May 10 – John of Ávila (not to be confused with John Avila or St John of the Cross) was a Spanish priest, preacher, scholastic author, and religious mystic, who has been declared a saint and Doctor of the Church by the Catholic Church. He is called the ‘Apostle of Andalusia’, for his extensive ministry in that region. From early 1551 Ávila was in constant ill-health. He spent the last years of his life in semi-retirement in the town of Montilla, in the Province of Córdoba. He died there on 10 May 1569, and in accordance with his wishes was buried in that city, in the Jesuit Church of the Incarnation, which now serves as the sanctuary to his memory.
- Wikipedia
Acts 9:31-42
Jn 6:60-69
“What if you should see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before?”
One of the common themes in the Bible is how God prepares His people for His plans. There was a long time between God making a promise to Abraham and David, and until the time when ‘the maiden is with child’ (Isaiah 7:14). As part of this preparation, God leaves signs, God leaves clues along the way. We live in a great time when we could look at this in hindsight. But it still doesn’t make believing in God easy.
Today’s Gospel continues with the disciples’ reactions to Jesus teaching about Him being the bread of life, the bread that came down from heaven. It’s something that was not easy for many of the disciples to accept — that’s why they left Jesus. Instead of explaining further, Jesus added that there will still be another miracle where the Son of Man would go up to heaven. Perhaps by that time, all the preparations that needed to be done were completed.
I think in our lives, God is preparing us for what we are supposed to face. I know in my life, everything happened just at the right time. And I’m confident that when any of us looks back on our lives, we will see that God allowed us to go through periods of preparation before something life-changing took place. God somehow prepares us for miracles that are about to happen in our lives.
So, what do we do while God is still preparing us? Firstly, we pray. We pray that we keep our faith, for anyone of us can fall into the devil’s temptation to stop trusting in God. Jesus himself taught us that we should pray that we are not put to the test, and for us to ask God to save us from the evil one when he taught us the Lord’s Prayer. This is the same prayer where Jesus taught us to ask for our daily bread. So, the temptation will always be there…and we need to pray that we remain in God.
Second, we should learn to put everything in God’s hands, especially when things get tough. He even takes care of the sparrows. So He definitely will take care of us each day.
I think the last is we should learn to live today. Because even today is a miracle. Every moment of our existence is a miracle. I tend to forget that. Perhaps, we can take a few pauses today to remind ourselves that we are living a miracle. And this moment is a preparation for another miracle. And I sincerely pray that this thought will make us smile.
(Today’s OXYGEN by Stephanie Villa)
Prayer: Lord, please keep me away from the evil on and help me love you more.
Thanksgiving: Thank you, Lord, for every miracle in my life.
OXYGEN 
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