics are not only poetic but also playfully true that we can all identify with it, especially us men who have gone through the same feelings and experiences when we think of girls and sports at the same time while always lagging in our academics (LOL).

It is something like what our teachers used to tell us in elementary and high school: “boys will always be boys but girls turn into ladies and then into women”.

Have a heart, bask in the feeling of loving, and mature in our love in Christ!

You’re in my heart, you’re in my soul
You’ll be my breath should I grow old
You are my lover, you’re my best friend
You’re in my soul
My love for you is immeasurable
My respect for you immense
You’re ageless, timeless, lace and fineness
You’re beauty and elegance
You’re a rhapsody, a comedy
You’re a symphony and a play
You’re every love song ever written
But honey, what do you see in me?
You’re in my heart, you’re in my soul
You’ll be my breath should I grow old
You are my lover, you’re my best friend
You’re in my soul
You’re an essay in glamor
Please pardon the grammar
But you’re every schoolboy’s dream
You’re Celtic, United, but baby I’ve decided
You’re the best team I’ve ever seen

Spiritual decluttering and tidying

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Wednesday, Week V, Year II, 12 February 2020

1 Kings 10:1-10 ><)))*> 0 <*(((>< Mark 7:14-23

Photo by author, Baguio Cathedral, January 2019.

Thank you for coming to us, Lord Jesus Christ, to save us, to cleanse us of our sins. What a tremendous grace and gift from you who are sinless to own up and wash away our sins!

Long before Mari Kondo had come advocating decluttering and tidying our homes, you were there first, O Lord, spiritually cleansing us, our inner selves in order to experience your peace and wisdom like King Solomon.

What must have impressed the Queen of Sheba in meeting King Solomon was more of his inner peace and stability, sincerity and honesty in answering all her questions: he was not hiding anything negative inside himself as he exuded with positive vibrations.

Precisely what Jesus was telling the people of his time and us today:

“Hear me, all of you, and understand. Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile… From within the man, from his heart, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within and they defile.”

Mark 7:14-15, 21-23
From Google.

Cleanse our hearts, our inner selves, Lord Jesus Christ.

Please do some spiritual “Mari Kondo-ing” into our souls to discard all filth and negative vibes we have been senselessly keeping, even nurturing, holding on in the hope of avenging for the wrongs done against us.

Cleanse us inside, Lord, so we may be filled with your light of reason and sparks of joy. Amen.

Wanted: Prayer from the heart!

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Thursday, Week 1, Year 2, 16 January 2020

1 Samuel 4:1-11 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Mark 1:40-45

Altar of the Church of All Nations beside the Garden of Gethsemane in Jerusalem where Jesus prayed before his arrest on Holy Thursday. Photo by author May 2019.

Lord Jesus Christ, our Master and Divine Teacher, please teach us how to pray like you. Teach us how to truly pray that is pleasing to the Father not in the social media as many of us seem to be doing these days amid the eruptions of Taal Volcano recently.

May we be reminded of the experience of the Israelites in the first reading that despite the presence of God’s Ark of the Covenant in their battle with the Philistines, they were defeated.

Worst, the Ark of the Covenant was captured and among those dead were Eli’s sons, Hophni and Phinehas (1Sm.4:10-11)!

Remind us that it is the Holy Spirit within us who prays and calls out to you, O God, because we do not really know how to pray. Dispose ourselves unto your will, O God, like that who came and knelt to beg before Jesus, saying,

“If you wish, you can make me clean.” Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand, touched the leper, and said to him, “I do will it. Be made clean.” The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean.

Mark 1:40-42

Dear God, may we heed the calls of Pope Francis in Laudato Si that each of us seriously change our own ways of living, to have a shift in our lifestyles that respects nature as part of your creation, part of our lives.

We have long disrespected you and nature, O God.

Cleanse our hearts, strengthen us in facing Taal’s fury and heed her voice hereafter to take care of her. Amen.

Loving shades of God

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Monday, Advent Week I, 02 December 2019

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.

Womanly heart, Manly courage

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Wednesday, Week XXXIII, Year I, 20 November 2019

2 Maccabees 7:1, 20-31 ><)))*> <*(((>< Luke 19:11-28

Candle and ordo in our sacristy, 17 November 2019.

Today’s first reading is very interesting, Lord, especially that part describing the disposition of the mother of the seven Maccabean brothers facing execution:

Filled with a noble spirit that stirred her womanly heart with manly courage, she exhorted each of them in the language of their forefathers…

2 Maccabees 7:21

I really wonder the meaning of “womanly heart with manly courage” but something tells me it is exactly what we need these days.

A womanly heart is a faithful heart, like a mother who would never forsake her child (Is. 49:15). It is a heart willing to bear all pains in life, suffering in silence, totally empty for the beloved and filled with God.

In this age of “instants” where lines are always moved to accommodate our whims and selfish desires, we need a womanly heart that is rooted and inclined to you O God.

Like the mother of the Maccabean brothers, she freely gave up her sons and exhorted them to look more intently to you, God, than to her herself, insisting that in the end, we are all answerable to you alone, O Lord.

Our sacristy table, 17 November 2019.

Manly courage, on the other hand, Lord is perhaps our ability to muster our strength to be truthful about our very selves.

It is something that still pertains to the heart because the word “courage” is from “cor” or heart.

A manly heart is a sincere heart that gallantly accepts one’s limitations than pretend to be somebody else.

In our suffocating world of social media where everybody is blowing out of proportion everything including one’s self, it is very ironic that while everybody claims to be the best, the more our lives are in a mess.

Like those servants in your parable, O Lord, grant us a manly heart so we may graciously accept our role and mission in this life to please you than pretend to be somebody else who really has nothing at all. Amen.

What Jesus looks for and how we see

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Friday, Week XXIX, Year I, 25 October 2019

Romans 7:18-25 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Luke 12:54-59

Photo by Noelle Otto on Pexels.com

What a beautiful way to end the week of work and studies, O Lord, when you asked us to read the signs of the times.

Jesus said to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west you say immediately tat it is going to rain — and so it does; and when you notice that the wind is blowing from the south you say that it is going to be hot — and so it is. You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky; why do you not know how to interpret the present time? Why do you not judge for yourselves what is right?”

Luke 12:54-57

In this age of social media where everything is being shown and seen by everyone, it is very unfortunate that we still fail to see beyond the physical realities.

In an age when everything and everyone is seen, we have become more superficial than ever and have refused to see more deeper than what appears to the eyes.

We look outside of us to explain everything like in the news and in the internet, at YouTube and Facebook, Google and Wikipedia.

Rarely do we look deep inside ourselves like St. Paul to realize the greater battle going on deep within each one of us between good and evil.

Teach us Lord to see more the spiritual meanings of the things happening in us and around us, to always look deep into our hearts to see and realize the need to be good and just, kind and loving.

Maybe if we can look more often into our hearts and look piercingly into the heavens to find you, perhaps we can have a better world with lesser crimes and hatred among peoples. Amen.

It is never too late with God

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Wednesday, Feast of St. Augustine, 28 August 2019

1 Thessalonians 2:9-13 ><)))*> ><)))*> Matthew 23:27-32

O God our loving Father! Today we celebrate the feast of one of your greatest saints of all time, St. Augustine.

His life story itself is a gospel, a good news of your love and mercy, of your salvation in Christ Jesus!

It is never too late to love you, O Lord, for our hearts are restless until they rest on you!

Like the song of the psalmist today, “You have searched me and you know me, O Lord” that despite my many sins, my great pride, you patiently wait for me to go back to you like St. Augustine.

In him, we have found hope and and chances to be become better and holy.

Like St. Augustine, give us the gift of humility of accepting our humanity, our weaknesses and sinfulness to be converted into better persons.

Like St. Augustine, may we use our intelligence for your greater glory and not for our selfish ends and other evils.

Most of all, purify our hearts always that it may always seek you and follow you. Amen.

Funeral of St. Augustine by Bennozo Gozzoli at Florence. At the time of his death, St. Augustine was a towering figure in the Church and the entire Western world at that time with his hundreds of letters, treatises and books that shaped our thoughts and provided foundations for our many doctrines still very much in use these days.

Decluttering our inner self

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul
Monday, Week XIX, Year I, 12 August 2019
Deuteronomy 10:12-22 >< }}}*> < *{{{>< Matthew 17:22-27
From Google.

Moses said to the people: “Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and be no longer stiff-necked.”

Deuteronomy 10:16

Your words, O Lord, today are so shocking. Even funny. And difficult to relate with.

But that is exactly what we need to hear and learn these days: your words that shake and jolt our inner selves that cleanse and lead us to a more genuine and intimate relationship with you.

Like those Israelites wandering at the desert, rebelling against you, we have become stiff-necked. We have refused to look up to you as well as look inside our hearts to see you and follow you.

Help us to circumcise our hearts – not physically but spiritually – like what Marie Kondo has been advocating of decluttering our spaces to experience inner joy. So often we refuse to admit how our outer selves and homes look like indicate our inner selves.

It is you, Lord Jesus, who probes our hearts and guide us like Marie Kondo, step by step, to declutter our hearts.

May your light enable us to see and remove the many stacks of materialism, compartments of insecurities, and drawers of pretensions and other lies that clutter our inner selves, our hearts that keep us away from you and from others.

Like what you did today in the gospel when you taught Peter a beautiful lesson of being nice among our enemies and detractors who try to destroy us always, may we look more often inside our hearts to see YOU as the most essential in life than simply following the ways of the world.

May the example of St. Jane Frances Chantal whose feast we celebrate today, help us to keep that inner glow of your love within us when facing difficult situations in life like problems with in-laws and being widowed.

Fill us with the same charity you have given her in helping the poor as well as the forgotten people of the society.

We pray through her intercession for parents and children separated from one another due to many reasons, either by choice or circumstances.

Bless also the members of the congregation she had founded, the Sisters of Visitation that they may continue her wonderful works of charity among the poor. Amen.

Slow of heart

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe, Wednesday, Easter Octave, 24 April 2019
Acts 3:1-10///Luke 24:13-35
Road to Emmaus. From Google.

How interesting is Easter becoming, O Lord! Yesterday, Peter’s listeners were “cut to the heart” upon hearing your good news of salvation. Today, as you walked along with two disciples going to Emmaus feeling so sad with your death and news of missing body, you expressed great surprise at their being “slow of heart to believe”.

And he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are! How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them what referred to him in all the Scriptures.

Luke 24:25-27

So many times Lord, we are slow of heart to believe because we refuse to see the bigger picture in life when setbacks and failures can be staging points for greater growth and maturity. We choose to be mediocre and be contented with whatever is before us, refusing to strive and rise.

So many times Lord, we feel like that man crippled from birth at the Beautiful Gate of the temple contented in begging alms without realizing that negative things in our lives can enable us to receive the gift of life.

Like that crippled man from birth at the Beautiful Gate, let us seize every moment of meeting you, having you in our lives. Amen.

Healing of a Lame by Peter and John on a tapestry by Raphael at the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. Photo from Google.

Cut to the heart

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul, Tuesday, Easter Octave, 23 April 2019
Acts 2:36-41///John 20:11-18
Photo from Google.

Now, when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and they asked Peter and the other Apostles, “What are we to do, my brothers?”

Acts 2:37

What a powerful expression, O Lord Jesus Christ: “they were cut to the heart” upon hearing the preaching by St. Peter about you on Pentecost day, on how the people have killed you, on how they failed to recognize you as the Christ.

They were cut to the heart, they were so moved.

Yesterday O Lord, many of us were also cut to the heart with the powerful earthquake that rocked us hard late afternoon. Many prayed, many wondered what’s going to happen next. And many asked what are we to do?

Suddenly, people remembered you and called on you. That is always the case when calamities strike us, when problems arise in our families. We are cut to the heart. Our faith is awakened, we become conscious not only of you but of others we used to take for granted.

But there is something more wonderful in being cut to the heart, O Lord.

Mary Magdalene was also cut in the heart upon discovering your empty tomb that Easter morning. Give us that same grace of always seeking you, looking for you whenever we feel we have lost you.

So often, you come to us, calling us with our name but we never listen to you, always forgetting how much you love us, how much you have forgiven us with our many sins, how you have changed us.

Remind us like Mary not to touch you because from now on, we must relate with you in a higher level, that the most important thing to do is to proclaim to others most especially with our lives that we have seen you, that you are risen.

That is the most kindest and wonderful kind of cut of all, Jesus. Amen.

Jesus telling Mary Magdalene not to touch him in a painting at the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi in Italy. Photo from Google.