The Grace Before Meals Family – Updates and News!

Christmas is only a few days away!  I would like to think Christmas is the first official “Grace Before Meals Feast Day!”  Why?  Because Christmas is the day when our Lord – The Lamb of God and the Bread of Life – came into our world.  He was placed in a manger, and the word “manger” has the same root as the Italian verb, “mangiare” – to eat!  Jesus is not only the first “Foodie”—because He really cares about what we are eating—He, in the Eucharist, is our ultimate Food!  Christmas is all about Feasting!

Providentially, Christmas Eve will also be the Grace Before Meals 10 month “birthday!”   Our first Blast was sent on February 24, 2007.  If I were to stop and think about it, I’d say there has been remarkable progress in this highly effective movement for family life!  Our website continues to experience consistent and growing traffic, the book has been highly effective in helping families, the number of TV and radio shows have definitely picked up, and we continue to grow closer and closer to our goal of producing and airing the TV show.

I can also give you more exciting news.  Grace Before Meals will team up with SQPN and Rosary Army to provide some podcasts to download for your listening (and hopefully viewing) pleasure!  Fr. Roderick, the ever popular SQPN host and creator, has graciously invited me to be part of his show!  We’ve spoken a few times on the phone and found an immediate kinship and spiritual mission.  If Fr. Roderick were Filipino, or if I were from the Netherlands, I think we would be brothers.  Our first show together will be in the early days of January, so stay posted and please spread the word.  Spreading the word is one way of strengthening our Grace Before Meals movement and promoting the mission.  We are one big Internet-cyberspace-satellite-radio-and-TV-wave family! 

Here’s an idea on how to help us: tell your pastors about our Grace Before Meals mission, and perhaps each can put a plug for our website in your weekly bulletin. 

As we plan and prepare for the coming holidays, I want to take a heartfelt moment to say a special and prayerful thank you to our dedicated Grace Before Meals staff and our growing family.  Even as I type I am getting a little emotional reflecting on how God has done great things for us!  Holy is His Name!  The only reason why I can’t get too emotional and drop to my knees in prayer is because I’m typing this week’s Blast while on a plane from Baltimore to Little Rock, Arkansas, where I will be giving a parish mission.  Then I’m off to San Diego to do another one!  Trust me, I’m not trying to compete with St. Nicholas’s travels!

One seminarian asked if I enjoyed the travel.  My response was, “My life as a priest is not my own.”  Although I enjoy the work of Evangelization, I don’t necessarily like the bustle of travel.  Airports and airplanes are all starting to look the same.  But if God is calling me to do this type of work – wherever and everywhere – who am I to question His Call?  After all, He did send out His Apostles (the word Apostle means “to be sent”) in the expectation that His Good News would reach the ends of the earth!  One consolation in the midst of these travels is that I am growing stronger in my belief that God truly is calling me to help strengthen the communion between God’s family – which is your family! 

The consolation comes when I hear from people across the country (and in other countries), and they tell me how much this ministry has impacted their lives.  The book, Recipes for Family Life, has inspired families not just to eat together, but to celebrate each other’s lives.  One mother told me she learned so much from her child in one “Grace Before Meals” dinner, just by asking the suggested dinner question topics in the book.  There is no doubt in my mind that God will use this ministry and our witness if we let Him. 

As we celebrate Christmas – a true Grace Before Meals Feast Day – I want to thank all of you for your dedication to this cause.  There are too many people to thank individually, but those who are part of this mission – and you know who you are – I want to offer you my most sincere and prayerful thanks and pray for God’s blessings!

During these remaining days before Christmas, I pray that each of you receive the Lord – first in your heart, then through His Eucharist, and then through the blessings that wait around your table! 

Have a Mary’s Christmas!

My Mother’s Pancit – Filipino-Styled Noodle Dish

In my Filipino Culture we have a typical celebration-styled noodle dish called pancit.  The length of the noodle represents the longevity of blessings.  The dish is a combination of rice noodles; vegetables; and a choice (or combination) of shrimp, pork, or chicken.  The pancit noodles are so delicate that, when rehydrated, they take almost no time to cook. Then they are added to the other ingredients, which have already been sautéed in a hot wok or deep dish.  So for the many people who have requested some of my mom’s recipes, here you go – well at least my version of her recipe.  I can’t give away all of my mother’s cooking secrets.  After all, my family’s special cuisine is one of the ways I can be assured my friends will still come over for dinner, and thus grace my family’s table with their presence!  For the recipe, [click here].

Still Waiting in Prayer

We’re still in Advent, and our Scriptural Readings continue to remind us to keep watch in prayer – to wait for the Lord.  Especially now, when things can become even more tense, because we think there is no time to pause in prayer – that’s exactly when we need to take time to pray!  It takes great faith to be patient, as we wait for the Lord.  But, in this type of waiting for God, there is no need to be anxious.  In fact, at every Mass there is a prayer that is said after the Lord’s Prayer.  In this prayer we’re reminded to keep joyful waiting – not just for Christmas – but especially for the Final Coming of Christ.

“Deliver us Lord from all evil, and grant us peace in our day.  In your mercy keep us free from sin and protect us from all anxiety, as we WAIT in JOYFUL HOPE for the coming of our savior Jesus Christ!  For the Kingdom, the Power and the Glory are Yours, now and forever.  Amen.”

Ask Fr. Leo for fatherly advice.
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