Increase Our Faith

And the Apostles said to the Lord, “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!

Give Us Oil in Our Lamps

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

During the time of Jesus, weddings took several days. The ten virgins were guests at the wedding feast and had been waiting for the bride and bridegroom to arrive. They all became tired and fell asleep. When the bridegroom party was arriving, they woke up and trimmed their lamps.

There were 5 virgins who wisely brought oil to refill their oil lamps, but the other 5, called the foolish virgins in the parable, had to leave and buy some oil. When the bridegroom arrived, the foolish virgins were locked out of the wedding banquet.

"Lord, Lord," they said, "Open the door for us!" But he replied, "I do not know you. Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour."

The wedding feast is the heavenly banquet. The bridegroom is Jesus, and the bride is the Church. The virgins are you and me. The question is, are we one of the wise ones, or one of the foolish ones? Do we have extra oil with us?

There are many explanations for what the oil symbolizes. Faith? The Holy Spirit. Whatever it is, we need to be prepared for when the Lord comes at the end of our lives. 

"Stay awake and watch." The danger is really in the waiting. The parousia (an ancient Greek word meaning presence, arrival or official visit) is long delayed. Sometimes we grumble when we HAVE TO go to church, or service, or prayer meetings, or men's and women's groups as we have them in our Covenant Community.

The big danger is routine and familiarity. We lose faith, we lose our enthusiasm. We lose our desire to have a closer relationship with the One who created us, the One who loves us, the One who gives our lives meaning.

When the light of faith and enthusiasm dies out, that's when we are unprepared to meet the Lord, that's when we need oil to keep our fire burning!

Let us pray for the gift of a growing relationship with the Lord, and let us pray for the gift of gratitude!

Make Friends

“Make friends for yourselves with dishonest wealth so that when it fails, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings." Luke 16:10

We see a lot of people amassing wealth dishonestly. There are politicians who think nothing of commandeering the coffers of the nation to build mansions, travel extravagantly, or construct monuments to themselves on our streets. 

Then there are the petty thieves on motorcycles who prey on unsuspecting women and children. But what about us? 

Are we aware that each of us are exiles in this place called earth and we are only passing through? Imagine if you will that we are in a foreign land, a poor little village in Africa. And amidst the squalor, we start to build a palace, and act as if we are going to stay there forever. But in a few days we are supposed to leave for home. Is it not a folly, a stupid thing to do? A waste? When what we should have been doing was building good relationships, and finding ways to help the others around us better their lives? 

The Saint whose feast day we celebrate today lived his faith intensely. Once, St. Martin of Tours, while on horseback in Gaul, met a beggar. As he had nothing but the clothes on his back, St. Martin cut his heavy cloak and gave half to the poor man. Later, he had a vision of Christ wearing the garment.

Treasures in Heaven

“His master praised the dishonest manager for acting shrewdly and prudently; for the sons of men are shrewder and more prudent and wiser in relation to their own generation than are the sons of light." 

Luke 16:8

Whaaaat?!!!  This is a complicated, confusing story! Why is Jesus telling a parable about a dishonest manager being commended by his master, his boss, for being shrewd???

Recently in our business there has been a rash of dishonest employees. They each found ingenuous ways of stealing money. And in a way I can relate to the boss in the story and can say, "Wow! These employees really used their God-given talents, their brains, their creativity to find a way to get what they wanted!"  If only they used their abilities and gifts for something good! 

And I think this is partly what Jesus is saying in this parable. We should use our time, talent and treasure, all our resources, to do good, to gain friends, to build the Kingdom of Heaven, and to grow our treasure there! In Matthew 6:20, we can read, “Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven". Although we cannot hold on to any of the material things we have accumulated, what we will continue to enjoy in heaven are the relationships we have with our family, our brothers and sisters, the missionaries we have helped through the years, the inmates we have accompanied, the sick we have prayed for, the widows and orphans we encouraged, the poor we lifted out of their misery. 

Yes, we should be shrewder, wiser, and more prudent than worldly men who rule this world with impunity. And we have God at our side to do it!

God’s Garden

“We are God's Garden..." 1 Corinthians 3:9

We are God's field, His husbandry, where God cultivates His flowers and fruit. This is one of my favorite bible verses! I don't know how many times I've painted this and I never get tired of it. Perhaps because it reminds me of the one and only vision God gave me. I experienced this during a singles' retreat in our community. I was before the Blessed Sacrament, and Jesus and I were in a beautiful garden. Everything was lush and blooming and vibrant. Jesus said to me, "I am the gardener here. I take care of all these plants. I prune them all. I will show you one that I do not prune." And he brought me to a dead, decaying tree. All brown and withered leaves.

Then Jesus continued. “I am sure you do not like to be like this tree."  In a way He was preparing me for pruning. You see up to that point, ever since I was young, I would pray, "Lord, treat me gently." And God answered my prayers. I had a very comfortable, enjoyable life. No problems. But God was saying if He continued to treat me gently I would not bloom, I would not bear fruit!!!

In the Song of Solomon, we read, “Awake North wind, and come, O South wind! Blow upon my garden, let its fragrance flow. Let my beloved come to my garden and eat its choicest fruit." (SS 4:16)

Why does she want the bitter cold North wind to come? Trials and challenges, this is what God uses to prune us. He knows what we need to become better people. Just like coal needs to be exposed to temperatures of more than 2000 degrees and pressure 50 times greater than what we find on the surface of the earth to become a DIAMOND! And then after that, it needs some sort of volcanic  eruption to bring it up to the surface of the earth!

Pressure makes us who we are. It can build our character. I guess we are all coal starting out. When the pressure builds, and adversity comes, we have to stay in faith, and work with God to become a diamond. Or we can give up, and crumble to dust!  

So come North wind! Help me to become a diamond!!!

The Victory You Won for Us

“Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.” Luke 14:27

This is one of Jesus’ hard lessons. One that as a young girl I rejected and did not believe He said. One of the reasons I stopped reading the Bible in High School and left the cute little Gideon Bible on a shelf to become dusty. 

Today, we wear crosses on our necks, wrists and even ears. It is hung on our walls, our car mirrors, and doors. People in Jesus’ time would never think of doing that. Only criminals convicted of heinous crimes would have carried their cross and be crucified on it. Today in the Philippines there is discussion about heinous crimes. Men who should have been in jail for their whole lifetime were released because they had connections in high places, or they paid money to people in the Bureau of Corrections. 

We cannot pay God enough money to get Him to forgive our heinous crimes against Him. We cannot do enough good deeds to cover up for our sin. Amazingly, Jesus was willing to do it for us. "He himself bore our sins" in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; "by his wounds you have been healed." (1 Peter 2:24)

Thank You Jesus for Your unshakeable, massive commitment to us. Thank You that nothing can thwart the victory You won for us on the cross. I can live in freedom, without guilt and shame, as long as I repent of my sin, believe in Your finished work on the cross, and follow You.

Exercise Our Gifts

“Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us exercise them.” 

Romans 12:6

God is so gracious, He allows us to help Him in His work here on earth. In Genesis, we read that God took pleasure in the work of His hands. “And God saw it was good.” We read that several times in Genesis. 

When we use our gifts in line with God’s purposes and designs, we too will find fulfilment and say, “It is good!” It says in Romans 12 that we need to EXERCISE our gifts. What happens when we exercise our bodies? Our muscles become strong and firm. The same is true with our gifts, we need to use them, practice, hone, and learn more about them. If we do that, it will be exciting to see where God will bring us! 

Soli Deo Gloria!

“Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How inscrutable are his judgments and how unsearchable his ways!” Romans 11:33

God’s ways are truly inscrutable and unsearchable. How can we ever understand the logic behind the Cross? That it is the only way up, up to God, up to heaven, up to righteousness. Indeed it is only through this darkness we see light just as a seed has to be buried to germinate and grow, and a baby has to be formed in the mystery of the womb. 

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) was one of the most amazing composers of all time. He composed more than a thousand pieces in almost every musical genre, instrumental sonatas, kantatas, cello suites, masses, concerts. 

Bach was orphaned as a child. He had a total of twenty children, but eleven of them died when very very young. Bach’s first wife passed away and he married a second wife Anna-Magdalena. At 64 years of age, he became totally blind. Even if his life was filled with so much pain and loss, he continued to write the most majestic and sublime music the world has ever known. He wrote the St. Matthew’s Passion based on the last days of Jesus on earth. He composed the B Minor Mass, a full 2 hour mass setting with the Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Benedictus and Agnus Dei. 

At the end of every composition, he regularly inscribed the letters S.D.G. which was short for Soli Deo gloria, “To God alone, the glory”. He also frequently began with the short prayer J.J. which was his way of calling on the Lord for help. His faith helped him deal with pain, and worship was the best solace. We can raise our souls and spirits to heaven listening to his compositions for his music was prayer. He believed that ‘the aim and final end of all music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul’. 

Like Johann Sebastian Bach, if we live our lives for God’s glory, God will make our lives His masterpiece. 

The Greatest Among You

“You have but one master, the Christ. The greatest among you must be your servant.” 

Matthew 23:10-11

Usually, if we hang around with people who like eating out, we end up eating out a lot. If most of our friends visit the gym often, we inevitably buy exercise outfits and work out. Mannerisms, the way our friends talk, their attitudes rub off on us. I used to go out with some friends who cursed. Even if I was determined not to do so, sometimes I would catch myself saying a bad word. My mom heard me once say a word that was constantly repeated by this group, and almost washed my mouth out with soap!

It is also catching if we spend time with Jesus. We will be influenced by the way He prays, and loves, and serves others. Bishop Fulton Sheen wrote in his book, Life is Worth Living, that “We become like that which we love. If we love what is base, we become base; but if we love what is noble, we become noble.” 

Colin Powell wrote something that bears thinking about: “The less you associate with some people, the more your life will improve. Any time you tolerate mediocrity in others, it increases your mediocrity. An important attribute in successful people is their impatience with negative thinking and negative acting people. As you grow, your associates will change. Some of your friends will not want you to go on. They will want you to stay where they are. Friends that don't help you climb will want you to crawl. Your friends will stretch your vision or choke your dream. Those that don't increase you will eventually decrease you.”

I am part of a covenant Christian community. We are all different kinds of people. I doubt we would ever have met if not for community. One thing I know, we all love God and strive to love, serve, and encourage one another. Christ is our master, our leader, our friend. It is not a perfect community, but I know I am in the right group. We all need friends who will help us to become what God purposed us to be. 

See Ourselves

“Everyone who exalts Himself will be humbled and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” Luke 14:11

How sad we see so much division in the world today. Many people detest each other. It does not even have to be sin. It can be political or religious choices. It can be color, sexual orientation, or even where you studied. Quarrels have erupted between fraternities and murders committed. We see so much enmity on social media. 

When I see God face to face, what will He say to me? Will He applaud and commend me, “Good job! You are not a sinner like the rest of the world!” 100% no way! I may not have murdered anyone, but I have been peeved, irritated, felt entitled and angry enough to hit someone in the heat of the moment. I have no righteous garment to wear when I appear before the Father unless I borrow one from Jesus. 

Like the tax collector in Luke 18, I can repeat, “O God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” Jesus promised that one who is humble, knows he is a sinner, and repents, he will be justified. “Everyone who exalts Himself will be humbled and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” Luke 14:11

Humility is difficult in the me generation where thousands of selfies are uploaded in Facebook and Instagram every minute. We are told in different ways, “Create your dream life”, “Pursue happiness”. During the pandemic, “happiness” trended as the most searched word on Google!

We forget that selfishness produces apathy towards others. What is most ironical is that when we insist on pursuing happiness and fulfillment for ourselves, we become more lonely! That is one of the reasons we have a broken world. We need more humility, a willingness to see others, a readiness to sacrifice for others, and an ability to look outside ourselves, because those “others” are us. Jesus prayed, “May they be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us...” (John 17:21)

My Sheep Hear My Voice

“My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me.”  

John 10:27

Have you ever worn hand me downs, or clothes from the ukay-ukay? If you’re a younger child, you usually wear what your older sibling outgrew and can’t fit into anymore. I happen to like rummaging through the piles of clothes in the ukay-ukay, clothes somebody gave away, got tired of, or perhaps became too big for. But isn’t it exciting to receive something really meant for you, with your name on it, not previously worn by someone else? 

Well, sometimes we think that we can only hear God through the priest or preacher, maybe a Bible teacher or scholar like Scott Hahn or Steve Ray or Bishop Robert Barron. But it would be really exciting to “hear” God for ourselves, not a piece of revelation passed on to us from others. Is it possible? 

In John 10:27 Jesus very clearly tells us that, “My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me.” God meant for us to hear Him for ourselves, to have a revelation from God, guidance and light. If we want to be part of Jesus’ family, His flock, we should make sure to hear His voice so we can follow Him. From experience, I can say that just like with most things, if we want to be good at something, we need to practice. If we want to hear God we should maybe start with talking to Him, even ask Him questions, and then keeping quiet for some time and listening. Expect Him to speak to you. 

We can be sure that what God says will line up with what scripture says. It will never contradict. Also, God’s messages will always give us tranquility even if He is correcting or disciplining us. One of my husband’s leaders advised him that, “If it is from God, You will find peace. If not, you will feel the flick of the serpent’s tail.” There is no condemnation in Him, only love. God is eager to have a close relationship with us and if we just show up each and every day and talk to Him, we will have the fullness of life and blessing He wants for us.

Only Goodness

"Only goodness and kindness follow me all the days of my life..."Psalm 23:6 

When I was reflecting about this I was wondering how I could still confess this with confidence even if my brother and I are sick, even if there is so much heartbreak, devastation and injustice around the world. 

I think it is because after years of listening and speaking to God, getting to know Him through the Bible, I know I can trust Him. I have faith He knows what He is doing, even if sometimes I do not understand His ways. 

I finished watching Maggie Smith’s movie The Miracle Club, about four ladies off to Lourdes, France, in search of a miracle. One of the ladies, played by Kathy Bates, denounces Lourdes as a scam because there were “only 62 certified miracles since 1858.”

But God’s miracles are too many to count if we but have the heart and discipline of gratefulness to see them. They don’t always come in the guise we expect! 

If we train ourselves to be on the lookout, we will see that yes! His blessings overflow! His goodness, kindness, generosity, mercy, peace and love follow us and even surround us every morning! 

Mustard Seed

Jesus said, “What is the Kingdom of God like? To what can I compare it? It is like a mustard seed that a man took and planted in the garden. When it was fully grown, it became a large bush and the birds of the sky dwelt in its branches.” Luke 13:18-19

How can the tiny mustard seed be compared to the Kingdom of God with all its power? Yet that is what Jesus compared it to. “When it is sown in the ground, the seed springs up and becomes the largest of plants and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade.” That is the latent power of the seeds God plants in our hearts. With His pruning and nurturing, we can bear fruits of kindness, generosity, and faithfulness.  The more we use these gifts, the more we grow, and the more our little corner of the world changes. We must never underestimate the power of the little seeds of good we plant on our doorstep, in our offices, schools, neighbourhoods and churches. Let us help grow the Kingdom of God one seed at a time. 

A businessman was asked what was the secret of his success. He answered,  “Where God is in charge, small things enlarge. In God’s hand, small things expand.”

He Who Loves Us Best

“This daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound for eighteen years now, ought she not to have been set free on the sabbath day from this bondage?” the Lord said. (Luke 13:16)

I always marvel at how much knowledge, entertainment and news is at our fingertips if we have a computer or a phone with an internet connection. The first computer was the size of a room, and the first hard disk drive was the size of a cupboard! And now, my phone has more power than that monster computer which I think was powered by steam!!!

Before, news had to carried by people on horses and letters by boats which took months to reach its destination. Now, a glance at my X feed formerly twitter can bring me news faster than CNN! What an amazing world we have!

But are we just as amazed at how awesome it is, that the Messiah that "kings and prophets" longed and waited for, is here with us today? That we can actually have a relationship with Him? We can read His words, His love letters to us. We can read His story and if we read it often enough, and get to know His character and personality, the more clearly we can hear Him speak. One of the best reasons to read scripture is to know Him who loves us best. He can answer our questions and guide us the same way He did for our forefathers. In this story in Luke 13, we see His compassion, even that He is willing to fight the authorities for us, just so He can help us and free us! 

Is it not that we often take for granted that we can actually worship and fellowship with other believers without fear of getting caught, stoned, burned at the stake, or carted off to be killed by animals in the middle of an arena like the Hunger Games? The Jews are still waiting for their Messiah. 

Have we "found" Him for ourselves?

Connect

“You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:37-40

How do we love God? This is expressed above all in prayer, for what person loves without minding the object of his love? We need to waste time with our Father, first of all. Thomas Brooks said this was a “secret key to heaven”. Prayer is absolutely vital to a human being. We need to pray as much as we need to breathe! 

I love what St. Augustine wrote, “Prayer is the encounter of God's thirst with ours." Indeed God thirsts for us to be close to Him, hungers for our love, waits for our communication. We will never encounter a God like Him in other religions or in the atheistic mindset because He is implausible. How can we hold in our mind a God who is timeless but entered time, all powerful but allowed Himself to be weak and tortured by the very creatures He came to save? Implausible. 

It is this same God who desires to live in communion with us. Just as the Father, Son and Spirit, live in constant love, in community with one another, we are also called to live in communion with each other. To love one another. 

It is ironic that this world is so interconnected now. We can easily talk to a friend halfway around the world through Messenger, FaceTime, Telegram, etc. But how many actually do so? Families and friends are usually gathered about a table with their noses buried in their cellphones! 

When I am answering a message on my phone, or reading something on it, my little apo will put his tiny hands, one on each side of my face, so that I will concentrate on what he is saying. His earnest little face so close to my own reminds me there is nothing more important to this little person than connection. 

Sadly, there is a global mental health crisis. More people are lonely, depressed, starved of love. Although Generation Z (aged 18-22) is perhaps the most technologically connected, in the UCLA loneliness scale, they scored the highest in loneliness! Again, we need to waste time not only with God, but with our loved ones, our friends, our brothers and sisters. And leave our phones in our pockets. 

“Preaching to Myself”

Sinners!

“Jesus departed to the mountain to pray, and he spent the night in prayer to God. When day came, he called his disciples to himself, and from them he chose Twelve, whom he also named Apostles: Simon, whom he named Peter, and his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called a Zealot, and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.” Luke 6:12-16

Jesus prayed the whole night, and when he went down He chose after this night of prayer, His twelve apostles, fishermen, a tax collector, and one who would betray him. Are we missing something here? When we pray the whole night, we expect God’s guidance, His wisdom, His light shining on our concerns to give us the right path to take. But why did Jesus choose these men? 

Why did God choose Rahab the harlot, David the adulterer, Jacob the thief, Judah the fornicator, Tamar the deceiver, Abraham the liar… the list goes on. And the most surprising thing is all these sinners are listed in the genealogy of Christ! They are everyday sinners just like you and me, and God CHOSE them, USED them! Why? 

In Colossians 2:8, we read St. Paul’s words: “See to it that no one captivate you with an empty, seductive philosophy according to the tradition of men, according to the elemental powers of the world and not according to Christ.” We see here that God does not choose according to the standards of the world. He has a different tradition, a different economy, a different culture. 

While we run around in search of wealth, beauty, fun, popularity, power or fame, God does not put any value on these things. What He wants more than anything is to bring us to a relationship with Him, and to one day bring us to heaven. And He will use sinners like you and me to accomplish His purpose.

God is Good

“You are good and bountiful; teach me your statutes.” Psalm 119:68

Many question the goodness of God. I have heard many ask how can you call God good when He permits suffering? It says in the Bible that In this world we will have trouble. But we should take heart! For the Lord has overcome the world.” (John 16:33) 

When Corrie Ten Boom was young, she witnessed a death of a baby. She got very anxious that her father might die. Her father got concerned and asked her, “When you and I go to Amsterdam--when do I give you your ticket?"

She sniffed a few times before responding with “Why, just before we get on the train". Her father then went on, “Exactly. And our wise Father in Heaven knows when we're going to need things, too. Don't run out ahead of Him, Corrie. When the time comes that some of us will have to die, you will look into your heart and find the strength you need--just in time".

And the same is true with our troubles. If we depend on God, He will give us what we need, when we need it. Corrie Ten Boom, when she was incarcerated in the Ravensbrück Concentration Camp with her sister Betsie found the needed strength, hope and perseverance in God who did not forsake her. She went on to be a Christian writer and speaker who traveled the world, and she even set up a rehabilitation center in Bloemendaal for concentration camp survivors.

Set on Fire!

“I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!” Luke 12:49

Why in the world would Jesus say that? I think of the conflagration in Australia from July 2019 to March 2020 which devastated 46 million acres. More than 5,900 buildings became dust, ashes and rubble. At least 34 people were killed, and nearly 3 billion animals were affected in Australia’s worst wildfire season in modern history. Is this what Jesus meant?

In Deuteronomy 4:24, the verse says, “For the Lord, your God, is a consuming fire, a jealous God.” In another version, it reads, “a devouring fire”. Devouring and consuming are certainly descriptions of the wildfires in New South Wales and Victoria! It is something to take seriously! 

The verse before v.24, reads, “Take heed, therefore, lest, forgetting the covenant which the Lord, your God, has made with you, you fashion for yourselves against His command an idol in any form whatsoever”. How serious a sin is making an idol in any form, shape or configuration? Very very very serious! 

An idol is a false God. It doesn’t have to be a piece of wood, or marble in a church. It can be anything we put in the place of God. It can be a person we obey and admire and defend even if he himself does and says things against God’s laws, and asks us to do things that God hates. It can be our work if our work separates us from God and the family we love. It can be many things if we put those things before God. Indeed, Jesus wants to bring fire into our lives to burn away whatever is dross from the gold. Are we prepared for God’s consuming fire? We need to be if we are serious about going to heaven! No dross is allowed there! 

Be Prepared

“You must also be prepared, be ready, for the Son of Man comes at an hour you do not expect..." Luke 12:40

When you see a sign on the bus, “The end is near", or hear some man preaching about "the end of the world is at hand", what is your reaction? Do you scoff and say, "What a loony?" I have to confess I get excited! I do! 

I get excited that I'll see my mom and dad again. I get relieved that I won't have to think about all the horrible things happening in the world today that I can't do much about. The war in the Israel, Palestine, Ukraine and in so many other places is heartbreaking. And here, many people do not have enough food to eat while others cannot have enough money! 

The priest in the online mass I heard this morning, Father Artemis Raymundo of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes, preached, “I am always asked how do we prepare for the coming of the Lord. We do not know when the Lord will come for us. Always Be prepared. Do your best every day. Do faithfully what you are supposed to do every day. Don’t wait for the deadline. Don’t postpone. Prepare yourself as if you have only one day to live.” 

Really we  should not wait for the world to end. 

Our world will end. One day. That's inevitable. Is it possible to be ready, to be prepared, every day for God's coming? We don't have to be prepared for the Second Coming. God comes into our life every day! In the form of a little child. A beggar. Someone who is sick. Someone who is depressed. How do we respond?

Jesus said in Matthew 25:45, "Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me."

Light Your Lamps

“Gird your loins and light your lamps...Blessed are those servants whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival.” Luke 12:35-37

Very little is required of many of us I think. We are not part of a persecuted church, we are free to worship, and fellowship. 

In the book I am reading, one man in a Communist country urged: “Don’t ever give up in freedom what we would never have given up in persecution! That is our witness to the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ!” After Nik Ripken left his mission of feeding the hungry in Somalia, he felt very frustrated that he was not able to bring Christ there even after so many years. He then visited Russia, Ukraine and Eastern Europe to find out how the Christians there kept their faith strong after decades of communist oppression. In his book, The Insanity of God, Nik recounts many amazing stories the believers told him. “Why don’t you write this in a book?” he asked in awe. One man took him to the window to see the miracle of the sunrise. “Do you ever bring your son to see the sunrise? Persecution happens all the time.”

One man, Dmitri, said he had been raised in a believing family and his parents had taken him to church as a child. But over the decades, Communism destroyed most of the churches and many pastors were either imprisoned or executed. One day he told his wife that he would like to teach his young boys about Christ even if he had no religious training. With his wife’s eager consent, Dmitri started reading from their old Bible once a week, and explaining the stories, and praying. Since nothing can be hidden for long in small villages, with the houses so close together, and windows open, their neighbors asked to join in. A small group gathered, and more and more came, eager to discuss the Bible and sing and pray. The authorities noticed and threatened Dmitri again and again, but the people kept coming, hungry for the word of God. 

When the group grew to one hundred fifty people, Dmitri was forcibly brought to jail. There, he was the only believer among fifteen hundred hardened criminals. How did he survive seventeen years in jail with his faith intact? Every morning Dmitri would rise at dawn, face the East, and sing what he called a heart song to God. The second discipline was that whenever he found a piece of paper he would fill it with the word of God, and place it high up on a column in his room as an offering to God. He would get beaten for it, but he continued to do it. 

One day after 17 long years, after being tortured, Dmitri was dragged from his cell. The fifteen hundred criminals who used to taunt him when he sang, simultaneously faced the East, raised their arms, and began to sing the heart song that they heard Dmitri sing to Jesus every morning. The jailers immediately released their hold on Dmitri and demanded, “Who are you?” He responded: “I am a son of the Living God, and Jesus is His name!” Soon after that, Dmitri was released and was able to return to his family. 

“I tell you, whoever publicly acknowledges me before others, the Son of Man will also acknowledge before the angels of God.” That is what Jesus says in Luke 12:8. Let us continue to acknowledge Jesus as our Savior in good times and hard times!