Thursday of Week 30 in Ordinary Time
Eph 6:10-20
Lk 13:31-35
Pray all the time, asking for what you need, praying in the Spirit on every possible occasion.
Time flies. Here I am reflecting on another year gone by. Another year getting wiser (hopefully), another year of journeying with Jesus and our Blessed Mother at my side. Another year of growing in the Lord.
So, what happened in the last 365 days?
Well, I reached the age where one could take out a portion of the CPF monies that have been set aside from our salaries for our retirement. It was a day that I was looking forward to for many, many years. I was thinking about what I would do with some of the money that has been locked away and right now, I am still thinking about what to do with the money that has been locked away.
Last November, my wife and I were blessed to have been able to make a pilgrimage to the 4 Holy Doors in Rome for the 2025 Jubilee Year. I also managed to visit Assisi in April 2026, on the Jubilee Year of celebrating 800 years of St Francis of Assisi’s Transitus (passing on). It was indeed surreal to have been blessed to make both trips, and each trip revealed what God has blessed me with. New and old friends journeying together and also, a loving wife who puts up with my nonsense.
This loving wife of mine and I also celebrated 25 years of marriage and walked 250 (ish) kilometres of the Camino de Santiago from Astorga to Santiago. 25 years of marriage can be likened to the Camino — many ups and many downs. There were expectations that certain sections were going to be hard but with Jesus, Mary and our guardian angels at our sides, it was not as difficult as we originally imagined it to be. And eventually, when we reached Santiago, the sun was shining, the bagpiper was playing as we walked in together to the Cathedral Square, and we knew in our hearts that God is always with us, in good times and in bad.
However, on the health front, it was a year of frustrations, pain and reset as I suffered knee and sciatica issues. Both issues plagued me for several months and led me to experience new things. It was the first time in the last 20-plus years of running races that I couldn’t start a race, and I had to DNF (Did Not Finish) in another. It was extremely frustrating to not be able to do something that I knew I could and I kept asking the Lord. “Why did this happen to me? Lord, what is the lesson that you want me to learn?”
I guess the one common theme throughout these last 365 days was that, there never was a day where I didn’t try pray to the Lord, thanking Him for His blessings and praying for His presence in whatever I was doing that day. There are also times when I try to reach out to the Lord for answers and directions to some difficulty that I was encountering. Most importantly, I strive to pray this at the start of each day:
“Lord, I ask for your presence today. I offer this day to You and I ask for the grace to accept whatever may happen today.”
So, I try to ground myself in the Lord. I admit I am not the most prayerful person in the world, and I don’t spend large amounts of time in prayer and contemplation; but, I realize that if I don’t spend some time in the morning in prayer, the day seems to be missing something. I have also started praying the Lauds in the morning during the weekdays and I must say, it is so refreshing to praise the Lord in the morning, giving thanks for the air in our lungs and the strength in our bodies.
I know that I will not get all the things that I pray for, but I know that for the prayers that don’t get answered, the Lord has other plans for me and He will provide me with what I need and not what I desire. Of course, I will need to spend time in His presence to discern what the Lord wants me to do, and this can only be through my own personal prayer time.
So, brothers and sisters, let us never forget to pray to the Lord, and in those times where we don’t really know what to say, let us ask the Holy Spirit to guide us and provide the necessary words to speak to the Lord, to bless His holy name and to ask the Lord for his forgiveness.
(Today’s OXYGEN by Calvin Wee)
Prayer: Heavenly Father, we bless and praise your Holy Name and it is through the Holy Spirit that we will be brought closer to you and that is what our hearts yearn for. We love you Lord, and ask that you continue to bless us in whatever we do. Amen.
Thanksgiving: Heavenly Father, we thank you for all your blessings and gifts. Thank you, Lord, for another year of journeying with you and if it is your holy will, may I continue to walk with you side by side. Amen.
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