Tag: life direction

What is in a name?

The Lord Is My Chef Simbang Gabi Recipe, 17 December 2019

Genesis 49:2.8-10 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Matthew 1:1-17

Parokya ng Banal na Mag-Anak, Violeta Village, Guiguinto, Bulacan. Photo by Arch. Philip Santiago.

Today we shift our focus in our Advent preparations to the first coming of Jesus Christ when he was born in Bethlehem more than 2000 years ago. Strictly speaking, the Christmas countdown officially starts only today especially with our very long but beautiful gospel from Matthew.

Maybe you are wondering what’s good with our gospel today when it is all about names that mostly sound very funny.

Importance of names: origin and mission

In ancient time, giving name to children was a very serious matter among peoples, especially the Jews.

For them, a name indicates two very important things about a person: one’s origin and mission in life, something parents of today have entirely forgotten, even ignorant because they are more concerned with fad and being unique in naming their children that always end up as a joke as it is always bizarre and weird.

And their poor kid suffers for the rest of his/her life like that man named “Fantastic”. All his life he felt so sad being called Fantastic that he told his wife when he dies, never put his name on his tombstone.

Eventually Mr. Fantastic died and the wife kept her promise not to put his name on his marker. But she felt the need to honor her beloved husband who was so good and honest that in lieu of his name, she asked a tribute written to honor him.

It said, “Here lies a very gentle and loving husband and father who never looked at other women except his wife.”

Every time passersby see and read that tribute, they would always exclaim “Fantastic!”

From Google.

Going back to the importance of giving names….

Corporations are more serious than parents in choosing names and trademarks to their products and services. Every trademark and brand always evokes deeper meanings than just being a product or entity that some of them have entered the vocabulary of many languages like Google, Xerox, and Frigidaire.

And the sad thing about this is how many babies are now being named to follow things and products than the other way around, giving more value to things than human beings!

The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham became the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers.

Matthew 1:1-2
Detail of the ceiling of Parokya ng Banal na Mag-anak after the front or main door: the genealogy of Jesus Christ that starts with Abraham. Great concept by the Parish Priest, Fr. Ed Rodriguez. Photo by Arch. Philip Santiago.

Genealogy of Jesus as direction of Matthew’s Gospel

St. Matthew opens his gospel account with the genealogy of Jesus to settle right at the very start the question about the origin and mission of Jesus Christ.

Here we find the artistry and genius of St. Matthew, some 2000 years ahead of the late Stephen Covey’s third habit of highly effective people: “begin with an end in mind.”

By starting his genealogy with Abraham and David, St. Matthew gives us the whole gospel message in a glance because they are the two key figures in the beginning and realization of God’s promise to send Jesus Christ who would save us all.

Let us just focus on Abraham which means “he who is the father of many.”

It was to him that the story of God’s promise began after the dispersal of mankind following the collapse of the Tower of Babel.

From then on, Abraham points to what is ahead in God’s divine plan, not only for himself but also for the whole mankind for it is through him that blessings come to all. His journey from his birthplace of Ur into Canaan is symbolic of his journey from the present into the future, walking in faith following the Lord’s path and divine plan.

In Abraham we find God starting anew the history of mankind after the Fall that leads up to Jesus Christ who came to lead us all back into the Father.

With Abraham as the main header of Christ’s genealogy, we find not only the beginning but also the end of St. Matthew’s gospel which is the universality of God’s plan of salvation with Jesus telling his disciples to make disciples of all nations (Mt.28:19).

Detail of the ceiling near the sanctuary of Parokya ng Banal na Mag-Anak, the culmination of the genealogy of Jesus. Photo by Arch. Philip Santiago.

Imitating Abraham into our time

Last December 10 was a very important date for me and my parish: it was the ordination date of our first priest.

While waiting for the start of the Mass at the front door (which is actually the back of the Cathedral or any church), I just prayed in silence thinking about my role in the ordination of Fr. RA Valmadrid.

While I marveled at the beautiful renovations of our Cathedral, my sight was slowly moved towards the altar.

It was like an “Abraham experience” in Matthew’s genealogy for me: a wayfarer on a journey into the future, towards God, walking in faith.

In a quick glance, I kind of saw the future glory of every faithful coming to the altar to receive Jesus Christ in the sacraments especially the Holy Eucharist.

I just felt the beauty of entering the Cathedral, or any church which is more than stepping into a building but more of entering God himself, our point of origin and final destination.

Do we realize this tremendous blessing and grace of being baptized, of being a child of God, not only given with a name but most of all, of being counted into the family of God our Father?

In the first reading we have heard Jacob calling his 12 sons. What is so striking here is the blessing Jacob had bestowed upon Judah, instead of Joseph who was the best of all his sons, the holiest and most intelligent.

Like Abraham and Judah, or anyone in the genealogy of Jesus Christ, we can find our own selves too not as the vida or contravida but simply being called to be God’s instrument in fulfilling his plan in sending his Son Jesus Christ.

Truth is, God always comes in the most unexpected situations and peoples most of the time.

In Christ Jesus through our Baptism and faith, we find our genealogy – our origin and mission – as children of God.

If you want to get a feel of this reality, try reading aloud, very slowly, the genealogy of Jesus Christ. At the end, include your self, mention your name, your mother and father. Then close your eyes and let your life flash back in silence.

In the silence of your heart, do you find God coming more to you than you to God?

So amazing, is it not? We are all part of Christ’s genealogy. Let’s bring him forth into the world in our life of faithful witnessing like Abraham. Amen.

Malolos Cathedral. Photo by author.

Prelude to leaving into living

Quiet Storm by Fr. Nick F. Lalog II, 31 October 2019

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

As the penultimate month of the year, November for me is something like Thursday – so relaxed when people seem to slow down in anticipation of the coming end of the year or week. It acts like a cushion to prepare us for the “stress” of December or Friday. Or, a prelude to leaving, then living.

Cold winds from Siberia we call amihan intensify during this month while autumn is about to end in the western hemisphere. The climate contributes greatly to this laid-back feeling in November almost everywhere, maybe except Down Under where I haven’t been to.

Photo by hiwa talaei on Pexels.com

Like autumn’s falling leaves, November is marked with three festivals associated with the dead to signal life and eternity.

On its first day, we celebrate All Saints’ Day in recognition of all the departed souls – including our beloved, of course! -now in heaven considered as “saints” aside from those canonized by the Church.

Day after tomorrow, November 2, we celebrate All Souls’ Day to pray for all those departed, especially our loved ones who are still awaiting entrance into heaven in Purgatory.

Then, on November 11, we celebrate St. Martin of Tours’ feast with a “Martinmas” in the old calendar of the Church after which Advent began for the Christmas countdown. Winter also starts in Europe and North America after the Martinmas immortalised in some poems and literature of the 18th and 19th centuries.

Incidentally, St. Martin of Tours (France) used to be a major saint in Europe because he is one of those first saints recognised by the Church as holy people who have died not as martyrs when persecution finally stopped and Christendom started to rise and “flex” her influence.

Photo by Johannes Plenio on Pexels.com

Today, November 11 is celebrated as “Remembrance Day” in Europe along with the Commonwealth nations of Britain and “Veterans Day” in the United States in honor of those who have died in the line of duty during the First World War that ended at the “eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of the year” in 1918. Red poppies take the centerstage on this day to signify the blood offered by the fallen soldiers in that first world war, something very similar to the Christian thinker Tertullian’s assertion that “the blood of the martyrs are the seeds of the Church.”

So many deaths, but so many lives too!

And that is why we celebrate these feasts, whether in the Church or in our civil society.

This is the tragedy of our time when despite all the technological advances and affluence we now have, the more we have been saddled with fear and pains of death and dying.

Focus is more on death as a solution, as an end.

Or, as an entertainment like the pagans in ancient Rome’s Colesseum and of many benighted Christians today celebrating spooky Halloween that underscores the debunked dark side of death.

Photo by Lorenzo Atienza, Malolos Cathedral, 12 June 2019.

In the Old Testament, death was a curse to man’s sins but with Christ’s Passion, Death, and Resurrection, death has become a blessing because he has made it our passing too into eternal life.

No, there is no gap between this life and life-after. It is a continuum where death is just a prelude to eternity.

November is a wonderful reminder to us all of this truth we seem to have forgotten these days when all we see and even seek is darkness and death.

November is like a door opening us towards the end of the year that leads us to new year. The weather is so lovely, not so cold and not so hot, perfectly reminding of the beauty of life and reality of death that invites us to live fully and authentically.

This long weekend, I strongly recommend you read Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s second encyclical, Spe Salvi that speaks a lot about the beauty of this life and life-after. His reflections are simple yet so profound and so touching like the following.

“Man’s great, true hope which he holds firm in spite of all disappointments can only be God… Life in its true sense is not something we have exclusively in or from ourselves: it is a relationship. And life in its totality is a relationship with him who is the source of life. If we are in relation with him who does not die, who is Life itself and Love itself, then we are in life. Then we “live”.

Spe Salvi, number 27.

One of the beautiful movies I have seen while on vacation in November-December 2005 at the US East Coast was “The Last Samurai” starring Tom Cruise who was asked by the boy Emperor of Japan at the end, “Tell me, how did my samurai die?” Tom Cruise replied, “I shall not tell you how your samurai died but how he lived!”

Live life, share life, enjoy life in God and with others!

God with us, Mary beside us

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Monday, Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary, 07 October 2019

Jonah 1:1-2:1-2.11 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Luke 10:25-37

Part of a painting in a church in Seville, Spain depicting the Battle of Lepanto Bay won through the intercession of Our Lady of the Rosary. From Google.

O God our loving Father, as we celebrate the memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary, you have assured us again through the readings of today of your abiding love and presence among us.

In the first reading, you remind us how you continue to call us and send us to many missions and tasks in life even if we often doubt and refuse to follow you like Jonas.

Sometimes, we have to wait for the storms to hit us in this sea of life before we can realize that indeed, you are calling us, that you do believe in us to entrust us with specific tasks and mission in life.

Photo by Mr. Raffy Tima, Batanes, 2018.

And yet, in the many turbulence in this sea of life we are into, you never fail to save us and assure us of your love and mercy like at the Battle of Lepanto Bay in 1571 when the Holy League of Christians crushed the much feared and powerful navy of the Ottoman Turks.

Thank you in giving us the Blessed Virgin Mary as our Mother too to calm our many fears while in the high seas of life.

On the other hand, you dare to challenge us dear God to find you and share you among the most needy of this long and perilous road of life in the Parable of the Good Samaritan.

From Google.

So often, we refuse to leave the security and comfort of our lives than cross the road to reach out to those in the margins left to die in sickness, hunger, and pain- alone.

Through the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Christ, may our eyes be opened, our faith be deepened to find and serve you Lord and Master in the storms of the high seas and in the security of the roads ahead us. Amen.

Bakit nagkaganito buhay natin?

Lawiswis Ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Ika-21 ng Setyembre 2019

Larawan kuha ni G. Chester Ocampo sa Catanduanes, Abril 2019.



Isang gabi pagkaraang magdasal at magnilay
kinailangang pansinin at sagutin 
isang nagtext sa akin:
kanyang tanong ay napakalalim
bumaon din sa aking loobin.
Aniya'y, "bakit nagkaganito ang buhay namin?"
isang tanong tumimo sa akin 
marahil ilang ulit din sa inyo dumating 
nakaka-praning, ang hirap sagutin
bagkus maraming katanungan pa rin.
Ang hirap naman kasi sa atin
kapag maganda buhay natin
dinaraanang landasin ayaw suriin
sa pag-aakalang kasiyahan magpapatuloy pa rin
hindi alintana lahat lilipas din.
Kapag ito ang naitatanong natin
mas malamang mga salarin 
ng suliraning kinalalagyan natin
tiyak hanggang ngayon ay mga tulog at lasing pa rin
hindi kayang aminin ni tanggapin kanilang pagkukulang din. 
Kaya kung ikaw ay nagtatanong
"bakit nagkanito buhay natin?"
tiyak ikaw ay gising at higit na mapalad pa rin
iyong maaapuhap balang araw dahilan
nitong hantungang hindi para sa atin. 
Mga taong nagpapasakit sa atin
kadalasan maraming sugat at sakit na dalahin
sadyang kaawa-awa kung tutuusin 
ni hindi nila batid bakit nagkanito buhay natin 
sigaw ng kanilang loobin sila'y pansinin at saklolohan natin!
Larawan kuha ni G. Chester Ocampo sa Catanduanes, Abril 2019.

“Livin’ It Up” by Bill LaBounty (1982)

Lord My Chef Sunday Music, 11 August 2019
Baguio Pines, January 2018.

I turned 50 in 2015.

People told me that is the “age of enlightenment”.

And I believe so.

After living half a century, I have realised so many things in life that I had Bill LaBounty’s 1982 hit as my theme song, “Livin’ It Up.”

Like the gospel today when Jesus tells us to “gird your loins” or be on guard because death could come so sudden, LaBounty’s “Livin’ It Up” is the perfect Sunday music.

Girding up one’s loins, being on guard means living it up… taking a new persona when we learn to let go of our past to accept and appreciate every present moment, believing deep inside our hearts of more better and more meaningful things to come in our lives.

Girding up on’e loins, being on guard means living it up as matured men and women disposed to more things that are more profound and meaningful than mere existence because we are so aware of our mortality, of our coming to something more lasting that is eternal.

I finally got my life together
Scraped my heart up off the floor
My attitude is so much better
And I hardly ever cry the way I did before
I’ve been livin’ it up
Having my self in time
Livin’ it up
Right from the women to the wine
Livin’ out all those fantasies I never did get to
Those Crazy things I never got to do
I got my self a new persona
Took the service off my phone
These days I live the way I wanna
And I’d do just fine as long as I’m not left alone

Enjoy life in Christ Jesus, our only fulfillment.

Choosing what is difficult

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul
Friday, Week XIV, Year I, 12 July 2019
Genesis 46:1-7, 28-30 >< )))*> <*((( >< Matthew 10:16-23
The pyramids of Egypt. Photo by author, 09 May 2019.

It’s a Friday again, loving Father! Thank you very much for guiding us through, assisting us, helping us through many difficulties and challenges this past week. Indeed, you are our only salvation, O Lord!

In this age when everything is so easy and convenient, with almost everything instantly on our fingertips, please remind us Lord that a little difficulties and sacrifices in life can be good for us too.

Crosses like trials and sacrifices are not punishment but actually blessings for they all make us stronger and better as persons.

Give us the courage to choose what is difficult, to be bold and daring in trying new things, leaving our comfort zones and discarding our old ways so that you may continue to surprise us, Lord.

May your words today to Jacob assure and strengthen those having difficulties in making important decisions about changes and movements in their work and residences, career and directions in life.

“I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make you a great nation. Not only will I go down to Egypt with you; I will also bring you back here, after Joseph has closed your eyes.”

Genesis 46:3-4

Fill us with your Holy Spirit, Jesus, that we may be “shrewd as serpents and simple as doves”, not worrying on how to answer our detractors and persecutors (Mt. 10:16, 19).

Let us endure all sufferings and difficulties in your holy name, O Jesus that we may all be saved. Amen.

From Google.

No going back

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul
Friday, Week XIII, Year I, 05 July 2019
Genesis 23:1-4, 19; 24:1-8, 62-67 >< )))*> Matthew 9:9-13
From Google.

O Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, thank you for this first Friday of the month of July. Like yesterday, it is another “picturesque speechless” in our readings today.

From the first reading, twice did Abraham told his senior servant never to take back his son Isaac to his land of origin in Ur no matter what happens.

“Never take my son back there for any reason,” Abraham told him. The Lord, the God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house and the land of my kin, and who confirmed by oath the promise he then made to me, ‘I will give this land to your descendants’ — he will send his messenger before you, and you will obtain a wife for my son there. If the woman is unwilling to follow you, you will be released from this oath. But never take my son back there!”

Genesis 24:6-8

Help us, O Lord, to never return to our old ways of sins and vices, of broken promises and emptiness in the world. Give us the strength to persevere to bloom where you have planted us. Let us trust in your wisdom. Like Matthew in your gospel today. Let us rise, leave everything behind to follow you.

As Jesus passed by, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the customs post. He said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him.

Matthew 9:9

It is now the seventh month of 2019, Lord Jesus Christ. Time really flies so fast.

Help us in our struggles, in our efforts to follow you, to never go back to our old ways of sinful life.

Help us regain our moral compass in you. Help us stop our backslides. Most of all, help us in keeping our promises and commitments especially those made to you. Amen.

Going back in time to 300 BC to the ancient city of Petra in Jordan, 30 April 2019.

Where are you leading me, Lord?

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul
Solemnity of the Birth of John the Baptist, 24 June 2019
Isaiah 49:1-6 >< }}}*> Acts 13:22-26 >< }}}*> Luke 1:57-66, 80
St. John the Baptist Church in Ein Karem, birthplace of St. John the Baptist. Photo by author, 05 May 2019.

Praise and glory to you, O God our almighty Father! Thank you very much for the gift of life, for the gift of being born into this world to see and experience your majesty. Indeed, it is always good to be alive, no matter what our condition or status in life may be.

Unfortunately, Lord, there are so many times in life that we fail to see life’s beauty because we have taken control over ourselves and everything, leaving no room for you to work in us, with us and through us. So many times, Lord, we wonder what we would be like what the neighbors and relatives of John the Baptist said when he was born.

All who heard this these things took them to heart, saying, “What, then, will this child be?” For surely the hand of the Lord was with him.

Luke 1:66

Perhaps, it will be best for us today to be silent as we celebrate John the Baptist’s birthday to let your hand be upon us too, O God, so we may ponder and pray where you are leading us.

It is the start of work and studies for another week. Some of us are getting tired of the routine, some of us could no longer find meaning and direction in life. And some of us are on the brink of giving up on our many plans and even with our very lives!

Let your hand be upon us, Lord, and lead us to your direction. Guide us with your Holy Spirit. Teach us to lay aside our plans and personal agenda to allow you to take us where you would want us to be. Give us the courage to take that plunge into the unknown, trusting you alone wherever you may be leading us.

So many times Lord, we are like John the Baptist’s father Zechariah who believe so much with ourselves that we forget to trust you.

And many times, too, we are like the relatives and neighbors of Elizabeth who always interfere with your plans, insisting on following traditions and patterns, preventing you from surprising us.

Keep us silent today, Lord, to hear you more, to follow you more wherever you are leading us. Amen.

Pilgrims outside the Church of St. John the Baptist in Ein Karem waiting for their turn to enter his birthplace. What a beautiful sight of people still patiently waiting for God to lead them closer to him.

Dance with My Father

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul
Solemnity of the Blessed Trinity, 16 June 2019
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.

A blessed week ahead to everyone. Amen.

Photo by Jens Johnsson on Pexels.com

Jesus our Way

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul
Friday, Easter Week IV, 17 May 2019
Acts 12:26-33///John 14:1-6
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.