Tag: poor

Sharing the light of Christ

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Saturday, Memorial of St. Teresa of Calcutta, 05 September 2020
1 Corinthians 4:6-15 /// Luke 6:1-5
Photo by author, 25 August 2020.

By blood, I am Albanian. By citizenship, an Indian. By faith, I am a Catholic nun. As to my calling, I belong to the world. As to my heart, I belong entirely to the Heart of Jesus.

St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta (26 August 1910-05 September 1997)

One of the great joys I have come to treasure lately, O Lord, is the grace to have lived in these interesting part of history among some of the great modern saints of our time like St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta whose Memorial we celebrate today.

I practically grew up during her time when she was called a “living saint”, a very small woman in stature clad in her usual white and blue-striped habit, always wearing a smile, radiating with your light, sweet Jesus Christ.

Yet, deep in her fragile-looking body was a rock-solid faith in you, Lord, that enabled her to accomplish so much to alleviate the sufferings of so many people!

She knew so well our time marked with material affluence amid spiritual and moral bankruptcies that she went to serve the “poorest of the poor” not only in India but in the entire world. She was a soul filled with your light, Lord, burning with love for you with the sole desire to be your love and compassion to the poor.

Thank you, dear Jesus for being present with us through saints like St. Mother Teresa.

Like her, I pray that I may remain faithful to you than be successful by becoming your light to the world plunged in darkness of sin.

Like St. Paul before her, use me, Jesus, to heal the world of its wounds and divisions by remaining faithful and true to your words that you are the “Son of Man, the lord of the sabbath.”

Like St. Mother Teresa, may I share you Jesus, only Jesus, and always Jesus. Amen.

A statue of St. Mother Teresa in their Mother House in Calcutta, India. From devdiscourse.com.

When Jesus speaks

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Thursday, Week XXIX, Year I, 24 October 2019

Romans 6:19-23 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Luke 12:49-53

The late Joey Velasco at work. From Google.

As I prayed today’s gospel, Lord Jesus, I remembered the late painter Joey Velasco who is best known for his “Hapag ng Pag-Asa”.

Joey portrayed you in a very unique way that is very disturbing, even harsh just like the way you spoke in today’s gospel.

Jesus said to his disciples: “I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing! There is a baptism with which I must be baptized, and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished! Do you think I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.”

Luke 12:49-51

Why did I feel that way, Lord?

It seems I have been so conditioned to your image of being “meek and humble”, so gentle like Isaiah’s Suffering Servant who bore all pains and insults.

But more than that imagery that we have nurtured of you like a “baby” within us, Joey’s paintings of you among the poor and suffering disturb us because we are so detached from you.

Yes, we are disturbed and even pained because we have refused to follow you closer among the poor and suffering.

So often, your words shock us and actually bring us back to life because we have actually been dead to sin and evil or the “wages of sin” according to St. Paul in our first reading today.

“That All May Be One” painting by Joey Velasco.
Photo from Google.

We are disturbed because our silence in reaching out to the poor and oppressed is more harsh than your words.

Your words are “harsh” because they are so radical in the truest sense, from the Latin radix or roots – you are shaking us down into our inner core and being to set the earth out on fire with your love!

Your words disturb us because they call us to leave our comfort zones and sidewalks to follow you right onto the dirty road of pain and suffering with the poor.

Yes, you have come Jesus to bring divisions, but not out of our petty quarrels and whims and fanaticisms.

Let us be divided for what is true and good, for what is just and fair.

Let us be divided, Lord, by choosing your side, by standing by your side at the foot of cross with the wounded and unaccepted.

Open our hearts, O Jesus, to the truest sense and meaning of your words to reawaken in us your fire and spirit of loving service for the less fortunate. Amen.

The gift of poverty

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Friday, Memorial of St. Vincent de Paul, 27 September 2019

Haggai 2:1-9 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Luke 9:18-22

“Hapag ng Pag-Asa” painting by the late Joey Velasco. From Google.

Dearest Lord Jesus Christ:

Thank you for coming to us poor, for giving us the poor. But, tragically many times we have refused to see you among the poor.

On this feast of St. Vincent de Paul who faithfully and lovingly served you among the poor, we pray for the same gift of seeing you and loving you among the poor.

“It is our duty to prefer the service of the poor to everything else and to offer such service as quickly as possible… this very service is performed for God. Charity is certainly greater than any rule. Moreover, all rules must lead to charity.”

St. Vincent de Paul, from the Breviary

In the first reading from Haggai today, your people the Israelites were so poor with literally nothing left to rebuild your temple in Jerusalem. What a gift for them to still see you among the ruins, in their poverty feeling your “spirit in their midst” assuring them with your “peace in the temple to be rebuilt” (Hag. 2:5, 9).

Empty us of our pride, let us appreciate and embrace the poverty within us like Simon Peter and all the saints like St. Vincent de Paul that we may boldly proclaim you are the “Christ of God” (Lk. 9:20) not only in words but also in deeds. Amen.