Replacing the traitorous Iscariots

The Lord Is My chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Tuesday, Easter Week IV, 14 May 2019, Feast of St. Matthias the Apostle

Acts 1:15-17, 20-26///John 15:9-17

Today we are celebrating O Lord Jesus Christ the feast of St. Matthias, the one chosen by your eleven Apostles to replace your betrayer Judas Iscariot. We do not know so much about him except that he was also a witness to all your “earthly events remaining faithful to you until the end” (Acts 1:21-22).

However, from his unique role of replacing Judas Iscariot to complete your 12 Apostles after Easter, St. Matthias teaches us today that we never run out of good men and women in the Church as well as in the society who can always replace the many traitors among us.

There will always be many Judas Iscariots everywhere who betray you, O Lord, and us with their selfishness.

Teach us, Jesus, to truly love you in the most concrete manner like St. Matthias who counterbalanced the traitorous Judas Iscariot found among many of us. Teach us to discern your will in finding the Matthias among us who will continue your work to offset the many evils done by your betrayers in the Church, in the society and in the family.

Forgive us, O Lord, that despite the chance to choose more St. Matthias among us in our recent elections, it seems many of us still prefer to bring back or keep the many Judas Iscariots.

Help us to be your witnesses in this world now plunged into so much darkness where lies and superficiality have become a way of life. Amen.

Icon of the election of St. Matthias. From Google.

Entering Jesus, our Gate

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul, Monday, Easter Week IV, 13 May 2019 (Fatima)

Acts 11:1-18///John 10:1-10

Amen, amen, I say to you, I am the gate for the sheep… Whoever enters through me will be saved.
John 10:1-10

Dearest Lord Jesus Christ:

Today we go to the polls to choose our lawmakers and local executives.

We pray for wisdom and enlightenment to use this great power and freedom you have given us. Let us listen to your voice, follow your voice. Let us enter through you in exercising our rights in choosing our shepherds for you are our gate who leads us to true development and growth as a nation.

Help us realize that to enter you as our gate means to keep always in our minds that ultimately, we all belong to you. That every decision we make in this life, be it in politics or in economics or any field of humanity always has an impact to our ultimate end which is to be with you in eternal life.

Help us realize that to enter you as our gate means ultimately, to follow you alone in love and sacrifice, in suffering and in death on the Cross. That there is no such thing as easy way or shortcuts in this life; keep us on guard with those thieves who try to seduce us with so many promises of a better life as they clearly use power to escape the harsh realities of life.

Let your Holy Spirit enlighten us like those who confronted Peter in Jerusalem after learning he had interacted with Gentiles in Joppa.

May your Mother who appeared in Fatima 102 years ago today lead us back to you, Jesus. The message of Fatima has shown us that you continue to work in our lives in these modern time. Most of all, any change in the world and in our lives can only happen when each one of us returns to you in love and penance, O Lord, our gate. Amen.

The Crucifix at the main altar of Basilica di Santissima Trinita in Fatima, Portugal; at the altar is a painting of Mary with the three children of the 1917 apparitions at left and the Apostles with John the Baptist to the right. A beautiful imagery to show that in Fatima, Mary points us all to Jesus who remains our gate. Photo by Arch. Philip Santiago, October 2018.

Coming and coming

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe, Saturday Easter Wk. III, 11 May 2019

Thank you very much Lord for the gift of pilgrimage to your Holy Land. Thank you for the gift of experiencing you, meeting you not only at your holy sites but among our fellow pilgrims and the people we have met.

Most of all, thank you for a glimpse of you in our hearts, in our selves and being. There is something we cannot express or say for they are too deep for words.

Like Simon Peter, all we can say is, “Lord, to whom shall we go. You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God” (Jn.6:68-69).

Life is a series of coming and coming. Every time we leave, we also come. We leave the Holy Land to come home.

But home is where the heart is and where our heart is, there our treasure is.

May you remain in us Lord Jesus and let us come to you always. Amen.

Top photo mosaic of Joseph’s dream to bring Mary and child Jesus to Egypt outside Church of St. Sergius; above, the flight to Egypt of the Holy Family at entrance to the Cavern Church where they stayed. Both churches are Coptic Catholic.

Things we quarrel

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul, Friday of Easter Wk. III, 10 May 2019

Our loving Father:

The city of Cairo reminds me of your story of creation – of how order comes out of chaos!

One of the things I have learned here in Cairo is to be more patient with our traffic situation in the Philippines.

Cairo is a bedlam where pedestrians and drivers alike seem to be blind, guided only with their horns. Yet nobody seems to quarrel because of the traffic.

Our readings today Lord teem with instances of quarreling. Saul in the first reading is on his way to Damascus to arrest Christ’s followers. It was a big quarrel! More so when you called Saul to spread the Way?! I could imagine the big quarrel with that but, nothing much as told by Luke except the issue of circumcision.

In the gospel, John tells us “The Jews quarreled among themselves” after Jesus declared his Flesh is true food and his Blood is true drink.

So often we quarrel among ourselves, but never with you.

We quarrel with others – not with you – because we can always insist with others what we want. The more others do not give in to our desires, the more we quarrel, the more we insist.

We do not quarrel with you because you do not “insist” on us. You always invite. And wait.

No insistence, no quarrel. Like here in Cairo. They just blow their horns but never their tops.

Teach us Lord to always give in to your will, to always step back and let you lead the way like Ananias who welcomed Saul. Most of all, Lord, let us not quarrel with anyone by learning to give way to others, even by deferring to them if what they insist are nothing at all but simply a power trip of our ego. Amen.

Traffic at Cairo; the peaceful Nile River. Photos by the author.

Going down with Jesus

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul, Thursday, Easter Wk. III, 09 May 2019

Dearest Jesus:

In today’s readings, I was struck by the verb “to go down”.

The first reading tells us how the Ethiopian eunuch “went down into the water” to be baptized by your Apostle Philip on the road from Jerusalem to Gaza (Acts 8:38).

In the gospel, you mentioned twice Lord that you are “the bread that comes down from heaven” (Jn.6:50-51).

It is something very opposite with our mindset today when we all want “to go up” and rise, to be on top, always the best, the most.

We believe more in ourselves than believing in you our Lord and our God.

Make us realize Lord Jesus that you chose to come down to show us the way up to you by always going down in humility and simplicity. Help us rediscover that beautiful reality of having someone and somethings above us always, that it is coming down, in being lowly in you Lord are we truly exalted. Amen.

Top photo chapel of the third station of the Cross at Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem (Jesus falls the first time); above is part of the Sinai Mountain range.

Sharing Jesus, Our Bread

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul, Easter Wk. III, Wednesday, 08 May 2019

Praise and thanksgiving to you, O Lord Jesus Christ as we enter the final stretch of our Holy Land pilgrimage today.

It is very different experience to be in the wilderness of the Sinai desert – so cold, so barren, most of all, so isolated.

Lord, we are tired and longing for home. Now we can imagine the extreme difficulties and hardships of your people in the desert.

But you are so loving and merciful, so generous that you gave them bread from heaven, manna.

Now we have you Jesus as our bread, our life.

Like your first followers who were scattered following Saul’s persecution of the Church, they still went preaching the word – YOU.

We pray for more strength and courage to remain faithful to you, Lord, when we go through our desert in life. Let us share you as our bread to nourish the weak, gladden those who are sad and tired so that we may all persevere to meet you like Moses in the burning bush. Amen.

First photo is the Mt. Sinai mountain range at sunrise while the one above is the enclosed site of the burning bush Moses saw now under the care of Greek Orthodox monks at the St. Catherine Monastery.

Jesus our life

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Receipe for the Soul, Tuesday Easter Wk. III, 07 May

The crowd said to Jesus: “What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you? What can you do?” (Jn.6:30)

Thank you Lord Jesus in bringing us here to your Holy Land, for seeing the places you have visited to preach and to heal. Most of all in being one of us to bring the Father closest to us.

Long before we have come – and douted God – you have been here. Everything was created in you, with you.

When I look at the barren desert and wilderness with old cities and oases still there, the more I see your signs of presence.

You are life, Lord.

Problem is when we destroy nature rather than enhance it like the farmlands here in the Dead Sea area.

Worst of all Lord when we hide you from the people because of the elaborate designs of our churches that have become so kitschy or baduy.

Teach us to appreciate your noble simplicity and beauty like the many churches here in the Holy Land.

Teach us priests especially to keep in mind your church is your house of prayer and encounter, not of show and comfort.

Let us decrease so that you will increase! Amen.

The problem of peace

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe, Monday, Easter Wk. III, 06 May 2019

Praise and glory to you O Lord Jesus Christ!

Thank you for this gift of Monday. Thank you for bringing us here in your birthplace and place of death as well.

How ironic and tragic, Lord.

As we arrived here in Bethlehem, fighting erupted anew at Gaza Strip, with rocket attacks reportedly killing and injuring undetermined people yet.

Fightings continue to this very moment and thank you for being far from it.

Lord, it is the most baffling mystery in life: your land is the land where peace remains elusive. And maybe because our hearts have always been far from you.

Like the people who spread lies against Stephen and the people who came looking for you for more food.

We always have our hearts filled with our very selves but never with you.

Let us be your John the Baptist in this time, one who prepares your coming by preaching and living peace. Amen.

Jesus lord of the sea and darkness

Happy birthday, Lord Jesus!

Happy birthday to us all too!

Every year we await our birthdate to celebrate life. But more than that we await most Christmas without really realizing why.

Yesterday afternoon at five we entered your Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. After more than three hours waiting in line, we reached your birthplace.

Thank so much for the grace to touch your birth site. We were so touched because we touched base with our very selves too. We felt your love for us, the joy of being alive,

Most of all, like the joy of being born, of being brought forth into the world that is dark and very cold – hostile like the apostles crossing Tiberias in today’s gospel without you in sight – your still come.

You actually stay in us, among us, and with us.

Teach us like the Eleven apostles to concentrate praying your word as we serve the needy. Let us stay in you, stay with you. Amen.

Love Jesus first

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul, Friday, 03 May 2019 Feast of Sts. Philip and James, Apostles

Praise and glory to you O Lord Jesus Christ for this first Friday in your Holy Land!

Yesterday we visited and prayed at the various sites of your ministry around the shores of the beautiful Lake of Galilee.

Here you called your first Apostles and later nearby the others who followed you like Philip and James whose feast we celebrate today.

Like us, they were seeking direction in life. That, they found in you alone, Lord Jesus – something we are rediscovering in a wonderful way these days during our pilgrimage.

So many times due to many concerns in life, we forget you are the Gospel – the Good News – who saved us all (1Cor.15:1).

So many times we forget like Philip that you and the Father are one, that whoever had seen you has seen the Father too (Jn.14:9).

Lord Jesus Christ, visiting “mensa Christi“, your table where you had breakfast with your apostles after Easter, we realized the most important thing of all of being a Christian – to be in love with your first and above all Lord!

Let us love you more deeply Lord Jesus as you well know how weak we are. Amen.

Photos by the author: above is the shore at the back of Capernaum where Jesus preached and last photo is back of church near shore where the Lord asked Simon thrice, “Do you love me?”.