Descended to Unite Us

Pentecost  15 May 2016  

First reading
Acts 2:1-11

When Pentecost day came round, they had all met in one room, when suddenly they heard what sounded like a powerful wind from heaven, the noise of which filled the entire house in which they were sitting; and something appeared to them that seemed like tongues of fire; these separated and came to rest on the head of each of them. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak foreign languages as the Spirit gave them the gift of speech.

  Now there were devout men living in Jerusalem from every nation under heaven, and at this sound they all assembled, each one bewildered to hear these men speaking his own language. They were amazed and astonished. ‘Surely’ they said ‘all these men speaking are Galileans? How does it happen that each of us hears them in his own native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; people from Mesopotamia, Judaea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya round Cyrene; as well as visitors from Rome – Jews and proselytes alike – Cretans and Arabs; we hear them preaching in our own language about the marvels of God.’

 

 

Responsorial Psalm
Psalm 103:1,24,29-31,34

Second reading
1 Corinthians 12:3-7,12-13

No one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord’ unless he is under the influence of the Holy Spirit.

  There is a variety of gifts but always the same Spirit; there are all sorts of service to be done, but always to the same Lord; working in all sorts of different ways in different people, it is the same God who is working in all of them. The particular way in which the Spirit is given to each person is for a good purpose.

  Just as a human body, though it is made up of many parts, is a single unit because all these parts, though many, make one body, so it is with Christ. In the one Spirit we were all baptised, Jews as well as Greeks, slaves as well as citizens, and one Spirit was given to us all to drink.

 

Gospel	John 20:19-23

In the evening of the first day of the week, the doors were closed in the room where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews. Jesus came and stood among them. He said to them, ‘Peace be with you’, and showed them his hands and his side. The disciples were filled with joy when they saw the Lord, and he said to them again, ‘Peace be with you.

‘As the Father sent me,

so am I sending you.’

After saying this he breathed on them and said:

‘Receive the Holy Spirit.

For those whose sins you forgive,

they are forgiven;

for those whose sins you retain,

they are retained.’

  Reflection
By Benj Santiago  

“And they were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim...but they were confused because each one heard them speaking in his own language. They were astounded, and in an amazement they asked,  how does each of us hear them in his native language?"

Today is the first Sunday after our National Elections. More importantly, today is Pentecost Sunday which is a Sunday after the Ascension of the Lord to heaven. In the First Reading according to Acts of the Apostles, today the Lord's promise  was delivered: The Holy Spirit came down to all the Apostles, disciples, and believers that were gathered together. And as Christ's followers received the Holy Spirit, the crowd that gathered to listen to them were all astonished - the Apostles and disciples were able to speak in various languages.

In the most recent political process we just had, we were like those people in the Old Testament who were building their Tower at Babel. We were very busy building up our idols, our candidates. And so many families went up against each other. So many friendships were broken. So many hurting words and invectives thrown at each other. Such event got us into confusion, division, hate, and misunderstanding. We speak the same language but it is quite obvious we don't understand each other. This reflects what happened in Babel. The exact opposite transpired on that first Pentecost Sunday!

My prayer is that the Holy Spirit that descended to the believers about 2000 years ago would descend upon all of us to unite us, and gather us towards our healing process. I believe in the true nature of Filipinos. And may the healing process start within me. O come oh Holy Spirit!

 Prayer

 

Heavenly Father we thank You for sending us Your Holy Spirit. May the Holy Spirit be with all of us to unite us, to enable us to understand each other, and to heal the wounds of division brought about by the most recent political exercise our country  had. May the Holy Spirit bring peace and love to all of us. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen!
      

Love

 

Fifth Sunday of Easter

17 April 2016  

First reading
Acts 14:21-27

Paul and Barnabas went back through Lystra and Iconium to Antioch. They put fresh heart into the disciples, encouraging them to persevere in the faith. ‘We all have to experience many hardships’ they said ‘before we enter the kingdom of God.’ In each of these churches they appointed elders, and with prayer and fasting they commended them to the Lord in whom they had come to believe.

  They passed through Pisidia and reached Pamphylia. Then after proclaiming the word at Perga they went down to Attalia and from there sailed for Antioch, where they had originally been commended to the grace of God for the work they had now completed.

  On their arrival they assembled the church and gave an account of all that God had done with them, and how he had opened the door of faith to the pagans.

 

Responsorial Psalm
Psalm 144:8-13

Second reading
Apocalypse 21:1-5

I, John, saw a new heaven and a new earth; the first heaven and the first earth had disappeared now, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the holy city, and the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, as beautiful as a bride all dressed for her husband. Then I heard a loud voice call from the throne, ‘You see this city? Here God lives among men. He will make his home among them; they shall be his people, and he will be their God; his name is God-with-them. He will wipe away all tears from their eyes; there will be no more death, and no more mourning or sadness. The world of the past has gone.’

  Then the One sitting on the throne spoke: ‘Now I am making the whole of creation new.’

 

Gospel	John 13:31-33,34-35

When Judas had gone Jesus said:

‘Now has the Son of Man been glorified,

and in him God has been glorified.

If God has been glorified in him,

God will in turn glorify him in himself,

and will glorify him very soon.

‘My little children,

I shall not be with you much longer.

I give you a new commandment:

love one another;

just as I have loved you,

you also must love one another.

By this love you have for one another,

everyone will know that you are my disciples.’

  Reflection
By Fely C. Santiago

“I give you a new commandment: love one another”

 

It is always easy to say “I love you” but doing what Jesus did when He died on the cross for His great love for all of us, will never be easy. That is why we live in a troubled world because true love is really not there. Most people including myself find it hard to “die to myself” because of love. But everyday we can always try. For Jesus said, “for man it is difficult, but with God nothing is impossible.”

 

The world needs love. Our country needs love. I just pray that with the coming election getting nearer we may learn to really love one another and not keep pulling each other down. I pray that all the candidates running for election are there because of their love to serve our country and the people and not to be served, or because of selfish interests. And as people, may we learn to vote with prayers that God will lead us to the right persons who can lead this country and bring us even closer to God. And after the election, may we learn to accept those elected to serve and move on with love in our hearts.

 

The next challenge with love is also to stay in love - the decision to love, the commitment to love.

 

“But the most significant part of love is found not in the initial attraction but in the commitment afterwards: the commitment of spouses to one another; the commitment to a community despite the imperfection and humanity of its members; or the commitment to friendships when there are rocky parts on the path, and the initial attraction has somewhat waned. If love is the “effective willing of the good of another,” though, as Thomas Aquinas argued, then love has much more to do with the staying power of love than its first glimmer.”- See more at: http://www.ignatianspirituality.com/23515/stay-in-love#sthash.eYc0HzSQ.dpuf

 

Since we are all human, we have all our imperfections and weaknesses the challenge to stay in love is there. That is where the decision to love comes in especially for married couples who are the foundation of the families. That is where acceptance, humility, understanding comes in. That is where the grace of God is greatly needed so married couples and families can stay in love despite of…

 

Love. Give. Live. Let the purpose of anything we do be LOVE….

  Prayer  

God of Easter Joy, in these weeks after Your resurrection, I long to be in Your protective care. Give me the courage to allow You into my life to let you love me - so I can remain in You. As I pray with the image of the vine and the branch, I know I want to hold tightly to You and grow in love with You. With the guidance of Your Holy Spirit, give me the consolation of being fruitful so I can spread the joy of Your gospel to all those around me. May the Lord bless us, 
protect us from all evil 
and bring us to everlasting life. 
Amen.

Wait and Be Patient!

Ascension of the Lord
16 May 2010


Alleluia! Come, let us worship Christ the Lord as he ascends into heaven. Alleluia!


First reading Acts 1:1-11 3
In my earlier work, Theophilus, I dealt with everything Jesus had done and taught from the beginning until the day he gave his instructions to the apostles he had chosen through the Holy Spirit, and was taken up to heaven. He had shown himself alive to them after his Passion by many demonstrations: for forty days he had continued to appear to them and tell them about the kingdom of God. When he had been at table with them, he had told them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for what the Father had promised. ‘It is’ he had said ‘what you have heard me speak about: John baptised with water but you, not many days from now, will be baptised with the Holy Spirit.’
Now having met together, they asked him, ‘Lord, has the time come? Are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel?’ He replied, ‘It is not for you to know times or dates that the Father has decided by his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and then you will be my witnesses not only in Jerusalem but throughout Judaea and Samaria, and indeed to the ends of the earth.’
As he said this he was lifted up while they looked on, and a cloud took him from their sight. They were still staring into the sky when suddenly two men in white were standing near them and they said, ‘Why are you men from Galilee standing here looking into the sky? Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven, this same Jesus will come back in the same way as you have seen him go there.’

Psalm or canticle: Psalm 46:2-3,6-9


Second reading Ephesians 1:17-23
May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, give you a spirit of wisdom and perception of what is revealed, to bring you to full knowledge of him. May he enlighten the eyes of your mind so that you can see what hope his call holds for you, what rich glories he has promised the saints will inherit and how infinitely great is the power that he has exercised for us believers. This you can tell from the strength of his power at work in Christ, when he used it to raise him from the dead and to make him sit at his right hand, in heaven, far above every Sovereignty, Authority, Power, or Domination, or any other name that can be named not only in this age but also in the age to come. He has put all things under his feet and made him, as the ruler of everything, the head of the Church; which is his body, the fullness of him who fills the whole creation.

Gospel Luke 24:46-53
Jesus said to his disciples, ‘You see how it is written that the Christ would suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that, in his name, repentance for the forgiveness of sins would be preached to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses to this.
‘And now I am sending down to you what the Father has promised. Stay in the city then, until you are clothed with the power from on high.’
Then he took them out as far as the outskirts of Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. Now as he blessed them, he withdrew from them and was carried up to heaven. They worshipped him and then went back to Jerusalem full of joy; and they were continually in the Temple praising God.

Reflection
By Elizabeth R. Eguia

We all prayed for a peaceful and clean election and true enough it happened. People from all walks of life went to their respective precinct polls to cast their votes. Although some got annoyed with the long queues considering it was also a hot and humid day, some were also extremely happy. They were able to cast their votes easily without any problem. People, especially the youth, were vigilant. Volunteers reported their concerns and reported anomalies happening around.

Today we celebrate Christ’s Ascension into heaven. He has instructed His disciples to wait for the promise of the Father as they will be baptized by the Holy Spirit and receive the power from above. We are all asked by the Lord to wait, to be patient just like His disciples. We were all anxious with the first automated election. Speculations of failures to happen seem to cross everybody’s mind. But the good thing that happened was, we all recognized the need for prayer and God’s guidance even at the time when we have doubts. This is the gift of the Holy Spirit residing in us. He has given us the power to believe and make miracles to happen.


Dear God we praise and glorify Your name. We pray that You intercede in us. Send your Holy Spirit to guide us, to clear our doubts, to be patient and to keep on holding to your promise. Amen.

Next on God-speak
Come, Holy Spirit