Give us this day our daily bread

This week has been amazing.

Amazingly busy

Phew... The exam went fine. I studied quite a lot for this particular one since I didn't do so hot on the first one.
What ticked me off was that I found out at 5 in the afternoon that I would have my HW for p-chem due the next day in the morning. I was planning to do my lab report that was due on Thursday! Argh! The change of plan made me not able to go to one of my friend's surprise birthday party. I was bummed. Not to mention that it was my first day trying to structure my life around prayer (particularly: LoTH), after reading a post from Et-tu blog.

Weird though. I found my self more able to study , to focus (instead of facebook-ing, chatting, etc), and to do well in whatever I was doing after setting aside my time for prayer. It reminds me of a quote from the sister, "praying an hour doesn't turn my day into 23 hour, it makes it 25."


The next day, I found out that my partner finished the lab report already. Yay! The best way to celebrate it is by taking a nap (I slept only for 4 hours the night before), scanning all the papers that I used for my written report on, "The Dispute over Pauline Authorship of 2 Thessalonians", and preparing for my next lab.


Today marks the third day of my experience with the LoTH. It has been a fruitful day. I did my laundry! (Finally after putting it off due to lack of order in my life) I cleaned up my apartment a little bit too. I had a great time in the lab, even though we had to stay 1.5 hours more than scheduled (it was a long... lab).

The next thing on the list is the ECI. I have been questioning myself ever since I registered and saying yes to volunteer in this event: Will I be able to squeeze in this event into my life? It seems that giving up a day and a half of my weekend will make my next week "interesting" (read: hectic!). Lab report. HW due on Monday. Dance exam on Monday (okay, this doesn't count really...). Our committee meeting for planning our last 4-5 weeks of activities. I guess that is why I still have one day before the institute to finish my tasks as much as possible.

Some rambling thoughts that happens to be in my mind as of now:

I have been reading this one small book called, "John Paul II, We Love You: Young People Encounter the Pope". It seems appropriate, especially last April 2nd commemorate his death three years ago. In it, Fr. Mitchell shares his diary on the vigil, the passing, the death, and the announcement of a new pope. Along with it, there are countless inspiring essays / stories of young Catholics encounter with the beloved Pope John Paul the Great. It was stellar. I had to admit that I shed many tears while I was reading it. The pope that we all love. I and many other young Catholic are honored to be called the JPII generation. Growing up, he was the only pope that we as Catholics know. I regret myself not knowing much about him before his death. His gift to the church, especially the Theology of the Body, had changed my perspective on how I should look into my very being, and how I should treat and respect others as well.

After reading this post and also our Pope Benedict XVI book, "Jesus of Nazareth" on the topic of "our daily bread", it struck me more and more on how deep the "Our Father" is.

Ok, I mean, it is a prayer to God, by God, for us.

On this specific part of the Our Father, our Papa explained how it is not only "my" daily bread, but "our" daily bread. It is our calling to provide the daily bread for others.

The idea of "daily". That "daily" is for today and also for the future as well. (I know I should quote it word per word, well... later, I'll do that).

That we invoke "give us", means that we are poor. That we do not have what we need, unless God the Father gave it to us. It is a constant reminder of our human weakness, and a constant reminder of God's faithfulness and grace poured into us in every single day.

My comment (which of course, come from others that I have read)
"our daily bread". For the Church Father, it is an allurement to the Eucharist. The bread of life that came down from heaven. It is Christ, who is totally present: body, soul, and divinity in the piece of bread that we eat.

Wrapping up this post:

No, indeed I could not finish my p-chem HW. I tried my best though. This is one of the thing that I need to work on. Be more organized.
Liturgy of the Hour has made my day more structured and more fruitful. Yes, this is only the third day. I know it will be hard to keep it up. But, I do want to take up my cross and follow Him.

And, preparing for next Sunday, is a nice podcast by lifeteen.com. Seriously, you guys should check it out, it is sweet!