Lawiswis ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Ika-22 ng Marso 2025
Larawan ng una kong birthday, sigisty years ago; nakaalalay sa akin si mommy (SLN) habang masayang nagsindi ng kandila ang kanyang Ditse, ang Tita Connie na nasa Amerika at buhay pa kasama ng kanyang mga anak na sina Alexis na ka-birthday ko katabi ng mommy at si RAF katabi ko; si Kuya Edgar pinakamatangkad at matanda sa mga pinsan ay nasa Amerika din. Di ko matiyak sinu-sino mga kasama sa party na mga pinsan ko lahat.
Sigisty years old na ako. Sa isang taon sigisty one Sa susunod sigisty two tapos sigisty three sigisty four sigisty five sigisty six sigisty seven sigisty eight at ewan, kung aabutin ko pa mag(ing) sigisty-nine.
Salamuch sa lahat ng mga nakasama at nakasabay sa paglalakbay sa buhay nitong anim na dekada, sa mga naniwala at ayaw pa ring maniwala; ang lahat ay pagpapala ng Mabuting Bathala na sa atin ay lumikha itinakda tayong maging ganap sa piling Niyang Banal.
Maraming dapat ipagpasalamat sa aking mga biyayang natanggap bagaman kulang na kulang at tiyak kakapusin aking mabubuting gawain kaya sana ako ay inyong patawarin lalo ng Panginoong butihin; wala akong panghihinayang sa aking mga nakaraan na kung aking babalikan ay hindi ko na babaguhin bagkus lahat ay uulitin pa rin!
Hindi man pansin ako ay mahiyain, alinlangan sa aking husay at galing, napipigilan palagi lumarga at magsapalaran sa maraming hamon ng buhay kaya't nitong mga nagdaan akin nang pinag-iisipan magpahingalay tigilan nang pakikibaka manahimik na lang, umiwas sa ingay at gulo ng buhay.
Bukod sa 20-percent discount
ng pagiging senior sixty-cent
pinakamasarap sa pagiging sigisty
ang napakaraming ala-alang masarap
balikan maski na marami ring
masasakit at mapapait na di malilimutan
na sadyang sakbibi nating palagi
dapat pa ring ipagpasalamat
sa maraming aral sa atin nagmulat
masarap pa rin ang mabuhay
kaya't sabik ko nang hinihintay
walang hanggang kinabukasan
maaring malasap
ano man ating edad
kung mamumuhay nang ganap.
2004 sa Parokya ng Santisima Trinidad, Malolos City.
Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 20 March 2025
Photo by author, Canyon Woods Resort Club, Laurel, Batangas, 15 March 2025.
“And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” – Paulo Coelho, “The Alchemist”
It is exactly what I am experiencing these days since we had our university management team-building seminar in Batangas last weekend when my realizations there were reinforced in my ongoing annual personal retreat here in Novaliches that started Monday evening.
It is a moment of consolation when suddenly, the whole universe conspires not only to get whatever you want but simply to affirm you being on the right track, giving you the proverbial pat on the shoulder that everything is going fine, everything falling into its right places.
Photo by author with flash, Canyon Woods Resort Club, Laurel, Batangas, 15 March 2025.
Pardon me for writing for the third time about perspectives and point-of-view (POV) as I could not contain the joy of the fruits of my prayers.
Another thing is the fact that when I took these photos randomly, there was no plan at all in writing about the subject of perspective. Never thought how these photos would turn out to be pieces of a jigsaw puzzle on perspective and POV.
We have reflected the other day how our perspectives of things and people as well as events contribute to the understanding or breakdown in communication as they reveal our inner thoughts and dispositions. It is not only important at how we narrate a story from whatever POV but most of all, at how open are we in refining our perspectives so that we achieve unity.
(More photos from our team-building in Batangas.)
Lights at the lobby of Canyon Woods taken from below.
Sunset from my room…
sunrise from same room.
Delighful scene of window and moon at night.
During our Holy Hour Tuesday night to cap our first day of prayers, I realized something very close to our subject of perspective while praying over the following gospel passage regarding the Mystery of God:
Jesus told his disciples, “The lamp of the body is the eye. If your eye is sound, your whole body will be filled with light; but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be in darkness. And if the light in you is darkness, how great will the darkness be” (Matthew 6:22-23).
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 17 March 2025.
When we have the right perspective in life, we get a clear vision of life too.
That is why in our previous blog we have said we need to refine our perspective like an artist who has to spend and invest time not only in his/her studies but most especially in his/her dealing and interactions with people to come up with an obra maestra.
Living, after all, is an art, of our participation in the grace of God to bring out the best in each of us. St. Paul was very clear about this perspective regarding leadership and community life that both aim to show the giftedness of every member.
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 17 March 2025.
Our perspectives are put to the test in moments of darkness like when we are in trials and tribulations, difficulties and crises. It is during darkness in life when people are distinguished from merely having sight or with a vision. According to the American writer Helen Keller, the worst thing that can happen in life is for anyone with sight not to have any vision at all.
Of course, we all know Helen was blind who wrote some of the loveliest poetry of her time.
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 17 March 2025.
Many people just have sight that can be easily blurred that eventually affect their perspective. It is more than looking from the inside or from the outside (POV) but of how we see or look at everything and everyone from within us.
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 17 March 2025.
A person of vision always sees beyond and therefore achieves more, always more fulfilled and fruitful than those who merely sees things, people and events as they are.
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 17 March 2025.
People with the right perspective will always have vision in seeing everything despite many obstacles in life. They remain focused on what they “see” that others could not see at all. With a right perspective and proper vision, that person still sees when “darkness is his only light and hopelessness is his only hope” (T. S. Eliot in Four Quartets).
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 17 March 2025.
My spiritual director since 2016, Jesuit Father Danny Gozar asked me during outside prayer periods that I “deliberately appreciate” God’s creation like feeling the gentle breeze, walking barefooted to be caressed by the green grass soaked in morning dew, feel the burning heat of the sun and if it rains – which it did briefly – try to get wet to feel the raindrops.
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 17 March 2025.
What struck me most were the many sounds of nature here in Sacred Heart Novitiate due to its mini-forest.
Crows caw the whole day along with the crickets while the ugly gecko fills the whole place with its cries of tu…ko! tu…ko!
Their sounds were so musical to my ears, sounds I have last heard decades ago while growing up in the province but almost totally gone in the city.
What is amusing is how with merely the sounds they make, we can form images of how these creatures look like!
The same thing with God himself.
When we are formed in Jesus Christ’s perspectives in life, everything around us becomes a reminder of God’s presence, of himself with us. We cannot see him but with his gift of vision, we see him. And follow him.
That is why, with proper perspective comes vision. Then, mission!
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 17 March 2025.
40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 19 March 2025 Solemnity of St. Joseph, Husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary 2 Samuel 7:4-5, 12-14, 16 + Romans 4:13, 16-18, 22 + Matthew 1:16, 18-21, 24
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 17 March 2025.
God our most loving Father, thank you for this Solemnity of St. Joseph, the most chaste husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary who witnessed to us with his life of faith the important aspects of Lent that have become a rarity these days - silence and stillness in you.
In this world of 24-7 when everything is "instant", we have lost the sense and beauty of silence and stillness in you, O Lord, making us to drift farther away from you, not believing you, not obeying you relying more in our powers and control of everything.
But life is not about doing and things as your Son Jesus have shown us: life is about being and loving, of persons in whom we find you and meaning of our lives.
Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man, yet unwilling to expose her to shame, decided to divorce her quietly. Such was his intention when, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home…She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home (Matthew 1:19-20, 21, 24).
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 17 March 2025.
Teach us, Jesus to be like St. Joseph your foster father to be holy and righteous: obedient to your laws but most of all, faithful and loving to God through one another.
Teach us, Jesus
to be like St. Joseph
your foster father
to be silent because
silence is the domain of trust:
let us trust you more
than our selves,
than our gadgets,
than our modern thoughts
and beliefs;
teach us Jesus
to be like St. Joseph
to be still in this time
when everyone is easily
agitated foolishly
by the cacophony of
various shouts and cries
in social media that are mostly
not true.
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2024.
Teach us, Jesus, that life is a daily Lent, of being silent and still in your presence, in your voice, in your plans so that like St. Joseph your foster father we may take care of you found in each one of us especially the weak and the poor. Amen.
Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 18 March 2025
While I was processing my many realizations and lessons about perspectives and point of view (POV) following our team-building activities over the weekend, the venue’s architecture fascinated me, particularly its solid design of the staircase. I felt they all conveyed to me the very thoughts percolating in me that day of how our perspectives affect our communications, for better or for worst (https://lordmychef.com/2025/03/17/on-the-road-to-my-60th-perspectives-and-pov/).
Where we stand on the staircase is our POV – above on top, at the middle stop or at the bottom part. But how we look at the staircase reveals our perspectives, either we are looking up from or looking down to the floor that can have different impact with others.
The perspectives and views from that experience in Canyon Woods Resort Club in Batangas remained with me until Monday when I arrived at the Sacred Heart Novitiate in Novaliches where I have been going on my personal retreat since 2016.
Stairs at the new Blessed Peter Faber Hall.
It was another lesson in perspectives. They were the same stairs that have been there for almost 75 years with some younger at 30 years which I have seen and walked on the past nine years but it was only now that I have recognized their unique beauty.
And lessons.
Stairs at the main and oldest building at the Sacred Heart Novitiate leading to its chapel at the second floor.
Things change greatly when we see them from the top and from below. The same sights can evoke fear and dangers, or joy of being challenged to climb the flight of stairs.
View from top upon exit from the chapel, same stairs, different perspective.
Perspectives also change especially when we use the modern apps in cameras and phone cameras today like the iPhone 16 I am using lately.
Access ramp at the Faber Hall directly leading to the modern Chapel of the Holy Family.
One can change perspectives by simply editing a photo to change its “mood” to soften or strengthen its impact. Or, change its color to the traditional Black & White I have always loved.
B&W photos evoke simplicity and mystery at the same time. They converse with viewers as if inviting you to provide the “colors”. See the “ironing board” or plantsahan under the stairs that remind us of home.
Our focus and point-of-view convey different perspectives of the same objects as seen from different angles. In this shot below of the side stairs to the dorms at the second and third floors of the Blessed Faber Building are very inviting as if leading you to light or enlightenment that is primarily the reason of most people going on recollections and retreats here.
There is the sense of openness, of opening to God too not only with emphasis on the light that falls on each step but also in revealing the back or bottom part of the stairs, there is the perspective of courage to bare what’s inside. Or underneath. A sense of sincerity.
What’s in a stairway? There were the stairs that caught my attention in Batangas because it was my first time to be there at Canyon Woods Resort Club.
But, here again in my “happy place”, my “Bethel” where like Jacob I “wrestle” with God in prayers every year? Why my attention?
Blame it partly to my anticipation for the coming Netflix documentary on Led Zeppelin whose masterpiece Stairway to Heaven had made a tremendous impact on me as a child growing up in the 1970’s.
During that time, I have heard older people saying rock music was of the devil but I wondered why, if Led Zeppelin was diabolic, were they singing something about the heaven like Stairway to Heaven?
Stairs to the second floor dorm of the Sacred Heart Novitiate, 17 March 2025.
Later on in Grade 5 and 6 in the late 70’s, I heard our religion teachers that included nuns at St. Paul College-Bocaue spoke about Jacob’s dream of a “stairway to heaven”.
Immediately, I realized rock music isn’t bad at all!
And so, after classes I would come home early enough ahead of my father so that I could listen to DZRJ-AM that played all the classic and modern rock music of that time along with Juan Dela Cruz Band and other Pinoy rakistas.
A cozy resting place for souls trying to reach heaven at the mezzanine room of a spiritual director, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 17 March 2025.
Good that I did not listen to some aunts who insisted that I could not become a priest if I followed rock music which did not hinder at all my listening to God about my priestly calling. In 1998, I was ordained priest while still rockin and rollin’ with Led Zep, Steely Dan and other rock bands.
As a priest turning sigisty (60) soon and 27 years in the ministry, my perspective on stairs have evolved: as a priest, my job is to lead others to heaven – whatever song they may be singing. God bless everyone!
Exactly a week before a I turn 60 this Saturday, I was told to join our management committee in their team-building seminar in Batangas. As chaplain of the University, I had to lead the prayers and of course celebrate the Mass the following Sunday.
For the second time since I came to our University, our university officials and administrators had me included in the games that capped the talks in the morning. What a big surprise when finally I was able to decode an experience I have always had with students since my ordination in 1998 whenever I would prepare kids for their First Communion. There has always been this one recurring problem whether in a Catholic school, public school or non-sectarian school – the usual confusion of many children on how to make the Sign of the Cross properly.
Kids are first confused with their left and right hands, on which to make the Sign of the Cross; and their second confusion is where to place the finger(s) for each Person of the Trinity. Even if I have explained we use our right hand with the index and middle fingers together in making the Sign of the Cross, the children are confused at the actual execution because when I face them, they always tried imitating me by instinctively raising their left hand to imitate my movement; everything breaks loose when we make the Sign of the Cross, saying “In the name of the Father” with the fingers on the forehead, and “of the Son” with fingers on their navel and the most confusing part, when they say “and of the Holy” placing their fingers on right instead of left shoulder as they saw me … “Spirit” on the left instead of the right shoulder.
But when I stand beside them, when I am with them as we all face the same direction to the front, children easily learn and follow the Sign of the Cross: no problem raising the right hand because we are all side by side with each other. Most of all, easier to follow the “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” because we are all on the same side. They can easily follow and imitate me.
More than the point of view (POV) in praying, kids realize my perspective better on how I see the Blessed Trinity with the Father up in heaven (forehead), the Son born by the Blessed Mother (navel) and the Holy Spirit as our guide (shoulders).
Very often, POV and perspective are used interchangeably but they are actually worlds apart. And that’s where most confusions arise.
A point of view refers to who is telling the story as a first person, second person, or third person. Perspective is deeper than a POV – it is how the speaker sees the world, it is the interplay of the speaker’s inner dynamics based on one’s beliefs and experiences as well as background. Many times, our perspective colors our POV so much that we presume everything is understood like what the youth would claim as, alam na this! when in fact, hindi nga pala!!!
Our perspectives lead us to what we call “curse of knowledge” when we presume everybody knew what we knew or everybody understood what we have understood. I should have known this long ago while working in radio and television when we were taught to never assume the listener or the viewer knows anything. That is why the TV is called an “idiot box” – because viewers are deemed idiots, a perspective not seen by many viewers because those writers are so good in influencing our perspectives!
Back to our games last weekend in Batangas…
In the second to the last activity we had, ten members of each group were blindfolded, with each holding a string attached to a garter band as its center that would be used to “catch” or “hold” a tennis ball from the ground. One member acts as a leader – in our group it was I! – who gave the instructions and commands to either pull or release one’s string to open or close the garter to hold the tennis ball that had to be brought around a cone without dropping it until the group returns to their starting point. Everything depended entirely on the instructions of the leader and we lost the game miserably because my instructions were not clear enough because it was affected by my perspectives: if I told them to move to my right, it was actually the left of others and vice versa!
That’s when I realized that not everyone sees what we see at the same time. Our perspectives, the way we see things are different that when people tell us something from a different perspective like me in that game, I felt so easy to turn to either left or right because I could see everything but not those blindfolded.
It was very much like in teaching grade three students preparing for their First Communion: when I stood beside them, there was no confusion in using the right hand in making the Sign of the Cross unlike when I just merely faced them, instructing them something that looked so different when executed.
Many times I have been complaining why young people these days have to be “spoon-fed” with everything because we older ones presume they know and understand everything like us! They don’t even know what Cortal is!
Our problem these days is not the generation gap which is actually not a problem but a situation we can easily grasp if we widen our perspectives in life and about other people by being one with them, by being open to them like a friend.
“Don’t walk in front of me, I may not follow; Don’t walk behind me, I may not lead; Walk beside me, just be my friend” (Albert Camus).
When we are fixated with our own perspectives, we tend to assume a lot, then fail to consider others’ perspectives even points of view that lead to breakdown in communication, confusions and misunderstanding then failures.
Many times, we may have the same POV with the same situation but widely different in perspectives. It is impossible to explain or even grasp and feel our hugot for our perspective but by being open, being a friend to others can greatly improve our relationships and productivity. By being more focused with a goal, with an ideal, despite our diverse perspectives, we can still move forward and work together. Best examples were the Twelve Apostles of Jesus who were all of different perspectives in life due to their contradicting backgrounds but were able to achieve the impossible in the grace of God.
Perspectives have to be formed and refined. Like architects and other artists in drawing their “perspectives” of a building or any project, they undergo years of intensive studies and practice to produce things of great beauty. But more than what they know, it is mostly what and how they feel being with other people in trying to see their perspectives which they blend with theirs to create their masterpiece like office buildings and homes, a fashion clothes and jewelries, sculptures and poetry.
Beautiful things happen when there is a blending of peoples’ different perspectives. That is why God became human to finally show us in Jesus Christ his perspective of holiness and goodness, of love and mercy that make us truly a human person, his image and likeness. Jesus did that when he suffered and died on the Cross to be one with us in our sins and mortality so that we may be one with him in his holiness and eternity, blending and uniting our perspectives.
Hope you find this perspective enlightening. Have a blessed day.
40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Monday, Second Week in Lent, 17 March 2025 Daniel 9:4-10 + + + Luke 6:36-38
Photo by author, Canyon Woods Resort, Laurel, Batangas, 15 March 2025.
Lord Jesus Christ, on this first working day of Second Week in Lent, give me the grace to be shamefaced; give me the sense of embarrassment, the sense of sinfulness, a sense of humanity.
Yes, Lord, we have been so callous and numb, so thick-faced as in "kapal"!
“Lord, great and awesome god, you who keep your merciful covenant toward those who love you and observe your commandments! We have sinned, been wicked and done evil; we have rebelled and departed from your commandments and your laws. We have not obeyed your servants the prophets… Justice, O Lord, is on your side; we are shamefaced even to this day… O Lord, we are shamefaced, like our kings, our princes, and our fathers for having sinned against you” (Daniel 9:4-7, 8).
Do not let us sink deeper into sin and misery like your people in the time of your Prophet Daniel, Lord, for us to be shamefaced in admitting our sins, our treachery against you; our nation is so divided these days with no one having any sense of shame at all with the decadence we have sank into like excessive profanities, rampant fake news, overt personalisms, too much politics without any regard at all with what is right and wrong, with what is evil and what is good and worst of all, without any respect for one another and for life in general; many of us have discarded your image and likeness in us as we have lost our sense of sinfulness and shame.
Let us be shamefaced like Daniel, Jesus; mahiya naman kami, Lord!
Before we can be merciful with others, let us be shamefaced first; let us be shamefaced, Jesus, so we can be generous with others for without any shame at all like with what is happening now in our country, we are sinking deeper into the pit of destruction. Amen.
Photo by author, Canyon Woods Resort, Laurel, Batangas, 15 March 2025.
40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Second Sunday in Lent, Cycle C, 16 March 2025 Genesis 15:5-12, 17-18 + Philippians 3:17-4:1 + Luke 9:28-36
Photo by author, the metropolis at night from Timberland Highlands Resort, San Mateo, Rizal, 08 March 2025.
Both our first reading and gospel this Second Sunday in Lent are set in the darkness of the night. Despite being the favorite setting to portray evil and horror not only in movies but even in the Bible, the darkness of the night has a unique charm of its own.
It is in this darkness of the night when the moon and the stars shine brightest. It is in this darkness of the night when we are delighted with the most wonderful ensemble of sights and sound no stage could duplicate when a sparkle of fireflies outline a treetop while crickets and geckos – tuko – with all the other insects and animals sound like a live symphony orchestra.
So many things in this world and in this life are best seen and experienced in the darkness of the night to be truly appreciated. And that is the call to us this second Sunday in Lent – that we enter the darkness in our hearts with the light of Jesus Christ for us to be transformed and transfigured in his image as his disciples.
Jesus took Peter, John, and James and went up the mountain to pray. While he was praying his face changed in appearance and his clothing became dazzling white. And behold, two men were conversing with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his exodus he was going to accomplish in Jerusalem (Luke 9:28-31).
Mosaic inside the Basilica of the Transfiguration on Mt. Tabor, Israel from commons.wikimedia.org.
We have been saying since Ash Wednesday that life is a daily Lent, a daily exodus from darkness into light, from sin into forgiveness, from slavery into freedom.
Every day we “pass over” to many darkness in life like sickness, loss of a loved one, failures and other trials and sufferings that come our way. Sometimes so dark, sometimes not so dark. But most dark of all darkness we go through are those darkness of sin and evil along with its many scars left right in our hearts following the constant temptations by the devil for us to turn away from God, for us to refuse to love others and even our very selves.
Photo by author, St. Paul Spirituality Center, Mt. Pico, La Trinidad, Benguet, 06 January 2025.
Our readings this Sunday assure us that in that it is in those darkness we find God who had come nearest to us in Jesus Christ. It is during those darkness like an exodus that we pass from passion and death to resurrection where Christ is calling us; hence, the need for us to listen to him and follow him. It is from this passing over the darkness of sins and trials when we are purified and transformed, transfigured into better persons and disciples of Jesus because that is where his light is most visible too.
To enter into these dark places in our hearts is the beginning of our conversion, of our daily Lent when we return to God, to his covenant we keep on breaking in sin.
Photo by Ms. Analyn Dela Torre, 12 February 2024 in Bgy. Caypombo, Santa Maria, Bulacan.
Lent as a preparation to Easter is also a renewal this covenant we have in our baptism which we renew every year at the Masses of Easter. That is why we have the story of the covenant of God with Abraham in the first reading that was set at night with the darkness signifying the trials we go through in life.
As the sun was about to set, a trance fell upon Abram, and a deep, terrifying darkness enveloped him. When the sun had set and it was dark, there appeared a smoking brazier and a flaming torch, which passed between those pieces. It was on that occasion that the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying: “To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi of Egypt to the Great River, the Euphrates” (Genesis 15:17-18).
Feel the terrifying character of the event as narrated by the author of Genesis; but, remember also how God remained with Abraham that night. It was after this episode that God first promised Abraham to become the father of all nations with children as many as the stars above.
But it was not all light with Abraham after this episode as he went through a lot of darkness in life like when he wondered when God would finally give him his own son as he grew older. When Isaac was finally born and had grown, God tested Abraham, asking him to sacrifice to him Isaac. Abraham willingly obeyed God that as he was about to kill Isaac, an angel stopped him and told him how God was so pleased with him that he was doubly blessed anew! Abraham passed over that very dark night in his life by completely trusting God who never abandoned him in life! Most of all, because Abraham never backed out from darkness.
Photo by author, St. Paul Spirituality Center, Mt. Pico, La Trinidad, Benguet, 06 January 2025.
That is the charm of darkness: it can bring us fears and anxieties but as one poet said, only the brave who dare to walk the darkness of the night shall see the beauty of the moon and stars above. In a little while after all the uncertainties and difficulties of the night, we arrive at a new day. Darkness is the prelude to light and day.
Entering into those dark places in our hearts can be terrifying but it is the only path towards true freedom with Jesus as our companion in our exodus. Refusal to go into those dark places in our hearts will keep us only deeper in darkness – anxious and afraid, always wondering when we shall see light which will never come unless we come out and pass over the night.
Recent turn of events in our country are so Lenten in nature, our own passover and exodus – hopefully – from darkness into light.
After those long six years of darkness in the deadly war on drugs of the past administration, we finally saw the light of God’s mercy and justice coming with the arrest of the former president.
It must have been so tortuously painful to the families left behind by the thousands of victims of tokhang.
Though I feel so glad with the turn of events, I still refuse to celebrate nor even join the heated discussions. I feel more the need for us to pray and reflect, to find God and where he is leading us — maybe into those dark places in our hearts to see how we too have contributed to that dark period in our history.
A reporter-friend who volunteered in the care for orphans of the tokhang victims recently shared her reflections in these turn of events where she claimed “we are Duterte”.
Huh? It is chockful. And shocking.
As I prayed and reflected on it, I agreed with her. Prior to Duterte’s coming to power, we as a nation have allowed the forces of darkness to come upon us with the RH bill later followed by bills and proposals for divorce, same sex marriage, and return of capital punishment. There was already this great darkness hovering above us even before Duterte came to power.
Sad to say, that darkness started in our hearts which St. John Paul II referred in his encyclical Evangelium Vitae as “culture of death”.
Let us heed the calls by St. Paul in today’s second reading to “stand firm” in Jesus (Phil. 4:1) because to conduct ourselves as “enemies of the cross” of Christ will surely lead only to “destruction” (Phil. 3:18-19). Let us avert our total destruction as a nation by finally confronting the many darkness within us in Jesus Christ. Amen.Have a blessed week ahead.
*Photos in the collage are not mine but from various sources like TIME magazine and Mr. Howie Severino of GMA7 News.
God our loving Father, as we end this first week in Lent, teach us more on the need to be empty of ourselves, empty of our pride for us to be consistent and most especially, kind.
We have been so filled with the world that our hearts burn with anger and hate, totally disregarding reason and morals with so many parents still in grief, crying for their children mercilessly killed on mere suspicions while friends and neighbors even family are caught in a huge web of lies everyone believes; worst, everyone sees one's self being so right while others so wrong, even accusing you, O God, of being "unfair" like during the time of Ezekiel.
How sad in this age of boundless and instant communications, our world had shrunk into little worlds and galaxies of "me and mine and I"; teach us your way of kindness in Jesus so we may see everyone as a "kin" - a kindred, a one of us filled with goodwill for one another; remind us always, Jesus, that it is not enough that we do not just kill anyone but most of all has goodwill with everyone right in our hearts as a sign of true worship for it is only when we see each one as a kin that loving can begin consistently. Amen.
Photo by author, Northern Blossoms Farm, Atok, Benguet, 27 December 2024.
40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Thursday, First Week in Lent, 13 March 2025 Esther C:12, 14-16, 23-35 + + + Matthew 7:7-12
Jesus said to his disciples: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you shall find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened” (Matthew 7:7-8).
Today dear Jesus I pray for all those loved ones left behind by the thousands of people killed during the deadly war on drugs of the previous administration; thank you in answering our prayers and their prayers most especially that finally, justice has come for them and their loved ones.
Forgive me, Lord Jesus, if I ask, or wonder... surely, those people murdered without due process prayed too; what happened to their prayers?
Yes, I am sure, you answer every prayer but I wonder why people, especially the innocent and good ones usually young and helpless for various reasons have to die senselessly?
May we continue
to await your coming,
your answers
to our many
prayers;
may we have the courage
to obey you,
to do your will that
finally, we become our
brother and sister's keeper,
listening to their silent cries
in cold, dark nights of poverty
and indifference among us.
Thank you for clearly answering our prayers the other day, in granting us the same prayer of Queen Esther, of finally saving us from the hand of our enemies, of turning our mourning into gladness and our sorrows into wholeness (Esther 25).
We pray hard today, dear Jesus, that you soften the hearts of those people blinded by their power like the devil that tempted you to prove one's worth by doing everything even if they have to kill; open our eyes to see our worth in our being, in our personhood that never shall it happen again we fail to see you in one another. Amen.
*Photos used in collage taken during Duterte's deadly war on drugs by various photographers we pray for their courage in documenting the evils that pervaded during those years.
40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Wednesday, First Week in Lent, 12 March 2025 Jonah 3:1-10 + + + Luke 11:29-32
Photo by author, Timberland Highlands Resort, San Mateo, Rizal, 08 March 2025.
Fill me, O God, with wonder and awe for you like Jonah! Surprise me always of your goodness among your peoples; help me in my unbelief!
The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: “Set out for the great city of Nineveh, and announce to it the message that I will tell you.” So Jonah made ready and went to Nineveh, according to the Lord’s bidding. Now Nineveh was an enormously large city; it took three days to go through it. Jonah began his journey through the city, and had gone but a single day’s walk announcing, “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed,” when the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth (Jonah 3:1-5).
Loving God our Father, you are so great and awesome, more wide than the great city of Nineveh yet so mysterious that Jonah himself could not believe what he had seen: the people of Nineveh believed in you and repented a mere half day yet when he proclaimed your message to them!
Many times in life, we are like Jonah - very reluctant in following you, in obeying you because your ways are so different, even beyond comprehension yet so real; many times, we feel we know more than you know; most of all, most of the time, we insist our own even to you. Sorry, Lord.
Photo by author, Hidden Valley Springs Resort, Calauan, Laguna, 20 February 2025.
In this Season of Lent, banish our evil thoughts, banish the many reasons and explanations we have to open our minds and our hearts to your mysteries so we may read your many signs of presence and power, love and mercy for us even in this time in the world when it has become more difficult to believe in you due to modern trends, most especially of our own stubbornness; grant us that same disposition you gave Jonah who finally believed and obeyed you in doing your work in the way you want it done. Amen.
