Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Thursday, Twenty-Seventh Week in Ordinary Time, Year II, 08 October 2026 Galatians 3:1-5 ><))))*> + ><))))*> + ><))))*> Luke 11:5-13
Photo by Mr. Raffy Tima, GMA News, Batanes, October 2018.
Your words today, O Lord through St. Paul speak directly to us in this time too:
O stupid Galatians! Who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus was publicly portrayed as crucified? (Galatians 3:1)
O how we your people hate to hear those words these days because they are hurtfully true - it is plain stupidity on our part to abandon all your teachings to adopt all these strange ideas about life that overstretch our rights without any regard to what is true and good; to insist that only matter matters without accepting the fact that the most profound realities in life are those felt than seen; and, to believe more in ourselves than in you, Lord Jesus Christ.
We have been so bewitched, enthralled, and amazed by new ideas and beliefs that are clearly self-serving and untrue, "budol" or fake in every sense, totally forgetting how you have never left nor abandon us all these years through thick and thin, doing only what is best and good for us only to follow the fascinating special effects of those trash peddled in social media, fabricated by AI.
Awaken us, dear Jesus to the realities of your loving presence in us, in our lives, to follow our hearts where we find peace and joy despite pains and sacrifices than follow our flesh and whims of pleasures and convenience so temporary, ephemeral, most of all superficial; ignite our hearts to seek and follow you in a life of prayer that changes primarily us, not the situations. Amen.
Photo by a friend at Seabrook, Washington, 06 September 2026.
Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Wednesday, Twenty-Seventh Week in Ordinary Time, Year II Memorial of Our Lady of Rosary, 07 October 2026 Acts 1:12-14 <*{{{{>< + ><}}}}*> Luke 11:1-4
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, Quezon City, March 2024.
After leaving the minor seminary in 1982, I felt my priestly vocation anew in 1990 while working as a reporter at GMA News. And one of the stumbling blocks that delayed me in finally deciding to give it another try had something to do with the Holy Rosary: I could not believe if God was really calling me to become a priest because I did not pray the Rosary. Fact is, I did not like the Rosary at all while in high school seminary because it was repetitive and too long to pray.
All the priests I consulted during that time clarified that the Rosary is a devotion that is distinct from the priesthood, that it is not a determinant whether one has a priestly vocation or none at all. Eventually, I resigned from GMA News, went back to the seminary in 1991, becoming a priest in 1998 along with my six classmates.
And I must confess, I still did not have that devotion with the Holy Rosary until I was assigned to a parish of my own in 2011. It was a devotion that did not happen instantly but slowly in 2016 as demands in the ministry grew, I felt the need for more prayers aside from our Liturgy of the Hours and daily meditations before the Blessed Sacrament. It was during the COVID pandemic when I found myself praying the Holy Rosary daily until I literally fell in love with it becoming an integral part of my prayer life. It was a coming into full circle for me, from being a big question mark before, now the Rosary has become an essential response to my priesthood.
The Rosary of the Virgin Mary… still remains, at the dawn of this third millennium, a prayer of great significance, destined to bring forth a harvest of holiness. It blends easily into the spiritual journey of the Christian life, which, after two thousand years, has lost none of the freshness of its beginnings and feels drawn by the Spirit of God to “set out into the deep” (duc in altum!) in order once more to proclaim, and even cry out, before the world that Jesus Christ is Lord and Saviour, “the way, and the truth and the life” (Jn 14:6), “the goal of human history and the point on which the desires of history and civilization turn” (St. John Paul II, Rosarium Virginis Mariae, Introduction).
Photo from canningliturgicalarts.com, painting of the Battle of Lepanto Bay with our Lady of Victory or Rosary.
On this Memorial of the Our Lady of the Rosary that had its origins in after Pope St. Pius V attributed to it the victory of the Christians forces agains the Ottoman Turks at Lepanto Bay in 1571, countless devotees worldwide will pray the words that Jesus taught his disciples.
Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples.” He said to them, “When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name, your Kingdom come…” (Luke 11:1-2).
It is one of the most beautiful requests by the Apostles to our Jesus Christ, “Lord, teach us to pray as John taught his disciples.” Who else can teach so well how to pray even us today but Jesus, the Son of God?
In calling God Our Father, Jesus taught us the basic truth of every prayer that it is never alone nor solitary but always implies a community, a family — that we are all called and gathered to be one in God. It is a prayer that is all about relationship with the Father, reliance on the Father, faith in the Father.
Again, we read St. John Paul reflecting on the nature of the Holy Rosary that at every mystery starts with the Our Father:
After listening to the word and focusing on the mystery, it is natural for the mind to be lifted up towards the Father. In each of his mysteries, Jesus always leads us to the Father, for as he rests in the Father’s bosom (cf. Jn 1:18) he is continually turned towards him. He wants us to share in his intimacy with the Father, so that we can say with him: “Abba, Father” (Rom 8:15; Gal 4:6). By virtue of his relationship to the Father he makes us brothers and sisters of himself and of one another, communicating to us the Spirit which is both his and the Father’s. Acting as a kind of foundation for the Christological and Marian meditation which unfolds in the repetition of the Hail Mary, the Our Father makes meditation upon the mystery, even when carried out in solitude, an ecclesial experience (#32, Rosarium Virginis Mariae).
Painting by El Greco, “Pentecostes” (1597) from commons.wikimedia.org.
This communitarian aspect of the Our Father we see in the first reading during the Pentecost when the disciples gathered at the Cenacle room in Jerusalem praying with the Blessed Virgin Mary who is our constant reminder of the importance and need to pray always to God our Father.
Next to Jesus, his Mother taught us in her later apparitions to bring all our needs before the Father who loves us so much – especially those trials and sufferings and challenges we face each day because it is in prayer that we truly find our connections.
Notice how the disciples in asking Jesus to teach them how to pray that they mentioned “just as John taught his disciples” because they must have noticed a big difference in their ministry, of John’s connection with his disciples. The Twelve must have felt this connection with Jesus missing that they asked him to teach them how to pray too.
Here lies the gift and challenge of every prayer: it leads to our “connectedness” with God. Both the Rosary and the Our Father are learned by rote and spoken by heart but – do we pray with the heart? What is the our connection with prayer in general, with the Rosary and with the Our Father? Is it an expression, a witness, something that happens only with others as in a community or when we have time or, something deeper and personal?
The Blessed Cardinal Fulton Sheen who was beatified recently used to teach that it is in our prayer life that we become like Jesus Christ. It is most true with the Holy Rosary:
The contemplation of Christ has an incomparable model in Mary. In a unique way the face of the Son belongs to Mary. It was in her womb that Christ was formed, receiving from her a human resemblance which points to an even greater spiritual closeness. No one has ever devoted himself to the contemplation of the face of Christ as faithfully as Mary. The eyes of her heart already turned to him at the Annunciation, when she conceived him by the power of the Holy Spirit. In the months that followed she began to sense his presence and to picture his features. When at last she gave birth to him in Bethlehem, her eyes were able to gaze tenderly on the face of her Son, as she “wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger” (Lk2:7) (#10, Rosarium Virginis Mariae).
By praying the Holy Rosary, may we learn through Mary to contemplate the face of Jesus Christ so we may be faithful to our call and mission especially in this 24/7 world of continuous action and noise that have left many of us empty and without meaning in life, no connections and so scattered in life. Amen. God bless you with Mary our Mother!
Photo by author, St. Paul Spiritual & Renewal Center, Bgy. Tanyawak, Alfonso, Cavite, 19 August 2026.
Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 06 October 2026
While preparing my homily yesterday for the second day of the novena in honor of the 109th apparition of the Blessed Virgin in Fatima, Portugal, I came across this interesting piece of information in my Facebook feeds about the two American space probes, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 having “left” our solar system and now the farthest man-made objects from planet Earth.
According to NASA, Voyager 1 had covered about 25.6 billion kilometers as of August 2026 since its launch September 5, 1977 – that’s 49 years and two months ago!
Its travel speed is expected to slow down due to some intergalactic forces which would take time for me to understand and explain; nonetheless, NASA engineers say it would continue sending data from deep space to planet Earth until 2036.
From NASA.gov.
Meanwhile, also found this report yesterday that scientists have detected for the first time a radio signal from an “exoplanet” – a planet outside our Solar System; however, it is not from an intelligent life or some alien but from “a colossal magnetic field”.
These are very interesting bits of information from space science that show us how far we have advanced technologically. You could just imagine where our latest technologies would bring us! Fact is, all these techs and gadgets we now enjoy were science fiction to us when we were growing up like phones capable of sending videos anywhere, anytime.
From Facebook, 05 October 2026.
What I like most in these developments is that great wonder of how vast is this universe indeed – so unimaginable. The more they prove to us the existence of an all-knowing, all-powerful God. Here we find science actually corroborating the truth that the Bible has been telling us of who made the heavens above us.
And the good news is, in this vast universe, our God is not only omniscient and omnipotent but most of all, all-loving God who chose to love and care for us earthlings in this tiny planet called Earth.
In an apparent conspiracy by the universe in my favor as I prepared my homily yesterday for the Fatima novena, my laptop suddenly alerted me after lunch of a new article on space travel but this time from a spiritual writer I follow at WordPress.com called The Devotional Guy by Rainer Bantau!
As I read Rainer’s thoughts on the relationships of faith and science fiction, what caught my attention was this part of his blog, of how would you explain Christianity to an alien?
What happens when someone encounters Christianity who has absolutely no Christian context?
Imagine trying to explain the Gospel to someone who looks at you and says:
“Wait. You believe the Creator of the universe became one of His creatures?”
Suddenly, Christianity sounds pretty astonishing again. We’ve heard the story so many times that we forget how completely outrageous and beautiful it actually is.
When humanity rebels against the God who created it, God doesn’t walk away. Instead, He enters our world.
Love takes on flesh as grace meets us in our mess. Just as death appears to win, Jesus walks out of the grave.
Photo by a friend at Seabrook, Washington, 06 September 2026.
Let us read anew these words by The Devotional Guy: “When humanity rebels against the God who created it, God doesn’t walk away. Instead, He enters our world. Love takes on flesh as grace meets us in our mess. Just as death appears to win, Jesus walks out of the grave. That’s not small. It’s cosmic.”
So lovely! But, sadly too, considering the great amounts of money and time and talents humans have spent sending people and objects into space to detect life forms outside our planet, we still ask the same question of the scribe to Jesus, “who is my neighbor?”
There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test Jesus and said, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “What is written in the law? How do you read it?” He said in reply, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” He replied to him, “You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.” But because he wished to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied, “A man fell victim to robbers as he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho” (Luke 10:25-30).
How sad that while we are awed by the vastness of the universe that envelop us whether at night or at daytime, here we are separated by an equally great space often with those supposed to be closest to us like family and friends and colleagues at home or anywhere.
Photo by Mr. Chester Ocampo, 2019.
As a chaplain giving recollections and talks to our students, I have seen many young people today are over thinkers but not critical thinkers.
I remind them that critical thinking is about comprehension and analysis of data and information gathered.
Over thinking is different. It is a vice when we worry a lot – over think – because we lack trust with others and with ourselves. And ultimately with God!
The scholar of the law was overthinking when he asked “who is my neighbor?” because for them at that time, their neighbors were just their fellow Jews. Until now we think the same way, putting people into categories like ice cream with the old rich and famous as “all-time favorites”, the popular as “flavor of the month” and the ordinary folks as “dirty ice cream” cheaply sold in carts.
Over thinking happens when we forget to feel more the other person, when we feel different from them instead of being same kin from which the word kind came from. A kind person is one who treats you as one of his kin, and kind.
From forbes.com, 2019.
St. Therese of the Child Jesus whose feast we celebrated recently wrote in her journal more than a hundred years ago, “I have understood that true greatness is found not in the name but in the soul.”
If we look more into our heart, into our soul, we find Jesus, we find our true self, and we find everyone our neighbor to be loved and respected, cared and understood.
Twenty years ago there was a popular TV series called The X-Files of two good looking detectives handling cases of paranormal of paranormal nature like aliens and other out-of-this-world things. Its famous line says “The truth is out there.”
Nope. The truth is not out there. It is right here inside our heart, always longing for the ultimate truth that leads to eternal life, beyond this vast universe.
That truth is a person, our Savior Jesus Christ dwelling in our hearts, leading us back to heaven by first being a neighbor to everyone. After all, greater than the stars we marvel above us, we are a universe in ourselves, a vast network of interrelated galaxies of immense beauty so closely within our reach. Amen.
Photo by author, St. Michael Retreat House, Antipolo city, 21 July 2026.
Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Tuesday, Twenty-Seventh Week in Ordinary Time, Year II Memorial of St. Bruno, Priest, 06 October 2026 Galatians 1:13-24 ><}}}}*> + ><}}}}*> + ><}}}}*> Luke 10:38-42
Photo by Ms. Kei Abad in Kyoto, Japan, October 2025.
Welcome, Lord Jesus.
Welcome and thank you, Jesus, for coming to us, for visiting us even if we are always "out" so busy with our many tasks we feel so important even when you come to visit us; forgive us Jesus when we are like Martha welcoming you into our home, into ourselves but so occupied with ourselves too.
Teach us to be like Mary, Martha's sister, truly hospitable to you welcoming you by sitting at your feet - that is, getting down to pray to truly meet you, to truly experience you, to truly listen to you.
Like Mary, may we learn to get down to your feet, Jesus, by setting aside my plans and agenda to give way to your plans for me; most of all, may we learn to get down too like Mary to truly welcome and relate others we meet whom you use to come to us.
Like St. Paul in the first reading when he narrated how you found him and eventually he searched and followed you first before eventually turning to the apostles and first disciples; that is true hospitality - welcoming you first in our lives in prayers, in silence like St. Bruno and his followers the Carthusians who sought to "seek God assiduously, to find God promptly, and to possess God fully." Amen.
As we have been saying since we started this blog in June 2018, we have always wished to show how God continues to speak to us in this modern time through secular music by linking our Sunday gospel with every genre like rock and jazz, punk and disco, R&B and even OPM (Original Pilipino Music).
And there have been many instances in the music scene when artists were actually inspired by the Sacred Scriptures in their composition like Seeger we have featured last week.
This Sunday, we go back to year 1976 with The Isley Brothers’ Harvest for the World whose title was a complete take from Matthew’s gospel.
In an interview published six years ago in The Guardian by Dave Simpson, composer Ernie Isley said he had just bought a new 12-string acoustic guitar and was trying it out in their basement in New Jersey in 1976 when words simply flowed that became the song’s first stanza:
All babies together, everyone a seed Half of us are satisfied, half of us in need Love's bountiful in us, tarnished by our greed When will there be a harvest for the world
Ernie was still playing the song in his new guitar when his brother Marvin who played bass came to their basement with their brother-in-law and keyboardist Chris Jasper; they were so impressed with Ernie’s music and later they were joined by their other brothers O’Kelly Jr., Rudolph and Ronald who all contributed lyrics and additional musical arrangements to finally complete Harvest for the World.
According to Ernie, they were largely inspired by the news they have witnessed at that time, from the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy to the growing protest movements following Nixon’s resignation in 1974 due to the Watergate Scandal and the end of Vietnam War in 1975 with the Fall of Saigon.
For the title, they remembered Matthew’s gospel scene of Jesus telling his disciples upon seeing the vast crowd that have followed them, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest” (Mt. 9:37-38).
They first released the song as a single in May 1976 and later became the title track of their album Harvest for the World that same year that reaped a lot of harvest for The Isley Brothers, peaking the top ten songs in the Billboard and UK charts that year. It became one of the most memorable music of that era that continues to be covered until now by new artists, including our very own Gary V.
For our part, we have chosen Harvest for the World because of its close links with today’s gospel on the parable of the wicked tenants who have refused to give the owner’s share of the harvest of grapes in his vineyard (https://lordmychef.com/2026/10/03/chosen-to-be-fruitful/).
Both the song and the gospel speak of too much greed among us, not realizing we are indeed the Lord’s vineyard.
Our very life itself is actually not ours to possess and own completely in total disregard of others and of God.
The same is true with our beloved planet Earth: it is the Lord’s vineyard and no one, whether individuals or governments can lay total claim for its land and other resources meant by God for everyone. Here we find its lyrics very prophetic and relevant until now:
A nation planted, so concerned with gain As the seasons come and go, greater grows the pain And far too many feelin' the strain When will there be a harvest for the world
We were in elementary school, perhaps in grade five or six when we first heard Harvest for the World; the song is unforgettable for me because I felt so fortunate to have found its lyrics in one of the very few issues of JINGLE magazine I have bought at that time – just four maybe – because it was so expensive. But, the first time I heard it on radio, I instantly loved it for its music so suave and cool; beat is so inviting especially with the claps in the background. A classic indeed of a gone era of great poetry and philosophy in music.
Before listening to this beautiful music that is truly a gospel too in our time, we quote Ernie from that interview six years ago by The Guardian’s Simpson which we find so fitting in closing this piece:
Lord My Chef Sunday Recipe for Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A, 04 October 2026 Isaiah 5:1-7 ><}}}}*> Philippians 4:6-9 ><}}}}*> Matthew 21:33-43
Photo by a friend in Washngton State, 01 October 2026.
A friend recently sent me this photo of the start of autumn that brought back memories of my vacation on two occasions in the States and Canada during that most wonderful season. It even made me wondered lately why God did not give us four seasons like in other countries.
I know. It is kind of crazy and weird, even stupid especially at how a Chinese friend who took his priestly formation at UST twenty years ago used to tell me the Philippines is a paradise where we can work and play all year round unlike them who have to work hard for six months to stock food and wood because the other half of the year is so cold that they have to stay indoors most of the time. Until now he is all praises to our country so blessed abundantly in resources and natural wonders.
And indeed! Our country is a paradise – so blessed, so beautiful, so rich. And yet so poor and miserably mismanaged by us all that we perfectly fit in the first reading and gospel this Sunday:
Let me now sing of my friend, my friend’s song concerning his vineyard. My friend had a vineyard on a fertile hillside; he spaded it, cleared it of stones and planted the choicest vines; within it he built a watchtower, and hewed out a wine press. Then he looked for the crop of grapes, but what it yielded was wild grapes (Isaiah 5:1-2).
Photo by author, Pundaquit, San Antonio, Zambales, 14 May 2025.
Our country is exactly that wonderful vineyard planted by the Lord with its vast, fertile lands and long coastlines with lush greeneries of plains and mountains and despite all these, we import much of our food like rice and vegetables and fruits including fish like galunggong, even pig skins for chicharon! Like Isaiah, we ask what happened to our country?
For Isaiah, the vineyard represented Israel as the chosen people of God, so loved and cared but produced bitter fruit with their repeated infidelity and sins against God that went on until the coming of Jesus who used the same imagery into a parable of the kingdom of heaven so applicable to our own time.
Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people: “Hear another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a tower. Then he leased it to tenants and went on a journey. When vintage time drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to obtain his produce. But the tenants seized the servants and one they beat, another they killed, and a third they stoned. Again he sent other servants, more numerous than the first ones, but they treated them in the same way. Finally, he sent his son to them, thinking, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and acquire his inheritance.’ They seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him (Matthew 21:33-39).
Jesus was still in the temple area where his enemies have gathered to seek ways of putting him under arrest. His parable of the wicked tenants is so similar with Isaiah’s that speaks too at the same time of ourselves and of our time, of how we have become like those wicked tenants taking the “vineyard” as totally ours. Like those tenants, we have claimed and possessed on our own this very life as “mine” and therefore, “owner” with every right to do whatever we want like have abortion, take contraceptives, have casual sex, even decide which gender to choose!
We have “overstretched” our rights without any regard at all to others and to environment. Consciously or unconsciously, we have deleted God from life that we have become relativistic without absolute morals and morality because we have made ourselves the measure and standards of everyone and everything – because, we own the “vineyard”.
Photo by Dra. Carol Reyes-Santos, MD, in Southern California, October 2023.
Then we wonder like Isaiah why we harvest bitter, wild grapes of broken relationships and emptiness despite the plethora of technologies and gadgets we now have? Or, like the chief priest and elders so angrily telling Jesus how the wicked tenants must be punished for usurping the vineyard and putting the owner’s son to death when in fact we are them?
Jesus said to them, “Did you never read in the Scriptures: The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; by the Lord has this been done, and it is wonderful in our eyes? Therefore, I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit” (Matthew 21:40-43).
Here now lies the good news this Sunday: in Isaiah’s parable of the vineyard, God is distinct from the vineyard but in Christ’s parable, we are the vineyard of the Lord because Jesus is one with us being the Son of the owner sent to gather his share of produce.
Jesus promises us today of better produce to be shared and enjoyed not only in eternity but right here in this life for we are the Lord’s vineyard called to be fruitful. As a continuation of last Sunday’s parable of the two sons, Jesus gives us today the chance to make that wise and good decision of finally doing what is right, just and good. Of finally obeying the Father as St. Paul beautifully reminds us in the second reading to be like him, an imitator of Christ becoming someone who could be imitated by others as witnesses of Jesus, striving for “whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious” (Phil. 4:8).
Recent news of how a group of ordinary people on board a flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv prevented the crash of their plane is a remarkable story of taking care of the Lord’s vineyard, of how it always bear good fruits. The so-called heroes of FlyDubai were all very ordinary like us; what enabled them to be heroes was their being true and faithful in their responsibilities like the mother who went to attend to her daughter in the toilet and became the first to notice trouble in the cockpit; the Indian captain who for many years of flying had always thought of the lives depending on him who struggled to rise and opened his cockpit door to be helped by men who knew nothing about flying and martial arts except the need to save lives by stabilizing the plane and subduing the terrorist co-pilot.
It was a story like the parables today and last Sunday of how people chose to uphold what is good, what is right, what is just. They are heroes not because of any special skills nor talents but were simply faithful in life, most likely always present for their families and friends, clients and patients. And to God ultimately.
Isaiah and Jesus invites us this Sunday to look into ourselves, at how we have tended and cared for our lives, for others in this vineyard of the Lord. Think of those many occasions we have wasted God’s blessings like our talents not put into use or never harnessed, health taken for granted and loved ones we have ignored and refused to love. Let us grab this opportunity of taking care of the Lord’s vineyard he had entrusted to us to be fruitful. It is us who benefit most in these fruits meant to make us better here and hereafter. Amen. Have a blessed week ahead!
Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for Souls by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Friday, Twenty-Sixth Week in Ordinary Time, Year II Feast of Guardian Angels, 02 October 2026 Exodus 23:20-23 <*{{{{>< + ><}}}}*> Matthew 18:1-5, 10
Photo by author, Baguio City Cathedral, 2019.
Glory and praise to you, O God our loving Father in giving us guardian angels, your messengers and servants you send us to guide us, to protect us, to lead us.
“See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father” (Matthew 18:10).
Angels are spiritual creatures, so pure and holy, with will and intellect; but, as the psalmist sings, you O Lord created us humans higher than angels with body able to touch, feel and see others and be felt and seen by others too; but, how sad, unlike the angels, we are so concerned always with who is the greatest among us; forgive us, Lord, in this age of social media when everything is exposed and must be seen, must be felt and tasted, we have come to value greatness in terms of popularity and wealth, power and fame, achievements and success whether at home or in school, in offices and parishes, everywhere.
Teach us, Jesus, to be like little children who always portray angels in the arts because of their simplicity and sincerity; may we keep in mind that we are already good and great in our selves, even greater than angels; may we be faithful like the guardian angels as God's messengers and servants especially to those who are sick and burdened, alone and forgotten by family and friends even by society, troubled and anxious with life's many problems; likewise, we remember and pray for those people who have always been an angel to us, bringing Christ's loving presence among us. Amen.
Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Thursday, Twenty-Sixth Week in Ordinary Time, Year II, 01 October 2026 Memorial, St. Therese of the Child Jesus, Virgin & Doctor of Church
Photo by author, September 2020.
Praise and glory to you, God our loving Father for this month of October! Thank you for calling and sending us like the 72 others sent forth by Jesus in today's gospel:
Jesus appointed seventy-two other disciples whom he sent ahead of him in pairs to every town and place he intended to visit. He said to them, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest” (Luke 10:1-2).
Thank you, dear Jesus for those you have called and sent to comfort me in times of crises, those you sent to encourage me in times of doubts, those you sent to bring me peace when everything was in chaos and disorder; send me too, O Lord, to bring your love and mercy to those down and wearied, to bring your warmth and life to those losing energy and will to forge on in life, to bring healing for those bruised and sick physically and emotionally.
Teach me to be like St. Therese of the Child Jesus whom we celebrate today to be love in the midst of the Church; let me not be like those visitors of Job who disturbed him, instead of bringing him peace they destabilized him; the world is so sick these days, Lord; send us to bring you and your peace and love and joy to everyone. Amen.
Photo by a friend in Swan Island Dahlia Farm, Canby, Oregon, 29 August 2026.
Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Wednesday, Twenty-Sixth Week in Ordinary Time, Year II Memorial of St. Jerome, Priest & Doctor of the Church, 30 September 2026
Photo by author, Cabo de Roca, Pundaquit, San Antonio, Zambales, 15 May 2025.
Many times in life I see myself like Job, Lord: at a loss at how things are happening with me; I cannot complain but deep I know that in this life, good is rewarded, evil is punished; but, how does one explain when bad things happen to good people?
Like Job, I have no claims to holiness but deep inside I am convinced of my innocence in many occasions that I ask, I wonder, I "protest" of the difficulties and sufferings I am going through.
How must I approach, you, Lord?
You are all powerful, you can do anything; should you come near me, I see you not; should you pass by, I am now aware of your coming; should you seize me, what can I say nor do (Job (9:11-12).
Even though I were right, I could not answer him, but should rather beg for what was due to me. If I appealed to him and he answered my call, I could nhot believe that he would hearken to my words (Job 9:15-16).
Truth is, many times I really do not and would never understand for sure the things happening to me except that I just have to trust you more like Job.
Or St. Jerome who went through many ordeals in his life largely due to his own making with his kind of temperament. What matters is that unlike the three would-be disciples in the gospel today, Job, St. Jerome, and hopefully me, your lowly servant Lord, will simply follow you even if we never understand why and how things are turning out in my life.
Let me approach you, Lord, the way St. Jerome had shown and taught us: by praying your Words, the Sacred Scriptures where you speak directly to us in the most personal manner. Amen.
Photo by author, Cabo de Roca, Pundaquit, San Antonio, Zambales, 14 May 2025.
Lord My Chef Sunday Recipe for Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A, 27 September 2026 Ezsekiel 18:25-28 ><}}}}*> Philippians 2:1-11 ><}}}}*> Matthew 21:28-32
It was a week of prayers aided by music I grew up with as it happens most of the time which I believe is part of my being old while unconsciously feeling fearful of the inevitable, death.
But, it isn’t morbid at all. I regard it as simply being realistic.
Like our liturgical calendar that is about to end in nine weeks on November 22 with the Solemnity of Christ the King followed the next Sunday after that on November 29 with the Season of Advent or the four Sunday preparation for Christmas!
Hence, all gospel accounts beginning this Sunday will focus on the coming end of time and the need for us to change our ways to make it to heaven, our final destination in this life.
Jesus said to the chief priests and elders of the people: “What is your opinion? A man had two sons. He came to the first and said, ‘Son, go out and work in the vineyard today.’ He said in reply, ‘I will not,’ but afterwards he changed his mind and went. The man came to the other son and gave the same order. He said in reply, ‘Yes, sir,’ but did not go. Which of the two did the father’s will.” They answered, “The first”(Mt.21:28-31).
Photo by author, Jerusalem as seen from the altar of Dominus Flevit Church, May 2017.
Jesus and his disciples have finally reached Jerusalem and this scene today is the day after Palm Sunday when he angrily drove away the traders and money changers in the Temple area that have prompted his enemies led by the elders and priests to come and questioned his authority.
Before giving his answer, Jesus asked them the origin of John’s authority to baptize, God or the people? They declined to answer because they have refused to recognize John’s baptism and that is why Jesus gave them a chance to change their minds and their hearts with this parable of the two sons. It was like Jesus telling them and everyone else including us today to obey follow God.
See now its link with last Sunday’s parable of the workers in the vineyard: Jesus continues to call us to come and work in his vineyard no matter how late; our work in his vineyard never stops and we need to keep doing what is good even if sometimes we fail and falter. Remember too that Matthew presents Jesus as always insisting the need to harmonize and blend what we believe with what we say and most of all, with what we do because “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven” (Mt.7:21).
Photo by author, Anvaya Cove, Bataan, 21 July 2026.
What counts most for Jesus in this parable is not just what or who is in our hearts but what flows from our hearts. Do we walk our talk? There has to be a unity in our faith wherein what we believe is what we say and what we do and live by.
Like the younger son in the parable, we are invited today to be humble and accept our mistakes to do what is right, what is good, what is moral than become like the elder son who said yes to their father but did not obey at all. Many times despite our absolute belief in God, we still think more of ourselves, insisting our own ways and agenda even to our loved ones, unmindful of the disunity we cause in our relationships aside from the pains and hurts we inflict on them whenever our words of love and peace do not match our actions.
There is a saying that goes “A single act of kindness is better than the best intention.” So true! – because our actions prove the veracity and sincerity of our every intention. That’s what God did for us by not merely promising a Savior but fulfilled it in sending us Jesus Christ who died obediently on the Cross which St. Paul eloquently explained today in our second reading we also hear during Christmas and Easter Seasons.
Photo by author, Anvaya Cove, Bataan, 20 July 2026.
We are so blessed this Sunday not only because God fulfills his promises of love and forgiveness but he always gives us endless chances to change our ways, to continuously work things out for the best.
Every Eucharist is a celebration of God’s patience and mercy for us sinners who must be converted again and again and again to make it to His kingdom in heaven. We must always be on guard not to fall into the mistake of the laborers last week who were so focused on their work than on the goodness of the landowner as if they deserved something extra than others which the Prophet Ezekiel echoed in the first reading:
“Hear now, house of Israel: Is it my way that is unfair, or rather, are not your ways unfair? When someone virtuous turns away from virtue to commit iniquity, and dies, it is because of the iniquity he committed that he must die. But if he turns from the wickedness he has committed, and does what is right and just, he shall preserve his life”(Ezekiel 18:25-27).
God is not a store nor a credit card who gives “rebates” for whatever good points we “earn” for past purchases for he will judge us with our actions and not intentions. We simply have to strive in doing what is good like that second child in the parable.
Let me end this reflection with this funny story about the talking centipede.
Photo by author, Anvaya Cove, Bataan, 21 July 2026.
A young man decided life would be more fun if he had a most unique pet. So he went to the pet store and told the owner about it. After some discussions, he finally bought a talking centipede, which came in a little white box to use for his house.
The guy took the box back home, found a good spot to place it with the centipede inside and decided he would start off by taking his new pet to church with him.
So he asked the centipede in the box, “Would you like to go to church with me today? We will have a good time.”
But there was no answer from his new pet.
This bothered him a bit, but he waited a few minutes and then asked again, “How about going to church with me and receive blessings?”
But again, there was no answer from his most unique pet. So he waited a few minutes more, thinking about the situation. The guy decided to invite the centipede one last time by putting his face up against the centipede’s house and shouted, “Hey, in there! Would you like to go to church with me and learn about God?”
Then suddenly, a little voice came out of the box, “I heard you the first time! I’m putting my shoes on.”
Smile everyone, God loves you so much! He knows that like the centipede, you have so many shoes to wear, so many shoestrings to tie but God is not in a hurry….just keep on putting on those shoes and keep walking on His path! Amen. Have a blessed end of September.
