It started with a headache. Fever followed.

We did everything we thought could help. My husband, Obet, gave me a massage and I took some medicine. No dice. Later I was vomiting, and Obet decided that we should go to the doctor.

You don’t need medicine for dengue. You just help your body heal through liquid intake. Just when we thought everything was going well, the doctor came in and bluntly told us that my platelet count plunged and we’d better prepare for blood transfusion. We cried.

What consoled us was the Kerygma Issue featuring Fr. Jerry Orbos’s article about miracles. Fr. Jerry wrote, “When there’s a presence of suffering in a person then he is an authentic servant of God.”

It was very difficult to accept. But after I swallowed the hard truth, and prayed much, I slept in peace. I woke up with renewed hope and called up people who could donate blood. A miracle happened. The following morning, my platelet was going up again and steadily.

When we were preparing to go home, I told Obet something he couldn’t believe.

I said, “Dengue has a blessing... because I cherished these days when we were together through it all.” Joie C.

REFLECTION:

Is life a struggle? Or struggle is life? Choose your perspective!

Rejoice! The testing of your faith produces perseverance. (James 1:2-3)

Isaiah 29:17-24

Isaiah prophecies a time when those who do not believe in God (the blind) will believe (come to sight). This will be a day of great rejoicing as the conflicts of religion will be gone and the reign of God will be established forever over the lives of us all! We continue to await the definitive fulfillment of this vision in the Second Coming of Christ. However, we await this day with hope and joy in our hearts in expectation of all it will bring.

17 But a very little while, and Lebanon shall be changed into an orchard, and the orchard be regarded as a forest! 18 On that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book; and out of gloom and darkness, the eyes of the blind shall see. 19 The lowly will ever find joy in the LORD, and the poor rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. 20 For the tyrant will be no more and the arrogant will have gone; all who are alert to do evil will be cut off, 21 those whose mere word condemns a man, who ensnare his defender at the gate, and leave the just man with an empty claim. 22 Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of the house of Jacob, who redeemed Abraham. Now Jacob shall have nothing to be ashamed of, nor shall his face grow pale. 23 When his children see the work of my hands in his midst, they shall keep my name holy; they shall reverence the Holy One of Jacob, and be in awe of the God of Israel. 24 Those who err in spirit shall acquire understanding, and those who find fault shall receive instruction.

P S A L M

Psalm 27:1, 4, 13-14

R: The Lord is my light and my salvation.

1 The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom should I fear? The LORD is my life’s refuge; of whom should I be afraid? 4 One thing I ask of the LORD; this I seek, to dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, that I may gaze on the loveliness of the LORD and contemplate his temple. 13 I believe that I shall see the bounty of the LORD in the land of the living. 14 Wait for the LORD with courage; be stouthearted, and wait for the LORD.

G O S P E L

Matthew 9:27-31

We often see faith being a necessary factor in the healing of the sick and disabled in the Gospels. Jesus often asks people if they truly believe that He can heal them before He does so. We have the easy side of the equation here! All we have to do is believe that Jesus can do it. He is the one who has to work the healing! Let us seek to grow in our faith each day by using it as often as we can. Like any muscle, and faith being a spiritual muscle, it needs to be exercised so that it will not weaken and atrophy.

27 As Jesus passed on from there, two blind men followed him, crying out, “Son of David, have pity on us!” 28 When he entered the house, the blind men approached him and Jesus said to them, “Do you believe that I can do this?” “Yes, Lord,” they said to him. 29 Then he touched their eyes and said, “Let it be done for you according to your faith.” 30 And their eyes were opened. Jesus warned them sternly, “See that no one knows about this.” 31 But they went out and spread word of him through all that land.

my reflections

think: Like any muscle, and faith being a spiritual muscle, it needs to be exercised so that it will not weaken and atrophy.

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God’s special verse/thought for me today________________

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T O D A Y ’ S BLESSING LIST

Thank You Lord for: ____________________________________

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READ THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR  2 Corinthians 6-9 

Today is the feast of one of the greatest missionaries of the Church, St. Francis Xavier. Born at Xavier (Navarre), Spain in 1506, Francis was one of the pioneering missionaries of the Society of Jesus. The founder of the Jesuits, Ignatius of Loyola, instilled in the mind of Francis the eternal values, constantly quoting Christ’s words: “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but suffers the loss of his soul.”

Although he was suffering from sciatica (severe pain of the nerve in the hip and thigh), Francis left home, people and  country and traveled to the Far East, particulary Goa, India, Ceylon and Japan to preach the Gospel.

His one

We are called

For the vast majority, what they can do is to be missionaries at home or missionaries in the state of life they are in. Fr. Bel San Luis, SVD.

REFLECTION QUESTION: Are you a missionary in your own way, in your own home, community or workplace? Are people who see your way of life attracted to Christ — or are they turned off?

Lord, grant me the missionary zeal and spirit of St. Francis Xavier. May his feast today remind me that I, too, am a missionary.

St. Servus, martyr, pray for us.