Author: lordmychef

Married life is a prayer

The Lord Is My Chef Recipe for 40th Wedding Anniversary

Tony and Joyce Lopez, 20 October 2019

Presentation of Our Lord Parish, Filinvest 1, Batasan Hills, QC

Tony and Joyce on their 40th Wedding Anniversary, 20 October 2019 at the Presentation of the Lord Parish, Filinvest I, QC joined by their son Atty. JA and wife Kathleen with two kids, and youngest daughter Rosella.

Every Sunday I write a blog connecting the gospel with a secular song.

As I prepared my homily for your anniversary, Joyce and Tony… “the moment I woke up and before your Mommy Fely put on her make-up, I said a little prayer for you.”

Joyce mom Fely Pollard with late husband Charles’ cousin, Beth Javier.

Of course that is not the theme song of Joyce and Tony. They haven’t met yet in 1967 when Dione Warwick recorded I Say a Little Prayer. But they were already married when it became one of the tracks in the movie “My Best Friend’s Wedding” starring Julia Roberts.

And since this is my “best cousin’s wedding anniversary” in this part of the city, I have thought of reflecting on married life as a form of prayer.

In our gospel we have heard Jesus Christ narrating the parable of the unjust judge and persistent widow to underscore “the necessity to pray always without becoming weary” (Lk. 18:1).

Prayer is an expression of faith.

When there is faith, there is also love.

And when there is prayer, faith, and love, what we have is a relationship, a community of believers who love each other.

People who love and believe with each other always talk and communicate. They make time to be with one another. And most often, that is what really matters with people who love and believe – simply to be together.

Even in silence.

Like prayer.

Joyce: “During our first few years as couple, I was the one always embracing Tony; but, later until now, it is Tony who often hugs and embraces me! Nabaligtad ang scenario.”

Prayer is more than asking things from God but most of all, prayer is a relationship with God expressed with others. That is the beauty of the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony: husband and wife are bound together in marriage to become signs of the saving presence of Jesus Christ.

Marriage as a sacrament means it is a prayer as well, a relationship of a man and woman with God as its source and foundation.

I am sure, Joyce and Tony along with all the other married couples here today will agree that married life requires a lot of prayers. In fact, married life is a prayer, a very difficult one that is much needed.

Like in that movie My Best Friend’s Wedding, there are real forces of evil that are trying to destroy couples. So many couples have already fallen, going their separate lives after several years of being together while on the other hand, more and more couples are refusing to get married at all due to this reality of breakups and separations.

And that is why we are celebrating today on this 40th anniversary of Joyce and Tony’s wedding! We are praying with them in expressing our faith and love for them in Christ Jesus. Prayers have kept them together, transforming them into better persons.

At the end of the parable of the persistent widow and unjust judge, Jesus posed a very crucial question for us, especially to every married couple here today: When the Son of Man comes again at the end of time, will he find faith on earth? (Lk.18:8)

Tony and Joyce at Villa San Miguel, Mandaluyong 1979.

And what shall be our response?

“Yes, Lord, you shall find faith when you come again in Joyce and Tony!”

Like Moses in the first reading, they both prayed hard with arms outstretched on many occasions as they battled life’s many challenges and struggles.

“Yes, Lord, you shall find faith when you come again in Joyce and Tony” because they have both proclaimed your word with persistence, whether it is convenient or inconvenient like St. Paul in his second letter to Timothy. They have weathered so many storms in the past 40 years and your words, O Lord, have kept them together, sharing these with their children and with everyone in their life of fidelity and love.

“Yes, Lord, you shall find faith when you come again in Joyce and Tony” now before your altar to renew their vows to love and cherish each other for the rest of their lives!

“Yes, Lord, you shall find faith when you come again” among the many couples gathered here who have remained faithful to each other despite their many sins and failures, weaknesses and shortcomings.

Joyce and Tony, you are not only a prayer of faith but also a homily of the Holy Matrimony, showing us the light and power of Jesus Christ to transform people in prayer and bring them to fulfillment.

Prayer does not change things like typhoons and earthquakes. We cannot ask God in prayer to spare us from getting sick or be exempted from life’s many trials and sufferings. Prayer cannot stop those from happening.

What prayer does is change us, change our attitude so we may hurdle life’s many blows and obstacles. Especially with couples who always find God in their lives, in good times and in bad.

Prayers transform us into better persons as children of God, especially couples who eventually look like brothers and sisters after living together in faith, hope and love.

Tony and Joyce, I am sure everyone in our family and among your friends here can attest to the many good things that have transformed you in the past 40 years.

You have changed to become the best for each other.

In the bible, the number 40 means perfect.

May God continue to perfect you, Tony and Joyce.

Keep us too in your prayers as we pray for you. Amen.

Our gift to God

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Wednesday, Week XXIX, Year I, 23 October 2019

Romans 6:12-18 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Luke 12:39-48

Sacred Heart Novitiate in Novaliches, QC, July 2017.

God our Father, All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day are still a week from now but today’s gospel reminds us that death is so certain to come one day to each one of us.

Nobody is exempted.

And the sooner we come to accept this fact and reality, the better for us.

Then Peter said, “Lord, is this parable meant for us or for everyone?” And the Lord replied, “Who, then, is the faithful and prudent steward whom the master will put in charge of his servants to distribute the food allowance at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master on arrival finds doing so.”

Luke 12:41-43

Too often, we are like St. Peter, feeling so secured with our association with you, that we are always exempted from others.

Today you are reminding us that death will certainly come to each one of us, your stewards here on earth.

Remind us that the greatest gift you have entrusted with us is this gift of self, this gift of life.

Give us the grace to use our very selves, our whole body, for your greater glory as St. Paul told the Romans in our first reading.

It is in coming to terms with death when we begin to come to terms with life because that is when we start living authentically and readily for the great inevitability.

Not in fear but in great honor and privilege in serving you well, our Lord.

Whatever we do with our life shall be our gift to you. Amen.

Panalangin sa dalawang makabagong San Juan ng Simbahan

Lawiswis ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Ika-22 ng Oktubre 2019

San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Patron ng Bayan ng Diyos sa Bagbaguin, Santa Maria, Bulacan. Larawan ay kuha ni Bb. Jo Villafuerte, Pistang Pasasalamat 22 Setyembre 2019.
Minamahal naming Patron na Banal, 
Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista po ang inyong ngalan
ngayo'y aming ipinagdiriwang sa buong Simbahan 
dalawang bagong Banal, kapwa pastol ng kawan, 
nang manungkula'y pangalan mo ang hiniram.
Nauna'y si San Juan Beinte-tres 
nang sa kanyang katandaan tulad mo,
sinikap maging makabuluhan at buhay na palatandaan ng Diyos
ang Inang Simbahan sa gitna ng makabagong panahon
nang kanyang simulan ang Ikalawang Konsilyo sa Vatican. 
Kasabay niyang tinanghal bilang Banal 
ang tinaguriang Dakilang San Juan-Pablo Ikalawa
labis na pagtitiis ang kinamit sa kanyang sakit, 
krus ay sinapit, katulad mo’y naging malapit
sa Ina ni Hesus kaya’t “Totus Tuus” ang kanyang awit.
Itulot mo aming Mahal na San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista,
kaming iyong mga anak sana’y matularan
pinagsikapan ng dalawang bagong San Juan:
pamilya’t sambayanan mabuklod sa kaisahan
katulad ng dalangin ni Hesus sa Huling Hapunan. AMEN.
San Juan Ebanghelista, ipanalangin mo kami.
San Juan Beinte-tres, ipanalangin mo kami.
San Juan-Pablo Ikalawa, ipanalangin mo kami.



Our two humanity

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Tuesday, Memorial of St. Pope John Paul II, 22 October 2019

Romans 5:12. 15. 17-19. 20-21 ><)))*> Luke 12:35-38

From Google.

Praise and glory to you, O God our loving Father!

Thank you very much in giving us the great St. John Paul II.

When I think and remember him, the more I feel the reality of St. Paul’s words today:

Where sin increased, grace overflowed all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through justification for eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Romans 5:20-21

Yes, you made us experience your loving presence among us O God in Jesus Christ during the pontificate of St. John Paul II. He lived in our own time when there was so much sin and evil in the world that he courageously battled head on with his life and preaching.

How true were the words of St. Paul today: there is that part of our sinful humanity in Adam still thriving in the world with its “culture of death” as St. John Paul II would always say.

On the other hand, St. John Paul II showed us in his life, words and examples our redeemed humanity in Christ, especially when he would always insist we can only find fulfillment in you, O dear Jesus.

Reawaken within us O Lord today on this memorial of St. John Paul II his favorite quote from you when he was elected St. Peter’s successor on October 16, 1978 – “Be not afraid!”

Let us “gird our loins” to continue to proclaim you, Lord Jesus Christ into this new millennium the way St. John Paul II envisioned when we crossed into the great jubilee of 2000. Amen.

From Google.

When faith is not enough

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Monday, Week XXIX, Year I, 21 October 2019

Romans 4:20-25 ><)))*> <*(((>< Luke 12:13-21

Baguio Cathedral, January 2019.

God our Father, so often we profess our faith in you.

But so often, it is not authentic faith at all because it is more of manipulating you for we can actually see all possibilities.

Like that someone in the crowd who said to Jesus:

“Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.” Jesus replied to him, “Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?” Then he said to the crowd, “Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions.”

Luke 12:13-15

Forgive us Lord in believing more in our selves than in you, in believing our selves that we can use you for our selfish ends even if it something rightly ours.

Give us an authentic faith like that one Abraham had when he believed in you, O God, that you would still fulfill your promise to make him the father of all nations despite his advanced age as well as Sarah’s condition.

As explained by St. Paul in today’s first reading, teach us to have the same faith of Abraham who showed a kind of resurrection faith – of faith that God could bring forth life from the barren or “dead” womb of Sarah.

A “faith that justifies” like that of Abraham is a faith that saves because more than fulfilling his promise, Abraham believed that God can bring back to life anyone already dead like the womb of wife Sarah who was already old and barren.

Let us grow in having an authentic faith like Abraham who entrusted his total self to you, Lord, even if human reason reason tells us there is no hope at all. Amen.

Kindly say a prayer for the recovery of our brother priest, Fr. Federico dela Cruz, who had brain surgery last night due to a head injury he sustained in an accident Saturday night. Thank yo.

“I Say a Little Prayer” OST “My Best Friend’s Wedding” (1997)

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music, 20 October 2019

Photo by Emre Kuzu on Pexels.com

It’s a lovely Sunday especially for all married couples.

I am officiating the 40th Wedding Anniversary later today of a dear cousin when I remembered the 1997 movie “My Best Friend’s Wedding” with one of its most romantic scene with the singing of I Say a Little Prayer.

Composed by Burt Bacharach and Hal David in 1966 for Dionne Warwick, the song is meant to convey the woman’s sentiment for her man serving at the Vietnam War. It was finally released in 1967 and became an instant hit not only in the US but around the world. Since then, I Say a Little Prayer has been covered so many times even by male vocalists and went back to the charts again in 1997 as one of the tracks in the romantic comedy that starred Julia Roberts.

Prayer is the expression of our faith that always presupposes the presence of love. If there is love, there must be a community, a relationship.

Like people who love each other, believing in each other, they always speak and communicate even in silence. What matters most is their being together, their being one in faith and in love.

Exactly like in prayer.

If we love God, then we must always speak to him and most of all, be one with him, like most people who truly love.

We have chosen that lovely scene from “My Best Friend’s Wedding” singing I Say a Little Prayer because it evokes a lot about prayer: faith and love and relationships.

Most of all, in that movie, the prayer was heard loud and clear for Julia’s best friend.

See the movie again and have those kilig moments back with your loved one 22 years ago.

Prayer is a relationship

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe, Week XXIX-C, 20 October 2019

Exodus 17:8-13 ><}}}*> 2 Timothy 3:14-4:2 ><}}}*> Luke 18:1-8

A pilgrim writing petitions inside a “cave” chapel of the Blessed Virgin Mary in St. George’s Church in Madaba, Jordan. May 2019.

We have seen these past two weeks the importance of faith in our lives. The other Sunday Jesus assured us that faith is a gift freely given to us by the Father that enables us to make it through this life’s many challenges. It is also faith that heals and saves us as seen in the healing of the ten lepers last Sunday.

For the next three Sundays beginning today, faith would still be the main theme of our gospel but, each week we are offered with its different aspects that enrich and fulfill our lives.

Today, Jesus shows us that where there is faith, there is always a relationship that springs forth nourished by prayer.

Jesus told them a parable about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary. He said, “There was a judge in a certain town who neither feared God nor respected any human being. And a widow in that town used to come to him and say, ‘Render a just decision for me against my adversary.’ For a long time the judge was unwilling, but eventually he thought, ‘While it is true that I neither fear God nor respect any human being, because this widow keeps bothering me I shall deliver a just decision for her lest she finally come and strike me.'”

Luke 18:1-5
Mirador, Baguio City, January 2019.

Everybody is saying we should pray. Especially us priests.

But rarely do we explain why we should pray. Worst of all, many among us teach the misconception that we have to pray so God would pour out his blessings upon us, the so-called “health and wealth” preaching to collect more donations!

Prayer is not merely for asking favors from God because he knows what we need and grants these even before we ask him or even without us asking him. Praying for special favors is the lowest form of prayer, the one at the bottom, if you remember our acronym “ACTS”: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication.

Prayer is primarily about relationships, of keeping our ties with God closer and personal. It is an expression of our faith in God, something innate within us that we must cultivate for it to blossom and bear much fruit for us.

Prayers do not change things and situations like typhoons and earthquakes.

Prayers change us – our person and attitudes in dealing with life’s blows. It makes us more humane, more kind, more like God to whom we cling to when we pray.

See how the widow pleaded to the heartless judge because she not only believed she deserved justice but she saw a glimmer of humanity in him that even for a small chance he would render her with a just decision because she’s a fellow human being.

And she succeeded in pursuing it!

The widow had such deep faith that the evil judge would recognize their “link” or relationship as humans.

This we find clearer in Jesus explaining the parable.

Photo by Mr. Jim Marpa at Palo, Leyte, September 2019.

The Lord said, “Pay attention to what the dishonest judge says. Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones who call out to him day and night? Will he be slow to answer them? I tell you, he will see to it that justice is done for them speedily. But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

Luke 18:6-8

The title “Lord” is a post-Resurrection address given to Jesus Christ by the disciples when their faith had been deepened by the Holy Spirit. Here, Jesus is introducing something more profound about the necessity to pray always without becoming weary – we pray to be with God, to be one in him by being “justified” or being saved!

Here now is the deeper reason why we must pray always: to be one with God.

And from that comes the crux of the gospel today when the Lord asked, “will he find faith on earth when he comes?”

That question sheds light to the parable which is more than praying unceasingly to God for some favors but to deepen that faith and relationship with God who is our very life, our healing, and our salvation.

That question sheds light to the parable which is about the need to constantly reawaken that faith with prayers as expression of our deep love for Jesus Christ, himself the “word who became flesh” we must proclaim always until he comes again according to St. Paul in the second reading.

That question by Jesus challenges our faith to be like Moses and Joshua remaining focused with God in prayer as we battle life’s many trials and difficulties, challenges that sometimes force many of us to abandon him or change our religious affiliations as if there are different Gods!

Finally, that question probes our hearts not only for faith but also for love for God expressed in our prayers. Where there is faith, there is always relationship, and therefore, there is also love.

And here, we do not merely mean reciting prayers but having a “prayer life” – a communion and intimacy with the Lord cultivated in a disciplined life of prayer because people who truly love always talk and communicate with each other.

Most of all, people who love and have faith in each other always spend time together even in silence. Just like in prayer!

Handle life with prayer always. Have a blessed week ahead!

“Losing One’s Head and Self in Prayer”. Photo by Ms. JJ Jimeno of GMA-7 News at the Blessed Sacrament Chapel of the Holy Sacrifice Parish, UP Diliman, QC, June 2019.

Remembering Mary and our own mother on this month of Rosary

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Friday, Feast of St. Luke the Evangelist, 18 October 2019

2 Timothy 4:10-17 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Luke 10:1-9

From Google.

Lord Jesus Christ, on this feast of your Evangelist and Apostle St. Luke that falls in the month of the Holy Rosary, we remember your Mother and our Mother too, the Blessed Virgin Mary.

It is so edifying to learn that St. Luke did not only write a two-part series of your gospel but is also considered as the first iconographer of the Blessed Mother Mary.

Mother of Perpetual Help. Photo from Aleteia/Google.

How wonderful that there are four popular icons of Mary attributed to him: the Our Mother of Perpetual Help, the Our Lady of Czestochowa, the Our Lady of Vladimir, and the Salus Populi Romani or Mother of the Savior of the Roman People.

These are considered as the earliest icons of Mary and although there are not enough historical proofs to ascertain these traditions of whether St. Luke could have painted these icons or not, one thing clearly remains: St. Luke had a particular trait of the Blessed Mother of being faithful in Jesus Christ.

Our Lady of Czestochowa. Photo from Aleteia/Google.

St. Paul tells us in our first reading this wonderful distinction of St. Luke that is so similar with the Virgin Mary for being faithful and true to Jesus most especially during his darkest moments in life while there on the Cross. See how St. Paul narrated in the first reading his sad plight with no one else left to accompany him but St. Luke.

Our Lady of Vladimir. Photo from Aleteia/Google.

Beloved: Demas, enamored of the present world, deserted me and went to Thessalonica, Crescens to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia. Luke is the only one with me.

2 Timothy 4:10-11

Mary stayed at the foot of the Cross of Jesus Christ, remaining faithful and true to her Son and Lord. Like Mary, St. Luke stayed behind with St. Paul in prison.

Too often, O Lord, we feel like St. Paul, of being so alone and abandoned with no one to turn to in times of trials and sufferings.

Like that famous tune by the Beatles, we find solace in the warmth and love of our own mother who has become like Mother Mary to us. Paul McCartney admitted that those lines of their last famous song was inspired by his own mother and the Blessed Mother herself.

When I find myself in times of troubles

Mother Mary comes to me.

Speaking words of wisdom: Let it be.

Paul McCartney, “Let It Be”

Maybe, St. Luke must have developed that devotion and love for the Blessed Mother Mary from the great love he had experienced from his own mother who must had been so loving and merciful, faithful and simple in her ways.

Salus Populi Romani. From Aleteia/Google.

Most of all, in both his gospel and Acts of the Apostles accounts, St. Luke never failed to mention the important role Mary played in giving birth to Jesus and taking care of his infant community, the Church, after he had Ascended into heaven.

Mary has always been there, her presence inspiring the Apostles and early Christians to strive further in the mission of evangelization.

And so, we pray for all mothers, especially our own mother who taught us our first prayers, narrated our first stories from the Bible, and taught us as well as made us feel the immense love of Jesus for each one of us.

Behind every evangelist and missionary is always a faithful and loving mother like Mary. In response to calls by Jesus Christ to pray that the Master of harvest may send out more workers for his harvest, bless all mothers to ensure that children continue to experience the love of the Father for everyone.

Always misunderstood in her ways and concern for us, we pray for all mothers may have the strength and patience to stand by their children even in their old age. And when their final hour comes to leave this earth, we pray Lord Jesus that you make it peaceful as you grant them eternal rest with your Mother Mary. Amen.

St. Luke, pray for us to genuinely love our mother and the Blessed Mother Mary too!

We are nothing without God

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Thursday, Week XXVIII, Year I, 17 October 2019

Romans 3:21-30 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Luke 11:47-54

Photo by Mr. Jim Marpa, September 2019.

O God our loving Father, we worship you and praise you for your majesty and kindness.

In this world where the self-made person is the ideal and economic achievement is the benchmark of success, everybody has become so busy in achieving something, carving a name for one’s self that we forget you.

We have become so proud and vain, O Lord!

Once we have tasted the sweet elixir of “success” in life, the more we thirst and work for so many other things until we finally forget you.

And that is when we become so proud, claiming everything is because of us – that, we are good, we are talented, we are brilliant. We are god, in fact.

But, Lord, I felt it too that when I boast of something in myself, I always run out of many other good things to be proud of myself! I just noticed that whatever we boast in life, it is always the same we thing just boast over and over again to make it big because the truth is, we have nothing to be proud of by our mere selves alone apart from you.

Worst, like in the gospel today, behind every boast we brag is a “woe” from Christ, of trails of evil and sin behind the “success” we are so proud of.

Forgive us, O Lord, for being so proud, for feeling like you, a God.

And this is the funny thing I have realized too about boasting: the more I see whatever I have in life as a grace from you, the more I see so many other good things in me to be proud of because of YOU!

St. Paul was absolutely right: we have all been redeemed and save by God in Christ Jesus. We are all forgiven and beloved sinners of God.

Should we brag or boast of anything, we can only do so in Christ because we all live in utter dependence in you, God.

There is nothing we can do in this world without your grace, O loving God. Amen.

Big little things

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Wednesday, Week XXVIII, Year I, 16 October 2019

Romans 2:1-11 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Luke 11:42-46

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Your gospel today O Lord Jesus Christ is so tasty and testy at the same time.

The Lord said: woe to you Pharisees! You pay tithes of mint and of rue and every garden herb, but you pay no attention to judgment and to love for God. These you should have done, without overlooking the others.

Luke 11:42-44

How funny it is O Lord that we often “tilt the scales” in our favor just to accommodate our whims and selfish motives in fulfilling your will.

So many times we are like the Pharisees who have become so strict with the minutest details of the Laws like “tithes of mint and of rue and every garden herb” forgetting the very reason why these little things were given importance and emphasis.

Most of the time, we forget that the little things in this world are given prominence not because of its being small but for us to realize the impact they can have in our lives, that little things are actually the biggest things in life that when added can make up the bulk of who we really are.

Let us heed St. Paul’s warning in the first reading that you O Lord is impartial: everyone, everything matters to you. May we stope categorizing people and things as useful or not because everyone and everything matters with God. Amen.