6th Sunday of Easter (A)

Short Reflection for the 6^th Sunday of Easter (A):

Readings: Acts 8: 5-8. 14-17; 1 Peter 3: 15-18; John 14: 15-21

Selected Passage: “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth, which the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows it. But you know it, because it remains with you, and will be in you.” (John 14: 16-17)

Meditation: Jesus does not leave as orphans. He sends the Spirit, our Advocate, to be with us always until the end of time. The Holy Spirit, the Advocate, will remind us of Jesus’ teaching and command – the Love of God and the Love of neighbor.  www.badaliyya.blogspot.com

DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD

1st step: Write the text or Dhikr (the Arabic word for REMEMBRANCE) in your heart.

2nd step: Let the text remain always in on your lips and mind - RECITING the text silently as often as possible...

3rd step:  Be attentive to the disclosure of the meaning/s of the text in your life.

5th Sunday of Easter (A)

Short Reflection for the 5^th Sunday of Easter (A):

Readings: Acts 6: 1-7; 1 Peter 4-9; John 14: 1-12

Selected Passage: Jesus said to him, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, then you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him." (John 14: 6-7)

Meditation: Jesus is our way, truth and life. Do we truly believe it and live by this belief?  Jesus is the gate to LIFE. In, through and with Him – we find life.

When we are afraid and unsure; when the sailing gets rough; when the signposts are blurred; and when we no longer know what to do… hold on to the belief that Jesus is our WAY and our TRUTH, and our LIFE.  www.badaliyya.blogspot.com

DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD

1st step: Write the text or Dhikr (the Arabic word for REMEMBRANCE) in your heart.

2nd step: Let the text remain always in on your lips and mind - RECITING the text silently as often as possible...

3rd step:  Be attentive to the disclosure of the meaning/s of the text in your life.

4th Sunday of Easter (A)

Short Reflection for the 4^th Sunday of Easter (A)

Readings: Acts 2: 14a. 36-41; 1 Peter 2: 20b – 25; John 10: 1-10

Selected Passage: “I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy; I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.” (John 10: 9-10)

Meditation: Jesus is the gate to LIFE. In, through and with Him – we find life. The thieves and extremists come to destroy and to kill! By their fruits, we shall know them. Do they come to give and enhance life and well-being or they come to take away life and do harm to people and society? 

The Risen Lord is the TRUE Gate. He has come to give his life as a RANSOM for our sins and evil ways that we might be free from the slavery of sins and have life in great abundance. www.baaliyya.blogspot.com

DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD

1st step: Write the text or Dhikr (the Arabic word for REMEMBRANCE) in your heart.

2nd step: Let the text remain always in on your lips and mind - RECITING the text silently as often as possible...

3rd step:  Be attentive to the disclosure of the meaning/s of the text in your life.

3rd Sunday of Easter (A) - Breaking Bread with Srangers

Short Reflection for the 3^rd Sunday of Easter (A): “Break Bread with the Stranger”

Readings: Acts 2: 14, 22-33; 1 Peter 1: 17-21; Luke 24: 13-35

Selected Passage: But they urged him, "Stay with us, for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over." So he went in to stay with them. (Luke 24: 29)

Meditation: The key to the recognition of the Risen Lord is sharing shelter with the stranger and breaking one’s bread with stranger.  The two disciples shared their abode and table with the stranger.  This is the same challenge to us all – if we are to recognize the Risen Lord.  In fact the sharing of our abode and bread with the needy is a lived Eucharist!

Our Christian community, more than ever, NEEDS to remember its conversation with the Risen Lord: ‘were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?

DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD

1st step: Write the text or Dhikr (the Arabic word for REMEMBRANCE) in your heart.

2nd step: Let the text remain always in on your lips and mind - RECITING the text silently as often as possible...

3rd step:  Be attentive to the disclosure of the meaning/s of the text in your life.

The Prophet's Night journey and Ascension

April 24th, 2017 is now declared as Muslim Holiday. It is one of the 6 Holidays recognized in the former RAG IX and RAG XII.

The feast is popularly known as the prophet's ascension. The complete name of the feast is "Laylat al-Isra' wa-l-mi'raj" tha can be translated as the 'night journey and the ascension.

There are two Qur'anic texts pointing to this feast. The 1st S 17. 1 "Glory be to Him who carried (asra) his servant by night from the masjid al-haram to the masjid al-aqsa, the environs of which we have blessed, that we might show him some of our signs. Surely, he alone is all-hearing, the all-seeing."

The 2nd is a description of the vision that the prophet saw as captured in S 53: 8-18: "He revealed his word when he was on the uppermost horizon. Then the prophet drew near, then leaned down. So that he became one chord to two bows or closer still. Then he revealed to his servant that which he revealed. The heart lied not in seeking what he saw. Will you then dispute with him about what he saw? And certainly.he saw him a second time, near the farthest lotus-tree, near which is the garden of refuge..."

Later tradition put together these two texts and organized them into a long tale now known to us as the story of the night journey and ascension of the prophet from masjid a;-haram to masjid al-aqsa to heaven...

2nd Sunday of Easter (A) Divine Mercy Sunday

Short Reflection for the 2^nd Sunday of Easter (A): Divine Mercy Sunday

Readings: Acts 2: 42-47; 1 Peter 1: 3-9; John 20: 19-31

Selected Passage:  Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples said to him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nail marks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe." (John 20: 24-25)

 Meditation: In life, we behave like Thomas.  We do not believe unless we, too, put our fingers into the nail marks in Jesus’ body. Yet our faith lies NOT in seeing but on the testimony of believers. We accept the testimony, because we recognize the trustworthiness and integrity of the witnesses. Today, we are the witnesses of Jesus’ resurrection! Are we trustworthy witnesses?

The Divine Mercy Sunday reminds us that the other name of God is MERCY! “Mercy renews and redeems because it is an encounter between two hearts: the Heart of God who comes to meet us and a human heart.”  (MM # 18)

 DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD

1st step: Write the text or Dhikr (the Arabic word for REMEMBRANCE) in your heart.

2nd step: Let the text remain always in on your lips and mind - RECITING the text silently as often as possible...

3rd step:  Be attentive to the disclosure of the meaning/s of the text in your life.

Recognizing the Risen Lord at the Breaking of the Bread....

Recognizing the Risen Lord in the Breaking of the Bread…

Fr. Eliseo “Jun” Mercado, OMI

The journey through life is akin to the disciples' walk to Emmaus... It is a journey full of uncertainties and fears, yet hopeful that there is something going on beyond their comprehension. (Luke 24: 13-35)

·      First, there is the obstacle that prevents them to recognize the presence of the Risen Lord in their midst.

·      Second, there is the fact that the Risen Lord is “completely transformed”. He is beyond look or appearances, beyond taste and touch, and beyond smell and hearing that ordinarily would make our five senses know and recognize a presence.

·      Third, there is the remembrance of the Lord’s teaching of “sharing shelter with strangers”, “food to the hungry” and “rest to the weary”.  The disciples invited the “Stranger”: “stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over”.

·      Fourth, at the shared table, the disciple’s eyes were opened at the BREAKING OF THE BREAD… and they RECOGNIZED THE RISEN LORD!

The key to the mystery of life, as we journey through life with all its uncertainties, fears and “untold” expectations, is the capacity to share our lives with others, especially with people in need.  That key will open our eyes to recognize the presence of the Risen Lord at the breaking of the Bread.  But first, we need to share our table and roof with the poor and the strangers…

THE LORD IS, TRULY RISEN, ALLELUIA!