Of bed & altar

Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 06 May 2026

Sampung buwan na 'kong hindi natutulog
Kasi naman, ang ingay ng aming kapitbahay
'Pag gabi, disco house at videoke
Kaya't sorry na lang kung wala sa aking sarili
Mahal kita, pero miss na miss na miss ko na

Ang aking kama at ang malupit kong unan
Ba't 'di ka na lang sumama? Hihiga tayo at kakanta

I have always loved the Eraserheads whose songs are like vintage wines that get better with age like Kamasupra from their thrid studio album considered as the best Pinoy rock album, “Cutterpillow” released in 1995.

See the genius and artistry of Ely Buendia in composing Kamasupra, a witty play of words and ideas, of the bed we call kama in Filipino and that bible of erotica Kama Sutra from ancient India.

More than a furniture, the bed is also an altar of the highest order in every home where we perform our final acts as humans at the end of each day – of retiring and of dreaming while entrusting ourselves, consciously or unconsciously to God. In the same manner, it is on our bed where we also desecrate our very selves and those dearest to us.

Please. There’s nothing bastos with both Kamasupra and Kama Sutra; both speak of the joys and sanctity of our relationships, of our being with our loved ones in bed that leads us to eternity as every old and dying person would tell you.

I know. I have met so many of them being a chaplain in a hospital for five years now. Whether in our home or in the hospital, the bed is always the final step board of every soul going to eternity.

Whenever I would bless the master’s bedroom in a new home, I say a prayer of blessing on the couple’s bed and before sprinkling it with Holy Water, I ask them to first bless it so that they would feel its sanctity as an altar where they give themselves to each other completely.

Hence, only them the husband and wife can sleep in that bed and nobody else, not even the children.

I do the same ritual of blessings in the other rooms of the children, praying that they would find rest of body and soul in their bed with a strict reminder that no visitors can stay inside their bedroom because it is sacred. Period.

This is most true for the bed of every priest. Notice how in most parish rectories and convents of nuns you find the sign “Private” to indicate no visitors allowed in their private quarters.

The priest’s bedroom and bed are literally his “inner sanctum” where only he and Jesus can be together at all times. Usually in silence too.

That is why I tell young priests to first have an altar in their bedroom where they could pray first thing in the morning and just before hitting the sack. Next to our breviary, the bed is the priest’s most beloved and blessed partner in life.

Most of all, the priest’s bed should always be “celibate” too like himself – that is, single-size only. No need to have big beds nor expensive ones because a priest’s bed is a reflection of his vows in the ministry – celibacy, poverty, and obedience.

Some of my most memorable images and experiences as a priest happened when I accompanied two elderly priests of our diocese in their deathbeds.

First was Msgr. Macario Manahan who died on 16 March 2014, the Second Sunday in Lent that year. I was by his side when he died that Sunday afternoon as he lived near my previous parish assignment. The second priest was Msgr. Vicente Manlapig who was confined in our hospital where I serve as chaplain. He died a few hours after my last visit to him on a Sunday morning, 26 February 2023, the Second Sunday in Lent.

Yes. They both died in Lent that is why since 2023, I have kept on telling people that life is a daily Lent, a preparation for Easter.

It was at their deathbeds when I strongly realized that our bed is also our altar especially when we get sick and old, where we shall celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, where we meet and receive Jesus Christ in the Holy Viaticum when too weak to celebrate the Eucharist.

It is on the bed of a dying priest I have felt deeply and truthfully the vocation in the priesthood – of how we were called by Jesus to become his priest that in the end he shall be calling us again as his priest to join him eternally.

And there in our bed comes the painful truth of how when we were young and strong we were called to do everything for Jesus and his Church, often lording it over the flock, so powerful as if like a god until all of a sudden without any warning, we just find ourselves already old or sick and weak, bedridden.

That’s when we hear anew Christ our Eternal Priest calling us, this time not to do anything at all but simply hang there on the cross with him like the two thieves at the Calvary.

That is when in our deathbeds we priests call on Christ anew like Dimas, the good thief, admitting all sins and faults while confessing our faith in Jesus.

The priest’s bed is where the priest cultivates his intimacy with Jesus too – his very celibacy and purity, his poverty and simplicity, as well as his docility and obedience not only to his bishop but ultimately to God.

Because it is also on that bed where the priest wages all kinds of battle in his life and ministry until the end, where the devil begins and ends all temptations to displace Christ from the side of the priest.

It is said that when St. Martin of Tours, our patron saint in Bocaue, Bulacan, was dying in Candes (France) surrounded by his disciples, the devil appeared at his bed side, trying to claim his soul. Having lived a life of intense spiritual warfare, most likely some of it in his own bed, St. Martin rebuked the devil with his firm faith in Jesus Christ. The devil vanished and St. Martin died on November 11, 397 AD.

Every night towards the end of our Compline, we pray Simeon’s Canticle, the Nunc Dimittis (Lk.2:29-32) with an antiphon that goes like this: “Protect us, Lord, as we stay awake; that awake we may keep watch with Christ and asleep rest in his peace.” We then close our prayers with the final words, “May the Lord grant us a restful sleep and a peaceful death. Amen.”

It does not really matter whether one is a priest or not. Most of all if your bed is comfortable or not. What is important is that on that bed we are at peace with ourselves, with others and most of all, with God. So, keep your bed sacred at all times.