Prayer Before a Christmas Meal

(An innovative rendition of a prayer before meal took the place of a traditional quip of a prayer at the Christmas Party of the LIVING THE GOSPEL COMMUNITY associates and aspirants last December 19 at its Mission House in Talomo, Davao City. The LGC run by the sisters in green habit is founded by the Cebu-born Msgr. FRED FRIEKENBEEK, H.P. since 1974)

Our most benevolent FATHER, you rained manna from heaven as food for your children of Israel whom you delivered from their suffering in EGYPT.

Like the ISRAELITES, as many times we neither ask nor request food from you much more express our huge gratitude for our daily sustenance. Please accept our prayer that we should deserve this sumptuous supper laid on the table before us over and above the daily bread that you provide for us yesterday, today and tomorrow. Lest we forget, there are myriads of mouth unfed and deprived of their basic meals.

Before we partake this bonus meal, part of our thanksgiving is the reflection whether we have been faithful and obedient to your will.

We remember the exuberance of a father when his prodigal son found his way home to him. His joy is so exhilarating and the need to celebrate is most befitting. Such is the atmosphere today as we bind ourselves in the joyful anticipation for the NATIVITY of our LORD. This kind of celebration is grander and more exulting than the passing of a board exam, the visa approval, a wedding feast, a verdict acquitting for an accused crime, a brush with a disaster, a horrendous hostage-taking and kidnap release, a fatal accident survival, an honest vindication, a triumph from cancer and the like, a best actress award, a grand lottery winning and many more bestowed by the secular world. Yours is not a temporary holiday sojourn. Intensify us more with your effervescent grace to captivate the trophy for all season: your Son and the real significance of his birth.

Please LORD, gift us with the emotional state of ZECHARIAH (father of JOHN THE BAPTIST), who after he regained his tongue praised and thank God on top of his voice. As the precursor of CHRIST, John has long ushered the Messiah when they were still yet both fetus; such a divine leap in the womb is a joy akin to Christmas which we want to experience. The kind of sudden rush that excited ANDREW to run towards the direction of the Messiah after John pointed to him as the Savior. There is a big difference between running and walking. Dashing towards the manger is one thing that should matter since without it, there is no Christmas.

LORD transform us to be like the lowly humble and child-like shepherds whom you choose to flock around the INFANT JESUS unmindful of the glittering gift wrap, the ostentatious array of food or the bacchanalian merry-makings of today. The frenzy of this affair with Christmas must be coupled with joy not just plain joy, not a put-on joy but extreme genuine JOY. It is a joy amidst poverty, amidst pain and suffering, amidst loneliness and solitude, amidst loss of loved ones, amidst sorrow and tragedy, amidst heartbreaking goodbyes, amidst havoc and destruction, amidst persecution, amidst rejection, amidst injustice, amidst discrimination, favoritism, partiality and inequality, amidst bullying, amidst apathy and antipathy, amidst abandonment, amidst treachery and betrayal, amidst opposition and divisiveness, amidst war, amidst imprisonment and the list goes on and on. There could be no other joy. This is the impossible JOY only the true faithful children of yours can understand and maintain in their hearts. Dear GOD, teach us this joy for us to find heaven on earth and to sing JOY TO THE WORLD this natal day with all our hearts and might like no other.

This material food we can enjoy, however we prioritize you, O LORD, you the giver and owner of everything. We cannot thank and glorify you enough, not even a trillion times more. Let us not forget MAMA MARY, may she intercede for us like what she did in the first banquet ever in CANA.

We ask you LORD to bless this food to propel as more in our discipleship with the LIVING THE GOSPEL COMMUNITY household as we live forward for the divine food, not the temporal nourishment of the mortal palate for such we will no longer hunger, but the kind of satiety you alone can provide for us forever in your Kingdom.

We wish to be like ZACCHAEUS who climb the olive tree if only to have a glimpse of you and with whom you dined and stayed in his living room for a while and allowed yourself to be his guest. Like Zacchaeus, mindful of our sins, please stay with us till the end of our earthly times.

HOLY SON OF GOD, we will breathe you throughout the mystery of Salvation between your birth and death, from your Incarnation and Resurrection, during Christmas and Easter. This is our one true life.

At the end of the day let the truth be acknowledged by all of us present here that there is by far one greatest nutrient of all that we have to take daily: the food for the soul which only Faith, not the nutritious balance diet, can provide for us which we humbly ask you, our FATHER to reward us with the aid of the HOLY SPIRIT.

(Althogether)… GIVE US TODAY OUR DAILY BREAD AND FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES AS WE FORGIVE THOSE WHO TRESPASS AGAINST US AND LET US NOT INTO TEMPTATION BUT DELIVER US FROM EVIL, AMEN.