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.
1 Samuel 3:1-10, 19-20 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Mark 1:29-39
Photo by author, Grotto chapel, Baguio City, January 2020.
Thank you very much, O God, to your inspired words today that teach us some important lessons about prayer especially at this time of calamity from Taal Volcano’s eruptions.
Once again, you remind us to always have you first in every situation:
Simon’s mother-in-law lay sick with a fever. They immediately told Jesus about her.
Mark 1:30
Forgive us, O Lord Jesus especially in this time of social media, we have adored and followed our smartphones as our new gods, replacing you in prominence and importance.
Forgive us that upon waking up, the first thing we do is immediately check our messages, count our likes than kneel and thank you for the gift of life.
Teach us to be like Simon and his companions to always think first of you.
Most of all, teach us to center our lives in you through prayers like Jesus your Son who always went out of the way to pray before and after every ministry.
Give us that attitude of being open to you, of willingly presenting ourselves before you to listen and obey your words, O Lord, like Samuel.
Samuel answered, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”
1 Samuel 3:10
Today we pray for all travelers whose work have been seriously affected by Taal’s eruptions as we continue praying for the people of Batangas and Cavite affected by the calamity. Amen.
1 Samuel 1:9-20 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Mark 1:21-28
Inside our church from the altar table. Photo by author, November 2019.
Hanna replied to Eli, “Think kindly of your maidservant,” and she left..
1 Samuel 1:18
While praying over your words, O Lord, of that scene at the temple when Eli mistook Hannah to being drunk while praying intensely to you for a child, it reminded me of Taal Volcano’s restive behavior, of her spewing ashes and causing tremors.
But despite all these, Taal remains lovely and magnificent.
Sometimes, Lord, that is what exactly we need in life: to think kindly of others always.
The people were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes. All were amazed and asked one another, “What is this? A new teaching with authority. He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him.”
Mark 1:22, 27
Purify our thoughts, Lord, to always think kindly of others.
To always have that disposition for silence and being non-judgmental with others to always listen to them and be open to their thoughts and feelings as well.
Like you, Lord Jesus Christ, enable us to share in the power of your words, to speak with authority by entering into that daily union with you in silence and prayers.
May we learn also from the gentle Taal: to be still and silent, to speak only when necessary so that everyone listens intently to her inner rumblings when she finally “speaks”.
We continue to pray for those severely affected by Taal’s eruptions, most especially that they may remain kind with people and nature alike in this trying moments of a major calamity.
We pray for businessmen to have a heart, to think kindly of those affected by Taal’s eruptions and stop jacking up prices of much needed goods. Amen.
Monday, Week 1, Year 2 of Ordinary Time, 13 January 2019
1 Samuel 1:1-8 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Mark 1:14-20
Photo by the author, Taal Lake, July 2019.
Almighty God and Father, we implore your love and mercy today as we start the Ordinary Time to help us find the more essential things of life this 2020.
May the eruption of Taal Volcano yesterday remind us of the need to seek always the meaning of life which is more important than anything else because everything is passing.
How wonderful it is to recall from today’s gospel how your Son Jesus Christ had called his first four apostles at the shores of the Lake of Galilee, something very similar with the setting of Taal Lake and Volcano.
At this trying time of a major calamity, may we also hear his voice, follow his call to be his disciples and find the true meaning of life in you as we pray for the safety of all people affected by Taal Volcano’s eruption. Amen.
1 John 5:5-13 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Luke 5:12-16
Flowers at our Altar, Epiphany Sunday 2020. Photo by author.
Dearest Jesus Christ:
Today we pray for those losing hope in life, for those about to give up living because they are saddled with so many problems and sufferings.
And most especially with sins and guilt feelings as carryover of the troublesome 2019.
We pray for those who cannot move on with their lives due to so many heartaches and losses and wrongs last year that they see themselves so dirty like the leper in the gospel today, refusing to aspire to become better, refusing to dream again of good things in you.
It happened that there was a man full of leprosy in one of the towns where Jesus was; and when he saw Jesus, he fell prostrate, pleaded with him, and said, “Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean.”
Luke 5:12
“Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean…
Forgive us Lord when sometimes we seem so hopeless.
“Kung ibig ninyo… kung ano po ang gusto ninyo… bahala na po kayo.”
Flowers at our Altar, Epiphany 2020. Photo by author.
Help us remember St. John’s reminder in the first reading that you, O sweet Jesus, is our life because you are the only one to whom “there are three who testify, the Spirit, the water, and the Blood”(1 Jn. 5:7-8) that refer respectively to your divine nature, human nature, and death on the cross.
You are the only one, Lord Jesus, who has overcome death because you are indeed Life itself!
Thank you very much for always willing the best for us and may we reclaim your wonderful gift of life to us daily. Amen.
Tuesday After Epiphany of the Lord, 07 January 2020
1 John 4:7-10 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Mark 6:34-44
Baby Jesus near our ambo, Christmas 2019. Photo by author.
Praise and thanksgiving to you, O Lord Jesus Christ in coming to us, in becoming human like us that we have experienced and realized deeply all about love.
Christmas itself can be spelled as L-O-V-E.
It is your birthday yet you were the one who gave us yourself as both “the gift and the giver” according to the great Karl Rahner, SJ. Most of all, even it is your birthday we celebrate, we are still the ones receiving gifts at Christmas!
In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent us his son as expiation for our sins.
1 John 4:7-10
In our gospel today, Lord Jesus, you have shown us that your being “love” is your very person because love is being with others, a gift of presence, of staying and remaining with the people.
Love, dear Jesus, is exactly what you did in the feeding of the more than 5000 people in the wilderness when you blessed, broke and gave the little bread you have with the people.
At our sacristy, December 2019.
Love, dear Jesus, is exactly what you did in the feeding of the more than 5000 people in the wilderness when you divided the two pieces of fish to be shared with the crowd there in the wilderness.
And still, Lord Jesus, after feeding them, love is still being the one to pick up the pieces of leftovers to be kept by the 12 among themselves.
You are love, dearest Jesus because your very person is love, a giving of self to others.
Friday, Optional Memorial of the Holy Name of Jesus, 03 January 2019
2 John 2:29-3:6 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> John 1:29-34
From Google.
Praise and glory to you, O Lord Jesus Christ, whose name alone is so powerful and merciful, always taken for granted by those who refuse to enter into a deep communion and friendship with you.
See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.
2 John 3:1-2, 5
So many times Lord, we take your love for granted.
Most of the time, we take you for granted.
Give us the courage to testify to your most Holy Name, your holy presence like John the Baptizer.
May our lives be a witnessing to your love and mercy, kindness and justice as we try our very best to spread your good news of salvation from sins. Amen.
Praise and glory to you, O Lord Jesus Christ who had come, who is coming, and always with us in this life, helping us in our trials and sufferings, and leading us into fulfillment in him!
On this second day of new year 2020, many of us have already forgotten your great feast of Christmas.
Many of us have become “liars” as St. John points out in the first reading, denying that you are the Christ.
Many of us Lord Jesus have been deceived by the “antichrists” that have misled us into believing into so many modern thoughts about life that disregard your teachings about the dignity of persons, beauty of sex, and of justice and truth.
In the name of political correctness and other so-called progressive thoughts, we have turned our blind eyes into so many instances of human life being taken for granted these days.
Teach us to have the courage like St. John the Baptizer and our saints today, St. Basil and St. Gregory Nazianzen to always stand for what is true always, to proclaim your coming not only in words but most especially in deeds. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Recipe for the Soul, Christmas 2019
“The Adoration of the Shepherds”, a painting of the Nativity scene by Italian artist Giorgione before his death at a very young age of 30 in 1510.
A blessed Christmas to you and your loved ones! As we celebrate this single event that has made the most impact on mankind in our entire history, I share with you my thoughts and reflections in a Christmas prayer based on our midnight Mass gospel:
In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole world should be enrolled. This was the first enrollment, wen Quirinius was governor of Syria. So all went to be enrolled, each to his own town. And Joseph too went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David that is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. While they were there, the time came for her to have her child, and she gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
Luke 2:1-7
Jesus, both the giver and the gift
A most blessed happy birthday to you dear, Lord Jesus Christ!
How funny that you are the one celebrating birthday but we are the ones expecting and receiving gifts on this day. And that is why we all celebrate your birthday – it is a living story that continues to this day when you gave us yourself as a gift to each of us!
Thank you very much for being both the gift and the giver.
Thank you for coming to us, for being like us in everything except sin to accompany us in our lives, to help us carry our cross and lighten our many burdens.
In becoming human like us, you have taught us and made us experience true humility so we can also be like you, holy and divine. Indeed, the words of St. Augustine are so true when he preached in one of his Christmas sermons:
“God became a human being so that in one person you could have both something to see and something to believe.”
St. Augustine, Sermon 126, 5
Thank you for coming to us, being born like us that we have found meaning in our lives, in our struggles, in our pains and hurts.
Because of your coming to us, we have come to believe in better future, we have come to hope and most of all, we have experienced tremendous joy in living.
Your great servant St. John Paul II perfectly said of every human person that
“Every birthday is a small Christmas because with the birth of every person comes Jesus Christ.”
Evangelium Vitae
Help us to find something good always in us and something to believe in us because you are dwelling in us!
Chapel at the Shepherds’ Field in Bethlehem where the angels announced the birth of Jesus to the the shepherds tending their sheep under the darkness of that night. Photo by author, May 2019.
Life is what we make on earth, you planned in heaven
I love that opening phrase by your evangelist St. Luke, O Lord: “In those days” which in some versions has a more literal translation from the original Greek that says, “It came about in those days”.
As a child starting to learn how to read, I quickly memorized the letters and words of every storybook’s opening line, “Once upon a time”. Then, I got fed up with the expression as I grew up and matured because I have realized they are not true at all.
In these past 21 years being your priest, Jesus, eight years here in my first parish assignment of about 12,000 souls, you have taught me with something to see and something to believe in myself “In those days”.
In those days when I feel so insignificant, when I feel so little with my shortcomings and failures and sins, when I doubt my gifts and talents, when everything seems so wrong, that is also when I feel so close with you, when you console me too.
Like you being born during the time of the great Roman emperor Augustus, the more you came closer to us, the time you were born amid the many hardships of your Mother Mary. Even if there was no room in the inn, there was the lowly manger that welcomed you.
Yes, my sweet Jesus, life is what we make of here on earth, so difficult, so trying, sometimes frustrating but you are always there making us look up above to the Father that we just hang on with life for you have planned everything for our good in heaven.
Do not allow us to be troubled and disturbed by the mundane things of the world that are all passing.
Do not let us to be robbed of your glory and joy by being overtaken by pains and anger, hardships and struggles for you know very well what we are going through in life, of how tired we are in keeping up with our duties and responsibilities, of how hard we have tried to follow you like Joseph and Mary.
How lovely, dear Jesus, to imagine you were born in the darkness and stillness of the night of the shortest day of the year to remind us of the coming light, of the lengthening of days after.
It is in that same dark night when we see and experience our littleness and insignificance in this vast, wide world when you also make us feel our worth and value being cupped in your mighty hands, assuring us of your protection and love.
Help us to let go of our grudges and vengeance against those people who have hurt us, duped us, insulted us and be rather filled with your peace and goodwill as the angels proclaim your glory in the darkness of the night.
Atop Mt. Sinai in Egypt at midnight. Photo by Atty. Grace Polaris Rivas-Beron, May 2019.
Are we not?
Thank you Jesus for the gift of a beautiful poem I have read from a fellow blogger tonight after hearing confessions of my parishioners.
This Christmas, dear Lord Jesus, let me hug you in my brothers and sisters who have made me see something good, something beautiful, something joyful amidst the many evil, ugly, and sad events of life.
It is Christmas, in those days so ordinary when you came to bless us, to make us a part of your story so beautiful, so lovely. Let me believe more in you so I can see you more, love you more, and follow you more! Amen
Friday, Advent Week-II, Memorial of St. Lucy, 13 December 2019
Isaiah 48:17-19 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Matthew 11:16-19
The eagle symbolizing our Parish Patron St. John Evangelist, Advent 2018.
Thank you very much Lord Jesus Christ for never giving up on us. You sound so exasperated in our gospel today at how so “slow” we have become in recognizing and believing you but you never lost your cool.
Please continue to open our minds and our hearts to realize you have come, you are coming and you are always with us.
Forgive us Lord when we are so concerned with the mundane things, the shallow concerns we are so preoccupied with forgetting the more crucial of recognizing your presence and your works among us.
Jesus said to the crowds: “To what shall I compare this generation? It is like children who sit in marketplaces and call to one another, ‘We played the flute for you, but you did not dance, we sang a dirge but you did not mourn.’ For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they said, ‘He is possessed by a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking and they said, ‘Look, he is a glutton and drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But wisdom is vindicated by her works.
Matthew 11:16-19
Grant us Lord Jesus Christ the gifts of silence and wisdom, of “masticating” always your words so we can be properly guided in answering your call and mission.
Give us the grace to see things as they are, to set aside our many biases and visions of things to come so we can be contented with what we are having, of what God has provided us with.
Let us heed your words and work faithfully for their fulfillment in us and through us.
Thus says the Lord, your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I, the Lord, your God, teach you what is for your good, and lead you on the way you should go. If you hearken my to my commandments, your prosperity will be like a river, and your vindication like waves of the sea; your descendants would be like the sand, and those born of your stock like its grains, their name never cut off or blotted out from my presence.
Isaiah 48:17-19
Give us O Lord, the courage to be different, to make a difference for Jesus Christ by opening our eyes of faith so we may always seek you, see you, and follow you.
Saint Lucy, patroness of diseases of the eyes, heal our many blindness to be focused in Jesus alone. Amen.
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