It Is The Lord!

By Leandro M Tapay

"It Is The Lord!" It is a compilation of reflections on "God moments" in the hustle and bustle of daily living.

A "God moment" is a personal encounter with God; it a moment when one may experience God's presence, purpose and love.

A "God moment" may present itself through a message from Scriptures, or from ord

• Language: English
• Publisher: Noble Works Media
• Release date: May 1, 2024
• ISBN: 9798869356529

Book preview

Ebook_cvr.jpg

Copyright 2024 by Leandro (Lany) Maniwang Tapay

ISBN: 979-8-8692-6500-5 (Paperback)

ISBN: 979-8-8693-5652-9 (Ebook)

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotation in a book review.

Noble Works Media

Contents

Acknowledgments

Foreword

Prologue

Preface

Author’s Biography

Introduction: By Bridget Grim

Introduction: By Terry Nance

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

It Is The Lord! It is a compilation of reflections on

God moments in the hustle and bustle of daily living.

A God moment is a personal encounter with God; it

is a moment when one may experience God’s presence,

purpose and love.

A God moment may present itself through a message

from the Scriptures, or ordinary situations and

events in our daily lives.

Another way of being with God is when we pray -

when we pray not only before eating or before going to

sleep, but when we pray every moment.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank….

Patrick Andrew Crawford, my grandson, for the cover design.

His Excellency, Patricio Buzon, SDB, DD, (my former student at Cebu Boys’ Town, Cebu City, Philippines), Bishop of the Dioceses of Bacolod, Negros Occidental, Philippines for his foreword.

Bridget Gabrielle Grim, my granddaughter and Terry Nance, a former teacher, coach and Athletic Director of the London (Ohio) City Schools for their introduction.

Tim Puet of the Catholic Times, the Columbus diocesan newspaper – for his guidance and initial editing of the manuscript.

Foreword

Pope Benedict XVI believed that the greatest crisis facing the Church and the world today is the absence of God. Man has created a culture and a way of life devoid of any transcendent dimension or any orientation toward the sacred, thereby stripping himself of any sure protection against the depredations of power or, more importantly, any clear understanding of the meaning and ultimate destination of his life.(Moynihan, The Spiritual Vision of Pope Benedict XVI)

God is present, of course, everywhere. He is the omnipresent power that holds everything in existence. The absence of God referred to by Pope Benedict lies in the mind and heart of man, in his lack of awareness and his indifference to God’s action. We live in a world so secularized that we often experience the absence of God more than his presence. Somehow we live no differently from atheists, not because we deny God’s existence, but simply because God is absent from [our] ordinary consciousness and lives... God is not enough alive or important in [our] ordinary consciousness. (Rolheiser, The Shattered Lantern) As the English poet,Elizabeth Barrett Browning, keenly observed:

Earth’s crammed with heaven,

And every common bush afire with God,

But only he who sees takes off his shoes;

The rest sit round and pluck blackberries.

It is for this reason that I commend and congratulate Lany for writing his book, It Is The Lord. The book does not only remind us of God’s presence but, more importantly, it helps us to recognize him in the ordinary happenings of our everyday life. In the book, Lany recounts the many little theophanies or manifestations of God in his own life which he calls God moments.

He sees God in his moments of joy as well as in his moments of frustration. He felt God’s compassion in Miss Racho’s forgiving silence, and he heard the call to surrender himself to God when he fell victim to the malicious machinations of a new co-worker in the school.

It is the Lord. These were the words uttered by the apostle John when he saw the resurrected Christ on the shore of Lake Tiberias after spending a long and unproductive night in the sea. Why was it that only John recognized the Lord and the other six disciples did not? I can only think of two possible reasons: John’s simplicity of heart and his love for Jesus.

Jesus proclaims the pure of heart blessed because they shall see God. John was the youngest of the apostles, and hence the more innocent and perhaps the least corrupted? He is often referred to as the virgin apostle. But more than bodily continence, purity of heart here refers to the honesty of a person, his single-mindedness and lack of guile or duplicity. True, John had a hot temper and was ambitious, but he presented himself to the Lord as he was. He was flawed but simple and sincere.

The second reason why John was able to recognize the Lord was his great love for him. I believe that among the apostles John proved to be the one who loved Jesus most. When everyone abandoned Jesus during his passion, only John followed him up to the foot of the cross on Calvary.

And why such an unparalleled love? I think it is because John too felt that he was the apostle most loved by the Lord. In his gospel, he refers to himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved and who leaned back close to Jesus’ chest at the Last Supper. (Jn 13: 23,25)

The great secret of the Little Prince, taught him by the fox, is that it is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.

Pope Benedict XVI puts it more directly: Only with the heart can we see Jesus. Only love purifies us and gives us the ability to see. Only love makes us recognize the God who is love itself.

It is no wonder then that Lany could easily recognize the Lord in the happenings of his life. Those who are close to Lany know him as a man of simplicity, a humble person who is not ashamed of his humble beginnings. At the same time, they also know him as a man endowed with an extraordinarily big heart for God and for everyone who crosses his path.

On a personal note, I wish to thank Lany for writing his book. It has helped me become more focused on my mission and better prepared for my final homecoming.

As a priest, I am aware that my primary call is to proclaim the gospel, the good news of salvation. I am also aware that what I am sent to proclaim is not so much a doctrine or a way of life, but what [I] heard, what [I] have seen with [my] eyes, what [I] looked upon and touched with [my] hands. (1Jn 1:1) As Pope Benedict often reminded, evangelization is the proclamation of an event and an encounter with a person, Jesus Christ. My mission of proclaiming the gospel will therefore be more credible and effective when it becomes a testimony of my own experience with the risen Lord.

I am now more than seventy years old, thus living on a bonus. Doesn’t scripture say that 70 years is the span of a man’s life, and 80 for those who are strong? I am aware that at any time I will have to leave. I hope that when that day comes, it will not be one of fear and trepidation, but one of joy and expectation.

That is why while still on earth, I must learn to be familiar with the Lord and recognize his face, so that when he finally comes to take me to the Father’s house, I shall not be afraid but excited to see him and say, It is the Lord!

+ Patricio A. Buzon, SDB, DD

Bishop of Bacolod

17 March 2024

Dear Reader,

Withdrawn from my previous