Tag: life

When We Are Rejected for Being Faithful To God

RejectionStayStrong
The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe-Prayer Wednesday
01 August 2018, Week-17/Year-2 Ordinary Time
Jeremiah 15:10,16-21///Matthew 13:44-46

            My dearest God and Father:  So often in life, I go into tantrums before you like Jeremiah when things get rough as I try to be faithful to you.  You have heard me many nights crying like Jeremiah, “Woe to me, mother, that you gave me birth! a man of strife and contention to all the land!  I neither borrow nor lend, yet all curse me.  When I found your words, I devoured them; they became my joy and the happiness of my heart, because I bore your name, O Lord, God of hosts.”(Jer.15:10,16)

            There are times my mind tells me to abandon your ways of peace, to get even with my enemies but you are always there in my heart, pushing me more than ever to intensely seek you in many difficult situations.  Like St. Paul, there is always that urge in me to boast “I am a fool for Christ!”(1Cor.4:10) as I try to understand and forgive, to love and to be kind with people whom I have expected to know me and accept me most.

            What a consolation to learn that most saints like Alphonsus Liguori whose feast we celebrate today also went through many rejections in life – even from his fellow Redemptorists like what happened with Jeremiah and your Son Jesus who were rejected by their countrymen.

            Sorry, my Lord and my God, for complaining, for the tantrums when I am rejected.  You know very well how like St. Augustine my heart is restless until it rests in you.  Despite the many rejections as I strive to be faithful to you, I feel like that man in today’s parable who found a treasure buried in a field, hid it again, and left to sell everything to buy that field.  Or, like the merchant who found the finest pearl and decided to sell everything he has so he could buy that precious pearl.

              Keep me strong, faithful Father, when there are many rejections that come along my way in following you.  Amen. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II,Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria,Bulacan 3022 . 

*Photo from Google.

“Land of the Loving” by David Benoit with Diane Reeves (1986)

SunsetSean2
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music//Week XVI-B//22July 2018
Resting in Jesus Christ

It is again Sunday, the day of the Lord, our rest day too.  Rest is not merely a stop in our tasks and routines; rest is coming home to God.  Our tagalog word for rest is pahinga that literally means to be breathed on.  In the story of creation, man became alive after being breathed on by God.  Whenever we rest in God, we come home to Him and let Him breathe on us His life-giving Spirit in the Holy Mass, in our prayers, and in our family gatherings.  That is when we are also recreated in God.  That is the deeper meaning of “R&R” – rest and recreation can only happen in God.

            Here is a beautiful song by David Benoit sang by Dianne Reeves in 1986, “Land of the Loving.”  It speaks of how a woman had finally found the love of her life, the one who truly loves her and gives meaning to her life.  In finding her true love, she also found home, the land of the loving.  Sing with Dianne in the lovely music by David, recall how Jesus invites you to come home to Him and rest.  When you find Jesus and rest in Him, then, you are home sweet home…

Deep in your eyes is a promise
Love can be ours if we want it
Starting tonight every dream I ever knew
Here in your arms I’m believing
Finally my life has a meaning of its own
Here in the land of loving I am home

I was alone in the city
Searchin’ for someone to find me
Cold empty nights and a million strangers’ eyes
Here in your arms I’m beginning
To leave behind all the loneliness I knew
Here in the land of loving there is you
In this simple room magic is made
Though the world seems unchanged
Leave the lights on I’m a little afraid
This might be just one sweet dream
Deep in the night love is growing
Though I had no way of knowing
That when I found you I found ev’rything I need
Here in your love I’ll be staying
Fin’lly my life won’t be living all alone
Here in the land of the loving I am home

*Photo by Gretchen Ira Banaticla, Virginia, USA.  Used with permission.

What Does It Take?

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The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe-Prayer Thursday
12 July 2018, Week-14/Year-2 Ordinary Time
Hosea 11:1-4, 8-9///Matthew 10:7-15

            I am very sorry Lord for so many things that clutter my mind today.  It is always a struggle to be good.  Not only in doing what is good but most of all in being with You, in staying with You, in always believing and trusting in You.

            Sorry if so often I wonder if You mean even today that we must proclaim “the Kingdom of heaven is at hand, that we would cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons?  Moreover, that without cost we have received and without cost must we give?  How can we go on in this time without taking gold or silver or copper for our belts; no sack for the journey, or a second tunic, or sandals, or walking stick?  Yet, You also tell us the laborer deserves his keep?”(Mt.10:7-10)

            What does it take to really do Your will, God?

            Based on what I have learned, there are many things that take for anyone to do Your will like faith, love, and courage along with detachment and “positive indifference” by St. Ignatius of Loyola.  But last night before going to rest, I realized the importance of always reviewing my life, of examining not only my conscience but also my consciousness to see and feel how You have loved me immensely and continues to do so!

            Reading Hosea over and over makes me feel sorrowful of my sinfulness yet so loved by You as my Father.  How crazy have I been that “the more You call me, the more I drift away from You, forgetting how You have stooped to feed me, teaching me how to walk as Your own child.  Yet, despite my infidelity and sinfulness, You never vent on Your blazing anger because You are God and not human like us.”(Hos.11:2, 3, 4,9)

Like the psalmist yesterday and today, let me see Your face, touch me with Your love and presence so that I may always stay with You and most of all, follow You closely.  Somehow, like Your psalmists in the Old Testament, we have our gifted musicians who also make us feel Your love for us, Your longing for us.  Help me to give myself to You too today.  Amen.  Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II,Parokya ni San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria,Bulacan 3022

Photo by the author, Betania-Tagaytay, August 2017.