Every time I come across a bible verse which speaks of
widows and orphans I can't help but remember my nanay who already passed away.
These past few days she has been constantly in my mind since her birthday was several
days ago. She always say that she is very special to God because she is a
widow. I've always felt her confidence whenever she said that. Now that I,
myself is already an orphan, because both of my parents are already with the
Lord, I can already relate to that feeling of confidence that my nanay used to
have. Her faith had a great impact on me and I will always cherish it for the
rest of my life. Amen. Hallelujah!
Exodus 22: 20-26
...21 You shall not wrong any widow or orphan. 22 If ever
you wrong them and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry... for I am
compassionate.
For I do not
do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want. Romans 7:19 Fr. Dennis
gave us a sensible answer as to why St.
Paul
...The LORD called me from birth, from my mother’s womb he
gave me my name. 2 He made of me a sharp-edged sword and concealed me in the
shadow of his arm. He made me a polished arrow, in his quiver he hid me. 3 You
are my servant, he said to me, Israel ,
through whom I show my glory. 4 Though I thought I had toiled in vain, and for
nothing, uselessly, spent my strength, yet my reward is with the LORD, my
recompense is with my God. 5 For now the LORD has spoken who formed me as his
servant from the womb,...
But during
formation of a child in the womb the flaws and imperfections in a person arise.
Everything we've become is a by product of what a mother plants in her child
while inside the womb. It is the plant love, hate etc and reap love, hate etc
formula. A woman once asked Father why her child became a kleptomaniac and she
was asked to recall her pregnancy and remembered how she used to love getting
things that are color red without permission. We may not be aware of it
but this is where we acquire the wounds of our soul. What you sow or plant is
what you reap. Formation of a person starts inside the womb and is the
foundation of every human person. It's just like a building if constructed with
a weak foundation may crumble and fall and a tree can be uprooted very easily
if the roots are not strong. . 2. Our guide and solution is to look at the
attitude of Mary who is the 1st educator of Jesus who is conceived in her
womb.
We may now
say that the missing link is the formation in the womb. The woundedness of our
souls started while we were being formed in the womb. It becomes a weakness and
if left unattended and cared for becomes a wickedness and could lead to death
of our souls. An example is an unwanted child, it creates wounds in the soul in
order to heal we need to realize that we come from God and know that we are
welcome and wanted by God. We must realize that whatever behavior or attitude
we have it is not who we are. If we see some imperfections and wounds in
ourselves that does not seem to conform with a God/Creator who is all good and
perfect then it's not God who made us that way. People have different attitudes
and behavior but let us not lose sight of this, we are created in God's image and
likeness. Let us remove all confusions. People may think that we are created to
be the way we are. We must not forget that God does not create us to do things
that are against His will. When our 1st parents sinned we have acquired
concupiscence or tendency to sin but we must not forget that Jesus redeemed us
from sin. It is right to say that we are saved, and as we continue to be part
of this world then we are continuously being saved and needs to cooperate with
the saving grace of Jesus. We can't deny the presence of sin in this world. We
need Jesus in order to overcome sin. Whatever we did in the past or are still
doing now that does not conform to God's image and likeness we can always live
a new life with Jesus. Blessed Mother Mary, pray for us. Jesus, King of
Divine Mercy, we trust in you. Amen
One of the intriguing and debatable issues that always come
up is about free will. God is all powerful and He can make all things possible.
Due to the unerring nature of God, He was, is and will never be wrong and there
is no room for mistakes. We are God's creation and must have been perfect in
everyway. So how come human beings who are on top of all His creation always
end up in chaos and disorder. There is no doubt to the perfection of God's
handiwork, the only flaw is that we have our free will, if we could really call
it a flaw. That we are not treated as merely slaves, puppets and robots that
should follow our master's bidding since we have our free will is the most
perfect gift a creator could ever give to his creation. Thank God! He is not an
overpowering and oppressing God. He respects and honors us with this gift of
free will to do anything we please. This is something that only perfect love
can permit. It is from our love for God that we should gather our strength. We
should focus on that alone and everything will follow. There is no doubt that
God has already won the crown for us, all we have to do is defend our title as
heirs of the kingdom of God from the snatchers of this grace. Show forth God's
power in our lives. All we need to do is always call upon the Lord and we are
safe. We are constantly beset by troubles in life but we should never forget
that God is always with us and for us to win all our battles. Amen. Hallelujah!
Psalm 18: 2-3, 3-4, 47, 51(2 )
R: I love you, Lord, my strength.
...I exclaim, and I am safe from my enemies. The LORD live!
And blessed be my Rock! Extolled be God my savior. 50 [51] You who gave great
victories to your king and showed kindness to your anointed.
This thought of being transformed brings back memories of my
thesis experiment in Japan
about transformation of this microorganism I worked on. It was very difficult
in itself to transform it but it was even more difficult to maintain it. It is
much more difficult to make it functional since there is really a need to
nurture it for growth in appropriate and optimum conditions. It took me almost
a year to establish the right medium that will be most favorable for its growth
and there is no room for neglect, it should always be kept that way. In the
end, all of the sacrifices really paid off. I was able to finish my thesis,
successfully defend it and obtain my Master's degree. The price that God paid
for our sins is really great, the death of His only begotten Son, Jesus. Let us
not waste this priceless gift and reap the entire benefits by maintaining the
gift in us and render it functional in our lives. The benefit of this is far
greater than any reward that one could ever imagine. Amen. Hallelujah!
1 Thessalonians 1: 5c-10
...receiving the word in great affliction, with joy from the
holy Spirit, 7 so that you became a model for all the believers...to serve the
living and true God 10 and to await his Son from heaven, whom he raised from
the dead, Jesus, who delivers us from the coming wrath.
What is the greatest commandment? To love God above all and
love our neighbor as ourselves. Why do we have to love ourselves? We are the
child of God and God Son lives in me. Everyone can sing “I am special” God created us especially with something to
do on this earth that no one else can do and must love ourselves for who we
are. We have to realize the dignity of being a child of God. We must love our
neighbor for God lives in each one of us. CS Lewis said there are 4 kinds of
love, love of a mother for a child, love of a man for a maid, friend for a
friend which are all inspiring, beautiful and romantic. The 4th kind
of love is agape, we do good to those who hate us because we are the child of
God and Christ is in each one of us. In the story of the Good Samaritan, no
name is mentioned. It doesn’t matter because love is no respecter of persons.
We do our duty without any recompense. We should remember that God never have
to create us but He did. He created us for glory, gave each of us a name and
has prepared a special place for us. When we leave this present world and He
utters our name we will fly to Him faster than sound. It is because we are
created by God to be with Him in heaven even before we were born. When we stand
face to face with God He will ask us the big question: Why aren’t you like you?
That unique creation of mine, that radiant human being I put in this earth in
whom I can shine, how disappointed we can be if we find that we have disappointed Him. He will not ask us why we
are not like John Paul II, St. Francis of Assisi
or St. Therese of the Little Flower. We are supposed to be the person for which
we are created, in glory and in honor.
The prayer of St. Ignatius should be our prayer: Dearest Lord, teach me
to be generous; teach me to serve You as You deserve; to give and not to count
the cost, to fight and not to heed the wounds, to toil and not to seek for
rest, to labour and not to ask for reward save that of knowing I am doing Your
Will. It is easier to follow the will of God whenever we are experiencing the
good times but when the going gets tough and the tough really gets going then
the scenario changes. The words: with all your heart, with all your soul, and
with all your mind are all extremes or superlatives and requires us to do
exactly what it is asking us to do and obey at all times and not be half
hearted Christians. Jesus never stops teaching, coaching and giving examples on
how we should go about with our lives. He is after our welfare and the fulfillment
of our desires in order for all of us to lead a wonderful life. We can trust
Him to carry out whatever is needed for us to attain it provided we follow and
obey His commandments, which is in truth the way to be truly happy. Amen.
Hallelujah!
Matthew 22:34-40
...“You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart,
with all your soul, and with all your mind. 38 This is the greatest and the
first commandment. 39 The second is like it: You shall love your neighbour as
yourself. 40 The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”
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