Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Saturday, Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time Memorial of Queenship of Mary, 22 August 2026 Isaia 9:1-6 ><}}}}*> + ><}}}}*> + ><}}}}*> Luke 1:26-30
Photo by author, St. Paul Spiritual & Renewal Center, Bgy. Tanyawak, Alfonso, Cavite, 18 August 2026.
YES.
Perhaps the most sweetest word we all wish to hear but also the most difficult word for us to say. We want others saying “yes” to our requests and questions but we are so afraid, so hesitant telling it to others. Very often, we hide our “yes” in cloudy expressions like maybe, will try, or simply not say it all.
Especially with God.
Every love story of husband and wife, lovers as well as vocation story of any priest and religious all started with that simple word and answer “yes”.
Ang matamis na “oo” na inaasam ng binata sa kanyang dilag.
And of course, our “yes, Lord”….. “opo, Panginoon, susunod ako”!
“Coronation of the Virgin” by Spanish artist Diego Velasquez (1635-1636); from en.eikipedia.org.
We celebrate today the Memorial of Queenship of Mary, a week after the Solemnity of her Assumption into heaven. She too said that most precious sweet word of “yes” to God when she was asked by the angel to become the Mother of the Savior, Jesus Christ.
Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her (Luke 1:38).
How amazing that such a very simple word of three letters – YES – could be so powerful enough to change one’s life. Even the world and its history.
And how could such a very short word be so difficult to say, too?!
With every yes in life we hear, it becomes so sweet because we are affirmed. We feel valuable and precious when people say “yes” to us.
However, we are very cautious in saying “yes” to others, especially to God and in the name or presence of God because when we say that “yes”, it becomes our very life.
Every “yes” becomes a commitment, a vow, a promise to keep.
Photo by author, St. Paul Spiritual & Renewal Center, Bgy. Tanyawak, Alfonso, Cavite, 18 August 2026.
Not only for us priests and religious but everybody, especially husband and wife saying yes on their wedding day; doctors, lawyers and other professionals saying yes to uphold life, justice and freedom; and, children saying yes to obey their parents and teachers.
Everyone has to say a yes in different ways every day everywhere in many occasions and situations. Many times it looks so simple, sometimes it could mean life and death.
Every yes is precious and sweet because it is the beginning of love. And more love, no matter what.
That is why we need to affirm and stand with that yes day in, day out in our lives.
Like Mary, her “yes” to God did not happen just once but everyday in her life, reaching its highest point at the Cross when her Son Jesus Christ died. She must have had the most painful yet bittersweet yes too when she held Christ’s lifeless Body immortalized in Michaelangelo’s La Pieta.
But it was Mary’s yes that brought us Christmas and Easter, leading to Pentecost in the birth of our Church, and led her to heaven. That is why, we celebrate her Queenship today, a week after her Assumption. Let us pray to keep our “yes” to God true and faithful always.
O most Blessed Virgin Mary, our Mother and Queen, help us say "yes" like you to God every day in our lives; pray for us to remain faithful and true to our "yes" to him through our loved ones, through his flock, his people entrusted to us; pray for us, Mary our Queen to keep our "yes" to God simple like yours, trusting him always when our "yes" leads us to Jesus on the Cross and eventually into his very presence in heaven with you. Amen.
Mary sits enthroned in heaven on the right hand of Jesus Christ, who crowns her as “Queen of Heaven” in this 13th century apse mosaic in the Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome; photo from littleflowermemphis.org
Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 20 August 2026
How amazing, O Lord Jesus that when it is already evening, when darkness is all around us, that is when you are actually inside us, if we could just open our hearts and eyes of faith then we shall see you truly our Light glowing within, bringing warmth and joy.
Many times in our darkness we lose sight not only of you, Lord Jesus but also of our self that away from you we lose our identity and let our job and tasks define us or worst, our possessions and achievements as well as pains and hurts; we cave into our darkness within not seeing your wounded handed touching me holding me unmindful of your holding me, loving me.
When things get dark and we can’t see anything teach me Jesus to listen to your silence to feel your presence sense your movements follow your steps waiting trusting self-emptying.
Most of all, Jesus, help me emulate your Mother our Mother too, Mary most holy, to remain focused on you cusping you in my palms when all is dark holding on to your words believing they shall be fulfilled when I remain and stay with you there on the Cross. Amen.
Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 20 August 2026
Photo by author, Anvaya Resort, Bataan, 21 July 2026.
Let me come home to you, Lord God: to gaze in your loving eyes anew, be wrapped around with your tight embrace without being judged nor blamed.
Let me come home to you, Lord God: with nothing at all, to be poor of material wealth and rich in Spirit and virtues, empty of pride, filled with your humility and simplicity so scarce of everything abundant in you and your love.
Let me come home to you, Lord God: no longer afraid of the dark and everything not yet known and seen, nor terrified of great waves of tasks and duties, of strong winds like what people think and say about me because in you alone is my certainty as well as safety and security.
Photo by author, Pundaquit, San Antonio, Zambales, 15 May 2025.
Let me come home to you, Lord God: to be nourished by your words that give life and meaning, to be quenched of my thirst with your living water that restores my being, cleanses me of my sins and shame.
Let me come home to you, Lord God: to rest in you, be at home in you because you are my origin, my root my home my peace my destination in this long journey in life for you are my Lord and my God. Amen.
Photo by author, San Juan, La Union, 09 January 2026.
Of all the months in the year, August has the most beautiful name of all but sadly most maligned as a “ghost month”: from the Latin augustus that signifies reverence or to hold someone in high regard, august as an adjective means “respected and impressive” like when we say “in this august hall of men and women” of science or faith.
Yes, it was also taken from the name of the Roman emperor Augustus Caesar but like the rest of the months and days of each year, it is always a blessed one.
No day nor date nor time is malas because these each day is a gift from God who is all good. Nothing bad can come from God.
Moreover, when God became human like us in the coming of Jesus Christ, life has become holy, filled with God, debunking those ancient beliefs of the Divine being seen in various cosmic forces. Pope Benedict explained this so well in his second encyclical:
Photo by a friend in Washington, 28 July 2026.
In this regard a text by Saint Gregory Nazianzen is enlightening. He says that at the very moment when the Magi, guided by the star, adored Christ the new king, astrology came to an end, because the stars were now moving in the orbit determined by Christ[2]. This scene, in fact, overturns the world-view of that time, which in a different way has become fashionable once again today. It is not the elemental spirits of the universe, the laws of matter, which ultimately govern the world and mankind, but a personal God governs the stars, that is, the universe; it is not the laws of matter and of evolution that have the final say, but reason, will, love—a Person. And if we know this Person and he knows us, then truly the inexorable power of material elements no longer has the last word; we are not slaves of the universe and of its laws, we are free. In ancient times, honest enquiring minds were aware of this. Heaven is not empty. Life is not a simple product of laws and the randomness of matter, but within everything and at the same time above everything, there is a personal will, there is a Spirit who in Jesus has revealed himself as Love[3]. (#5, Spe Salvi by Pope Benedict XVI, 30 November 2007)
That’s quite a volume but so lucid, so true, so beautiful. Especially this part: “It is not the elemental spirits of the universe, the laws of matter, which ultimately govern the world and mankind, but a personal God governs the stars, that is, the universe; it is not the laws of matter and of evolution that have the final say, but reason, will, love—a Person.”
This is the whole meaning of the recent Sunday gospel of Jesus walking on water: God in total control of this world.
“Christ Walking On Water” painting by Julius Servus von Klever (1880) from commons.wikipedia.org.
It is this Person of Jesus Christ why so many great men and women then and now have abandoned their previous ways of life to lead holy lives even in the face of death.
Very interesting in this modern time are two great saints we celebrate on this month of August, St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (August 09) and St. Maximilian Kolbe (August 14) who died at the gas chambers of Auschwitz during the Second World War.
St. Teresa Benedicta is the German philosopher Edith Stein. She came from a prosperous Jewish family gifted with a great mind becoming one of the first female university student and later professor in Germany.
An associate of the famed Edmund Husserl of the philosophical method of phenomenology, St. Teresa Benedicta became an atheist during her teenage years; but, upon further studies and prayer, converted into Catholicism, becoming a Carmelite nun where she adopted her new name. She wrote that “Those who seek truth seek God, whether they realize it or not“.
She actually had all the chances to leave for South America and then to Switzerland to escape the Nazis but opted to stay in their monastery in the Netherlands with her younger sister Rosa who had also converted as Catholic and joined the Third Order Carmelite. When they were arrested on August 2, 1942, she told her, “Come, Rosa… we go for our people.”
Photo from FB page of Scott Hahn, 09 August 2024.
St. Teresa Benedicta honored her Jewish roots by dying among them as a martyr of Christ, one who had “learned to live in God’s hands” according to Sr. Josephine Koeppel, OCD, a translator of much of her works.
According to various accounts, St. Teresa Benedicta showed great inner strength by encouraging her fellow prisoners to have faith in God while helping in looking after the small children when their mothers were so distressed to do so. One woman who survived the war wrote: “Every time I think of her sitting in the barracks, the same picture comes to mind: a Pieta without the Christ.”
Dying ahead of her in Auschwitz on August 14, 1941 was St. Maximilian Kolbe, a Franciscan priest who was arrested for his writings against the evil Nazis. It was actually his second time to be arrested.
When a prisoner had escaped from the camp, authorities rounded up ten men to die in exchange of the lone escapee. Fr. Kolbe volunteered to take the place of a married man with children. They were all tortured and starved in order to die slowly in pain.
A devotee of the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Maximilian was injected with carbolic acid on the eve of the Assumption after guards found him along with three other prisoners still alive, without any signs of fear like screaming but silently praying.
Photo of Auschwitz from Google.
We no longer have gas chambers but atrocities against human life continue in our time, hiding in the pretext of science and laws with some like the wokes exaggerating the truth they believe or follow in the name of inclusivity and various rights.
And yet, there are men and women, young and old alike including those not yet born in their mother’s womb are hunted and killed both for profits and for convenience to correct what many perceived as excesses and wrongs in the society like the grim drug war of the past administration.
Or those corrupt government officials and despicable politicians, from the highest offices down to the barangay behind the flood control scam that are all ghost projects that have submerged vast areas and communities into floods.
The Nazi officers and soldiers of Auschwitz of the past and those involved in the flood control scam as well as the tokhang drug war remind us the true “ghosts” and evil spirits of our time sowing hatred and deaths are people who may be well-dressed, even educated in the best schools, and come from devout or “normal” families. They sow evil every day without choosing any particular month, blindly following orders without much thinking and reflections or introspection. These people entrusted with positions and power are mostly the ones who bring ghosts into our lives causing so much miseries among our people especially the poor ones. Many times, they insist on following or speaking the truth – a truth so empty of the person of Jesus Christ who is “the way and the truth and the life” (Jn.14:6).
Photo by author, 21 July 2026.
I have always believed that the opposite of love is not hatred but hopelessness – without hope, people will just destroy everything for the sake of wealth and power.
Saints have shown us that with much love in our hearts in Jesus Christ, we are also filled with his hopes for better, holier days and months.
By the lives of the many great saints of August, or of any other month for that matter, we are reminded that holiness is not being sinless but being filled with God, being converted daily to the truth of Jesus Christ by allowing that holiness to spill over and flow onto others with our lives of authenticity expressed in charity and mercy, kindness and justice, humility and openness with one another. As St. Paul had written, “Do not conform yourself to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect” (Rom.12:2).
And so, discard those thoughts of a ghost month and let us keep every month an august time and space for our good deeds to make Christ’s loving presence felt among us. A blessed week to everyone!
Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Tuesday, Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time, Year II Ezekiel 28:1-10 ><))))*> + ><))))*> + ><))))*> Matthew 19:23-30
Photo from tidycasa.com, KonMari Method of Decluttering.
How wonderful for the second straight day your words, O Lord, are still about "losing", about the radical question of what I still lack in this life to have fulfillment!
We still have a long way to go to really learn how to lose, how to let go of so many things even persons so we may finally realize what we still lack.
Foremost of this is losing, letting go of our pride.
The word of the Lord came to me: Son of man, say to the prince of Tyre: therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you have thought yourself to have the mind of a god, therefore I will bring against you foreigners, the most barbarous nations. They shall draw their swords against your beauteous wisdom, they shall run them through your splendid apparel. They shall thrust you down to the pit, there to die a bloodied corpse, in the heart of the sea. Will you then say, “I am a god!” when you face your murderers? No, you are a man, not a god, handed over to those who will slay you (Ezekiel 28:1-2, 7-9).
Like the king of Tyre, many times our ego gets bloated by our success and achievements that we believe so much in ourselves as if we are gods; many times when we are on top of everything because of our talents and abilities, even of our goodness, we forget you, God and think we are the Lord.
Such was the sinister pride in Peter when he dared to tell you Jesus, "We have given up everything and followed you. What will there be for us?" (Matthew 19:27); remind us always, Jesus, that no matter goodness we have done, it was still purely from your grace, and not really ours alone.
Truly, Lord Jesus Christ, "it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle that for one who is rich to enter the Kingdom of God" (Matthew 19:24); help us, therefore, to be poo in you, Lord Jesus; help us to give up whatever we still keep in us that we believe we have given up like any iota of pride. Amen.
Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Monday, Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time, Year II, 17 August 2026 Ezekiel 24:15-23 ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> Matthew 19:16-22
Photo by author, Malagos Garden Resort, Davao City, August 2018.
Your words today, O Lord are so touching that reaches deep down my inmost being; both readings speak about losing: Ezekiel's wife died while the young man in the gospel asked "what do I still lack?"
Both readings are so timely for us these days when we have so much of every thing except of you, O Lord; we rarely ask "what do I still lack" in its truest sense - of learning to let go of what we have in order to have the most essential.
Often, we think of having what we still lack in order to have more of every thing; but you teach us today, Jesus, what we really lack is you through others; what we really lack are the poor and the sick, those who have less in life; what we really lack still is life eternal, of having you O Lord as basis and foundation of our relationships.
In this time when rains continue to pour for the third straight week, the more we are concerned of what material things we still lack and forget about the warmth and smiles of others so disadvantaged due to floods and lack of work; teach us, Jesus, to be like Ezekiel in the first reading to see and realize that the most painful loss in this life is not losing a loved one nor wealth and things but in losing our souls to sin and evil. Amen.
Lord My Chef Sunday Recipe for Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A, 16 August 2026 Isaiah 56:1, 6-7 ><}}}}*> Romans 11:13-15, 29-32 ><}}}}*> Matthew 15:21-28
Photo by author, Dead Sea region, the Holy Land, May 2017.
The past two Sundays must have been physically tiring for Jesus and his disciples, not to mention emotionally draining as well. After walking on water to join his disciples in the boat tossed by giant waves last week, they finally landed at Gennesaret.
But, things got worse there when some Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem raised issues against Jesus why his disciples disregarded their ritual traditions of purification like washing of hands before eating; Jesus defended them, declaring that “it is not what enters one’s mouth that defiles a person; but what comes out of the mouth” (Mt.15:11).
Sensing troubles, Jesus again withdrew but this time to the gentile region of Tyre and Sidon to defuse tensions with his detractors and especially for much needed rest.
At that time, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a Canaanite woman of that district came and called out, “Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is tormented by a demon” (Matthew 15:21-22).
An ink-drawing by a student of Rembrandt of Jesus with the Canaanite woman at the far left from the Getty Museum Collection.
The scene is lovely with a dash of humor – just as when Jesus thought there would be no fellow Jew to disturb them in Tyre and Sidon being a gentile region, a pagan woman recognized him!
See and feel the drama when Matthew wrote, And behold, a Canaanite woman of that district came and called out, “Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is tormented by a demon.”
Two Sundays ago, Matthew presented us Christ teaching the need to have faith in him because he is our abundance in the midst of our scarcity when he fed more than five thousand people from just five loaves of bread and two pieces of fish; after that miracle, Jesus walked on water to join his disciples in their boat tossed by giant waves due to strong winds in the middle of the lake before dawn to teach the importance of faith in him because Jesus is our certainty and security.
This Sunday, Matthew presents to us another dimension of faith in Christ which leads to intimacy in our relationships with God and with others.
Actually, the Canaanite woman is the second pagan Jesus had accommodated a request for healing. In chapter 8, Matthew tells us how Jesus healed the servant of a Roman centurion who was definitely a pagan.
It is very interesting to note that only these two pagans were praised by Jesus for their faith in him. And that is because they were so engaging in making their request from Jesus.
See how very similar with that centurion who told Jesus, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the word and my servant will be healed” (Mt.8:8) this Canaanite woman in engaging Jesus for the healing of her daughter:
But Jesus did not say a word in answer to her. Jesus’ disciples came and asked him, “Send her away, for she keeps calling out after us.” He said in reply, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But the woman came and did Jesus homage, saying, “Lord, help me.” He said in reply, “It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.” She said, “Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters.” Then Jesus said to her in reply, “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And the woman’s daughter was healed from that hour (Matthew 15:23-28).
A painting of “The Canaanite Woman asks for healing for her daughter” by Spanish painter Juan de Flandes ca. 1500 as part of the 47 small panels of paintings commissioned by Queen Isabella I of Castile; from commons.wikimedia.org.
The woman definitely had some faith in Jesus whom she addressed as “Lord” like Simon Peter at the middle of the lake last Sunday. She had also researched on Jesus she called “Son of David” – the title of the Messiah only the Jews would know. Here we find a faith that is growing, deepening into an intimacy as shown by her intense engagement with Jesus.
Intimacy happens when there is an engagement like wrestling. Best example is when Jacob wrestled with an angel until sunrise where he prevailed and was given the new name “Israel” that means one who struggles and prevails with God.
Only those with deep faith in God would wrestle and struggle until they prevail like Jacob, the Roman centurion and that Canaanite woman. Wrestling in Filipino is magbuno – that’s how I imagined the Canaanite woman coming forward to Jesus in homage, begging, insisting, “Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters.”
What an amazing faith!
It was very clear with the Canaanite woman they as pagans were not one of the “children” or Jews entrusted with the covenant with God signified by the “bread”; the woman clearly had no intentions of usurping any rights from the chosen people for she knew very well their share, the mere crumbs falling from the table.
However, the Canaanite woman expressed in her tough engagement with Jesus her faith and hope as well that day, they were contented with crumbs but some day, they shall be seated at the table too as expressed by God to Isaiah in the first reading that eventually was fulfilled in Christ. And that’s the other miracle that happened that day: the woman’s hope for salvation in the future was fulfilled at the very moment she wrestled with Jesus for her daughter’s healing!
Many times in life we felt Jesus coming to us in unfamiliar grounds and situations like when he withdrew to Tyre and Sidon where we were weakest, deep into sins, doubting and unfaithful with him.
This Sunday, Jesus invites us to walk with him, even to argue and debate with him, “wrestle” with him in our own Tyre and Sidon because we have nobody else to turn to but him as our joy and fulfillment, healing and forgiveness, most of all, peace.
Do not worry if Jesus would not seem to notice us like the Canaanite woman. Intimacy is more than being close or near Jesus when we come to church or chapel to pray. Our Filipino word for intimacy is more evocative of its nature – matalik that involves active presence leading to total giving of self.
Intimacy is faith in action involving personal contact with Jesus that best happens in unfamiliar territories like Tyre and Sidon where we confront our sins, vulnerabilities and insecurities, weaknesses and failures. It is stripping ourselves naked before Christ like that Canaanite woman who accepted their being referred as “dogs” contented with crumbs. That’s when miracles happen!
Today we remember too those family and friends we have had some falling out and misunderstanding, some for years while others we may be still living with but have a long-running feud and misunderstanding. They are our Tyre and Sidon where Jesus is awaiting us to meet him for healing and reconciliation as reflected by Paul in the Second Reading. Let us have faith to bare ourselves before Christ to be freed from the pains and hurts tormenting us all these years. What matters most is we get intimate with Jesus so the rest of our relationships would follow. Amen. Have blessed, warm and dry week hopefully ahead!
Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Saturday, Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time, Year II Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 15 August 2026 Revelation 11:19; 12:1-6, 10 ><}}}*> 1 Corinthians 15:20-27 ><}}}*> Luke 1:39-56
One significant lesson I learned in journalism and in life is that we are known by the questions we ask, not by our answers that are often wrong. When we ask the right question – especially if it is not misleading to our own assumptions – the problem or issue at hand is already half solved.
It doesn’t really matter if we don’t get answers right away; many times the answers to our questions come or “unfold” as we move on in life. Some answers come to us later in life or after the death of a loved one. Or, maybe they would be answered in the afterlife.
Just keep asking. As one newspaper says, be an inquirer.
But, why start our reflection on asking question on this Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary?
Photo by Ar. Philip Santiago, Church of the Visitation, Israel, 2024.
I was struck by how Elizabeth greeted Mary in her visitation with a question:
“And how does this happen to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” (Luke 1:43)
Actually, before Elizabeth asked that question at the Visitation, Mary was the first to ask the difficult question after the Annunciation to her by Archangel Gabriel, “How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?” (Lk.1:34).
In saying “yes” to God’s invitation at the Annunciation all the way to following Jesus to the Calvary and awaiting the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, Mary is the model disciple of the Lord, the “doer of the Word” in whom we see all that we can become through the power of God despite our human doubts and weaknesses. And many questions.
When Jesus was born, Mary must have so many questions but rather “kept all these things , reflecting on them in her heart” (Lk.2:19). Then when Jesus was thirteen years and got lost in Jerusalem after their pilgrimage, Mary asked anew a difficult question to him, “Son, why have you done this to us? Yur father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety” (Lk.2:48).
“The Finding of the Saviour in the Temple” painting by William Holman Hunt (1860), from en.wikipedia.org.
Mary asked the difficult questions always. And most likely, she had kept so many other questions in her heart especially when Jesus suffered, died and was buried. She was never afraid to ask questions to God because she believed, constantly seeking the truth who is her Son Jesus Christ.
On this solemnity of Mary’s assumption when we are reminded of the supreme truth of our own resurrection and assumption into heaven at the end of time when Christ comes again, we are likewise encouraged to keep asking the important questions we are often afraid to ask and confront in life like, would I make it to heaven? Or, the perennial question we ask if there is really God or if there is really heaven and hell and purgatory?
See how the most essential questions in life that we ask albeit with fear or hesitations pertain to things of the soul, of eternity, of spirituality. These are questions that spring from our inner deeper self that indicate our origin who is God that even the greatest scientists throughout history admitted and respected like Albert Einstein.
Very often, the answers to these questions unfold in our hearts, in our lives, in the present moment. That is why Mary responded to Elizabeth’s question and praise with a song praising God for all his wondrous works she had experienced and realized in her life:
Photo by a friend in Washington. 28 July 2026.
And Mary said: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my Savior… He has mercy on those who fear him in every generation. He has shown the strength of his arm, and has scattered the proud in their conceit. He has cast down the mighty from their thrones and has lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. He has come to the help of his servant Israel for he has remembered his promise of mercy, the promise he made tonour fathers, to Abraham and his children forever” (Luke 1:46-47, 50-55).
The Magnificat is the summary of the Christ Mary carried in her womb and heart throughout her life that she is referred to as the Ark of the New Covenant as seen by John in heaven in the first reading.
The Magnificat as a song of the Blessed Mother was borne out of long reflections and hard questionings about self and the world in the light of God’s works. Mary like Paul in the second reading experienced God’s saving power in Jesus because both were so open to the working of the Holy Spirit, searching deep within by constantly examining, asking the right questions.
That is why silence is important in every prayer period when we learn to completely trust God especially when our questions are very unsettling, even disturbing.
As a priest for 28 years and hospital chaplain these past five years, I have noticed older people along with those sick and dying spending a lot of their time asking about eternity. That’s why many of them go to confession so often. It must be difficult and amazing at the same time. Sometimes when I look into their eyes, there seems to be an intensity that they could pierce through dark clouds and thick curtains that maybe, just maybe, enable them to catch a glimpse of eternity that result in a remarkable peace within them that we too can feel.
It is when we ask the difficult, essential questions that we are able to arrive at the real truth about life and our very self that ultimately lead us to God and to heaven in Jesus Christ.
“The Assumption of the Virgin” painting by Italian Titian (1516-1518) from en.wikipedia.org.
The assumption of Mary is part of Christ’s gospel. And the good news is that it is a truth and reality we can arrive at here and now, not later when we die for God loves us so much as Paul tells us in the second reading.
In being the first and model disciple of Jesus, Mary is also the first to reap the fruits of Christ’s resurrection by being assumed into heaven body and soul, free of any pains and sorrows in her “death”.
We too rejoice with Mary in celebrating this Solemnity of her Assumption into heaven, hoping and trusting that eventually all our pains and sufferings shall pass away when we die, when Jesus comes again at the end of time to assume us body and soul into heaven in perfect union with God our Father in him, with him, and through him.
Before ending this reflection, we find it most opportune to remind everyone to stop the practice of keeping a little ash of their beloved’s cremated remains in their pendants or in their homes. This is contrary to our teaching on the resurrection of the dead, of the dogma of the Assumption of Mary. It is because of this assurance that we too like Mary shall be assumed into heaven body and soul that the remains of the dead shall be preserved intact in utmost respect and care according to the norms of the Church. Not the crazy beliefs propagated by movies and crematories primarily for profits. Most of all, exorcists have been reminding us too of the negative effects to the dead and to the living by keeping their ashes no matter how little they may be. God bless everyone!
Photo by author, St. Michael Retreat House, Antipolo City, 16 June 2026.
Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Friday, Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time, Year II Memorial of St. Maximilian Kolbe, Priest & Martyr, 14 August 2026
O God our loving Father, help us to always remember - our origins and beginnings, our past especially the people who had cared and nurtured us, our parents and siblings, relatives and friends, those who gave us the breaks and sparks to begin our great journeys in life, the people who stood by when we were down and nobody believed us: dear God, remind us always of the basic fact, of the principle and foundation of our being: that we came from you and shall return to you.
Forgive us, Lord God, in forgetting you always, in forgetting others, in forgetting we are nothing without you; touch us, nudge us if needed whenever we forget you and our lowly beginnings; let us not be amazed by our feats and abilities.
But you were captivated by your own beauty, you used your renown to make yourself a harlot, and you lavished your harlotry on every passer-by, whose own you became. Yet I will remember the covenant I made with you when you were a girl, and I will set up an everlasting covenant with you, that you may remember and be covered with confusion, and that you may be utterly silenced for shame when I pardon you for all you have done, says the Lord God (Ezekiel 16:15, 60-63).
Photo of Auschwitz from internet.
As we celebrate today the Memorial of your most faithful servant St. Maximilian Kolbe who offered himself not just once for a fellow prisoner in Auschwitz for he had dedicated himself to you entirely before World War II began, may we remember the lessons that led to the Holocaust; like St. Maximilian Kolbe may we continue to remember your covenant in Jesus Christ by making a stand against injustice and immorality, in defending life especially at its weakest points, and most of all, in remembering the equal dignity of every person created in your image and likeness; like what Jesus told the Pharisees, let us go back to Paradise, let us return to you, O God, as our Lord and Master alone, not ourselves, nor our pride and convenience, nor anyone nor their flimsy, modern thoughts and ideas; like St. Maximilian Kolbe, may we have the courage to always stand forward for what is true and good and holy. Amen.
Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Thursday, Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time, Year II, 13 August 2026 Memorial of Sts. Pontian (Pope) & Hippolytus (Priest), Martyrs Ezekiel 12:1-12 <*((((>< + ><))))*> Matthew 18:21-19:1
Photo from forbes.com.
Set my eyes on you, Lord God, that I may see you present always in and around my life, whether at work or at home, in school or in office, in the park, or wherever; set my eyes on you, Lord God, that I may see you always and be reminded that all this has been made possible by you because you love me; set my eyes on you, Lord God that I may realize you are holding me, that everything that happens in the world, among us are in the palm of your hand.
The word of the Lord came to me:: Son of man, you live in the midst of a rebellious house; they have eyes to see but do not see, and ears to hear but do not hear, for they are a rebellious house (Ezekiel 12:1-2).
Indeed, Lord God, we have not only become callous and numb but sadly blind too to you and your very presence in us and among us; we only have sights without vision; we refuse to look at the truth and realities of life and prefer to look through prisms of our own making; we have been so conceited like that servant pardoned for his debts in today's parable but unforgiving to his fellow debtor. give me the courage to confront myself like Saints Pontian and Hippolytus who both contradicted each other but in the end shed off their own pride to totally embrace and see your real truth in your Jesus Christ. Amen.
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