Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Tuesday, Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time, Year II, 25 August 2026 2 Thessalonians 2:1-3, 14-17 <*((((>< + ><))))*> Matthew 23:23-26
Photo by author, St. Paul Spiritual & Renewal Center, Bgy. Tanyawak, Alfonso, Cavite, 19 August 2026.
Glory and praise to you Lord Jesus Christ this blessed Tuesday; indeed, our life is most often a comedy like that play by Shakespeare, "Much Ado About Nothing" - we spend too much time on so many trivial things that we forget the more essential, debating and quarreling on words and expressions, choosing things over persons, doing and doing without knowing and being, ending more lost and confused amid the affluence never experienced before.
Jesus said: Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You pay tithes of mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier things of the law: judgment and mercy and fidelity. But these you should have done, without neglecting the others. Blind guides, who strain out the gnat and swallow the camel!” (Matthew 23:23-24)
We not only forget the weightier, essential things in life but we also refuse to live in the present moment, preferring to dwell on the future like the Thessalonians wasting too much on worries and non-existent forgetting what is before us, the present that is unfolding, happening in your very presence; teach us to simply trust in you, Jesus like the psalmist, to rejoice and be glad for you, O Lord is king, just and merciful, most of all, so loving and far more greater than all of our worries.
Let us stop all these much ado about nothing, Lord, for only you suffices in life. Amen.
Photo by author, St. Paul Spiritual & Renewal Center, Bgy. Tanyawak, Alfonso, Cavite, 19 August 2026.
Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Monday, Twenty-first Week In Ordinary Time, Year II Feast of St. Bartholomew, Apostle of the Lord Revelation 21:9-14 <*{{{{>< + ><}}}}*> John 1:45-51
St. Bartholomew depicted by Michelangelo at the Sistine Chapel holding in one hand a large knife said to have been used in skinning him alive with his own skin held by his other hand. Photo from Pinterest.
Thank you, God our loving Father for this Monday; though still gloomy with forecast of more rains like the past weeks, we rejoice in celebrating the Feast of St. Bartholomew, one of the amazing Apostles of Your Son Jesus Christ; he died a martyr after being skinned alive and crucified upside down like St. Peter; it must have been his most glorious achievement because after skinning him alive, his torturers must have seen and realized his faith was not that skin-deep: layers upon layers of skin they must have found only Jesus deeply ingrained in his very person!
How lovely of St. Bartholomew known earlier as Nathanael his baring of his true self, that first layer of our person we often hide when he asked Philip if anyone good could come from Nazareth; truly as Jesus had said, there was no guile in him, so unlike us with so many masks and pretensions layered on our person.
Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one about whom Moses wrote in the law, and also the prophets, Jesus, son of Joseph, from Nazareth.” But Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, “Here is a true child of Israel. There is no duplicity in him.” (John 1:45-47)
Photo by author, St. Paul Spiritual & Renewal Center, Bgy. Tanyawak, Alfonso, Cavite, 19 August 2026.
Everywhere in this life there are layers of everything: layers of clothing, layers of skin, layers of meaning, and layers of faith and knowledge of Jesus Christ who asked us yesterday "who do you say that I am?"
Teach me, Jesus to remove that first layer of covering myself with masks pretending to be somebody else as good; let me bare my true self before you, free and faithful in telling you what I feel, what I think like St. Bartholomew because you see everything beneath our many layers of covering.
Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree.” Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel.” (John 1:48-49)
Photo by author, St. Paul Spiritual & Renewal Center, Bgy. Tanyawak, Alfonso, Cavite, 19 August 2026.
Most of lovely of all, dear Jesus is how you "see" us even from afar, especially whenever we are "under the fig tree"; you know very well our desire to see you too, to find you and to dwell in you; unless we are able to remove our layers of duplicity and guile, we shall never see your promise "you will see the heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man" (John 1:51); thank you, dear Jesus for your loving gaze upon us despite our many sins and brokenness; help me to look at you too, to see you like St. Bartholomew as "truly the Son of God, the King of Israel." Amen.
Photo by author, St. Paul Spiritual & Renewal Center, Bgy. Tanyawak, Alfonso, Cavite, 19 August 2026.
Lord My Chef Sunday Music by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 23 August 2026
Photo from Facebook post by Dr. Tony Leachon, “KLEPTOPIROSIS: When Corruption Becomes a Public Health Crisis”, 08 Agosto 2025.
We go back to the year 1986 for our Sunday music we find so related with our gospel as well as situation in the country where we are literally inundated in government corruption and evil that have caused this massive flooding in various parts of the country.
Every year at this time when the rainy season comes, floods come in many parts of the country especially the city. It used to be normal but for the past decade, it has been getting worse every year. And suspicious until last year when it was uncovered at how officials from the Public Highways connived with lawmakers stealing billions of pesos – not to mention the life and future of countless citizens – through their mostly non-existent but paid flood control projects. (Sadly, it is until under investigation and no big fish had truly been jailed for their crimes.).
Back to our Sunday music – The Way It Is by Bruce Hornsby and the Range from their debut album of the same title released in July 1986….
It’s melody mainly in piano is one of those unforgettable soft rock tune wafting on breeze with lyrics so bitterly cold of the sad realities in life. It is actually a gospel in the truest sense because its lyrics are both challenging and disturbing set in a relaxing mood and melody like the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Its title could actually mislead anyone into thinking it as a feel-good music with its sophisticated piano introduction and accompaniment without paying attention to its lyrics and message.
It is not. Hornsby actually dares us even today to leave the comforts of our rooms to get truly examine how things are going on around us as if that’s just the way it is… It isn’t at all. Like poverty and unemployment as mentioned in the first stanza.
Standing in line, marking time Waiting for the welfare dime 'Cause they can't buy a job A man in a silk suit hurries by As he catches the poor old ladies' eyes Just for fun he says, "Get a job"
That's just the way it is Some things'll never change That's just the way it is Ah, but don't you believe them
Most of all, an end to all forms of discrimination due to color and beliefs found in the fifth stanza.
Well, they passed a law in '64 To give those who ain't got a little more But it only goes so far 'Cause the law don't change another's mind When all it sees at the hiring time Is the line on the color bar, no, no
The Way It Is is so very much like today’s gospel set in Caesarea Philippi where Jesus surveyed his disciples on what people were saying about him before directly asking them, “But who do you say that I am?”(Mt.16:15). Our personal answer to that question of Jesus leads us to our identity as beloved children of God, brothers and sisters in Christ who must be respecting each one other.
And the more we get to know Jesus, the more we also get to know who we are… This may sound simplistic: all these problems we have about school violence, degradation of our moral values as a nation that perpetuate in office corrupt and inept officials while destroying our environment with our disregard for proper disposal of waste and garbage, may be due to our disregard for who is Jesus to us.
The question who connects us with God and everyone. And with our very self. How sad that in this age of too much digitization, we have been so focused on techniques of doing like what and how, forgetting being, the focus of who. (https://lordmychef.com/2026/08/22/the-definitive-question-of-all/)
See the gospel’s relation with Hornsby’s incisive genius and values in the third and fourth stanzas where he challenges the situation we have been so accustomed to, “the way it is” as if challenging us to find Christ on the face of everyone we meet.
Said, "Hey little boy, you can't go where the others go 'Cause you don't look like they do" I said, "Hey, old man, how can you stand to think that way? Did you really think about it before you made the rules?"
He said, "Son Well, that's just the way it is Some things'll never change That's just the way it is" Ah, but don't you believe them Mm, yeah
Many times in life, the simplest things are the most profound in meaning like the parables and this time the question of Jesus. And don’t forget, like modern music too that truly reflects the way it is in the world we are called to change into something more humane.
Here is Bruce Hornsby and the Range with their 1986 classic. Enjoy. And ponder too.
Lord My Chef Sunday Recipe for Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A, 23 August 2026 Isaiah 22:19-23 ><}}}}*> Romans 11:33-36 ><}}}}*> Matthew 16:13-20
Last Saturday at the Solemnity of the Assumption, we reflected on the need to ask the right – and difficult – questions in our life like Mary. It does not really matter if we don’t get answers right away because along the way, God reveals and shows us himself and his plans for us if we keep asking him with our questions.
That is why this Sunday as Jesus continued to travel into pagan territory, he asks us like his disciples along the way his most definitive question of all, “who do you say that I am?”
Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi and he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16:13-15)
Photo by author, St. Paul Spiritual & Renewal Center, Bgy. Tanyawak, Alfonso, Cavite, 18 August 2026.
After healing the possessed daughter of a Canaanite woman last week in the district of Tyre and Sidon, Jesus and his disciples reached Caesarea Philippi that used to be the summer capital of the Roman officials in northern Israel. It had an abundant supply of water that is why the Romans built many buildings including a temple to one of their major goddesses.
Imagine such an affluent backdrop for Christ’s intensive “lecture series” about discipleship to the Twelve: first, he surveyed them what the people were saying “who the Son of Man is” before asking them directly, “but who do you say that I am?”.
In 2009, the British-American author and inspirational speaker on business leadership Simon Sinek published his book Start with Why because the question why helps us clear motivation in every undertaking we make. Starting with why is to get to the very core, the raison d’etre of our business or plan or project.
However, we are not only dealing with projects in life; life itself is our very project too which is addressed by the question who. Actually, Sinek’s model of starting with why is anchored on persons and relationships that are directly concerned with the who because every why is sustained by a who. No project nor plan nor business nor whatever endeavor by humans would continue without persons addressed by the question who!
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.
More than a person, who is a relationship, a meaning for us to continue with our why like in fulfilling our mission in Jesus, in answering his call to follow him.
As a continuation of our reflection last Sunday about faith and intimacy in the Lord, clarifying who is Jesus Christ for us deepens that faith and intimacy we have in him.
It is only when we are clear and convinced with who isJesus shall we become clearly convinced with our call and mission in him by finding him among everyone and whatever circumstances we may get into in life. Even in our human relationships.
Relationships and friendships, marriages and ties are shattered and broken these days not merely because of infidelity and betrayals which start to happen the moment we take our beloved for granted. We betray one another not when we speak against them or turn against them; it all starts the moment we no longer recognize them as a beloved, our loved one or friend.
Would you exchange a family member or a friend for any amount of money or thing or property? Or your wife or husband for another better looking woman or man?
Photo by author, St. Paul Spiritual & Renewal Center, Bgy. Tanyawak, Alfonso, Cavite, 18 August 2026.
Normally, we deal with every question first with our minds like when the apostles gave Jesus varied answers of leading religious figures like John the Baptist and the prophets as what the people thought of him. But, it took on a different dimension when Jesus asked “But who do you say that I am?” that is pointed into our hearts.
And here we find a remarkable quality – sometimes deficiency – of Peter. He was always baring his heart and soul; he easily opens us what’s in him and clearly here as Jesus later explained, Peter allowed the Spirit to speak from his heart, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Notice in Peter’s response we find traces of Sinek’s starting with why. Peter with his his brother Andrew and fishing partners James and John were the first disciples called by Jesus, following him longest than the rest of the Twelve. For Peter, more than finding in Jesus the answers to his starting question of why about life, he had remained with Christ primarily of the who he is to him. Despite that he would waver on this many times, he remained faithful to Jesus with his own martyrdom.
See that in Matthew’s account, Peter said the words “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” while Mark and Luke merely reported Peter as saying “You are the Messiah/Christ” (Mk.8:29 and Lk.9:20). Peter saying Jesus as “Son of the living God” reveals something deeper in who is Jesus for him as he speaks of a relationship. Not just details and facts.
Most likely, Peter must have experienced something so deep as in “living”, so alive like when he saw that miraculous catch of fish before being called to become fisher of men. It was an experience that Paul describes to us in the second reading, of having experienced personally the “depth of the riches and wisdom of God” (Rom.11:33).
Photo by author, St. Paul Spiritual & Renewal Center, Bgy. Tanyawak, Alfonso, Cavite, 18 August 2026.
That is how we are with those most dearest to us – there are things so deep for words, so profound realities we have experienced that we have come to be so convinced, so in love with someone we follow or regard. Someone like “a peg in a sure spot” as God described Eliakim to Shebna according to Isaiah (22:23).
More than the why of doing, the who leads us to our being. And the more we get to know Jesus, the more we also get to know who we are. Our identity as a person does not depend on what social media portray or what others say. The more we get to know Jesus, the more we get to know ourselves, the more we become at home with our weaknesses and failures, sins and shortcomings.
Photo by author, St. Paul Spiritual & Renewal Center, Bgy. Tanyawak, Alfonso, Cavite, 18 August 2026.
This may sound simplistic: all these problems we have about school violence, degradation of our moral values as a nation that perpetuate in office corrupt and inept officials while destroying our environment with our disregard for proper disposal of waste and garbage, may be due to our disregard for who is Jesus to us.
The question who connects us with God and everyone. And with our very self. How sad that in this age of too much digitization, we have been so focused on techniques of doing like what and how, forgetting being, the focus of who.
From Caesarea Philippi which is up north, Jesus and his disciples would take a U-turn down towards Jerusalem that is their true destination. After this scene comes the Transfiguration of Jesus and the triple predictions of Jesus of his coming passion, death and resurrection. Let us know who Jesus is so that we can follow him more closely as his disciples. Amen. A blessed, hopefully warmer and drier week ahead to everyone!
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.
lordmychef.com 