1 John 3:7-10

Generally
speaking, it is easy to know the difference between what is right and
wrong. Sometimes, though, we do have doubts. I wonder why, then, do we
find ourselves so often in a state of sin rather than in a state of
grace? It seems that we often choose the wrong course of action.

7 Children, let no one deceive you. The person who acts in righteousness is righteous, just as he is righteous. 8 Whoever
sins belongs to the devil, because the devil has sinned from the
beginning. Indeed, the Son of God was revealed to destroy the works of
the devil. 9 No one who is begotten by God commits sin,
because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot sin because he is begotten by God. 10 In
this way, the children of God and the children of the devil are made
plain; no one who fails to act in righteousness belongs to God, nor
anyone who does not love his brother.

Who are you?

Who are you? is a question that makes us feel uncomfortable. A person who knows you and loves you has no need to ask this question. It can express curiosity but also suspicion, depending on how the question is asked. Those who came to John the Baptist and asked him, Who are you? were certainly not curious but full of suspicion.

John, who dressed and lived like  the prophet Elijah, was the son of a priest but did not have anything to do with the Temple. He was drawing ever-increasing crowds — very dangerous in a time when the Romans  occupied and oppressed the nation. It could easily lead to rebellion and to a disastrous crackdown by the Romans. John could have said that he was a prophet sent by God. He could have said that he was the Messiah, as several pseudo-messiahs had done before him. In unbelievable humility, John is nothing but  a simple messenger  who prepares the way for a greater person coming after him.

It’s quite human to brag about who we are. We put ourselves in relation to a great politician, or a doctor or an artist or a bishop. We may be relatives of certain great or not-so-great people. Yet, this does not say anything about who we really are. The more boastful our answers are, the more our real being remains hidden.

Who am I? It is a question best asked before God, because before  Him we have to be honest and cannot pretend to be better than we are. We  become small. We cannot but admit that we are sinners. We are humbled like John the Baptist who wanted to be nothing but a voice telling the people to get ready.

We are signposts that point to Christ as the ultimate goal of history, as the answer to all questions. Nothing great is demanded from us signposts. We only show the right direction through our simple Christian way of life. Fr. Rudy Horst

Reflection Question:

What makes me hide my real self from others? Why can I not be honest about myself even before God?

Lord, You know me better than I know myself. You see me as I am – and still You love me more than I love myself. For this I thank You. May the humility of John the Baptist inspire me to be always myself and prevent me from pretending to be more than I am a simple signpost along the way to Your kingdom.

St. Adelard, abbot, pray for us.

adapted from Kyregma

Mary’s Mother of God and our Mother

You Need a Spiritual Family?

It’s another New Year and I guess nearly every one of us today asks the same question: What will this year bring’s. Apart from the good things, we also experienced catastrophes, violence, terror attacks in different parts of the world; there might have been the death of someone close to us; there were personal problems, problems in the family. We feel so vulnerable, often helpless, in this our world and society. It is understandable then that most of us look with some anxiety toward the year we begin today.

Today the Church celebrates the feast of the Blessed Mother under the title Mother of God, Mary is rightly called the Mother of God because Jesus, her Son, is God. Both cannot be separated from each other. Mary’s motherhood began when in Nazareth she gave her fiat (let it be done according to your word). But when she stood some decades later beneath the cross of her Son, her maternal vocation and mission received another dimension.

With the words, Woman, behold your Son and Behold your Mother, Jesus gave His Mother to His future community, represented by His beloved disciple. The Mother of God also became our Mother.

Mary, the Mother of God and our Mother, was the best mother one can imagine. She always stayed close to her Son, especially when He was in danger, when He was persecuted, even when He was in His last agony.

We now look at the moving scene of Mother and Child in Bethlehem. We also look ahead to that moment when Mary was given the task to care for us as a loving Mother. Many of us have experienced her maternal closeness and help. We cannot but thank her for carrying us through the difficulties of life and for protecting us from danger and harm.

A consoling answer to our question earlier emerges from today’s feast, it will be another year with our heavenly Mother. Fr. Rudy Horst

Reflection Question:

In which area of my life do I most need the assistance of Mother Mary?

Mary, Mother of God and my Mother too, accompany my loved ones and me this New Year. With you at my side, I can face whatever is God’s plan for me. Mother, I need you. Please, never leave me alone.

St. Clarus, abbot, pray for us.

Christmas
is usually a special time for families to get together. The first
Christmas, however, was not a holiday for the family of Jesus, Mary,
and Joseph. It was many a perilous journey. Today, the Gospel recounts
to us how the Holy Family was a family always on the move! Jesus, Mary,
and Joseph made three kinds of journey during the first Christmas season. The first journey was as subjects of a colonial ruler.

The
second was as fugitives of an insane king. The third was as returnees
from an exile. Theirs were journeys we never want to make. The first
Christmas season was not a holiday. It was a holy day instead. The
humility, the faith, and the obedience of the Holy Family made the
first Christmas season a holy day. The Christmas season is a holiday
because it is a holy day. This is both a gift and a mandate to us.

Christmas is holiday for us because Jesus, Mary, and Joseph made it a holy
day by their humility to obey despite knowing their exalted status, by
their faith in God who protects those who trust in Him, and by their
obedience to God who instructed them to return to Nazareth where Jesus
grew up and came to be known as the Nazorean.

Christmas is our mandate as well. Knowing how Christmas
became a holiday should motivate us to make the spirit of the season
overflow to all the days of the year. We are called to make every day a
holy day. Like Jesus, Mary, and Joseph let us exercise humility, faith,
and obedience. Christmas can then be our gift to every man and woman we meet as well. The Feast of the Holy Family teaches us that Christmas
is both a gift and a mandate. And as a gift and a mandate, it is the
love of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph for God and for one another that united
these two dimensions of the Christmas season. Without love, Christmas
can never be both a gift and a mandate. Without love, humility, faith,
and obedience are not possible. Only with
love can we make each day a holiday. It is love that makes our reunions
during this season and at anytime of the year truly worth the journey. Fr. Bobby T.

REFLECTION QUESTION: Christmas is both a gift and a mandate.

Eternal
God, You are our Loving Father and the source of every family on earth.
Help us to live like the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. Teach
us humility. Grant us faith. Help us to obey. Amen.

Blessed John Alcober, martyr, pray for us.

Jesus
was presented to God. He was presented to His Father. He was Joseph’s
and Mary’s first-born Son. First-born sons, according to the Law of
Moses, must be consecrated to Yahweh. First-born sons belong especially
to God; hence, parents offer a prescribed sacrifice to buy back from
God their first-born sons.

A
first-born opens his mother’s womb. The Jews believe that a barren
womb is an accursed womb. Life is God’s greatest blessing; life
belongs to God, no one can cause it, no one can take it away, no one
except God. God is the Father of Jesus, but He is our Father, too.
Jesus, according to the Pauline epistles,
is the first-born among the dead. God, our Father, bought us back from
sin and death. Jesus, His own Son, was the price He had to pay. The
First-born Son became the ransom price!

At
the Archdiocesan Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, where I am presently
serving, the Christmas creche at the foot of the sanctuary is just a
few arms away from the crucifix. During our Christmas Eve Mass, I was
looking intently on the two biblical tableaus: one showing us the
humble birth of the Savior and the other reminding us what awaits the
newborn Baby after thirty-three years. Then I catch my self whispering
a prayer: Lord, I hope they notice… I hope they really do… Bethlehem and Calvary are indeed just a few arms away from each other.  Fr. Bobby T.

REFLECTION QUESTION: Bethlehem and Calvary are indeed just a few arms away from each other.

My
Jesus, I present my self to You as You are presented today to the
Father. I unite my self with You so that I, too, like You, may be
pleasing to the Father. Amen.

St. Trophimus, missionary, pray for us.

adapted from Kyregma

Matthew 2:13-18

Today
we remember the ongoing holocaust of abortion that seems to be getting
worse year by year. I find it unbelievable how we can slaughter the
unborn and yet protest about the maltreatment of animals in experiments
and so on. Do not get me wrong, I believe that there should be limits
as to what sort of experimentation should be permitted on animals but
we move the argument to a much higher plane when we begin to talk about
human beings. Either we believe life is sacred or it is not! Either we
respect it from the moment of conception or any other respect is
irreparably compromised! Life has an absolute quality of respect or it
has no protection at all. We can see where it all
leads as we are now also fighting legislation against euthanasia; next
it will be eugenics proper, and from there, who knows?

13 When
they had departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in
a dream and said, Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you. Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him. 14 Joseph rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed for Egypt. 15 He stayed there until the death of Herod, that what the Lord had said through the prophet might be fulfilled, Out of
Egypt I called my son. 16 When Herod realized that he had been deceived by the magi, he became furious. He ordered the massacre of all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had ascertained from the magi. 17 Then was fulfilled what had been said through Jeremiah the prophet: 18 A voice was heard in Ramah, sobbing and loud lamentation; Rachel weeping for her children, and she would not be consoled, since they were
no more.

      Meditation 12/23- 12/29 Zechariah’s Song

"Praise the Lord, the God of Israel,

because he has visited and redeemed his people.

He has sent us a mighty Savior

from the royal line of his servant David,

just as he promised

through his holy prophets long ago.

Now we will be saved from our enemies

and from all who hate us.

He has been merciful to our ancestors

by remembering his sacred covenant -

the covenant he swore with an oath

to our ancestor Abraham.

We have been rescued from our enemies

so we can serve God without fear,

in holiness and righteousness

for as long as we live.

Luke 1:68-75

I just happened to find a booklet last night which contains a lot of prayers. I remember some prayers during my high school days. I attended high school in  Notre Dame of Midsayap for Girls back in the Philippines. It is a Catholic school exclusively for girls. I remember that every Wednesday, we used to pray the Novena since our school is near the Church. We also used to have a Mass every first Friday of the Month. Every month of October we also pray the Rosary everyday.  I wanted to post these prayers here in my Blog also for others to read.  You might find these useful.

Salve Regina

Hail, Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, our life, our sweetness and our hope! To thee we cry, poor banished children of Eve. To thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this vale of tears. Turn then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us and after this our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus, O clement, O loving, O sweet virgin Mary. Amen

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