Come After Me

“Come after me and I will make you fishers of men.” Matthew 4:19

One thing is sure, the Lord’s ways are different, very different than ours. One time we were having a problem with one of our branches. To us, this branch was high performing, but to the mall in Makati, we were not selling enough. What are our 10 peso pads, 25 peso posters and 300 peso scrapbooks compared to the sales of an imported brand known for selling jeans for P15,000 a pair?!!! We prayed and tried to find someone to help us renew our contract. At first nothing, no answer, until God gave me a sense that I had to walk seven times around the store like the Israelites in the 6th chapter of Joshua. After that march, a “claiming of the land”, my brother was able to talk to someone who was able to help. We are still there. 

If we follow God, He will teach us His ways. They are usually the opposite of the world’s. If we are lonely, we need to go out and love others. If we need money, we need to “sow”, to be generous. When we are facing a big trial or challenge, we should praise God loudly! 

We can trust that if we come after the Lord, He will teach us to do our work. He will guide us how to be fishermen, businessmen, teachers, preachers, janitors, tricycle drivers, IT consultants, artists, cooks.... His way and not ours. We will find that He is willing to teach us step by step, as long as we are willing to follow Him step by step. It’s a pilgrimage journey that leads to a retirement plan that is out of this world. 

WOYWW: Can’t Take it with You!

On my desk today is one of our papemelroti journals that I am preparing to give to a dear friend. 

I painted her portrait and made some collages to start her off. 

This is the journal I picked for her. I am so proud of our art journals. You can find them here if you would like to see the designs- 

“Suddenly the fingers of a human hand appeared, writing on the plaster of the wall in the king’s palace.” Daniel 5:5

Many odd things happen in Bible stories, and this one in the book of Daniel is one of them. King Belshazzar, the son of Nebuchadnezzar, held a feast. He was drunk with wine and power and ordered the vessels his father had stolen from the Temple in Jerusalem, to be brought out from storage. He and his guests then used the gold and silver vessels for drinking wine. While drinking, they praised gods of their own making, gods of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood and stone. 

Eerily, the fingers of a human hand appeared out of thin air, and started writing words on the wall. “MENE, TEKEL, PERES,” was inscribed, and the king shivered, his face turned white, as did his guests. Then he called for Daniel the prophet to interpret the words. Daniel said, “You have rebelled against the Lord of heaven. The God in whose hand is your life breath and the whole course of your life, you did not glorify. You have been found wanting.” 

Poor King Belshazzar had wealth beyond his wildest dreams. He had so much power which he could have used to help his people. But he didn’t do that. 

I was listening to the speech the actor Denzel Washington gave in 2015 to the graduates of Dillard University. He said they should always put God first in everything they do. He proclaimed that everything he has, everything he has accomplished in his life, was by the grace of God. He told the story that when he was young and was starting to make it as an actor, he asked his mom, “Mom, did you think this was going to happen? I’d be so big and I’ll be able to take care of everybody and I can do this and I can do that.” Then his mom shushed him and corrected him, “Boy, stop it right there, stop! If you only knew how many people been praying for you!” She had asked so many groups to pray for him, even splashed him with holy water to protect him from evil! 

One thing Denzel said was that you never see a U-haul behind a hearse because no matter how much money you’ve amassed, how many mansions you’ve built or bought, how much jewelry or bitcoins or gold bullion you have, you’ll never be able to take it with you. 

He emphasized that the most selfish thing we can do is help others. The more we help others, the more successful we are. There’s joy in it, there’s satisfaction, plus we add to our treasure in heaven! Better to follow Denzel’s advice than King Belshazzar’s example! 

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Blessings!

Patsy  

Our Long-Suffering God

“Teacher, when will this happen?” 

Luke 21:7

Jesus was telling all who would listen to Him about the last days. Then as now, people were very interested in signs of the Messiah’s second coming. “Take care not to be misled. Many will come in My name saying, ‘I am he’ and ‘The time is at hand.’ Do not follow them. Neither must you be perturbed when you hear of wars and  insurrections. These things are bound to happen first, but the end does not follow immediately.”

This says a lot about the patience of God. Wars, rumors of wars, earthquakes, great signs and fearful omens in the heavens, plagues, famine, these all call people to examine their lives and call upon the name of the Lord. 

In 2 Peter 3: 8-9, we read, “But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”

Long-suffering. Patient. This is not the same quality we need when we are caught in traffic or waiting in a doctor’s office. God knows the beginning and the end of everything, even time. He is patient and long-suffering because He has a purpose and a plan. God wants to bring us all under His Kingship. Lord, may we work with You, and may we learn to be patient with those You want to call to Your side. 

Investing in God’s Business

“I assure you this poor widow has put in more than all the rest.” Luke 21:3

Tithing is an Old Testament concept found in Leviticus 27:30; Numbers 18:26; Deuteronomy 14:24; 2 Chronicles 31:5, etc. where the Jews were supposed to give 10% of their produce to the Lord. In the New Covenant, nowhere does it mention 10%, but Paul said in 2 Corinthians 9:7, that  man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 

To me, tithing or giving has a lot to do with partnering with the Lord in His work. It’s like investing some capital in the Lord’s business. Whether we give or not, His Kingdom will grow, just like the tiny mustard seed would grow into a tree in Matthew 13. We would like to be a part of that for surely there is much gain involved, eternal profit!

If we happened to invest $990 on Apple’s IPO back in Dec. 12, 1980, today our stock would be worth about $394,000. In God’s “stock exchange”, it’s a very different as God’s measuring stick is not the same as the world’s. If two people invest the same amount on God’s stock, the value in God’s eyes would be dependent on how much we had left in the bank!!!! 

In Luke 21, we see how Jesus thinks. He sees many rich people putting their offerings into the Temple treasury. But of all the people, some of them giving huge sums of money, He pointed out the poor widow putting in two copper coins. “I assure  you, this poor widow has put in more than all the rest. They make contributions out of their surplus, but she from her want has given what she could not afford- every penny she had to live on.” When she gets to heaven, she will find that the value of her stock generated dividends and a tremendous return of investment!

Some people know how to play the stock market and realize huge profits so they can retire comfortably one day. I don’t have much time to study the volatility of the market, so I regularly invest, but only in good companies. I believe we should also regularly, every month, invest in God’s business so we will be sure to have a retirement plan that is out of this world! Nothing invested in God’s business will lose value!  

The Lord is my Shepherd

“The Lord is my shepherd.” Psalm 23:1

In this most beloved Psalm, we see the God of the Universe through David’s eyes. David writes how he experienced His Father as a caring shepherd who provided everything he needed. Throughout his life, even when he sinned greatly, he knew his God would bring him back to the right path. When he was in danger, hunted down by the powerful King Saul, David experienced God’s protection.

“I will not be afraid, for You are close beside me. Your rod and Your staff protect and comfort me.” A shepherd has a staff or “mishena” with a crook which he uses to prod the sheep. When a shepherd brings his flock through mountain paths, sometimes there are dangerous cliffs, and if a sheep walks too close to the edge, he uses his staff to pull the sheep back to safety. The rod or “shebet” is used to protect his flock from wolves or other animals. It is also used to discipline the sheep who repeatedly stray from the flock. A shepherd will intentionally break its leg, and splint it so it cannot move away from him. 

When we were young, we hated the discipline and correction of our parents. But discipline is usually a sign of love, that our parents are not indifferent to us, that they care enough to teach and correct us. The same is true with God. In Hebrews 12:6, Paul tells us that the Lord disciplines those He loves, He chastises every son, just like a good shepherd does. In Psalm 94:12, the psalmist proclaims, “Happy are those whom You discipline, Lord, and those whom You teach from Your law.” 

Thank You for being my shepherd, Lord. Thank You for loving and caring enough to discipline me when I stray. Thank You for teaching Your ways every day. 

God of the Living

“God is not God of the dead but of the living.” Luke 20:38

One of the glaring characteristics of the lifeless is they cannot love, they cannot hope, there is no future for them, there is nothing. They will just go back to the ground from whence they came. But the Bible tells us that there is a different kind of death. This kind is more like a door that will bring us to a reality that we cannot imagine now. 

“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” (1 Corinthians 2:9) The key to the door is love, love for God and love for others. While we live, each and every day, we have the chance to become more and more that person who can possess the key to enter the door. We cannot find that key lying around in church, or while praying thousands of Hail Marys. But every single day, God gives us Himself to love, and if we find it hard to love Someone we do not see, we can love the beggar we do. 

"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.  For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I  needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.' Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” 

Like Mother Teresa, let us spread love everywhere we go. “Let no one ever come to you without leaving a little happier.” If we can do that, we will help make this often dark, dreary, desolate world a little brighter, and find the key to eternal joy. 

Advent Preparations

“My house shall be a house of prayer.” Luke 19:46

In 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, we learn that our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in us and was given to us by God. We do not belong to ourselves. God bought us with a high price. So we must honor God with your bodies. How? Just as Jesus ejected the traders in the Jerusalem Temple, so too we should keep the temple of our bodies clean of anything that would anger the Lord.

I am reading Amy Tan’s ‘The Kitchen God’s Wife’, and in it, she described that before the Chinese New Year, a lot of cleaning, wiping, washing, and throwing out had to be done by the household. Not a single speck of dust from the old year could remain for the new year! As Advent approaches, now would be a good time for cleaning up the temple of the Lord. 

Here in the Philippines, we usually skip Advent and go straight to Christmas. But when we expect an important person to visit our home, isn’t it but natural that we take some time to look around and evaluate what needs to be cleaned, fixed or removed? That’s what Advent is, a time of anticipation and expectation certainly, but also a time of preparation. Advent comes from the Latin ‘Adventus’, which means ‘coming’. We prepare for the visitation of the Lord into our lives on Christmas, the special season of grace. We also await His second coming in glory. 

I have to admit it is hard for me to keep in mind that Advent is like Lent in a way. We are supposed to devote more time to prayer, scripture reading, lighting the Advent wreath, sharing our blessings, and even fasting. 

We can read in the Cathechism of the Catholic Church (524): “When the Church celebrates the liturgy of Advent each year, she makes present this ancient expectancy of the Messiah, for by sharing in the long preparation for the Savior's first coming, the faithful renew their ardent desire for His second coming.” 

So before we spend so much of our time shopping, wrapping gifts, partying, decorating our homes and cooking, let us first make sure our temple is ready for our Lord’s visitation. Maranatha! Come, Lord Jesus, come! 

Completely Lost!

“...you have completely lost it from view!” Luke 19:42

When Jesus approached Jerusalem in the 19th chapter of Luke, He wept. I wonder what He saw that made Him lament, “If only you had known the things that would make for peace, but you have completely lost it from view!” 

What would Jesus say if He saw our country with thousands being murdered, so much corruption, made up news, posturing politicians, the poor used as pawns and people rah-rahing what they perceive as a path to peace and prosperity. 

The mind has been the subject of study for thousands of years and it has been discovered that our mind fools us all the time. What we perceive to be true can be the complete opposite. In Jeremiah 17:9 it says, “The human mind is the most deceitful of all things. It is incurable. No one can understand how deceitful it is.” Should we depend on our mind and heart to lead us?

I am sure we have been in a situation where each person had a different version of a memory, or an event, or even, an accident. Put three witnesses together and you usually can’t come up with the exact same timeline of events. We focus on different things, give importance to different values. 

Where do we get our values? Sadly, today, most young people, without proper guidance, pick up their values from social media. We can be seduced by the values espoused in movies, magazines, Facebook, Instagram, etc. where looks, popularity, and wealth are all important. But all of this is opposite to what the Good Book says. All of these is fleeting, and it is short sighted to live our lives running after things that will not have a speck of value in eternity. 

Lord, may I go back to the source of good values and right thinking. My mind and heart may fool me, but You will keep me on the right path. 

Just a Prayer Away

“Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try” – Dr. Seuss .

One little fabric bead on my work desk. I wonder what I will do with it? Make more and connect the beads with a chain? Attach a tassel to it? Will it become a pair of earrings? A necklace? A bag ornament? I am so sorry I have to leave it and go to work!

“Give ear to my prayer...” Psalm 17:1

This morning, I heard an amusing story about a woman in the US. She left her purse, phone and car keys inside her car and she was frantic because she needed to get somewhere urgently. After borrowing an old hanger from a store nearby, she realized she had no idea what to do with it. So she bowed her head and prayed, crying out to God in frustration. After 5 minutes, a huge burly tattooed man on a motorcycle roared to a stop beside her car. Noticing her troubled face, he asked if she needed help. In her desperation, she said yes. He was able to open her car in a few minutes! She hugged him, and still crying, thanked him profusely. “You’re such a nice man!” she kept repeating.

He answered, “No, no I’m not, lady. I just got out of prison for car theft.” The woman hugged the man again and exclaimed, “Thank You, Father, You love me so much, You sent a professional!” 

Sometimes, God answers our prayers in unexpected ways. We just need to pray. In a simplified metaphor, we can compare God’s power to electricity. There is no light if we don’t turn on the switch. The refrigerator won’t work, our computer won’t run, our TV will be blank, if we don’t plug the appliances on to the socket. If we don’t pray, talk to God or even be silent before Him, we won’t have any connection to the One Mighty Powerful King of the Universe and beyond. How privileged we are that He us just a prayer away! 

God-Shaped Hole

“Zaccheus, hurry and come down...”  

Luke 19:5

We must never give up on people, and we must never ever give up on ourself. Just one touch, one call from Jesus can change everything. No matter how bad, selfish, or proud, a person is, there’s a God shaped hole in them that only God can fill. Hurting people are those that most need Him, especially when they are intentionally mean, insensitive, or cruel. 

Zaccheus is a comic character. He was a chief tax collector in Jesus’ day and he was very rich. That meant that he was corrupt, and mean and insensitive to people’s plight. But that God-shaped hole inside him yearned for something, someONE! When Jesus was passing through his town, short Zaccheus ran on ahead and climbed a sycamore tree, the better to see Jesus. 

“Zaccheus, come down,” Jesus called, “I must stay at your house.” Did Jesus really say that? I must stay in your heart and fill that gaping hole where only I belong! You don’t have to go searching anymore for what you need. You don’t have to keep harassing people, and amassing wealth. I will teach You that I am your treasure. I am your joy. 

So if there’s anyone we know, insecure, grasping, cursing all the time, threatening, or bullying us or someone we know, pray. Get plenty of people to pray that Jesus will call him down from that lonely tree and fill his heart with what he needs. He may become like funny Zaccheus and turn his life around and follow Jesus! Nothing is impossible with God! 

The Shushing Crowd

“Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Luke 18:38

This was the shout of the blind man as Jesus was passing by on the road to Jericho. There was a crowd shushing him, telling him to stop shouting and calling out to Jesus. 

Is there anything or anyone stopping us from calling on Jesus? From praying? From reading His Word? Perhaps we wake up too late. We have too much to do or think about. We only want to do what is important and useful. Everything is all right with our world and we don’t have anything to ask God for. Nothing is right with our world and we think God can’t or won’t help anyway. What a crowd of shushers!!! 

But the blind man kept shouting and asking for God’s answers anyway, like the persistent widow in Luke 18, or Hannah in 1 Samuel 1. The Bible is one long long story of God answering His people’s prayers and He continues to do so today.  

When my son Josh graduated from Computer Science, he told me that all the good start ups were in BGC. That was a long way away, and would require 2-3 hours to just get there. I knew that nothing is impossible with God, and prayed. Now, my niece Elyse accuses me of praying too hard because Josh got a job with a really good company and he works from home! Thank You Lord for listening to our prayers and answering them! Thank You for having mercy on us! 

Impossible Proverbs 31 Wife

“When one finds a worthy wife, her value is far beyond pearls.” Proverbs 31:10

I literally cringe when I read Proverbs 31. The Proverbs 31 wife is far beyond my powers! But there is one verse that I particularly like: “She brings him good, and not evil, all the days of her life.” The one thing I know which will bring my husband the ultimate good is prayer. And so I pray, and pray, and pray, like the persistent widow in Luke 18. I may not be the perfect wife, but I sure know how to pray! It comes from the conviction that all families have an enemy and that enemy has a strategy and a goal to destroy families. Why?

Marriage was instituted by God to be a billboard, a metaphor, a sign of God’s love for us. God chose us to be His bride, and gave Himself sacrificially for us. We respond to Him by submitting to Him, by loving Him, by serving Him, by entering into a covenant bond with Him. The devil absolutely hates the covenant of marriage. He hates families. So we may not know it, we may not see him in our homes, but he and his minions hang around and wait for every opportunity to bring evil into our families. 

The enemy wants us exhausted, bitter, miserable, ready to flare up at any small hurt. To bring good and not evil into our homes, to be a wife worth more than pearls, we need to be aware of the war going on FOR our marriage, FOR our family. We need to be aware of the arsenal we have at our disposal. We need to go inside our prayer closet, wherever that may be, and be like the persistent widow in Luke 18. “Will not God then do justice to His chosen who call out to Him day and night?” Luke 18:7

Saint Rose Philippine Duchesne

“Jesus told His disciples a parable on the necessity of praying always...” Luke 18:1

Jesus told His disciples that they should always pray, and never ever give up. They should not lose heart, never turn cowardly. Today is the Feast Day of a saint who did just that. Saint Rose Philippine Duchesne was given an affectionate nickname by the American Indians she was serving. She was called Quahkahkanumad, which means Woman Who Prays Always. The children who would find her praying, would put leaves on the hem of her black habit. The next morning, the leaves would still be there. 

Saint Philippine came from a very rich background. Her family lived in Château de Vizille, one of the most prestigious and important castles in the Dauphine region in France and it is now a Museum of the French Revolution. She left her privileged background against her father’s will to enter the Visitation Convent at 18 years old. 

In 1818, at 49 years old, Saint Philippine and other Sisters from the Society of the Sacred Heart set sail for the New World to become missionaries to Native Americans. They set up the first Sacred Heart School outside of Europe in the small remote village of St.Charles, Missouri. It was free and it was the first Catholic School in America. 10 years after, they had grown to six communities operating several schools.

In 1841, when Saint Philippine was seventy-one, they were asked by the Jesuits to join them in a new mission with the Potawatomi tribe in eastern Kansas, along Sugar Creek. Father Verhaegen insisted that Saint Rose come along. "She may not be able to do much work, but she will assure success to the mission by praying for us."  Sure enough, Saint Rose found it difficult to master their language, and was unable to teach, but she would spend long periods in prayer. 

Sometimes we may be frustrated because we were unable to fulfill our plans, or we were not successful meeting a target. We need only turn to God in prayer like so many saints before us. Nothing is impossible with God. Like Saint Philippine, we can pray unceasingly over a map, a plan, or a picture of a person, and trust that God in His infinite wisdom and love will answer us in the best way. 

God Exists!

“The heavens declare the glory of God.” Psalm 19:1

There is no doubt that a Rolex was created by a great designer and master craftsman. No way can the intricacy of the watch be put together by flinging the parts on the ground or putting it inside a shaker and shaking it around. In the same way, the teleological argument or the “argument from design” states that we know God exists because we observe that the magnificence of space, the beauty of the flowers, the amazing wonders of the varied animals and even our human body, cannot have been put together by luck. There is an intelligent, and to me, caring, intelligence behind it. 

Just take our skin. I find it amazing that I paint, and glue, I clean and rub dirty things, and I can wash it off and my skin is as good as new! My fingers are awesome! Can you imagine if we didn’t have our thumbs? Or lacked one joint in our fingers? If we go through the human body, one part at a time, our hair, eyelashes, nails, nose hair, lids, the list goes on and on and on, and we will just marvel at the care and love our Master Potter lavished on us when He made us from mud and dirt.  And that’s just man! There are approximately 950,000 species of insects in the world! I can imagine God crazily putting together the most outrageous colors and shapes and configurations one after the other! I don’t think He’s finished enjoying Himself yet because 10,000 species of animals are discovered every year! 😉 I cannot put enough exclamation points when I think about the amazing plumage of birds, the awesome colors of fish, and the pictures we see from outer space!!! Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

 

Father, may I never ever take Your love for granted. You gave us a beautiful, awesome world! May we slow down, appreciate Your creation, breathe in Your goodness and be filled with gratitude always! 

Jesus at the Inn

“The Kingdom of God is already in your midst.” Luke 17:21

Many of the Pharisees were very curious about Jesus and would invite Him into their homes and ply Him with questions. One of those questions was: “When would the Kingdom of God come?” Then as now, people were preoccupied with the end of the world. So what, if we know when Jesus comes again? For each of us, there is an inevitable end, when God deems it is our time to leave earth. 

Jesus answered the Pharisees, “The reign of God is already in Your midst, it is within you, in your hearts, it is among you, surrounding you.” That’s a perfect description of where Jesus is. He was right there in front of the Pharisees, and today, He lives in the hearts of Christians everywhere. As Advent nears, it is time to examine ourselves. Is there a room at the inn of our hearts for Jesus? 

The world is starving for the immanent, the indwelling of God. “Entheos”, God within, is the root word of enthusiasm. Are we still inspired by God’s Word so that others  catch it from us? Do we get a fire in the belly such that we desire to know more and more, and have more and more of the treasure that Jesus said is within our reach? Do we wake up early in the morning eager to know what gifts God has for us each day? 

Holy Spirit, You are our teacher. Bring us to a place where we delight in Jesus, the Word made flesh. May we make more and more room for Him in the inn of our heart. 

Taking the Time

“Praise God I am healed!” Luke 17:15

Jesus healed many, many people in various kinds of ways. Here in Luke 17, he met 10 lepers who asked Him to have pity on them. He instructed them to go and show themselves to the priests. They obeyed, and on the way, all 10 were healed. Only one of the lepers went back to look for Jesus to thank Him and give praise to God in a loud voice. 

Jesus asked, “Were not all ten made whole? Where are the other nine?” Then he turned to the Samaritan man who was healed and declared, “Your faith has been your salvation.”

There are countless things to thank God for. A few years ago, I decided to number my thanks to God in my journal. This was after I read Ann Voskamp’s best seller, “A Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are”. I am now in #6318. 

In her book, Ann writes, “Being in a hurry. Getting to the next thing without fully entering the thing in front of me. I cannot think of a single advantage I've ever gained from being in a hurry. But a thousand broken and missed things, tens of thousands, lie in the wake of all the rushing.... Through all that haste I thought I was making up time. It turns out I was throwing it away.” 

It seems the nine lepers were in a hurry. Perhaps now that they were healed and whole, there were a hundred and one things they wanted to do. They wanted to see their families for sure. Being lepers, they were pariah, and they were supposed to stay away from people. Whatever it is, they did not take the time to go back and thank Jesus. Because they did not take the time to be grateful, they missed a most precious gift that only Jesus could bestow: salvation. 

In the midst of all my rushing, I need to take the time to slow down and thank God. My Father has all the time in the world for me. Silly, absurd, crazy me. He has time for me and my challenges, my rants, my idiosyncrasies. I should stop, savor His presence and love, and thank Him.

Broken and Redeemed

“As gold in a furnace, He proved them, and as sacrificial offerings He took them to Himself.” Wisdom 2:6

According to Pliny, a Roman author, naturalist, philosopher and naval commander of the early Roman Empire, “gold is the only thing that loses no substance by the action of fire, but even in conflagrations and in funeral pyres receives no damage. Indeed as a matter of fact it improves in quality the more often it is fired, and fire serves as a test of its goodness.” That’s why when we undergo trials and challenges, we liken it to being purified, the fire of adversity melting away our many imperfections. 

But smelting is too painful to think about, and I prefer the image of us as clay in our Father’s hands in Jeremiah 18. He forms us, molds us, makes us, and all the time, He has to restore us, and transform us. God needs a perfect sacrifice, and as we are, we need a lot of work!

The Japanese have a beautiful way of redeeming broken pottery. This art form known as Kintsugi or “golden joinery” puts together the shards of the broken object with lacquer mixed with gold powder. There is a philosophy behind the practice which we can relate to. When we are broken, we need not think we are of no value to God and to others. God can redeem us in a way that our brokenness is part of who we are and we become more beautiful to Him. 

Father, thank You that You will do everything to make us beautiful in Your sight! 

Mother Cabrini

“Increase our faith!” Luke 17:5

November 13 is the Feast Day of Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini. It was very unlikely that Mother Cabrini as she is sometimes called, would become a super saint. She was born two months premature and her parents had her baptized right away for fear she would not survive. She remained fragile and sickly her whole life. Only three of her twelve siblings survived past adolescence. At 18, when she applied to become a nun, she was refused because of her poor health. But that did not deter her from continuing to serve in a girl’s orphanage, drawing many young women to the Lord.

She finally made her religious vows at the age of 27. When the orphanage closed down, she along with 6 other women founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart to care for poor children in schools and hospitals. She had excellent administrative skills and used her gifts to establish 7 homes, a free school and nursery.

Her journey took an abrupt change when Pope Leo XIII sent her to the United States to care for the flood of Italian immigrants who fell victims to prejudice and were exploited by their bosses in sweatshops. Many were losing their faith. Church and family life were sacrificed at the altar for survival. This was the environment that greeted Mother Cabrini as she and her Sisters started work in the slums of “Little Italy” in America. 

It is amazing that in her lifetime of 67 years she established nearly seventy orphanages, hospitals, and schools, in eight countries in Europe, South, Central, and North America. Where did all this energy and passion to serve come from?

Mother Cabrini was a contemplative missionary and she was always writing and praying. She took every challenge and question to Jesus and she was confident that God surrounded her from when she was very young with His boundless love, “encircling me as the waters of the sea surround and enclose a fish.”

Lord, may we take the example of Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini. May we trust fully in You, and bring everything we do to You in prayer. Increase our faith that we may do great things for You! 

Waiting for the Bridegroom

And the foolish said to the prudent, “Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.” Matthew 25:8

People believe what they like, and those who believe in heaven, believe they are going to end up there one day. Of course we all desire to end up in heaven if heaven really exists. But are we doing all we can to ensure that for us and for our children? 

If life was an adventure movie like Indiana Jones and there was a map to this awesome treasure that was more valuable than any unicorn 🦄, everyone would be searching for that map 🗺, wouldn’t they? But here and now, in our real life, the map is everywhere! In all the bookstores, sitting on our shelves even! All we need to do is sit down, open it up, and ask God to help us find our treasure and He’ll guide us through step by step! 

In the parable Jesus told about the 5 foolish virgins and the 5 wise ones, all 10 were waiting for the bridegroom to arrive. All of them were eager, expectant, vigilant. But alas! 5 of them did not have enough oil for their lamps and their flames were sputtering! They had to leave their waiting post and buy some more oil, and while they were gone, the Bridegroom arrived and they were left outside. 

The lamps may represent our spiritual life, and the oil everything that keeps our faith burning brightly. We cannot borrow prayer or studying the Bible from others. We cannot give it to our children. We have to have our own oil so we don’t run out. 

Father, thank You for the treasure You have reserved for each one of us. Thank You Jesus for pointing the way and leaving us the map. Thank You Holy Spirit for never leaving us alone as long as we take the time to listen and read Your Word.