17th Sunday in OT (C) - How do you Pray?

17^th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

Luke 11: 1-13

July 28, 2013

GOSPEL READING: The Lord’s Prayer

Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples.”  He said to them, “When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us, and do not subject us to the final test.”

And he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend to whom he goes at midnight and says,
‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, for a friend of mine has arrived at my house from a journey and I have nothing to offer him,’ and he says in reply from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been locked and my children and I are already in bed.  I cannot get up to give you anything.’

I tell you, if he does not get up to give the visitor the loaves because of their friendship, he will get up to give him whatever he needs because of his persistence.

“And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.  What father among you would hand his son a snake
when he asks for a fish?  Or hand him a scorpion when he asks for an egg?  If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in heaven
give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?”

REFLECTION: How do you pray?

Every time we pray, we usually ask for something. We seldom pray otherwise. We always ask God to grant us something we need or direly ask: “Lord, pahingi ng ganito” (Lord, grant this…), “Lord, pahingi ng ganyan” (Lord, grant that…), “Lord, sana po manalo na kami sa Lotto” (Lord, we hope to win the lottery), and the likes. That is the usual manner of our prayers.

We somehow find it “cute” to hear parents telling their children to pray in this manner: “Lord, give us some pe-pe.” (Pe-pe is a pinoy baby term for money.) Even kids adopt this pinoy (Filipino) style of prayer. “Lord, I pray for lots of money this Christmas, or at least for me to play computer games.”

 
Funny as it seems, but it is true. It's like we are telling God to grant us something because he has a bodega (store room) full of material things that He can give us. We often regard God like a genie who can give us everything we wish. That is the drastic Filipino way of prayer. It’s very personal, yet very selfish to the ear.

In today's Gospel, we hear Jesus talking about prayer, teaching His disciples what the world would come to know of as The Lord's Prayer. We hear this prayer every single day, especially when we go to Mass. We even sing it at the top of our lungs, hands outstretched, with eyes closed. We call God as Our Father.

We consider God as our Father, and because of this, we ask Him every single thing we could imagine. But sometimes, we pray for our own benefit, not for our brothers and sisters. We ask God to forgive us of our many sins, but do we even lift a finger of forgiveness to somebody who has hurt us? We ask God not to lead us to the test or to the evil one, and yet we lead our own feet and those of others to our own harm.

We pray, but do our lives pray with our words? Rarely does it happen.

If we feel happiness, sadness or excitement, the body expresses it in a unique way. Same thing goes with prayer. We do not only babble every time we pray; our body – our whole life – prays with our words. We offer our life.

We are a living irony if we pray to God for long life, but we abuse our bodies with drinking, smoking or drugs. We pray for good fortune, yet we spend our money on waste. We pray to God with every beautiful word we know, and yet we curse and tell vulgar words to our neighbor, or child, or mother. If we are these kinds of people – praying yet not witnessing to our prayer – then, we are the Living Irony.

We have this adage in Filipino: “Nasa Diyos ang awa, nasa tao ang gawa.” (Work is to man as God is to mercy.) If we ask God to forgive us, we must also know how to forgive others. If we ask God of something, we must know how to manage it and use it for our good and for the good of others. If we pray for safety, we also know that we must follow safety rules every time and everywhere. We pray, but we are also responsible.

God listens to every prayer, but we must also see to it that what we seek, ask or knock – whatever we pray Him – must be in accordance with what we are capable of. We must also be patient. He could not give what we don’t need. Everything He gives us is enough for our use, in the right time.

When we receive, we must also give. That's the secret of graces. We pray God to grant our petitions. But we must remember that when the time comes that He gives us the grace we need, we, in turn, must also give what we have received to those who are in need.

Finally, when we pray, don't just ask something. Above all, give thanks! If our life is filled with many petitions, we can say that our life is one without contentment. If we know how to pray with thanksgiving and praise for everything we have, everything would come flowing without any hard deal.

Real prayer is a prayer when we consider ourselves as nothing in God's eyes. We ask His grace for us to live according to His will. We give thanks for everything we received. We ask forgiveness because we are sinners. We ask for everything we need according to His will.

That is real prayer. But this becomes more powerful if our life is patterned after our prayer. We pray, and we live.

ABOUT THE SHARER:

WELDANN LESTER A. PANGANIBAN is a member of the Institute of Preaching Lay Missionaries in Santo Domingo Church, Quezon City. He is also an English Teacher at the Immaculate Conception Parochial School, Malabon City.

KEYWORDS:

Ordinary Time, Cycle C, Laity, Prayer, Forgiveness, Mercy, Irony, IPLM, Neighbor

On God's Call

Dominican Province of England (Video)

Address of Pope Francis to the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy (June 6, 2013)

Dear Brothers in the Episcopate,

Dear priests, dear sisters, friends,


I extend a warm welcome to all of you! I affectionately greet your President, Archbishop Beniamino Stella, and I thank him for the kind words he addressed to me on your behalf, remembering the welcome visits that I have made in the past to your Casa. I also remember the friendly insistence with which Bishop Stella convinced me, now two years ago, to send to the Academy a priest of the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires! Archbishop Stella knows how to knock at the door! The problem was on my end, because I did not find a priest to send, and I chose a marathoner . . . I sent him. A grateful thought goes also to his colleagues and to the Sisters and staff, who offer their generous service in your community.

Dear friends, you are preparing for a particular ministry of commitment, which will place you in the direct service of the Successor of Peter, of his charism of unity and communion, and of his solicitude for all the Churches. The work that is done in the Pontifical diplomatic service requires, like any type of priestly ministry, a great inner freedom. Live these years of your preparation with commitment, generosity, and greatness of soul, so that this freedom can really take shape in you!

But what does it mean to have this interior freedom? First of all it means being free from personal projects, being free from personal projects: from some of the concrete ways in which perhaps one day, you had thought of living your priesthood, from the possibilities of planning for the future; from the perspective of remaining for a long time in a your place of pastoral action. It means freeing yourself, in some way, even with respect to the culture and mindset from which you came, not by forgetting it, much less by denying it, but by opening yourself up, in charity, to understanding different cultures and meeting with people even from worlds very far from your own.

Above all, it means vigilance in order to be free from ambition or personal aims, which can cause so much harm to the Church, taking care to always put in the first place not your own self-fulfillment, or the recognition that you could get whether inside and outside of the ecclesial community, but the greater good of the cause of the Gospel and the fulfillment of the mission that has been entrusted to you. This freedom from ambition or personal aims, for me, is important, its important! Careerism is leprosy! Leprosy! Please, no careerism! For this reason, each of you must be willing to integrate your vision of the Church, however legitimate, every personal idea or assessment, within the horizons seen by Peter, of his particular mission at the service of communion and the unity of the flock of Christ, of his pastoral charity which embraces the whole world, and that, thanks also to the action of the Pontifical diplomatic service, wishes to make itself present especially in those places, often forgotten, where the needs of the Church and of humanity are greatest.

In a word, the ministry for which you are preparing because you are being prepared for a ministry, not a profession: it is a ministry! This ministry calls you to go out of yourself, to a detachment from self that can only be achieved through an intense spiritual journey and a serious unification of your life around the mystery of the love of God and of the inscrutable plan of His call. In the light of the faith, we are able to live the freedom from our own projects and our own will, not as a cause of frustration or emptying, but as an opening to the superabundant gift of God, that makes our priesthood fruitful. Living the ministry in service to the Successor of Peter and to the Church to which you are called may appear demanding, but it will allow you, so to say, to be and to breathe within the heart of the Church, of its catholicity. And this constitutes a special gift, because, as Pope Benedict recalled when speaking to your community, wherever there is openness to the objectivity of catholicity, there is also the principle of authentic personalization (Speech to the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy, 10 June 2011).

Have great care for the spiritual life, which is the source of inner freedom. Without prayer, there is no interior freedom. You can make a precious treasure of the instruments of conforming your priestly spirituality to Christ Himself, cultivating a life of prayer and making your daily work the gymnasium of your sanctification. Here I am happy to recall the figure of Blessed John XXIII, the fiftieth anniversary of whose death we celebrated a few days ago: his work in the Pontifical diplomatic service was one of the places, and not the least significant, in which his sanctity was formed. Rereading his writings, one is impressed by the care he always took in guarding his soul, in the midst of the most varied ecclesial and political occupations. Here was born his inner freedom, the joy that he conveyed outwardly, and the effectiveness of his pastoral and diplomatic action. As he said in his Journal of a Soul, "the more mature I become in years and in experience, the more I recognize that the surest means for my personal sanctification and for the greater success of my service to the Holy See, remains the vigilant effort to reduce everything principles, speeches, positions, affairs, to the greatest simplicity and calmness; in my vineyard, always to prune that which is simply useless foliage . . . and to go directly to that which is truth, justice, charity, above all charity. Any other [way] of doing things, is nothing but posturing and grasping at personal affirmation, which betrays itself and becomes cumbersome and ridiculous." (Cinisello Balsamo 2000, p. 497). He wanted to prune his vineyard: to chase out the foliage, to prune. . . And some years later, joined to the end of his work in the Pontifical diplomatic service, when he was already Patriarch of Venice, he wrote, "Now I find myself completely in the ministry of souls. Truly I have always held that for an ecclesiastic, diplomacy, so to say, should always be permeated by a pastoral spirit; otherwise, it counts for nothing, and makes a holy mission ridiculous (ibid., pp. 513-14)." But this is important! Listen well: When in the Nunciature there is a secretary or a nuncio that doesnt go along the way of sanctity, and gets involved in so many forms, in so many kinds of spiritual worldliness, he looks ridiculous, and everyone laughs at him! Please don't be ridiculous: either [be] saints or go back to the diocese and be a pastor, but don't be ridiculous in the diplomatic [service], in the diplomatic life, where there is so much danger of becoming worldly in spirituality.

I would also like to say something to the Sisters thank you for coming! Who undertake their daily service among you with a religious and Franciscan spirit. They are good Mothers who accompany you with prayer, with their simple and essential words, and above all by the example of loyalty, dedication and love. Along with them I would like to thank the lay staff who work in Casa. Their hidden, but important presence, allows you to spend your time in the Academy with serenity and commitment.

Dear priests, I hope that you will undertake the service to the Holy See with the same spirit as Blessed John XXIII. I ask you to pray for me, and I commend you to the safekeeping of the Virgin May and of Saint Anthony the Abbot, your patron. May the assurance of my prayers and of my blessing which I cordially extend to all your loved ones go with you. Thank you!

An Experience of a Family

AN EXPERIENCE OF A FAMILY

I joined the Laity of the Order of Preachers (Dominicans) in 1986.  I attended all chapter meetings as well as recollections, retreats and conventions.  What overwhelmed me most was the celebration of the Feast of Saint Catherine of Siena and the Feast of Saint Dominic where the Dominican Family gathered together in one accord to worship God.

Through recollections, retreats and conventions, I learned that one should have a strong spiritual life that acts as the impulse of apostolic activity.  To be truly apostolic, one should have constant consciousness of being in God’s presence.

Hence, as a lay Dominican, I learned to share in the prayers, penances and good works of all lay Dominicans.  Sanctification grew in me through a way of life recommended by the Church and proven effective by many men and women now counted among the saints and the blessed.

Simply said, I experienced the solidarity of one of the great universal families in the Church.

ABOUT THE SHARER:

SOPHIA BAYLON, OP is a member of the Dominican laity.

KEYWORDS:

OP Laity, OP Family, Solidarity, Special

16th Sunday in OT (C) - Lessons from Martha and Mary

16^th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

Luke 10: 38-42

July 21, 2013

GOSPEL READING: Martha and Mary

As they continued their journey he entered a village where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed him. She had a sister named Mary [who] sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak. Martha, burdened with much serving, came to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving? Tell her to help me.” The Lord said to her in reply, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things.  There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.”

REFLECTION: Lessons from Martha and Mary

“To each his own,” as they say. Under normal conditions, we move to accomplish a particular task or set of goals by directing our thoughts, words and actions to what we deem important and dear to us. But there are other factors to consider, of course, like the object of our pursuit, the capacity and strength with which we are able to carry on the task and the impact it can have with others. But notwithstanding, we do the things we do because we want to matter and make a difference.

In our Gospel reading today, we have a concrete example of such. Jesus, Martha and Mary acted - on their own accord – to show how it is to pursue their object of attention and thus, be steadfast on what they deem valuable and worthwhile.

Jesus’ gesture of dropping by at his friends’ home highlights the value of visitation. He meant to pay them a visit because they are His friends. He wanted to spend time with them, talk, laugh, dine and most surely, instruct and share with them His experiences especially as He boldly proclaims the good news of the Kingdom of God.

Martha exemplifies, and yes, got lost in the pettiness of preparation. In her joy of making Jesus feel welcome and comfortable, she prepares the meal and has gone busy making an effort to make the guest feel-at-home.

Mary, for her part, draws us to an example of an eager listener. She has chosen to stay at the foot of Jesus, keeping still and carefully listening to Him, oblivious to what her sister is preparing.

With a scenario like this, we can thus be drawn to the fact that, each of them made an intent to validate each other’s presence and delight in it. The words of Jesus on Mary that she has chosen the better part is accordingly sensible, no less. But Martha, in all her sincere effort, could just as well have done what she knows best – to accept a guest and show Jesus her exceptional hospitality and brand of service.

We all want to make a difference. We all have our peculiar recourse in handling matters at hand. In some instances, we can see through our labors without many perturbances. In some cases, people may see them as utterly useless and perhaps indicative of our own petty predicaments.

Except for sin, we cannot and should not stop in doing what we do best, especially when our intent is to morally invest in some company of a dear guest, or someone who can bring us closer to the holiest of the holies. Should there be a chance to visit, either a friend or a foe (as we assume a reconciliatory mode), we do what we have to do before it is too late. Should there be a moment to prepare, we strive to do it for a noble purpose and not because we want to boast. Whoever said the words “by failing to prepare, we are preparing to fail” can serve to guide us in prior undertakings. Should we have the chance to become an eager listener – we do so and then act critically on what we have heard to transform and be transformed for the better, if not, for the best.

We are responsible for all our actions. Let us learn from the value of visiting, pettiness of preparation and eagerness to listen. Let this pericope in the Gospel of Jesus serve the purpose for which it has been proclaimed.

ABOUT THE SHARER:

FR. RIC-ZEUS E. ANGOBUNG is a priest of the Diocese of Ilagan. He is a professed member of the  Dominican Clerical Fraternity of the Philippines.

KEYWORDS:

Ordinary Time, Cycle C, Domfrat, Martha and Mary, Friendship, Listening