Farewell

Rest now in God's peace Fr. Lazaro!

We got the news of the passing away of Fr. Lazaro Revilla, SDB this morning. He went back home to Spain some time ago for vacation to meet his family and friends. It was there that our Lord deemed it proper to call him back to His embrace. He was 70 years old.

Now Fr. Lazaro that you have truly returned home... may you enjoy the company of the Master for all eternity. We will miss you but we will also be looking forward to that day when, in God's wonderful time, we will meet again.

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Last April 2009, I helped Fr. Lazaro set up this blog. Then I had to leave for Pakistan and he had to do it all on his own. Well, despite his age and sickness---he was able to regularly post something, as his poor health also permitted him, especially on the topics that were closest to his heart--prayer, faith, Don Bosco. He was my tablemate at meal times for more than a year and I consider those moments as precious times to listen to and learn from the experiences of Fr. Lazaro.

Requiescat in pace Don Lazaro!

Melo, SDB

The Relevance of Prayer 3

The Relevance of Prayer 2

The Relevance of Prayer 1

Reflection Question? Do you need to pray to interpret and know the will of God?

The "Irrelevance" of Prayer 14

The "Irrelevance" of Prayer 13

Reflection Question: Is prayer a relationship to God to you?

The "Irrelevance" of Prayer 12

Reflection Question: Is God just a need-fulfiller to you?

The "Irrelevance" of Prayer 11

Reflection Question: Is your prayer a means to accomplish your ends or to accomplish the will of God?
Reflection Question:

The "irrelevance" of Prayer 10

Reflection Questions: Do you give chance to God to initiate prayer? Do you discover in prayer God's ways for you?

The "Irrelevance" of Prayer 9

Rflection Questions: Are you a member of the present consumeristic society? What energy do you spend to have a personal encounter with God?

The "Irrelevance" of Prayer 8

Reflection Question: Is praying, knowing and encountering Christ unnecessary and useless to you?

The "Irrelevance" of Prayer 7

The "Irrelevance" of Prayer 6

The "Irrelevance" of Prayer 5

The "Irrelevance" of Prayer 4

Reflection Questions: Do you and Jesus live for each other day by day? Is your relationship with Jesus deepening with the years?

The "Irrelevance" of Prayer 3

The "Irrelevance" of Prayer 2

Reflection Question: Is your prayer something exotic and unreal?

The "Irrelevance" of Prayer 1

Reflection Question: Is prayer a luxury for you?

What is Prayer 12

Reflection Question: How do you know you are talking to God when you pray?

What is Prayer 11

Reflection Questions: Does your heart respond spontaneously to the sacrament of the present moment? How do you do it?

What is Prayer 10

Reflection Questions: Is this slide easily understood by you?How do you make this encounter with God? If you find this encounter easy, please, share with others.

What is Prayer 9

Reflection Questions: Does your prayer consist only in asking for things? How far are you in your dialog with God? Does it become easy to you to dialog with the Lord?

at is Prayer 8

Reflection Questions: Are you well trained in the art of listening? When you answer to God is your answer in accordance what he tells you?

What is Prayer 7

Reflection Questions: How do you open your mind and heart to God? How do you practice receptivity and responsiveness to God in prayer?

Rev. Fr. Gerardo Macapinlac

Today I dedicate my blog to Fr. Macky.

Rev.Fr. Gerardo Macapinlac, SDB, present rector of the provincial house of the Philippine Northern Province and provider of the material needs to the houses of the province, died after a car accident in Hua Hin, Thailand. He had just finished a Salesianity seminar together with other Salesian fathers and brothers from our and neighboring provinces. Let us pray for his eternal rest.

I am sure this seminar has helped him to know Don Bosco and the Salesian charism more profoundly and certainly Don Bosco has been there in heaven to welcome Macky to the Salesian heavenly garden.

Macky has always been a good man. Death did not give him any advice, she came unexpectedly. But for us, members of the Salesian family, who make every month the exercise for a Happy Death, death may come without previous advice because every month we get ready to welcome her. Macky had finished his monthly day of recollection few days before his death. This event tells us that he was ready to welcome death.

Let us learn this beautiful lesson from Macky. Let us make well every month the wise exercise given to us by St. John Bosco, the exercise for a Happy Death. This exercise will help us to be always ready to welcome death. Laging handa!

Christian Prayer 6

Reflection Questions: Is prayer for you really an encounter with God? How do you encounter God in your daily life? How do you behave in that encounter? What happens during the encounter?

Christian Prayer 5

Reflection Question: Do you feel that your prayer depends only on your own efforts?

What is Prayer 4

Reflection Question: What is he role of your heart in prayer?

What is Prayer 3

Reflection Questions: Do you really lift your mind and heart to God whenever you pray? How do you do it in practice? Do you need to recollect yourself?

What is Prayer 2

Reflection Questions: What does it mean to you to be always on the way? How sensitive to the Lord are you in your daily events?

What is Prayer?

Reflection questions: Do you really experience God's voice in your daily life? How?

Unit I. Introduction

Outline of the course

The Prayer of the Disciple of Christ

Rev.Fr. Thomas H. Green: Thank you

Father Green has died few months ago of heart problem. He has written a series of beautiful books about prayer and discernment. He has been my spiritual director for the last few years before his death. I am indebted to him for the books and for the time he dedicated to listening to me in his room at the upper floor of one of the buildings of San Jose Seminary in the Ateneo de Manila.

With his permission and advice I taught a course in the Don Bosco Center of Studies about prayer using the ideas of some of his books. And I feel I can do honor to him by publishing in my blog the slides that I prepared for the course. The contents are found in his books; the selection of the contents and the arrangment of the ideas, and the questions at the end of the slide are mine. I hope these materials will be of help to beginners in prayer.

Let us once in a while say a prayer for the eternal repose of the soul of Fr. Thomas H. Green.

The redemptive value of suffering

What does it mean this expression: The Redemptive value of Suffering?

Jesus is our only redeemer and no other. With his life, passion, death and resurrection he has saved the whole of human kind. Therefore there is no other redeemer of the world, but Jesus.

However, he has wanted to share with us this redemption of the world. Therefore, when we suffer Jesus invites us to join our sufferings to his sufferings. And our sufferings united to the sufferings of Christ gain redemptive value. Christ encourages us to suffer with him and thus share in his passion, death and resurrection.

It is very encouraging to me to think that I can share with my sufferings in the redemption of the world.

Thank you Lord Jesus for being so generous with us. With our sufferings Christ allows us to share in the redemption of the world. I adore you oh Christ for by your sufferings and cross you have redeemed the human kind.

When there is darkness in your life,TRUST in HIM

When you are in the darkness, in the middle of the tunnel of your sufferings, do not despair, trust in the Lord. The Lord is there, even if we do not see Him.

Let us read Peter's case taken from Matthews' gospel. "But at once Jesus said to them, "Courage! Do not be afraid, it is I." Peter answered,"Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you walking in the water."

Jesus said to him, "Come." And Peter got out of the boat, walking on the water to go to Jesus. But, in face of the strong wind, was afraid and began to sink. So he cried out, "Lord, save me!" Jesus immediately stretched out his hand and took hold of him, saying, Man of little faith (trust), why did you doubt?" (Mtt 14: 27-31).

When the wind and the storm of our pain are strong beyond our strength, the secret is faith and trust. And when these virtues are weak in us, let us pray and ask others to pray to the Spirit who dwells within us that he may grant us these virtues that after all are his gifts.

The mystery of suffering

Not all sufferings are mysterious. The sufferings of Christ are mysterious. Why did he choose to suffer physically? What intention did he have in it?

Our Father in heaven does not want any evil for any human being. He does not wish anything evil or bad neither for his Son nor for any body else. Does this mean that suffering is not evil? Are all the sufferings evil? Not all the sufferings fall under the category of evil or bad.

The Lord made man and woman free. He gifted them with the gift of freedom. Freedom that can be properly used or misused.

Before the fall (misused of freedom) of Adam and Eve, our first parents, there was no physical suffering on earth. It was after their disobedience that toil, work and suffering appeared. It is since then that the evil human instincts, or lower appetites, that became alive and active in every human being. However, freedom was not taken away from the human kind. From the day of the disobedience on there were and are two opposing principles in each person.

These ideas help me to understand a little about the mystery of suffering.

How do you handle your crosses?

The cross was the vehicle for the glorification of the Son of the Father. Christ accomplished the work the Father gave him (John 11:1-11). Jesus glorifies his father by doing his will, by enduring the cross, and by fulfilling the Father's purpose of blessing for many by means of the cross.

What are your crosses? The paschal mystery, passion, death, and resurrection of Christ, culminates the glorious life of Christ. In the lives of many of us happens the same. When we are born, our birth is gift we did not deserve. Life is given to us to be developed into maturity. And the culmination of our growth takes place through the paschal mystery that ends in the resurrection of each one of us. There is no resurrection without passing through the death of the body.

There are therefore in our life three big moments. The birth, the life and the death. The first and the last do not depend on us. The second is given to us to have it grow and develop. And it is in this period of our life when we have to work hard on our sanctification. And it is in this moment of our life when we encounter the crosses and the sufferings they carry. Are you aware of your crosses? How do you handle them? Suffering and crosses are necessary in life, but the most important is how we handle them. Jesus is our model.The will of his Father was always in his mind.

Is suffering necessary in human life?

My answer is YES. Suffering is needed in human existence.
But before I go ahead, let me tell you why I stopped blogging after my first two blogs. The reason was the hospitalization. I spent the whole month of May in a room in Makati Medical Center surrounded by needles in my arms and hands, by nurses, doctors and drugs. Sometimes there were more than 20 drugs a day to be taken. My stomach has become a small Mercury Drugstore. Since I left the hospital I had been struggling with cancer in the mugs of the mouth. The result of the biopsy was "Squamous Cells Carcinoma." It is still going on, but I hope to finish with it soon with the help of Mary Help of Christians.


What did I learn during the period of suffering? A good number of things. I thought that at the age of 70 I should be in control of my lower human tendencies but the reality was different. The main lesson I learned was to be more patient, understanding, and kind with those taking care of me. Say a short prayer to help me grow in these attitudes and virtues. Thank you!

Born 54 Years Ago

Today is not only the birhday of St. John Bosco, but also my birthday to the Society of St. John Bosco. At the age of 16, 54 years ago, I approached the altar of the Lord and in the presence of my Provincial Superior, Rev. Fr. Emilio Corrales, I pronounced to be obedient, poor and chaste to God, my Father, in the Salesian Society of St. John Bosco to be lived in community life.

With the grace of God and the help of Mary Help of Christians, I had been able to live 54 years of fidelity to the promise made on the 16th of August 1955. I thank the Lord for this gift and offer Him my gratitude for it.

I was told several times, during the novitiate and the following years of initial formation that my vocation to the Salesian life was the fruit of the blood of the martyrs of our civil war. I believe that. Today, the Salesians who died shouting: "Viva Christo Rey!" are now declared saints by the Holy Catholic Church. Their blood has produced so many Salesians now spread as missionaries all over the five continents--among them there are bishops and missionaries.

You who might read this blog, kindly join me and my classmates in thanking God for the gift of our vocation and for the blood of our holy martyrs.

Viva Christo Rey! Long live our Holy Martyrs!

Love for the Vicar of Christ

16th of August 1955 was the joyful day of my first religious profession. Fifty years later, I celebrated my Golden Jubilee of that day in Castel Gandolfo, Rome, together with my sister Josefa and her religious community in the novitiate house of the Salesian Sisters. On the 15th of August, Feast of the Assumption of Mary into Heaven, I was very lucky that I was invited to distribute the Holy Communion and at the same time to concelebrate in the Mass presided by the Pope in the Salesian parish church of Castel Gandolfo. Benedict XVI had been elected pope just four months before this date.

My joy became complete when at the end of the Mass, I was allowed by the secretary of his Holiness, Benedict XVI, to shake the hands of the pope and to exchange a few sentences with him. This happened in the sacristy of the church after the Mass. One of the things I told him was that the following day, 16th of August, was the Golden Jubilee of my religious profession. He congratulated me and promised to pray for me the following day.

The pope conquered my heart with his words, smile and spontaneity. Don Bosco, my spiritual father and teacher, once wrote: "a wish of the pope is a command to me" (MBV, p.874). This sentence of Don Bosco is now my own sentence, and I wish it becomes a sentence treasured by all the Salesians of Don Bosco. Long live the Pope!

One with Christ

Right now I am retired from the public life and confined in the air-conditioned room due to the limitations of my heart. I had my bypass operation 15 years ago; then another operation due to colon cancer 9 years ago; and now, my heart works very little with an injection fraction of 25% only. This situation places me in the Paschal Mystery of Christ-- His suffering, death and resurrection.

I am convinced that all followers of Christ have to go through the public life and through the Paschal Mystery of Christ. I am now living the Paschal Mystery of Christ and it is Christ who gives the energy, the courage and the strength to go through it with patience and acceptance.