The image of God and yours

Our boy AJ Banal got KO’d. For his victorious Panamanian opponent, it was a jab well done.

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They say AJ Banal was hit by a right hook to the face. I don’t know if it was really a right hook. But I know, as well as you do, that Banal failed to get off the hook.

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A stablemate of Banal, James Bacon, won over his Indonesian foe! So he brought home — you didn’t guess it — the crown!

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The Bible says that God created man after His own image. Look at your face in the mirror immediately upon waking up and chances are you’d be asking yourself: “Is this the image of God?”

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If you’re satisfied with how you look in the mirror right after rising in the morning, Loy Jurado says you must say “Thank you, Lord!” And you may probably add: “You did a good job, Lord.”

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If you’re not satisfied with how you look in the mirror, don’t complain. Don’t grumble. Just say: “Oh, no! You must be kidding, Lord!”

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These are the tips of Jesuit Fr. Joseph T. McGloin, author of my latest favorite book “Listen, Lord!” (Published by Franciscan Herald Press of Chicago). God is good, you know that. So he knows how to kid his creations. And he can take some kidding too, says Father Joseph.

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The good Jesuit father advises us to always pray to the Lord and in so doing he says: “Don’t stiffen up when you pray. Lighten up. Pray as yourself.” In other words, relax lang. “Prayer is you reaching for God,” he says, “and His grace is Himself responding to your reach. So prayer and grace combined are you and God encountering one another. The real you and the real God.”

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Which is not what many of us do when praying. We stiffen up. We’re serious. We look sad. We look worried. We look afraid. As if God is a grouchy Person like some parish priests and is difficult to please. Father Joseph says it’s okay if we add humor in our prayer.

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Email from a reader who requested anonymity; “I watched part of President Arroyo’s delivery of her SONA last Monday. One sight amused me. Senate President Villar’s seeming disinterest in Her Excellency’s delivery of her SONA. While the session hall reverberated with applause after applause, the Senate president was seen writing something on his desk. There were moments he would join the clapping with the audience but he seemed to be hiding his hands as if making sure his opposition mates would not see him applauding.”

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BOBIT SAYS: “Sweet words are easy to say, sweet things are easy to buy, but sweet people are difficult to find.”

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