Malachi 3:13-20 ><}}}*> ><}}}*> ><}}}*> Luke 11:5-13
Photo by Mr. Jim Marpa, September 2019.
Nothing and nobody escapes you, O God. You know very well not only what is in our hearts and in our thoughts but you can also hear what we talk and discuss. Most of all, you know what we need.
Give us the grace to persevere in your words, Lord; to remain faithful in your precepts and promises.
Let us strive to bear pains, ready to sacrifice comforts because there are no shortcuts in this life.
Let us keep in our minds and our hearts that basic truth that “life is difficult”. In this world where everything seems readily available that many have disregarded your presence and even existence, teach us Lord to persevere, to be patient in waiting for your coming to fulfill us, to grant our prayers.
Teach us to value silence more than noise.
To surrender everything to you than be manipulative.
Let us find time to be alone with you and for you than be preoccupied with people and things.
Grant us the Holy Spirit, Lord, to fill us with your love and wisdom to always persevere in life for we hold on to your promise that
“…there will arise the sun of justice with its healing rays.”
Photo by Mr. Jim Marpa at Otap, Carigara, Leyte. September 2019.
O dear God…
How could some people be like Jonah in our first reading today — prayerful and a man of God and yet be so mean not to see the value of every person?
Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry that God did not carry out the evil he threatened against Nineveh. The the Lord said to Jonah, “You are concerned over the plant which cost you no labor and which you did not raise; it came up in one night and in one night it perished. And should I not be concerned over Nineveh, the great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot distinguish their right hand from their left, not to mention the many cattle?”
Jonah 4:1, 10-11
Forgive us, Lord, when things like money and gadgets, whims and desires blind our eyes not to see and recognize every person who must be loved and cherished.
Forgive us when there are times we forget all about respect, even civility especially when all we see are the sins and mistakes, weaknesses and shortcomings of people that make us speak ill them, judging them harshly with our words that we forget we never lose dignity and honor because we are all created in your image and likeness, Lord.
Please teach us, Jesus, like your disciples in the gospel today the right attitude of praying which is recognizing the value of every person so we can truly pray and say
“Father, hallowed be your name, your Kingdom come.”
Luke 11:2
It is only when we value persons more than anything else can we truly mean our prayers to you, O Lord and God. Amen.
Photo by Mr. Jim Marpa in Carigara, Leyte, September 2019.
Thank you very much, O Lord our God, for this wonderful Tuesday! Thank you for the changing of season with the coming of Amihan’s cool northeasterly winds replacing the warm and humid winds of Habagat.
Please do change also our perception of people around us, especially those we have boxed and stereotyped simply because they are not like us in beliefs, ways, and color.
Help us to believe in everyone’s ability to become better persons, receptive to your words and mercy like the people of Niniveh during the time of Jonas and of Mary, the sister of Martha whom Jesus visited in a village on his way to Jerusalem.
So often, we are like Jonas and Martha, so focused with our very selves that we are the only ones worthy of your love and mercy as if we have been endowed with special blessings and privileges from you.
How sad that we always feel so exclusive instead of being inclusive like you, sending rains to sinners and non-sinners alike.
May we let go of any hint of “self-entitlement” that have kept us apart from each other and worst of all, prevented us from truly being one in you whom we call “Our Father”. Amen.
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.
I was a newly ordained priest assigned to an all-boys’ high school in 1998.
People were looking up to me as a priest or a “man of the cloth” but my students and the younger generation counted me in as “one of them” when they learned my favorite bands at that time were the Eraserheads, Sugar Ray, and New Radicals. And like this blog, I would spice up my homilies in the Mass and reflections in class and recollections with modern music so our students could make “sakay” (ride) with God’s words and lessons from the Bible.
Just like our featured song on this lovely Sunday by the New Radicals released in 1999 from the only album they have released a year earlier called “Maybe You’ve Been Brainwashed Too”, “Someday We’ll Know” is a song about love at the beginning was thought to be so perfect that later ended up in separation.
Two years after their split, the man was still wondering what happened to their seemingly perfect love, at why he was dumped for another guy by his beloved.
And the bittersweet part is the that the man in the song is wondering not out of desperation but because he still loved the woman, believing and hoping that…
Someday we’ll know Why Sampson loved Delilah One day I’ll go Dancing on the moon Someday you’ll know That I was the one for you I bought a ticket to the end of the rainbow I watched the stars crash into the sea If I could ask God just one question Why aren’t you here with me
Faith and love always go together. People who truly love are the most faithful!
In the gospel today, the Apostles asked Jesus Chris to increase their faith upon learning from him the many trials they have to go through in fulfilling their mission from him.
Sometimes in life when things do not go according to our plans, when bad things happen to us despite our efforts to become better persons, we cry out to God in pain, even complain at all the destruction and disorder we go through in life.
And every time we pray to cry out to God in pain or complain, it is a sign of grace that he is within us. Prayer is an ability we can only do with grace from God; that is why, when we pray, our prayers are already half answered because prayer is definite sign of God being with us.
When things are not going well with you now, have faith in God.
Keep praying, keep believing, keep trusting God because someday we’ll know….
Friday, Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, 04 October 2019
Baruch 1:15-22 ><)))*> 0 <*(((>< Luke 10:13-16
One of the scenes from Benozzo Gozzoli’s series of frescoes from the life of St. Francis (1450) that captures the saint’s “Sermon to the Birds” and the dedication of his basilica at Assisi. Photo from Google.
Praise and glory to you, Lord God our loving Father for this week about to close with the celebration of another great saint, Francis of Assisi.
Two things I wish to thank you in giving us St. Francis of Assisi.
First is his total dedication in listening to you alone.
St. Francis accomplished so much for you and had so much impact not only to the Church but for the whole world until now because he intently listened to your voice, to your calls, and to your instructions.
It does not really matter if he got your words literally or figuratively speaking like when he was praying inside San Damiano chapel and heard your voice saying, “Go, Francis, and repair my house, which you see, is falling into ruins.”
Or, when St. Francis finally found his vocation in life after listening to Matthew 10:9 in the Mass and felt you Jesus speaking directly to him to go preach the kingdom of God without extra clothes and money that right after that, he threw everything away to preach penance, brotherly love, and peace.
How ironic that in this world of modern means of communications, the more we have become fragmented than ever because we have lost the values of silence, prayer and listening to self, others, and you, O Lord.
Jesus said to them, “Whoever listens to you listens to me. Whoever rejects you rejects me. And whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.”
Luke 10:16
Teach us, dear Jesus to be poor and empty like St. Francis so we may always open our ears and our hearts to seek your voice, to listen to your words, and most of all, to follow your will.
From Be Like Francis at Facebook.
Second thing I am so grateful with you Lord in giving us St. Francis is his deep sense of gratitude to you that he was able to see our universal brotherhood in you God our Father.
Did he really preach to hundreds of birds and told them to be thankful to you dear God for their freedom and for your care to them? I believe it must be true because where there is gratitude, there comes peace and serenity that attract than dispel people and animals alike.
Teach us to be grateful with whatever we have, Lord because the moment we learn to thank you and anyone here on earth, then we we realize our being one. In his gratitude for your wonderful gifts to him, St. Francis not only embraced you Jesus on the Cross but also saw everyone as family with brother Sun and sister Moon, brother Wind and sister Water. And even cousin Death.
Again, O Lord, in this age of affluence, the more we feel empty and lacking as we tend to acquire more of material things. Teach us to repent for our sins like St. Francis and Baruch in the first reading, to acknowledge everything we have including our sins.
It is only in being thankful that we are able to realize who truly reigns in us like St. Francis. Amen.
Our loving Father, today I pray to you for more understanding of your words like the first reading.
Twice successively Nehemiah told us how
Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly which consisted of men, women, and those children old enough to understand.
Nehemiah 8:2, 3
Then, a few more verses, your prophet tells us
Ezra reads plainly from the book of the law of God, interpreting it so that all could understand what was read.
Nehemiah 8:8
Until, finally, Nehemiah concludes today’s reading with a solemn pronouncement:
Then all the people went to eat and drink, to distribute portions, and to celebrate with great joy, for they understood the words that had been expounded to them.
Nehemiah 8:12
Dearest God, I pray for all who read and pray our blog each day. I pray that they may understand your words.
Most especially, I pray for us priests and lay preachers to always read, study, and pray your words.
Let us be the first to understand your words by praying that you, being the “harvest-master”, to send more laborers for your harvest.
Most of all, to truly understand your words, O God, let us be emptied of ourselves so we may only be focused on Jesus Christ, the word who became flesh. He alone is the one we must preach and share in word and in deed. Amen.
Your gospel today, Lord Jesus, brought me with mixed feelings of embarrassment and joy.
Embarrassed because like your disciples then, until now we are still preoccupied with the same old question of “who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” (Mt.18:1).
How funny – and shameful too, Lord, that as we grow older, the less we believe or at least disregard your guardian angels assigned to each one of us. As we get older, we feel we know everything, we can do everything, and we can be on our own.
How sad that in similar manner of dismissing our parents and elders as guardians, we have also abandoned belief and acceptance of angels.
Thank you for never abandoning us despite of this attitude, O dear God!
Thank you most of all, dearest God, for not withdrawing from our side our guardian angels!
Joy fills my heart today on this feast of the Guardian Angels that even if so many times in the past I have turned away from you, my guardian angel never left me, guiding me back to you in those many instances of discovering your wonder anew.
Our guardian angels remind us O Lord of your great love for us.
I can still recall so many instances in my life how I felt someone I do not see yet so personally present with me, personally saving me from so many occasions and situations that were harmful and even fatal.
Yes, guardian angels are not only for kids but for everyone who believe in you, Lord, to remind us of you.
Teach us to be child-like, humbly admitting there is an angel on our side, and most of all, you are always with us, Lord Jesus Christ.
As your messengers who are very close to you and closest with us, teach us to be like our guardian angels always close to you too and with others guarding and protecting them from harm. Amen.
Tuesday, Memorial of St. Therese of the Child Jesus, 01 October 2019
Zechariah 8:20-23 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Luke 9:51-56
White roses for you, dearly beloved devotee of St. Therese of the Child Jesus. Christ heard your prayers and had asked St. Therese to send you these white roses as the sign you have been asking regarding what you have been praying for through our daily prayer blog, The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul. God bless you more today, my friend! (Photo by Ms. Jo Villafuerte at the Atok Blooms, Benguet, 01 September 2019.)
On behalf, O Lord, of the many people praying for a “little miracle” today through St. Therese of the Child Jesus, thank you very much for these beautiful white roses. And most especially for answering our prayers!
Thank you again for the gift of another saint today close to our modern time, a woman so young, and most of all, so simple in her faith and in her ways. Just like you, God, when she proclaimed…
“O Jesus, my love, at last I have found my calling: my call is love. Certainly I have found my proper place in the Church, and you gave me that very place, my God. In the heart of the Church, my mother, I will be love, and thus I will be all things, as my desire finds its direction.”
St. Therese of the Child Jesus, from the Liturgy of the Hours
It is this simple yet profound truth of being love, of doing everything in love that we always forget or take for granted that elevated St. Therese to be the youngest and one of the only five women Doctors of the Church.
In her life you have showed us the need to find the points of convergence of doctrine and experience, of teaching and practice in order to truly be holy and filled with God that fulfilled the Lord’s own words spoken among the crowds more than 2000 years ago:
“I thank you Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding, and revealed them to babes.”
Matthew 11:25
Born Marie-Francoise-Therese Martin at Alencon, France in 1873, St. Therese entered the Carmelite monastery of Lisieux at the age of 15 following a special permission from Church officials. She claimed no visions or extraordinary moments except that she followed a simple path to faith, especially after contracting TB that caused her death in 1897 at the young age of 24. Photo from Google.
Open our minds and our hearts, our very selves, Lord, like St. Therese to humbly embrace this simple truth of love by intensely and passionately living in love, doing ordinary things in the most extraordinary way of love. May we follow your Son Jesus as “he resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem”(Lk.9:51) to face his passion, death, and resurrection out of love for you and for us. Amen.
Zechariah 8:1-8 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Luke 9:46-50
St. Jerome painting by El Greco portrayed as wearing the Cardinal’s robe to represent his highly esteemed works and contributions to the Church as one of the Four Western Fathers along with St. Augustine, St. Ambrose of Milan, and St. Gregory the Great. Photo from Google.
Praise and glory to you, God our loving Father! Thank you very much for giving us saints, men and women like us who were sinners with so many weaknesses but through your grace were able to lead holy lives.
Through your saints, you give us so much hope to be become better persons despite our many imperfections like our great Doctor of the Church, St. Jerome, the Father of Catholic biblical studies who immersed himself in the study and prayer of the Sacred Writings right in the Holy Land.
Considered as one of the great theologians of the Church, St. Jerome is said to be approachable but notorious for being a difficult person too due to his temper as well as sarcasm and being argumentative at times.
I confess, O God, that I am exactly the opposite of the kind of person Jesus Christ is telling us to be like – a child. Instead of being childlike, many times I have become childish, difficult to handle with my burst of temper and sometimes annoying sarcasm.
Like St. Jerome, fill me with your grace, with courage and willpower to conquer my irascibility and direct all my negative energies in pursuing you in prayers and good works.
Help me to follow St. Jerome in his call to “let us translate the words of the Scriptures into deeds.”
Fill me with your words, O Lord, cleanse me of my sins and iniquities so that your Holy Spirit may dwell in me, suffuse me with your holiness. Amen.
My favorite depiction of St. Jerome by Italian painter Antonello da Messina (c.1430-79), “St. Jerome in his Study.” Again, we see St. Jerome in red robe and hat like a Cardinal at his study desk with his faithful lion in the background which tradition says he had helped in the forest by removing a thorn in its paw. At the foreground are two birds: a peacock which is an ancient Christian symbol of eternal life that our saint meditated often (reason why he always has a skull in other paintings), and a partridge, a reference to St. Jerome’s notorious temper as the bird often represents jealous rage. Photo from Google.
