Praying to make our joy complete

Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Thursday in the Fifth Week of Easter, 23 May 2025
Acts 15:7-21     <*((((><  +  ><))))*>     John 15:9-11

*Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2025.*

Make my joy complete,
Lord Jesus,
let your joy be in me
(John 15:11)!

True joy comes only
in union with the Father
like you, dear Jesus;
in a world that had shrunk
into one global village
due to modern technology
that has spawned so many forms
and kinds of connections among peoples,
we are not yet filled with joy, Lord;
in fact, the more we have been
separated than ever because
our "connections" are fleeting,
empty of any love at all;
true connections in you,
with you Jesus lead to joy
as we have seen in the experience
of the early Church:

After much debate had taken place, Peter got up and said to the Apostles and the presbyters… “Why, then, are you now putting God to the test by placing on the shoulders of the disciples a yoke that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear? On the contrary, we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they” (Acts 15:7, 10-11).

When we keep your commandments,
then we remain in your love, Jesus;
that's the only basis and most essential
in every connection and relationship
because when there is love even if in
the midst of pain and suffering,
there is always joy which is more
than a feeling but an assurance that
no matter what, there is God always
on our side, loving us, blessing us
as Peter explained in the Council of Jerusalem;
grant us the grace to remain in your love,
Jesus, to examine in what areas of our life
we remain and grow in your love.
Amen.

*Photo by author, Chapel of the Angel of Peace, Our Lady of Fatima University, Valenzuela City, 28 March 2025.*

Inmost being for connecting, reconnecting

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Tuesday in the Twenty-seventh Week of Ordinary Time, Year II, 08 October 2024
Galatians 2:1-2, 7-14 ><000'> + <'000>< Luke 10:38-42

*Photo by Ms. Ria De Vera at Banff, Canada, August 2024.*

O Lord, you have probed me and you know me, you know when I sit and when I stand; you understand my thoughts from afar. Truly you have formed my inmost being; you knit me in my mother’s womb. I give you thanks that I am fearfully, wonderfully made; wonderful are your works (Psalm 139:1-2, 13-14).

Thank you,
loving God our Father
for this brand new day!
Like the psalmist today,
I am at awe with your creation,
beginning with me
at how you have formed
 my inmost being
that enables me to connect
with You through your wonderful
creation!

In forming my inmost being,
You have made me yours,
enabling me to realize my connection
with You, O God, my Creator
as well as with your entire creation;
and if I am lost or had gone astray,
it is still my inmost being You have formed
in me that enables me to reconnect
with You and myself
and others.

Brothers and sisters: You heard of my former way of life in Judaism, how I persecuted the Church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it… But when he, who from my mother’s womb had set me apart and called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, so that I might proclaim him to the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were Apostles before me: rather, I went into Arabia and then returned to Damascus (Galatians 1:13, 15-17).

How lovely and so true
like St. Paul, 
You have formed our inmost being
so that we may remain connected
or be reconnected with You 
when we are lost
and separated.

Grant us O God
the gift of discipline in 
cultivating a prayer life,
a life centered in You so that 
we remain connected in You
through Jesus Christ like Mary
sitting beside Him at His feet,
listening to His every word;
let us be aware of your precious gift
of our inmost being
by cultivating a prayer life
to make our connections stronger;
You created us, O God
to be connected always
with You,
our self,
and with others;
keep us strong in resisting
temptations to sin,
to separate and be isolated
from You and others
by destroying our connections,
disregarding our inmost being.
Amen.

Re-con-nect

Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 18 March 2024

Had a very wonderful impromptu get together this Sunday with two former students from our girls’ high school in Malolos. But more than having a blast from 25 years we have known one another because Karen had been my student since her elementary school way back in 1998, it was for me a wonderful reconnection as Kweenie noted on our way home after our long lunch.

Reconnection.

The word remained in my mind last night until today as I began my annual personal retreat just before my 59th birthday on Friday. When Karen brought up the idea of having lunch just to see each other, I felt it was more than a coincidence but part of God’s plan for my retreat, which is essentially, a reconnection of the highest order.

And here are my random thoughts on reconnecting before my vacation with the Lord starts tonight.

*Photo by author, Baguio City, 12 July 2023.*

Connect.
From the Latin words, "con" for "with"
and "nectere" or "to bind",
to connect is to bind together;
to fuse, to make as one.
To unite.
Opposite of being connected 
is to be separated.
To be alone.
To be apart.

*Photo by Dra. Mylene A. Santos, MD, in France, 2022.*

God designed nature to be connected:
animal species gather together
as herds and schools and flocks
everywhere while flowers bloom
facing the sun and other plants
as twigs and vines extend so that they
cover everything while trees though
standing apart reach out to other
trees with their tops always bending
towards another tree.

*Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2023.*

How unfortunate 
that we humans 
who were ironically
the only ones created in God's
"image and likeness"
are the ones who tend to separate
always 
from God and one another -
beginning with one's self;
many times in our many "connections"
when we spread ourselves so much
as being scattered,
we get disconnected with 
self,
others,
and God.

Wherever there is disconnection,
there is also sin when connections 
are severed,
cut-off, and destroyed.

*Photo from en.wikipedia.org, “Creation of Adam” by Michaelangelo at the Sistine Chapel, the Vatican.*

God is the most vital of all
of our connections; He is in fact
THE connection because 
He is our life;
to be separated from Him
means sickness or death,
even damnation as in hell;
that is why Jesus came 
so that we may reconnect
with God, 
with self,
and with others.

*Photo by author in Baras, Rizal, January 2021.*

To be connected,
to reconnect is to be whole
again;
getting connected
happens when there is
acceptance of being separated,
when we are humble enough
to say sorry with those
connections we have
abused or taken for granted,
neglected and rejected;
reconnection happens
when we realize that
everything -
time,
place,
people,
and God
are interconnected
as one
big whole
that no matter how small
we may be in this vast universe,
we matter.
That's when we find
meaning and purpose
and direction;
 not far from that,
we find and experience
fullness
amid the
many brokenness.

Lord Jesus,
keep me connected
with you,
with others,
and with my very self.
Amen.