Getting On Here

[This one is supposed to be on July 5, 2007, Thursday. However, I ran out of internet time - Editor’s Note]

Life is so busy to me that I rarely get time to write. Sometimes, I just ponder it to my heart every night I rest for sleep hoping that someday I’d be able to write it down here.

Yes, I believe I’m getting late. On my previous post, I mentioned the room blessing. And, thanks be to God, it was Fr. Soliman who blessed it!!!

I’m doing pretty well with my new resolution. I also managed not to sing pop music songs whether in speech or mind. Instead of singing those, I try singing some Gregorian chant I know or simply pray mentally. In this way, I feel close to God and the Blessed Virgin Mary most of the time. Just last night, I made a short prayer that I thought of saying it as my first prayer every morning when I’m preparing to rise up from my bed: Dear Jesus and Mary, help me to make this day a holier one and united always to Thee. Sometimes, I repeat it during the day.

However, one thing that still agonize me is the habit of gossiping. Why is it that I just can’t help doing away with that? Although it is not that sinful, it is still a distraction to me, a poor wretched sinner. I know it diminish my nearness to God. So, starting this day, I’m going to make another resolution: stop gossiping. I hope I survive. That with God’s grace and the Blessed Virgin Mary, I’d be counting the days of July with a clean soul full of docility, humility, and meekness. This is my eternal quest. And, God willing, I wish – with all the angels and saints - to live my remaining years this way.

I recently read the life of St. Aloysius Gonzaga and was even more encouraged by his actions. His family was one of the renowned persons in his country but he became poorer among the poor. At a tender age, he wanted to become a priest and he entered the Jesuit Seminary at the age of 19. Although he didn’t become a priest as his frail health caused his life, he succeeded to suffer everything for the love of his Suffering Lord. At the age of 23, he breathed his last breath on earth and his youthful soul joined his Divine Master already!

Oh yes, last June I missed so many great occasions. I shall post it here.

June 7: It was the feast of Corpus Christi.
Explanation: The solemnity of the Corpus Domini is not just the simple memorial of an historical event which took place almost two thousand years ago at the Last Supper; rather, it recalls us to the ever present reality of Jesus always living in our midst. We can say, in truth, that He has not “left us orphans”, but has willed to remain permanently with us, in the integrity of His Person in the fullness of His humanity and His divinity. “There is no other nation so great,” the Divine Office enthusiastically sings, “as to have its gods so near as our God is present to us” (RB). In the Eucharist, Jesus is really Emmanuel, God with us. In the consecrated Host, we have not only Christ’s Body, Blood, and Soul, but also the divinity of the Son of God and, therefore, God Himself. What more potent means could God use to unite us to Himself and to make us share His nature and life? Where could we find a more life giving food than the Body of Christ, which through its personal union with the Word, is the source of all life and grace? By giving Himself to us, Jesus nourishes us with His substance, assimilates us to Himself, and personally communicates divine life to us. In the Eucharist, it is Jesus Himself Who is the Sacrament, coming to us personally in the integrity of His Person, that of the God-Man. When we receive the Sacred Host, we not only receive Christ’s action in our soul, but we actually possess His Person, really and physically present. We are given not only an increase of grace, but Jesus, the very source of grace. We not only enjoy a new participation in divine life, we possess the Incarnate Word, Who takes us with Himself to the heart of the Trinity. Furthermore, whereas material food is assimilated by the one who eats it and is changed into that person’s body and blood, Jesus, the Living Bread, has the power to assimilate and change into Himself those who partake of Him. “Holy Communion, the Body and Blood of Christ, tends to transform us into what we eat,” says St. Leo, and St. John Chrysostom notes: “Christ has united Himself to us and infused His Body into us, that we may be one thing with Him as a body is fitted to its head. Such is the union of those on fire with love” (RB). By nourishing us with Christ’s life, the Eucharist nourishes in us a life which has no end. By uniting us to Him Who is Life, it frees us from death. In fact, Jesus has said: “He that eateth My Flesh and drinketh My Blood hath everlasting life, and I will raise him up in the last day” (Jn 6v55). Notice that He said, “hath everlasting life,” not will have, because the Eucharist, by giving us an increase of grace - the seed of glory - becomes the pledge of eternal life for us, life not only for the soul but also for the body. “The sacred Host communicates the seed of future resurrection; Christ’s immortal Body plants within us the seed of immortality which will grow and some day bring forth fruit” (Pope Leo XIII: Mirae Caritatis). From this point of view, the Eucharist is truly the Sacrament of hope: hope of celestial glory, of the beatific vision, where our “communion” with Christ will have no end. Our eternal “communion” begins here on earth precisely in the Eucharistic communion which is its prelude, pledge, and even, in a slight degree, its foretaste. But the Blessed Sacrament is a source of great hope and confidence in our present life, too, especially in what concerns our spiritual progress; for, by increasing grace in us, it also increases our charity, and with the growth in charity, our passions are subdued. St. Augustine says, “The increase of charity is the decrease of passion, and the perfection of charity is the absence of passion.” If, then, the struggle against a certain fault of temptation sometimes becomes very violent and difficult; if in spite of all our efforts, we do not succeed in overcoming nature, let us have confidence in the Blessed Sacrament. When Jesus comes to us, He can calm any storm and give us strength to win any kind of battle. “The chaste Flesh of Jesus,” says St. Cyril of Alexandria, “checks the insubordination of ours; by dwelling in us, Christ effectively overcomes the law of flesh which rages in our members.” The Eucharist, therefore, is our hope both for this life and for the life to come; it sustains us in adversity, fortifies us in the struggle for virtue, saves us for eternal life and brings us to heaven by providing us with the food necessary for our journey. (Taken and compiled from a meditation book)

June 14: It was my 20th baptismal year. I don’t know but I was so fool I didn’t recognize it on that day! I guess I was busy with worldly things again. That’s bad! I had indeed forgotten to greet St. Basil the Great - one of my patron saints!

June 15: The feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Explanation: After we have contemplated the Eucharist, a gift crowning all the gifts of the love of Jesus for men, the Church invites us to give direct consideration to the love of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the source and cause of all His gifts. We may call the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus the feast of His love for us. “Behold this Heart which has so loved men,” Jesus said to St. Margaret Mary; “Behold this Heart which has so loved men,” the Church repeats to us today, showing us that it is truly “in the Heart of Christ, wounded by our sins, that God has deigned to give us the infinite treasures of His love.” (cf. Collect). Today’s liturgy inspired with this thought, reviews the immense benefits we owe to the love of Christ and sings a hymn in praise of His love. “Cogitationes cordis ejus,” chants the Introit of the Mass: “The thoughts of His Heart” - the Heart of Jesus - “are to all generations: to deliver them from death, to feed them in time o famine.” The Heart of Jesus is always in search of souls to save, to free from the snares of sin, to wash in His Blood, to feed with His Body. The Heart of Jesus is always living in the Eucharist to satisfy the hunger of all who long for Him, to welcome and console all those who, disillusioned by the vicissitudes of life, take refuge in Him, seeking peace and refreshment. Jesus Himself is our support on the hard road of life. “Take up My yoke upon you and learn of Me, because I am meek and humble of heart, and you shall find rest for your souls, Alleluia.” It is impossible to eliminate sorrow from our life; yet if we live for Jesus we can suffer in peace and find in the Heart of Jesus repose for our weary soul. Again, Jesus presents Himself as the door which leads to salvation. “I am the door. By Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved.” (Jn 10v9). This door is His Heart, which, wounded for us, has brought us into life. By love alone can we penetrate this mystery of infinite love, but not any kind of love will suffice. As St. Paul; says, we must “be rooted and founded in charity.” Only thus shall we able “to know… the charity of Christ which surpasseth all knowledge, that [we] may be filled unto all the fullness of God.” (Taken and compiled from a meditation book)

June 17: Fathers’ Day. Happy Fathers’ Day, Dad! Love you always!

I would like to leave with this prayer of St. Augustine (that I read from the book entitled True Devotion to Our Lady by St. Louis de Montfort) as I find these words most fittingly describe the way I feel at the moment and all the days of my life to come: O Jesus Christ, Thou art my Father, my merciful God, my great King, my good Shepherd, my only Master, my best Helper, my beloved Friend of overwhelming beauty, my living Bread, my eternal Priest. Thou art my guide to my heavenly home, my one true light, my holy joy, my true way, my shining wisdom, my unfeigned simplicity, the peace and harmony of my soul, my perfect safeguard, my bounteous inheritance, my everlasting salvation. My loving Lord, Jesus Christ, why have I ever loved or desired anything else in my life but Thee, my God? Where was I when I was not in communion with Thee? From now on, I direct all my desires to be inspired by Thee and centered on Thee. I direct them to press forward for they have tarried long enough, to hasten towards their goal, to seek the One they yearn for. O Jesus, let him who does not love Thee be accursed and filled with bitterness. O gentle Jesus, let every worthy feeling of mine show Thee love, take delight in Thee and admire Thee. O God of my heart and my inheritance, Christ Jesus, may my heart mellow before the influence of Thy spirit and may Thou live in me. May the flame of Thy love burn in my soul. May it burn incessantly on the altar of my heart. May it glow in my innermost being. May it spread its heat into the hidden recesses of my soul and on the day of my consummation, may I appear before Thee consumed in Thy love. Amen.