"If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it.” – John 14:14

“Brother,” this very kind man came up to my husband, “if you need anything in Makati, you know where to find me. Just mention my name to anybody in the bureau.”
      Boy I tell you, I wanted to blurt out, “Thank you so much, bro. Please don’t resign anytime soon.”
      The man said it with so much assurance; I felt my husband could “conquer” the city!
      Perhaps you have found yourself in situations like this.
      A friend at this institution offers help so you won’t need to queue. An acquaintance knows someone in the municipal hall who can expedite documents.
      It surely pays to have “connections.” Now, my Heavenly Connection should make me gazillions of times more confident about anything I ask for!
      I can feel the certainty with which Jesus speaks. I can almost see His eyes looking straight into mine—“You need anything? You want to ask my Dad? You’ve got me! Ask in My name, and it will be yours! I’m telling you – anything! ”
      And the even greater thing is, because the One we ask loves us like nobody else can, we can be prepared for the perfect answers to our prayers. Lallaine G.

REFLECTION:
My friend, how good are you at asking?

Thank You Lord that I can run to You and ask! You are the Perfect Answer to my every prayer.

P S A L M

Psalm 98:1, 2-3, 3-4

R: All the ends of the earth have seen the saving power of God.

1 Sing to the LORD a new song, for he has done wondrous deeds; his right hand has won victory for him, his holy arm. (R) 2 The LORD has made his salvation known in the sight of the nations he has revealed his justice. 3 He has remembered his kindness and his faithfulness toward the house of Israel. (R) All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation by our God. 4 Sing joyfully to the LORD, all you lands; break into song; sing praise. (R)

G O S P E L

John 14:7-14

I find it difficult to understand how we are going to perform works greater than those that Jesus did. It almost seems like a heresy to say such a thing! Yet, these are the words of Jesus. Perhaps Jesus is encouraging us with them or perhaps the sense behind them is that there will be evangelists who reach out to far greater numbers of people than Jesus ever did.
  
7 Jesus said to his disciples:“If you know me, then you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” 8 Philip said to him, “Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you for so long a time and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own. The Father who dwells in me is doing his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else, believe because of the works themselves. 12 Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And whatever you ask in my name, I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it.”
  
my reflections
think: Let us see that we ensure that we are a light to all those around us.

________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________

God’s special verse/thought for me today________________

_________________________________________________________

T O D A Y ’ S BLESSING LIST

Thank You Lord for: ____________________________________

_______________________________________________________

READ THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR Judith 7-10

How easy things would be if we could see God at least once face to face! But this will happen only when we close our eyes forever. Until then we have to approach God in faith. It must have come to the Jewish disciples as a shock when Jesus told them, “He who has seen me has seen the Father.” For the Jews, God was the great Invisible One. Only one in their history could claim to have seen God — Moses. And to him God had said, “You shall see my back; but my face shall not be seen.” In Jesus, God became visible. Why then was He not accepted by most people? Because the God they imagined was so different from the way Jesus showed God. It was and still is easy to imagine a god who condemns people for their sins and wipes them out, as some very early Old Testament writers did. It was and still is easy to imagine a god in majesty sitting on a golden throne. But in Jesus is revealed a God who humbles himself, who cares, who goes after the lost, who weeps and laughs, who suffers and even dies in agony. Jesus reveals a God who knows how difficult life is, who knows what it means to be ridiculed, misunderstood, rejected.
       You may say now, “Fine, the disciples saw Jesus face to face, they heard his voice, felt his touch; but we are like the Jews who cannot see the face of Jesus and so we cannot see God.” It is true, we approach Jesus in faith as we approach God in faith and, as we said at the beginning, we will see God face to face only after our death. But we have the vivid descriptions of Jesus by the evangelists that help us “see” Jesus. We should also not forget that Jesus told us that he is present in the poor, the hungry, the sick, the prisoners, the marginalized. The philosopher Levinas speaks eloquently about “the face” of the beggar, the face of the child in the street that wakes us up from our complacency. “The face of the Other calls to responsibility.” For us disciples of Jesus we understand even better the meaning of “the face.” It is the face of Jesus, the face of God who encounters us, not in splendor and majesty but in the poverty of our fellowmen. It is a call to respond and serve God – not only through prayers and solemn rituals but by sharing the little we may have with Him who has given us so much. Fr. Rudy H.

REFLECTION QUESTION: Am I able to see Jesus in the beggar on the street, in the
poor and marginalized? If I help them, am I aware that I am serving Christ?

Lord, I have missed You so often because I did not recognize Your face in the face of a beggar or hungry child. Make me more aware, Lord, of Your presence in daily life and begin to see God in my fellowmen, especially in the poor.

St. Aventinus, hermit, pray for us.