Teach Us to Pray!

“Lord, teach us to pray..." Luke 11:1

Jews are supposed to pray three times a day and they have a special prayer book called a Siddur which contains the set orders of daily prayers. Readings from the Torah, the  writings of Moses and the Nevi'im, writings of the Prophets, form part of their prayer book. So I think it is natural to conclude that the disciples had a reasonable idea of how to pray to God. But they saw something in how Jesus prayed that made them long to pray the way He did. 

They watched Jesus pray many times. They saw how close He was to the Father, and they wanted that for themselves. WE should want that for ourselves! We should always want to grow in our relationship with our Father. Brother Lawrence wrote in "The Practice of the Presence of God" that he was united with God during the day as he went about his work of cleaning the floor and washing the dishes. There are many ways to practice the presence of God in the course of our day. We just have to 'mind' He is there, and not just there during our morning or evening prayers. 

Lord, teach us to pray. Teach us to grow closer to You. Teach us not to forget You when we are busy. Teach us to carve some time out of our day to be with You, and only You. You are the Governor of Galaxies, but You are also our Father. We long to be with You in heaven one day, our one true home. 

Only One Thing

There is need of only one thing.” Luke 10:42

One of my favorite stories in the Bible is of Martha and Mary in the 10th chapter of Luke. Here we see Martha doing many things while Mary, her sister, was listening to Jesus.When Martha asks Jesus to tell Mary to help her, Jesus replies, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—

or indeed only one.  Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

I find it very strange that Martha is not happy that Mary is taking care of Jesus while she prepares what to serve Him! Unless perhaps Jesus has been there so often, being a good friend of Lazarus, that she takes Him for granted! Does she really want Mary to help her, leaving Jesus all alone? Don't we do this too? Jesus is always with us, He never leaves us, and that is why we sometimes take Him for granted. 

Do we make sure to carve out some special time with Him like Mary? And not just a harried "thank you" or "please..." during stolen moments between all we have to do? “There is need of only one thing...." Jesus said.

Stormie Omartian wrote, "If we don't deliberately build our lives around these "garden walks" with the Lord, the world will rapidly and relentlessly fill our hours with other commitments."

Lord, I'm sorry for treating you so casually!

Who is My Neighbor?

"Who is my neighbor?' Luke 10:29

I don't know how many times I have read or heard the story of the Good Samaritan, and even seen it re-enacted in a play. When it comes up as a reading, I tend to gloss over it as I know the details so well.

I find that the story is applicable to every day life in so many ways. It doesn't have to be a man lying on the road on our way to work or school or the mall. I'm thinking it can be our office mate burdened with so many problems, a sick friend in need of some company, a brother or sister from church fighting his own demons. The Samaritan traveler was "moved with compassion" and approached the "victim", poured "oil and wine" over his wounds. OIL and WINE. 

Oil is the symbol of the Holy Spirit, and we usually apply oil when we pray for healing. How wonderful that this man had oil with him! He was like the wise virgins in the story in Matthew 25! He was always prepared, always ready! This time it was to offer aid and comfort. But other times he could be ready with his oil to do what God wanted him to do. He can say like Jesus, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has ANOINTED me to preach the gospel, to HEAL the brokenhearted..."

Wine in the Bible is a necessity because of the scarcity of water, so it symbolizes sustenance and life and God's blessings. How wonderful that this Samaritan was willing to share out of his need, not his excess.

Lord, I know I fall short in so many ways. But I pray that like the Samaritan traveler, 

I will be ever ready to help those in need with the oil and wine You have blessed me with in my life! 

Childlike

“…although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike.”Luke 10:21

"The good news is that God has made provision for our waywardness. He has given us the great gift of repentance.” I took note of this from the meditation booklet, “The Word Among Us”. I don't know why, but I like the word “waywardness". Somehow it does not sound so bad! But the truth of the matter is that sin is sin, whether it is serious or not. Mostly because small sins lead to big sins. Take David’s idleness which led him to murder the husband of the woman he lusted after. Then there's Saul, whose impatience progressed to rebellion against God! 

It is good to look at our ways honestly and see if there are little sins (sometimes we don't even  consider them as sins!) like telling white lies,unkindness, inconsideration, unmindfulness, impatience, lack of generosity, etc., and then repent and try to do better.

Today is the Feast Day of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church. We visited her comfortable home, Les Buissonnets, in Lisieux several years ago during a pilgrimage. Her life became more vivid to me as I stared at her bed where she lay sick of a mysterious illness when she was just 10 years old. My impression of Saint Thérèse was that she was quite spoiled, as she got into temper tantrums frequently and even unreasonableness, but she entered the Carmelite Convent at the age of 15. While there, she confessed that she had a difficult nature and always struggled with even the small things. Through God’s grace, she shared with the Church her “Little Way”, the “the way of spiritual childhood, the way of trust and absolute surrender” and humility before God. She had learned the childlike wisdom to offer to God even her mundane chores like folding napkins, and doing it with great love for Him. Indeed, we may be brought very low when we think of our many sins. But when we repent, God’s compassion can lift us up the same way He did with Saint Thérèse.

Fearfully, Wonderfully Made

“Truly you have formed my inmost being; you knit me in my mother's womb. I give you thanks that I am fearfully, wonderfully made!" Psalm 139:13-14

This is one of my favorite verses. We can see the love God has for us when we consider how careful He was in designing our home, the earth. The size of the earth is so perfect to sustain life with gravity holding a thin 50 mile layer of gases. Just a little smaller or larger, and the earth would not have the atmosphere needed for animals, and plants to live. The earth is also a perfect distance from the sun so we won’t burn up nor freeze. There are so many other details that our Creator was so fussy about just so we would have this amazing planet to live on. 

And how about our bodies? Truly, we are all fearfully, wonderfully made! I am always in awe at how God was very particular when He formed us in our mother's womb.

Even the hairs on our head are counted! Our eyelashes and eyebrows serve a purpose- they protect our eyes from dust and sweat and other foreign objects.

And the philtrum, the inconspicuous indentation above our upper lip, allows us more lip movement than if we did not have it! Then there’s the nose which serves as a filter, heater and humidifier! And one of the most amazing parts of our body is our skin, which we can clean up when we dirty it. When we look at a baby, we marvel at how God took great care in forming him or her, down to the cute miniature fingers and toes!  Indeed, how can we doubt the love God has for each of us? 

Journey with God

“I saw you under the fig tree.” John 1:48

This is what Jesus said of Nathanael. “Sitting under a fig tree" is a rabbinical idiom used frequently by the Jews in Jesus' time. It meant that Nathanael would meditate on the Torah. Jesus was pointing out the good that Nathanael did. 

A lot of people have the impression that God is a stern taskmaster who is out to catch us sinning. But we can get to know God’s character by getting to know Jesus. After all, He said, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” (John 14:9)

In the Gospels we meet a God who is multifaceted and not one dimensional. Getting to know Jesus is not a quick DIY project but a lifetime of discovery and adventure with the King of Kings Himself. When we embark on this journey, we are not alone. We not only get to know Him, but we get to know ourselves as God sees us. 

Nathanael believed and followed Jesus, and because of this, Jesus promised: “Greater things than these, you will see.” (John 1:50) Lord, we want to experience everything You have for us. We don’t want to miss out! Bring me on the journey with You! 

I Will Follow You

“I will follow you wherever you go.” Luke 9:57

Today is the Feast Day of San Lorenzo Ruiz, our first Filipino saint, and I chose to make a digital collage of his journey to sainthood. 

Poor San Lorenzo, he is beset by bags under his eyes! But that is the least of his problems! San Lorenzo was martyred for his faith. He was asked: "If we let you live, will you renounce your faith?"

And Saint Lorenzo Ruiz answered: “That I shall never do because I am a Christian and I shall die for God, and for Him I will give many thousands of lives if I had them. And so do with me as you please."

He and his companions in Japan were tortured, hung by their feet and submerged in water, needles pressed between their fingernails, beaten, etc. He died professing His love for God.

I pray that none of us will be tested like that, but that in our daily lives, we may find the strength and courage to follow God, to be His disciples.

Notice Me!

“The Son of Man came to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Mark 10:45

How wonderful that there is a record of Jesus’ instructions and stories that we can read and read again. If we want to obey God, to learn about Him and His ways, we can do nothing better than to ponder His words and follow them. For instance, we should know how important alms giving is. It has an impact on where we will spend our eternal life. 

Jesus explains that what we do for the poor, we do for Him. When Taal Volcano was acting up, many people gave clothes, shoes, and other things. It was so sad because some of the things donated were very old, and could not be used anymore. And winter clothes and snow boots were useless to the refugees. Mother Teresa always said do not give our left overs to the poor, that we should not treat the poor like a garbage bag and give what we have no use for. We should be ashamed of ourselves if we gave Jesus, the King of Kings, an old rag to clothe Himself! 

St. Vincent de Paul, whose feast day we celebrate today, dedicated his life serving the poor. He wrote, “You will find that charity is a heavy burden to carry, heavier than the bowl of soup and the full basket ... It is not enough to give soup and bread ... You are the servant of the poor ... They are your masters, terribly sensitive and exacting you will see. It is only for your love alone that the poor will forgive you the bread you give them.”

I was listening to an online retreat, and the lady speaker said that when we give alms to someone on the street, we should not just give and walk away, we should speak to them and ask their name. That way, we don’t just give them something to eat, we give them some dignity and care. H. Jackson Brown wrote in his “Life’s Little Instruction Book”, "Remember that everyone you meet is wearing a sign. It reads, 'Notice me. Make me feel important." 

Speak Up

“Whoever receives this child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me. For the one who is least among all of you is the one who is the greatest.” Luke 9:48

Robert Seiple, the President of World Vision in 1992, wrote in a letter, “One of our sponsored children, a 14 year old Palestinian boy living on the West Bank, was caught by 16 Israeli soldiers as he was writing graffiti on a wall. The soldiers placed him up against the wall, and one shot him four times in the eye. As he lay on the ground, still alive, he was savagely beaten for almost an hour. During that time he was forced to stick his finger into his wound and wipe out the graffiti with his own blood. He was then bound and dragged through the village streets; finally thrown into the back of a jeep, and rudely dumped at a local hospital. Miraculously, he lived. Tragically this incident is not atypical. The entire drama was witnessed by an American. It has since been recorded in Western journals.”

This is just one horrible story among the millions of stories of children whose lives have been maimed by poverty, violence, abuse, and neglect. We do not need to look far. Fr. Shay Cullen wrote that there are an “estimated two million children in the Philippines sexually abused and exploited by parents and relatives in the online internet child abuse business. It grew during the pandemic lockdowns when members of the family turned to sexually abuse their children for sexual satisfaction of their urges and videotaped it and made money from selling the images to foreign pedophiles.”

I believe that Jesus is saying that children are among the most unprotected, the most voiceless, the most “unseen” members of society. They can easily become victims, especially during war, natural calamities, or when parents are quarrelling, working too hard, or are OFWs in far away places. In the verses before verse 36, Jesus was instructing the disciples on how to be great. The logic of God is always different from the world’s, usually diametrically opposed even. If anyone of us wants to be great, we have to be a servant of those who are unprotected, those who have no voice, and those who are “unseen” by society. Proverbs 31:8 says, “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute.”

Lord, Your Words are hard to take. It is as if we have to carry the whole world on our shoulders! Help us to do the work You want us to do, to be Your heart, Your hands, Your feet. I know that it can never be enough, but if many of us take just one portion of the ache of the world for You, it can change the world! 

Lazarus at our Gate

“Lying at the rich man’s gate was a poor man named Lazarus covered with sores.” 

Luke 16:20

Is there a Lazarus at our gate? 

Many of us live our lives with no thought of heaven and hell, angels or devils. We forget about all that, in the busyness, the stress of everyday life. We may get reminded if we go to mass or a prayer meeting, if we’re paying attention, and not allowing our mind to wander around. 

Here we have Jesus telling a story to the Pharisees. There is a very rich man who is UNNAMED, he says. Lying at his door is Lazarus, a poor man covered with sores that the dogs would lick. When Lazarus died, he was carried away by angels to heaven. When the rich man died, he went straight to hell. What was his sin? Jesus did not say he stole, he lied, he cheated, he murdered, he committed adultery. What sent him to hell? The unnamed rich man ignored Lazarus at his doorstep. He went about his life wearing fine garments and eating good food and did not bother to help Lazarus. 

When I ignore the needs of others around me, I am that rich man who is nameless in Jesus’ eyes. In His reckoning, He does not know me, even if the world gives me plenty of awards and citations. Even if I am powerful and rich and famous, Jesus will say, “I do not know you.”

“I never knew you. Depart from Me,” Jesus said clearly in Matthew 7:21-23. “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord’, shall enter the Kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.” Let us make sure Jesus knows our name, by opening our eyes to see the world around us, paying attention to the needs and the cries of the poor, the sick, the hungry, the ones in prison. When we help them, let us make sure to ask their names. After all, Jesus knows and loves them.

Wisdom

Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain wisdom of heart.” Psalm 90:12

When Solomon was young, God asked him to ask for anything he wanted, and out of all the things he could choose, Solomon asked for wisdom. Our choices make us, make our future, make our families, make our character. In this world, there is no lack of examples of men who have chosen the gold and the power of this world instead of the treasures of heaven. That is what we can call short-sighted thinking. 

Solomon chose wisdom, and God gave him everything in addition to wisdom. In Wisdom 7, we can read, “I pleaded for the spirit of wisdom...Yet all good things together came to me in her company, and countless riches at her hands.” Wisdom is the key that opens every door, but oddly enough, wisdom is not something we pray for every day! 

We need to start listening for God’s guidance every day, so that if we listen to Him for little things, we will hear Him clearly for the big things. Will I change my job? Will I move my family to the US? Will I marry him? How can I solve my problem? What should I do? To receive God’s wisdom for the hard things, we need to go to him every day when we do not have a decision to make, a hard choice, a dilemma, a crisis. We need to train ourselves to listen to His still, small voice. I think hearing from God is one of the most important things we can learn in our life! 

St. Padre Pio

“Lord, what is man, that you notice him; the son of man, that you take thought of him?” Psalm 144:3

Today, September 23, is the Feast Day of one of my favorite saints, Padre Pio. My mom loved telling stories about Padre Pio of Pietrelcina. She would always ask him to intercede. One time my father was in the hospital, in great pain because of gallstones. She laid her hands on him, asking for Padre Pio’s intercession. My father is Methodist and didn’t believe in asking for saints to pray for us, but he was instantly relieved of his pain. So he asked my mom to continue to lay her hands on him. 

Another reason why Padre Pio is a favorite of mine is because he is no typical saint. 

He is not a saint who exhibited patience. On the contrary, Padre Pio had an awful temper. In spite of that, he was beatified in 1999 and canonized in 2002. From the age of 5, he knew he wanted to dedicate his life to serving God. At the young age of 15, he entered the noviciate of the Capuchin friars at Morcone. 

Padre Pio said, “The person who meditates and turns his mind to God, who is the mirror of his soul, seeks to know his faults, tries to correct them, moderates his impulses, and puts his conscience in order." Here we see this holy man’s advice to us who easily lose patience. We need to recognize our faults, try to correct them and moderate our impulses. Padre Pio also suggested weekly confession. Just as a regular cleaning of our homes is necessary, so too we should see what unnecessary baggage we carry in our souls. I am sure Padre Pio also experienced disappointment in himself, and that’s why he always said to his visitors, “Pray, hope and don’t worry.” 

Lord, thank You for the example of Your saints. They were not perfect but they lived their lives for You. May we too never give up striving to live holy lives, going back to You and drinking from the living water of  Your Spirit. 

What profit?

“What profit has man from all the labor which he toils at under the sun?” Ecc. 1:3

This is from the Anti-Corruption Resource Center site: “Corruption is a significant obstacle to good governance in the Philippines. A review of recent literature suggests that all levels of corruption, from petty bribery to grand corruption, patronage and state capture, exist in the Philippines at a considerable scale and scope.“ So much of our taxes are stolen by corrupt public officials, and even if they are caught and asked to return what they stole, they refuse to. Some are even smiling and sitting in the Senate and the highest position of our country. 

The writer of the Book of Ecclesiastes identifies himself as a King in Jerusalem who searched for understanding and wisdom. He built many beautiful palaces, and had more slaves, treasure, and concubines than many kings combined. “I had everything a man could desire! Anything I wanted, I took!” he claimed. 

“I did not restrain myself from any joy...but as I looked at everything I had worked so hard to accomplish, it was all so meaningless. It was like chasing the wind,” this mighty King wrote in Ecclesiastes 2:10-11. Ecclesiastes is a journal, a diary of a man who accomplished much, experienced almost everything the world could offer during his time. From the vantage point of his privileged life, he found that one could not enjoy life apart from God. 

“What do people really get for all their hard work?” he pondered. People may work hard to accumulate wealth but at the end of our lives, we cannot bring anything more than a poor man may take with him. We can have many trophies, recommendations, and even streets named after us, but when we lie on our deathbed, none of that matters if we are not right with God. 

Although as the writer of Ecclesiastes says, “Vanity of vanities! All things are vanity!”, we know that what God values is not vanity. When we die, we will find that faith, truth and love remain, and the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:13) 

Unqualified Yet Chosen

“What reason can the Teacher have for eating with tax collectors and those who disregard the law?" Matthew 9:11

What possible reason did Jesus have for eating and drinking with tax collectors, these scum of the earth who betray their own people?!!!! This was the question posed to the disciples by the Pharisees. Obviously some of them had a high regard for Jesus. They called Him teacher, they listened to Him preach in the temple. Some even asked Him questions. But it puzzled them that He associated with the likes of Matthew the tax collector.

I like what is written in The Word Among Us: "What did Jesus see specifically in Matthew that led Him to call him? How would this self-centered tax collector help Him bring about the Kingdom of Heaven? What specific gifts did He bring?”

“Maybe Jesus saw that Matthew had a stubborn persistence and persuasiveness. It can't have been easy to squeeze money out of people on a regular basis! Maybe it was his education; some people believe that the Gospel that bears Matthew's name is the most finely crafted and best written of them all."

Like Matthew, we too have gifts and talents that God sees because He is the source of it! He wants to call us, to use us, to accomplish His purposes through us. Are we open and willing like Matthew the tax collector to get up and follow Him? It may be that we think of ourselves as unworthy or unqualified. Let God be the judge of that. He qualifies the called, and not the other way around. Who would have thought Jesus would choose fishermen to spread His Kingdom on earth? 

God’s Family

Jesus said to them in reply, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and act on it.” Luke 8:21

How clear this verse is. Jesus is not rejecting his mother and other relatives who came to see Him. Whomever hears the Word of God and obeys it, He emphasizes, are part of His new family. It is not determined by blood lines but spiritual kinship. God intervened in human history to establish a covenant relationship with man. If we want that for ourselves, we need to be like Mary, and have her disposition. In Luke 1:38, an angel gave her the amazing news that she will conceive and give birth to a son even if she was a virgin. She responded without hesitation, “I am the Lord’s servant. May your word to me be fulfilled.” If we are able to say this to our Father, and love and follow Him with our heart and mind, spirit, soul and body, we will have a share in His divine calling. 

Today is the feast day of Saint Andrew Kim Tae-gŏn and Saint Paul Chŏng Ha-sang and their companions who were beheaded in Korea for being Christians. The government in Korea tried to suppress the spread of Christianity, and over ten thousand believers were martyred, because these men and women were willing to die instead of snuffing out the light of the Good News. Today the Church in Korea is one of the most vibrant and fastest growing in the world. Official data shows that more than 45% of South Koreans practice no religion, that about 22% are Buddhists, and that 29.2% are Christians. There are a total of 20,000 Christian churches in Korea, all because of the Korean scholars who were baptized in China long ago, and believed in Jesus fervently that they spread the faith in their homeland. They are all part of Jesus’ new family. Can we do the same? 

Let Your Light Shine

“No one who lights a lamp conceals it...” 

Luke 8:16

I remember a very well known, very beautiful woman once commenting, “I don’t know why people would want to shake my hand. They don’t know what I was doing and where I came from.” I couldn’t forget her saying this when I was quite young because I remember wondering what could she have been doing to make her say that! All of us have secrets like the most embarrassing thing to have happened to us, or where we keep our passwords, but Jesus said in this same passage that there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed, nothing secret that will not come to light. 

Today it is not politically correct, especially in the West, to talk about religion and politics. There’s a lot of talk about relativism and about how we should respect others’ beliefs. We tiptoe around sharing the truth, the Word of God, because what is my truth may not be another’s. This is one way the world wants to stifle us from telling others the Good News. We are God’s light bearers and what God has revealed to us, we should not hide or be shy about proclaiming. The disciples and the saints were willing to die to proclaim the truth. 

Today is the feast day of Saint Januarius. He was the Bishop of Naples when the Emperor Diocletian waged the Roman Empire’s bloodiest persecution of Christians. When Januarius found out that his deacons and laymen were being put in prison, he went to visit them and he too was arrested when he refused to renounce his faith. There are many legends about how he and his companions were put in a furnace but did not burn, or dragged to an amphitheater and were not devoured by bears. The fact is Januarius was finally beheaded and his blood brought back to Naples. Three times a year thousands of people still visit the Naples Cathedral to see his congealed blood liquify in its double reliquary. 

“Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Heavenly Father.” (Matthew 5:16) 

Good Soil

“A sower went out to sow his seed…And some seed fell on good soil, and when it grew, it produced fruit a hundredfold.” Luke 8:5-8

The seed here is the Word of God, and perhaps the soil is our hearts. There are different kinds of hearts. In 2006, I was very frustrated that even if I prayed early in the morning, and thought about what I read in the Bible, by 10 in the morning, I could not remember even the verse I read! My heart was like the footpath, where the birds just picked up the seeds and ate it!

Although the Word is spread far and wide- we can listen to it on TV, on Youtube, in prayer meetings, we can read it in on billboards, on websites, there is much more seed the enemy is planting! I think we have to think of more "creative" ways to plant the seed in our heart, to help it germinate and grow. We cannot allow the enemy to stifle it with all the work we need to do, to choke it with the lures of materialism, to drown it with the so many forms of entertainment, and our desire for a life of ease and comfort.

That is why in 2006, I decided to illustrate the Bible verse I read in the morning. I would just cut up pictures in magazines and glue it on to my prayer journal. It helped immensely to embed God's Word in my heart. I can say it not only helped me grow spiritually, and given me joy, but I also discovered I could paint! Truly, what God has planted in my heart produced so much more than I could ever had imagined! I even started a blog in 2006. 

I joined lovely groups on Facebook about Bible journaling. Most of us paint on our Bibles. Some of you may disagree with doing that, but I try hard not to get too much paint so I can still read the Word. Also, I have so many Bibles. 

My main Bible is soooo full of notations, from past studies -another way I try to place the Word in my heart, and help it permeate my life! I have to say though that even if I try all sorts of ways to study the Word, and listen to what God has to say to me, I really need His help to be consistent, and be the good soil I need to be! 

Resurrection

“…if Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain.” 1 Corinthians 15:17

Christ is risen from the grave? Fact or fiction? One would think that most skeptics would debunk Jesus’ resurrection with theories like mass hallucination or the idea that He did not really die, but they can’t. Our belief in Jesus’ resurrection is based on eyewitness accounts written by men willing to die for it. Those men, Peter, James and John, knew the truth. They saw Jesus. They preached it, and they were able to convince so many others by the power of their conviction. St. Paul, a skeptic, became a Christian three years after Jesus’ death. 

Bart Ehrman, a very well known skeptic, a non-Christian, says, "Paul got to interview Peter and James. I'd like to interview Peter and James. This is as close to eye witness testimony as we can get. It's very close to eye witness testimony.” 

Another proof of the resurrection is the gospel account tells us that WOMEN discovered the empty tomb. Women in those times couldn’t give a testimony in court. They were second class citizens. They were not considered credible witnesses. If the story was made up, it would never have included women as the first to be at the scene. And then there were the radical transformations of Peter, who went from coward to a champion of the truth, James who thought Jesus was crazy to the leader of the Jerusalem Church, and countless others, martyrs of the faith. 

God made sure that what we believe in is based on defendable facts. There is SO MUCH MORE EVIDENCE about Jesus and His life, death and resurrection, than there is about Julius Caesar and Alexander! Yes, Jesus is risen! Alleluia! 

Christ Bearer

"Standing by the cross of Jesus were His mother... When Jesus saw His mother there and the disciple there whom He loved He said to His mother, “Woman, behold your son." Then He said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother." And from that hour the disciple took her into his home." John 19:25-27

Can we imagine how Mary felt seeing her son on the cross? Even if there were so many times that she had to accept God's inconceivable will for her life, I don't think it can ever be enough to cushion her from this last agonizing pain! Perhaps she couldn't think anymore. She could only be aware of her heart breaking into a million pieces.

Elizabeth Stone said, "Making the decision to have a child- it is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart walking around outside your body." 

That must have been true of Mary more than of any other mother! From the moment she conceived, there was so much hinging on the way she would love this child, nurture Him, teach Him, protect Him, and then surrender Him to the world to do with as we pleased!

“Behold, your mother." Before Jesus died, He made sure His mother would be cared for. I think He would also want us to honor her and love her. Just as there is a place in Jesus' heart for His mother, we should also find a place in our hearts to honor a woman who gave up her heart to lodge in her son's body, and allowed it to be trampled on so God's plan would be accomplished!

“Hail Mary! Truly you are full of grace!” May you be our example of how we should learn to sacrifice for others, and be a Christ bearer to the world.

God Speaks in our Pain

“Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in this desert, where there is no food or water? We are disgusted with this wretched food!” Numbers 21:5

Poor Moses! He was stuck with an ungrateful and rebellious people! Even after they had seen God’s mighty saving power, they still complained. 

In punishment, the Lord sent saraph serpents, which bit people and many died. In a way, some of us are like the Israelites in the harsh desert. We complain about many things, horrendous traffic, our work schedule and workload, no time for ourselves, an overzealous boss or annoying office mates, our salary is not enough, having to wear masks all the time, etc etc. 

How are we dealing with our problems and challenges? Are we complaining about all the things we lack, or do we take the time to appreciate what we have? Are we able to meet God where we are? Or are we grumbling and rejecting God for where we are? The Jews were led into the desert. Is God leading us to a place where we would rather not go? 

The desert can be a beautiful place. God can speak louder in the emptiness and silence of a desert. C.S. Lewis wrote, “Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” Is God shouting to us right now?