Too Many Broken Hearts in the World

Father,

The world is a sad place most of the time. Everywhere I see people with deadened eyes. Despair, desolation, and depression are common. Why is this so, My Father? The world you made ought to be filled with happy, hopeful and vibrantly-living people.

I search my heart and find in my communion with You, a voice saying, that the lack of love is the answer. Without love, the artifice comes in. Without love, though people "speak in the tongues of men and of angels," they are but "a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal."

Without love, we find it hard to understand the command: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." And worse, we fail to comprehend the first and greatest of Your commandments: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind."

No wonder then that despite all the material and tangible things that we can accumulate in this world, we still feel empty and prone to despair. We search for something to complete us, ever struggling onwards to learn more, gain more, be more. And yet we often fail to realize that that which we seek with all our might is just within our reach -- Your Love.

Let us understand more deeply the meaning of love, most especially Your Love. Let us long for it with all hearts and souls. I strongly believe, Father, that with your precious Love, there is nothing more that we need in this world.

Amen.

Faith in a Poem

What is faith to you?  We often ponder this very thing.  If we read the Holy Bible, does that mean we have faith?  If we read the news and find some horrific tale, how do we see it in the light of our faith?  If we are burdened, or victorious, where does our faith come in?  When faced with the prospects of death, how does our faith touch us?

It's not easy to define man's faith in God.  But man dwells on it anyway.  The Bible is filled with men's thoughts on his faith and his God. and one man in particular -- Job -- spoke so ardently of his faith.  His tangled thoughts, emotional fluctuations, deepest longings, ardent hopes and fears are voiced in a beautiful poem about his faith.

Read on, and be mesmerized by the beauty of Job's faith in his omnipotent God.


“Man, who is born of woman,
Is short-lived and full of turmoil.
Like a flower he comes forth and withers.
He also flees like a shadow and does not remain.

You also open Your eyes on him
And bring him into judgment with Yourself.
Who can make the clean out of the unclean?
No one!

Since his days are determined,
The number of his months is with You;
And his limits You have set so that he cannot pass.

Turn Your gaze from him that he may rest,
Until he fulfills his day like a hired man.
For there is hope for a tree,
When it is cut down, that it will sprout again,
And its shoots will not fail.
Though its roots grow old in the ground
And its stump dies in the dry soil,
At the scent of water it will flourish
And put forth sprigs like a plant.

But man dies and lies prostrate.
Man expires, and where is he?
As water evaporates from the sea,
And a river becomes parched and dried up,
So man lies down and does not rise.
Until the heavens are no longer,
He will not awake nor be aroused out of his sleep.

Oh that You would hide me in Sheol,
That You would conceal me until Your wrath returns to You,
That You would set a limit for me and remember me!

If a man dies, will he live again?
All the days of my struggle I will wait
Until my change comes.
You will call, and I will answer You;
You will long for the work of Your hands.
For now You number my steps,
You do not observe my sin.
My transgression is sealed up in a bag,
And You wrap up my iniquity"

- Job 14:1-17

Liwanagan Mo, Hesus

(Hangad)

Masdan natin ang ating daigdig:
Ginawang tahanan ng D'yos nating mahal.
Ngunit sa pagdaan ng maraming panahon,
Nabalungan ng kadiliman at nauhaw sa pagmamahal.

Damhin natin ang kalooban:
Ginawang himlayan ng Diyos nating mahal.
Ngunit sa pagsapit ng sigwa at tag-init sa ating buhay,
Nawalan ng malay at nanlamig sa pag-ibig.

Liwanagan Mo, Hesus, ang aming buhay!
Yakapin Mo ang 'Yong bayan, sa 'Yo'y naghahanap.
Ang matalinhagang ilaw Mo't pagmamahal,
Pumapawi ng karimlan.

Liwanagan Mo, Hesus, ang aming buhay!
Ipakita Mo ang 'Yong mukha at kami'y maliligtas.
Kapayapaan at dangal isinag Mo,
At maninibago ang wangis ng Iyong mundo

Ang tawag ni Hesus, pakinggan.
Isabuhay natin mithi ng Kaharian.
Magpawi ng gutom, sa uhaw magpainom,
Sa nasugatan ay magpahilom, sa maysala, magpatawad.

Kaharian ng Maykapal sumasaatin na
Sa pamamagitan ni Hesus!