What a wonderful way to start the week of work and school with you, O Lord Jesus Christ dwelling in me! St. Paul perfectly said it in today’s first reading:
“God chose to make known the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; it is Christ in you, the hope for glory.”
Colossians 1:27
Inspire me, Jesus, like St. Paul not to be disheartened by suffering, to be filled with passion in proclaiming your gospel not only in words but most of all in deeds. Take away all the hurts and pains, insecurities and doubts within me that prevent you from reigning in me.
Remind me, Jesus, that your gospel is not a philosophy nor a collection of doctrines or of ethics but your very person so that in preaching and witnessing your gospel, I may lead others to a personal encounter with you, O Lord.
Dwell in me, Jesus Christ, and let me do something good today like what you did to the man with a withered hand on a sabbath day. Amen.
Colossians 1:15-20 ><}}}*> ><}}}*> ><}}}*> Luke 5:33-39
Photo by Ms. Jo Villafuerte, Atok, Benguet, 01 September 2019.
Brothers and sisters, Christ Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For in him were created all things in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible… all things were created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. For in him all the fullness was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile all things for him, making peace by the Blood of his cross through him whether those on earth or those in heaven.
Colossians 1:15-16, 17, 19-20
What a lovely hymn in your honor, O Lord Jesus Christ! Truly in you we have experienced and proven indeed there is a God who loves us so much, and most of all, a personal God who relates with us, engages himself with us, one with us.
What a wonderful way to celebrate the first Friday of September 2019, a week of praying for important virtues we have forgotten in this modern world like the need to console those alone, to encourage so others may be whole again as a person, to be grateful for the person not the favor received, and to have knowledge to see God in everything by embracing the truths of faith.
In this age when God is just posited as a footnote in our daily lives, as a safety feature just in case things get off-hand or bad, you remind us to draw to you closer than ever in prayers, the Eucharist, and most of all, in fasting — something modern men and women frown upon and totally disregard.
Give us the grace O Lord Jesus to empty ourselves, to create a space within us for you to stay and dwell, and reign most of all.
We live today in the most trying times: everybody wants to be in control of everything, everybody wants to be heard and be seen alone as right with their twisted points of view about life and realities.
Bless us, Jesus, to find our way back to you, to be one with you again for you are the very reason why we are here. You are not just a person who had lived in the past we remember but the very reason of creation and redemption in whom the fullness of God is found. Amen.
Thursday, Feast of St. Dominic de Guzman, 08 August 2019
Numbers 20:1-13 >< )))*> <*((( >< Matthew 16:13-23
From Google.
A blessed Thursday, O Lord, especially to the Dominicans spread across the globe proclaiming your good news of salvation in words and in deeds.
Thank you very much, Lord, for the gift of St. Dominic whose name – Domini canis – literally means “hound of the Lord” or “dog of the Lord” .
Teach us to be like St. Dominic who was faithful and true to you, Jesus.
May we be like him in that dog in his mother’s dream who brought the torch of truth to dispel the great darkness of sin and evil in the world.
Today, there is a great plague of darkness infecting the modern means of communications where trolls and cyberbullies spread lies and falsehoods like fake news and misinformation to manipulate and mislead the minds of some into taking violent and truncated views about life and persons.
Make us your modern St. Dominic – Domini canes – to bring that torch of reason and decency, charity and truth to dispel this darkness engulfing us and have actually led to many forms of violence and animosities among peoples here and abroad lately.
Help us contemplate your person, Lord Jesus Christ like St. Dominic so we would know you more clearly, love you more dearly, and follow you more closely.
May we realise that whenever we fail to show who you really are, when we cannot personally confess like St. Peter that “you are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Mt.16: 16), troubles begin to happen not only in the Church but also in the world like racism, gender inequality, and many forms of injustice.
When we your followers do not truly know you as the Christ, then we cease to become Christians when we stop respecting others who are not like us in color, creed, and culture; when we disregard the value of life, and finally, when we stop seeing each other as brothers and sisters in you.
How sad that until now, many Christians say many different things about you, Jesus, because we have miserably failed in being your faithful witnesses.
Help us Lord to “think more as God does, not as human beings do” (Mt.16:23) by imitating St. Dominic who spent much time “at the foot of your Cross.”Amen.
According to tradition, when the mother of St. Dominic was pregnant with him, she dreamt of a dog running their dark streets at night with a torch in its mouth, foretelling his future mission of bringing the light of Christ through education by founding the Order of Preachers.
Lawiswis ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Ika-21 ng Hunyo 2019
Larawan mula sa Google.
Tinanong sila ni Hesus, “Hindi pa ba ninyo nababasa ang talatang ito sa Kasulatan? ‘Ang batong itinakwil ng mga tagapagtayo ng bahay Ang siyang naging batong panulukan. Ginawa ito ng Panginoon, At ito’y kahanga-hanga!'”
Mateo 21:42
Madalas sa ating buhay Tayo'y nanamlay sa maraming Dagok at kabiguan At ating nalilimutan itong katotohanan:
Kagandahan at kabutihan Ng Diyos sa ating nagmamahal Kanya tayong sinasamahan Kung saan hindi nating siya inaasahan.
Pangunahin niyang katangia'y Magtago at magkubli sa mga tabi-tabi Na sa tingin nati'y mga walang silbi Sa pag-aakala nating Diyos ay naroon lang sa malalaki.
Kaya nang Siya ay magkatawang-tao Hindi siya dumating na malaki Kungdi sinilang na munting baby Inaruga at pinalaki.
Nang si Hesus ay magsimulang magsilbi Doon siya natagpuan sa mga tabi-tabi Humirang mga lalaki na wala namang sinabi At nakisama sa mabababang uri ng babai.
Larawan mula sa Rappler sa pamamagitan ng Google.
Kaya kung ang buhay ay isang laro Natitiyak ko paborito sa lahat ni Kristo Ang taguang pung at hindi patintero Lalo nang hindi ang tumbang preso.
Pag masdan ninyo nang matanto: Abalang-abala tayo sa paghahanap Ng kung anu-anong natatago Gayong tayo naman ang nabuburo.
Palaging taya, palaging kawawa; At kung minsan nama'y nadaraya. Kaya kung si Hesus ay iyong matagpuan at... Pung! Siya na ang taya, ikaw ang malaya.
Stations of the Cross at the wall of the Catholic chapel inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Photo by author, 04 May 2019.
Praise and glory to you, O Lord Jesus Christ! Thank you for another week about to close with another one soon to start. Most of all, thank you, Jesus, for always standing by our side especially in our moments of crisis and darkness.
So many times we find ourselves like your Apostle Thomas the Twin in today’s gospel who ask you with so many questions that are often simple and even silly. But, you always answer them filled with profound truth.
Thomas said to him, “Master, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
John 14:5-6
O Lord, forgive us for being so slow sometimes like Thomas with our level of understanding your words and teachings, even your very self.
However, we pray also for the sincerity of Thomas in asking that question that now defines you as “the way, the truth, and the life.” In answering that question, you have assured us of never abandoning us, of always fulfilling your words and your plans for us that so often we could not see nor understand at the start.
Help us to be faithful to your words as Paul preached in the synagogue of Antioch in our first reading today. May we always trust your words, Jesus, by following your path of the Cross for you always fulfill them and crowned it with your glorious Resurrection. Amen.
Ninth Station of the Cross before entering the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Photo by author April 2017.
There is something very unique among us that binds us Filipinos as one whenever we go abroad aside from being “maganda” as the people of Jordan, Israel and Egypt described us in a recent pilgrimage. Whenever we are in a foreign country, we Filipinos have that inner recognition that we are kababayan, something like what Jesus tells us in the gospel today.
“My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can take them out of my hand.”
John 10:27-28
This Sunday, we start a shift in our gospel readings: there would be no more stories of the appearances of Jesus after Easter until his Ascension with passages taken from St. John to deepen in us the meaning of Christ’s Resurrection.
Observe, my dear readers, the four verbs we have in our very short gospel today: hear my voice, know them, follow me, and give them eternal life. Right away we notice the inner recognition of Jesus Christ and his followers us, his sheep. See the flow of the first three verbs in our Lord’s declaration: my sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me. It is quite odd in the sense that the sheep follow the voice because the shepherd knows them when it should be the other way around: my sheep know me, they hear my voice and they follow me.
Remember the inner recognition we talked about the other Sunday, that feeling of “a basta!” when deep inside us we are so certain of somebody or something? This is an example of that experience we have going abroad when we meet a kababayan: by just looking at each other, we already know we are Filipinos as if they first knew us, then we hear them, and follow them. It is something we also have deep within us with Jesus our Lord and God.
The lovely district of Jaffa Tel Aviv where you meet many Filipinos too. Photo by author, 03 May 2019.
These four verbs of hearing, knowing, following, and giving express relationship and ties that bind us together as a people and nation. To hear and to follow imply communion; anyone who hears and follows somebody recognizes the speaker’s authority and voice, entrusting one’s self to his or her guidance like in the family where we hear and follow our parents as we celebrate Mothers’ day today. Hearing and following lead to a kind of attachment as children to the parents or a disciple to a master. The parents, especially the mother knows her children very well that she always thinks the best for them, doing her best to give them a better and secured future. On our return flight yesterday from Bahrain, we chanced upon many Filipina OFW mothers returning home with their children – some are still infants, others are little children or young kids. They are the mothers who sacrifice so much so their children and family can have a better future.
Going back to Jesus Christ our Good Shepherd, we level up the meaning and application of those four verbs, especially the knowing and giving that pertain to Jesus Christ.
More than our communion and unity in Christ as his disciples, we ought to hear and follow him because only Jesus knows us so well. Only Jesus knows our deepest pains and hurts, our deepest longings and desires. Most of all, only Jesus loves us so much despite of his knowing of how sinful we are that he calls by name like Mary Magdalene on that Easter morning or Simon Peter at the shore of Lake Tiberias after asking him thrice if he loves him to assure his forgiveness of denying him thrice on Holy Thursday.
Most of all, we ought to hear and follow Jesus because only he can give us eternal life for he is life himself (Jn.11:25)! It was only Jesus who had walked with us in every valley of darkness, never abandoning us, and most of all, passed over through every pain and suffering, even death so that we may share in the glory of his new life. Only Jesus can bring back our shattered lives when we squander this gift of life like the prodigal son. It is only Jesus who would never judge us or put us into shame in our sinfulness to give us a chance to sin no more like the woman caught committing adultery. Only Jesus can promise us heaven because it is only him who had joined us in our sinfulness without committing sin by dying on the cross like Dimas the repentant thief.
These, my friends, are the inner unity that bind us together in Christ Jesus our Good Shepherd of which John the beloved was given a glimpse in the second reading. This also shows us how salvation for everyone, not only for Jews or any particular group, has always been in God’s plan from the beginning that he sent us his only Son Jesus Christ. May we all hear and follow his voice always, especially through our dear mothers. Amen.
Entrance to the miraculous “Milk Grotto” chapel of the Franciscans beside the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. Photo by the author, 05 May 2019.
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe, Easter Week III-C, 05 May 2019
Of all the great things one can truly experience in a Holy Land pilgrimage, it is the gift of “internal recognition” of the Risen Jesus Christ that must be most touching, most wonderful because it always brings peace and joy within.
Like the beloved disciple in our gospel this Sunday, it is when we recognize Jesus internally that we “softly exclaim” deep within “It is the Lord!” (Jn.21:7).
It is the ordinary moment that happens so sudden during prayer, in the Mass, or simply being at a holy site or seeing a beautiful sight when tears suddenly roll in our eyes, something cold or warm envelops you, or your hair rising because you remember and feel the Lord coming to you. According to our guide here, the 153 large fish caught by the apostles in that third appearance of the Risen Lord at Tiberias is significant: 153 in the Hebrew alphabet means “I Am GOD.”
And that’s what we feel not only in a pilgrimage but in ordinary life when we remember God filling you like a net with large fish like in Tiberias. In an instant even very fleeting, we realize we have been so blessed even if we have sinned and failed to recognize Jesus by the shore.
Here at the Holy Land, whether it is your first or second or third pilgrimage, there is always something new to discover, to realize, to experience, and to see. It is like that experience at the shore of Tiberias when Jesus appeared for the third time to his apostles after Easter where he awaits you for breakfast, with “a charcoal fire with fish on it and bread” (Jn.21:9). Here it is beyond doubt our God is a God of surprises.
Yesterday we had our Mass at the Chapel of Flagellation at 130pm at the Via Dolorosa. Immediately after that, we had via crucis or station of the cross. By 330pm we were already inside the Holy Sepulchre Church climbing towards Golgotha, the Crucifixion site. Exactly while lining up, the church was closed and we were told there would be no veneration because the Patriarch was coming for incensing the whole church.
Everything stopped and I felt a bit sad for my group. But lo and behold! What a beautiful experience not only to witness an Orthodox ceremony! While resting outside the only Roman Catholic chapel, I asked the Franciscan if we can pray inside. He asked me to wait and after 20 minutes, he let us in. I celebrated Mass there in 2005 with 14 other priests and two bishops from the Philippines. I could not recall the name of the chapel so I asked the Franciscan. He told me it is the chapel of the Easter meeting of Jesus and his Mother – the Salubong or Encounter we celebrate early morning of Easter Sunday. It was a new discovery for me!
In the gospels, Jesus first met Mary Magdalene but according to St. Ignatius of Loyola in his Spiritual Exercises, it was Mary his mother whom the Risen Lord first met because she was the first to try believe Jesus is the Christ! Most of all, Mary is the first to truly love Jesus most. And that is why we have the Salubong.
Today in the gospel Jesus asked Simon thrice, “do you love me more than this?”
It is the same question Jesus is asking us this Sunday. We have to first love him in order to follow him. We have to first love him in order to meet and see him, even with our imperfect love like Simon Peter.
You are loved and you are prayed for always. Have a blessed Sunday and week ahead! Amen.
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.
Loving God our Father, make our hearts bigger to accept you and let our minds be contented when we can no longer understand you. So often we complain of so many things we do not have, failing to see what you have given us, because we always try to understand you and your ways, both beyond us.
From Mount Hor the children of Israel set out on the Red Sea road, to bypass the land of Edom. But with their patience worn out by the journey, the people complained against God and Moses, “Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in this desert, where there is no food or water? We are disgusted with this wretched food!” In punishment the Lord sent among the people saraph serpents, which bit then people so that many of them died.
Numbers 21:4-6
Forgive us O Lord for complaining so much, forgetting to be grateful for what we have received from you freely. Forgive us most of all for challenging you, questioning you, doubting you. Please forgive us when we forget you are our God, we are your creatures.
How amazing were the poor among those in the temple that day listening to Jesus. So humble, so open to your presence who accepted the Christ while speaking in mysterious ways as a Person that the learned could not understand. How amazing were those poor they recognized the Christ in his pronouncements of the “I AM”:
“For if you do not believe that I AM, you will die in your sins… When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I AM, and that I do nothing on my own, but I say only what the Father taught me.”
John 8:24, 28
Remind us always, O God, that you are not a concept to be understood but a Person to be loved and accepted. Amen.
Crucifix at the Chapel of the Immaculate Conception Seminary by National Artist Erwin Castrillo, Guiguinto, Bulacan. Photo by ICS alumnus (Batch 82) Chester Ocampo, November 30, 2014.
40 Shades of Lent, Wednesday, Week II, 20 March 2019 Jeremiah 18:18-20///Matthew 20:17-28
Our loving Father, today we share with Jeremiah in crying out to you, “Heed me, O Lord, and listen to what my adversaries say. Must good be repaid with evil that they should dig a pit to take my life? Remember that I stood before you to speak in their behalf, to turn away your wrath from them” (Jer. 18:19-20).
It is so difficult, O Lord, to understand and accept such a reality that after all the love and kindness, the compassion and concern we did for some people, we are repaid with evil.
Help us remain in you in this journey to Jerusalem with our crosses, serving one another without counting the costs or expecting to be paid in return with good favors even recognition.
May we be contented in simply walking with you, trusting in you, sharing with you.
Clear our minds and our hearts of the belief or inclination that every good deed must be rewarded by anybody. May we not be like the mother of James and John in the gospel today who asked that her sons “sit at your right and the other at your left, in your kingdom” (Mt.20:20).
The greatest reward in doing good is becoming like YOU. Amen.
lordmychef.com 