Peace! Kalilintad! Shalom!

Tag: Christianity

  • Praying as Jesus Prays

    Praying as Jesus Prays

    October 5, 2022 – Wednesday of the 27th Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/100522.cfm)

    We cannot help that sometimes our way of praying sounds like a demand to God. This could happen especially when we feel desperate. Though we believe that asking or begging God’s grace is certainly a way of praying, yet, this is not everything. When our prayers will only be filled with demands and requests for our own needs or wants, then, we might tend to believe that God is like a vending machine who is 24/7 available to grant our whims.

    Prayer is ought to be our way of life as Christians and not just a mere religious practice to observe from time to time or when we only want it. Prayer as our way of life is a constant discernment of the will of God, of getting closer to the very heart of the Lord. This is what a disciple asked of Jesus in today’s Gospel. The disciple witnessed how Jesus lives a way of life in prayer. The disciple must have seen how prayer empowers Jesus and his ministry by being one with the Father in Heaven through prayer.

    Indeed, Jesus taught his disciples how to pray which we know by heart as well. The Lord’s prayer allows us to put our complete and childlike trust to the Father. Such prayer brings us into a greater awareness of God’s presence working every day in our life and a greater awareness of our true needs, particularly of being at peace and reconciled.

    The prayer Jesus taught and his way of life in prayer have a common thing to reveal to us and that is, to be “in the heart of God.” Others may all this as being “in communion with God or to be one with God.”  Being in the heart of God is to be in a state of allowing the Lord to change us, to transform us that includes our thoughts, our desires, our plans and our very way of life.

    Certainly, what Jesus desires for his disciples and for us is to pray as Jesus prays. The very life of Jesus is founded in being in the heart of his Father in Heaven. With this, Jesus constantly seek his Father’s will and desire for him and for the world. This is what Jesus also wants us to learn, that in our prayer, we may also be in the heart of God so that we may be able to discern and identify God’s desire over our impulses, to know and embrace God’s will over our demands and personal wants.

    This is something that Paul wanted Peter to recognize and embrace as well. Paul, in his letter to the Galatians, reminded Peter of his hypocrisy, biases and wrong belief about God’s desire. Peter refused to eat at the table with Christians who were non-Jews. Peter must have believed at the thought that in order to be a disciple of Jesus one must be first a Jew. Paul confronted him about this and called Peter that God is not like that. God is not limited with Jewish practices. God is not even limited among them and not limited on our personal prejudices. Definitely, Peter was challenged by Paul to rather seek the desire of Jesus and not his or a group’s desire. Such way of knowing Jesus’ desire is to be in the heart of God through prayer.

    Thus, this calls us also today to make our prayer as our way of life so that we may come into the heart of God and know better God’s desire over our personal wants and whims. Kabay pa.

  • VENERATION OF THE CHAIR OF PETER

    VENERATION OF THE CHAIR OF PETER

    February 22, 2021 – Monday, Feast of the Chair of St. Peter, Apostle

    Fr. Manoling Thomas, CSsR

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/022221.cfm)

    Last February 13th, Saturday, part of the celebration of the Lunar New Year, by the Chinese, was the practice of paying respects to their ancestors. This used to be called the “ancestor worship”. But those Chinese who embraced Christianity re- named it to “veneration of the ancestors”. We Catholics venerate and honor the “saints”, those who have gone ahead of us; and have now entered the Kingdom of God. We set aside November 1st, as a day for them!   

    Today’s feast originated from the ancient Roman practice of remembering departed family members. Part of the celebration was a formal meal. An empty chair was reserved during the meal, to represent the ancestors. This ancient Roman practice was “Christianized” after the spread and legalization of Christianity throughout the Roman Empire. This feast originated in the 4th century.

    The “veneration of the chair of Peter” became an occasion for remembering the apostle Peter as “the ancestor in faith” of the Christian community in Rome. Pope Benedict XVI pointed out that this celebration highlights the “privileged sign of the love of God, the eternal Good Shepherd who wanted to gather his whole Church and lead her on the path of salvation.”

    Peter was chosen by Christ to be the “shepherd of Christ’s flock” [Jn. 21: 15-17]. Jesus called Peter to be “the rock” on which Jesus’ church would be built. [Mt. 16: 18-19]. Peter, in the 1st Reading, advised the other Church elders on how to care for the “flock entrusted to their care.” [1 Pet. 5:1-4].

    The chair represents the authority of St. Peter and his successors. The chair represents the unity of the Church founded on the Apostle Peter.