“See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father.”
Matthew 18:10
Almost all the religions in the world believe in the existence of guardian angels who guide people and protect them from harm.
From the Greek angelos that means “messenger”, angels are exactly that: messengers from God or “divine apps” who work like Messenger!
Last summer break, I have learned something “millennial” and at the same time very theological or spiritual when some of our former teachers in a school where I used to be assigned reprimanded me – even scolded me – for putting them always on “seen zone”. If you are a dinosaur like me, seen zone is when you send somebody a message (PM) and that person sees it but refuses to give any reply, to the extent of ignoring not only your message but most of all, you. I still have contentions against this but, that’s how most of people take a seen zone: a kind of disrespect, that you are not important.
What was so embarrassing with my new learning was the realization of how stupid I have been until recently when I would “seen zone” people with pathetic late response saying, “sorry just saw your message now”. How I wish I could turn back the time…
Anyway, I have learned my lesson so well that since May I have been very careful with “PM’s” as I tried to be more kind and gentle in Messenger.
But, there is something very interesting in this popular app in relation with our celebration today of the memorial of the guardian angels.
So many times, we give our guardian angel or God’s messenger with the “seen zone” like in Messenger. We ignore the angel’s admonition to avoid sin and do what is good. Like in Messenger’s seen zone, we totally ignore and disregard our guardian angel until we get into the “sin zone”.
Ignore what you have read in Messenger, you go into a seen zone that may be temporary and not really that serious at all. But, lo! worse is the “sin zone” when you ignore the Divine messenger because you ignore God who sent us his angels with his messages of love and mercy, peace and salvation!
Today we are reminded that inasmuch as we try to behave properly in social media where we interact virtually in real time, God and his angels do relate with us in real time but not in virtual but actual reality.
If we try hard doing everything not to hurt our friends with seen zone, all the more we must try to avoid the sin zone that have more serious repercussions up to eternal life. Amen.
Para sa henerasyon ngayon wala sa kanilang isipang puntahan ni pasyalan mga perya at karnabal ng kabukiran; katawa-tawa at walang kuwenta sa kanila ang sumakay sa tsubibo at ruweda, panoorin mga salamangkero at payaso at mas gusto maglaro ng mga video.
Mga dambuhalang kahon ng sapatos na ginawang pamilihan, tinaguriang mall naging pasyalan kung saan natatagpuan pinagtatawanang perya at karnabal ng kabukiran naging sosyal na pasyalan ng mga kabataan.
Ngunit hindi alintana, lingid sa mga mata higit katawa-tawa mga pormahan at pasiklaban masahol pa sa mga peryaan at karnabal ating kalagayan nang mismo ating buhay naging isang malaking palabas na lamang mistulang mga salamangkero at payaso na rin tayo inaasam-asam ay palakpakan at hangaan.
Saan man pumunta ay kapuna-puna tila ang lahat nang-aagaw pansin ibig sa kanya lamang nakatingin kaya anu-ano gagawin, iba-iba sasabihin pananamit at asta di mawari ngunit kung susuriin, agad mabubuking parang ampaw, wala kungdi hangin.
Hindi na ba natin napapansin nangyayari sa atin saan man tumingin tila lahat nagiging palabas na lamang walang laman ni kahulugan mga pinagtutuunan; nahan ang kadluan ng karunungan at kabutihan na pinabayaang matuyuan maubusan ng katangiang kapitag-pitagan?
Walang nasasagwaan ni kinikilabutan pangangalandakan ng kapalaluan at kawalang kabuluhan loob kinalimutan, panlabas pinahalagahan perya at karnabal di na nga pinupuntahan dahil tayo na mismo ang katatawanan! Hindi ba natin alam iyan ang malagim na katotohanan dapat tayong kabahan kung di sumasagi sa ating kalooban?
Chapel of San Padre Pio at San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy. Photo by Arch. Philip Santiago, 2017.
Praise and glory to you, O Lord our God and almighty Father! You never cease to amaze us, doing great marvels for us your people. Despite our sins, you always make yourself present among us in so many ways.
In the first reading from Ezra, you have used the pagan king of Persia, Cyrus, to be the instrument in fulfilling your promise to Israel to bring them back home from their Babylonian exile.
In our modern time, you have sent us San Padre Pio to prove and show to us that worrying is useless in this age when we believe and rely more with science and technology than with you, a loving and personal God who had come to us in Jesus Christ.
Teach us to be like San Padre Pio to “pray, hope and not worry” by embracing Christ crucified, by bearing all the pains and sufferings in love contrary to the ways of the world seeking power, wealth, fame, and pleasures.
From Google.
May we befriend silence and prayer than the noise of the world; may we persevere in patiently waiting for you than be in the foolish “rat race” with no winner at all; and, may we believe in things we cannot see with our eyes contrary the modern dictum to see is to believe.
Give us the courage of San Padre Pio to bring out your light, Lord, especially at this time when people claiming to be liberal and progressive are calling for so many rights that are outrightly wrong, destroying the human person, family, and society.
May our hands bear the wounds of your crucifixion, Lord Jesus, like San Padre Pio in praying to you and serving you through those most in need. Amen.
Lawiswis Ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Ika-26 ng Agosto 2019
Mula sa Google.
Ano ba itong pinagsasabi ni Imee na technically wala tayong bayani kasi walang upisyal na sinasabi kung sinu-sino ating mga bayani?
Pati ba naman sa mga bayani kailangan pang gamitan ng technicality?
Kung sabagay, hindi rin masisisi si Imee sa pagsasabi at pag-iisip ng ganiri dahil ito ang nakadidiri: pamilya niya'y yaring nagpipilit kilalanin silang bayani!
Technically, Imee, maski pilitin mo kami kailanma'y hindi magiging bayani iyong dadi lalo na noong kami'y inyong dinale Nobyembre 2016 nang dalhin ninyo siya sa Libingan ng mga Bayani.
Kailangan pa ba ang technicality gayong nauuna palagi pagkabayani maliban lamang kapag wala naman talagang kabayanihang nangyari!
At ito ang higit na nakakadiri sa pinagsasabi ni Imee: hindi maikakaila, huling-huli pineke ng kanyang dadi pagkabayani na hindi naman nangyari at ni walang nakasaksi maliban kanyang sarili?!
Napatunayan ng U.S. Army noon pang 1980's sa masusi nilang pagsasaliksik na isang panloloko at walang katotohanan mga pinangalandakang U.S. war medals ni Marcos noong ikalawang digmaang pandaigdig.
Higit pa sa technicality kungdi historicity ang nagsasabi sino talaga ang bayani sapagkat tiyak na mamumulaklak at hahalimuyak ano mang buti naihasik ng sino man na bayan ang inuna bago ang sarili!
Friday, Memorial of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, 09 August 2019
Deuteronomy 4:32-40 >< )))*> <*((( >< Matthew 16:24-28
A 1970 stained-glass window of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross by German artist Alois Plum at the Herz Jesu Church in Kassel, Germany. She holds a book symbolising her learning, wears a Star of David as a sign of her Jewish roots, and is consumed by flames to refer to her martyrdom at the Nazi gas chambers of Auschwitz. Photo from Google.
Praise and glory to you O Lord our God! Indeed, there is no other God except you as Moses reminds us in today’s first reading:
“Ask now of the days of old, before your time, ever since God created man upon the earth; ask from one end of the sky to the other: Did anything so great ever happen before? Was it ever heard of? Did a people ever hear the voice of God speaking from the midst of fire, as you did, and live? Or did any god venture to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by testings, by signs and wonders, by war, with his strong hand and outstretched arm, and by great terrors, all of which the Lord, your God, did for you in Egypt before your very eyes? All this you were allowed to see that you might know the Lord is God and there is no other.”
Deuteronomy 4:32-35
And yet, O Lord, still many refuse to believe in you especially when hard times come upon us like wars and persecution.
This month of August, you gifted us with two great saints martyred at the gas chambers of Auschwitz: St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, also known as St. Edith Stein whose memorial we celebrate today, and, St. Maximilian Kolbe whose feast is on the 14th.
Both are modern saints whose lives and times are very close and similar with our generation. Both saints have made you present, O God, at a time when many people thought and believed you were absent.
“Those who seek the truth seek God, whether they realize it or not.” St. Edith Stein.
Born from a devout Jewish family, you showed your presence in the life of St. Teresa Benedicta with your gift of superior intellect. Although she had openly declared her being an atheist at the young age of 13, you never stopped “seducing” her in searching you in her studies of philosophy, giving her a rare chance to work closely with the leading thinkers at that time.
Slowly, she found you in her studies and in the Church that she converted to Catholicism!
And when you have caught her, O Lord, the more you inflamed her heart to seek you and be one with you by becoming a Carmelite nun through the writings of St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross.
You have revealed so much truths to her, O God, reaching its highest point in giving her the grace to join your Son Jesus Christ in losing her life as his witness in the gas chambers in 1942.
Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
Matthew 16:24-25
In our present age, so many people are also thinking that you do not exist, Lord; some have already stopped believing in you, having themselves as the measure and standard of what is true, moral, and decent.
How sad that in this modern age when we are supposed to have advanced in our knowledge and thinking, we have remained so inhuman in our dealing with one another: wars and genocides of peoples continue while the weakest members of the human race, those old and sick and those helpless in their mother’s wombs, are murdered for the sake of economic well-being. How wonderful in having a woman saint so accomplished in life like St. Edith Stein when until now women are disrespected and regarded inferior to men.
Give us, Lord, the same clarity of mind and firmness of will and heart in standing for what is true like St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross so that we may also make you present in this world. Amen.
Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 15 July 2019
Photo by John Bonding, Architecture&Design Magazine, 25 May 2019 via Facebook.
This is not another homily about yesterday’s Parable of the Good Samaritan. I am very sure you have heard so much about it. In fact, you must have memorized that parable, too. And most likely, you also believe there is nothing else new in that parable. Its conviction remains true that we are all neighbors, that the question we must be asking is not “who is my neighbor” but, “do I act as a neighbor to others”?
However, in this complicated age of tweets and hashtags when everything is shortened, either abbreviated or initialized, the question “who is my neighbor” has become very legitimate again these days when technology has taken the center stage of our lives and relationships.
Two months ago I officiated the wedding of a friend’s youngest brother who sent me a gist of their “love story” that I may incorporate in my homily. Fact is, I have already worked out the outline of my homily for his wedding except that I really had a hard time deciphering the meaning of the three letters he had mentioned about their love story: “LDR”.
After several minutes, I finally got what he meant with those letters that stand for “Long Distance Relationship”.
Okay, I admit being too old for those kind of talkies with so many abbreviations that litter Facebook posts from “OMG” to “ootd” with a host of other letter combinations that I really do not understand at all even when given with their meanings.
This sudden surge in usage of so many abbreviations and initials is spawned by modern technologies in communication that still continue to evolve. Truly, the medium is the message. When we were growing up in the 70’s and 80’s, typewriters reigned supreme. We knew only two important abbreviations that time, “cc” for “carbon copy” and “asap” for “as soon as possible”.
With the demise of Messrs. Remington and Underwood following the rise of PC’s and Macs along with smartphones that all use the venerable “qwerty” board of old, we are now deluged with all of these initials and abbreviations. At least, those hardly used signs on the typewriter keys like @, #, and _ finally came more alive in this age of dot.coms.
There is nothing wrong with these developments but when these abbreviations and initials as well as signs and symbols are applied onto humans, problems begin to happen. This is when people are “materialized” while things are “personalized”. See how the benighted souls on television, from program hosts and celebrities to journalists using the Filipino personal pronoun “siya” for he/she/his/her when speaking of food and typhoons like “masarap siya” (he/she is delicious) or “siya ay magbubuhos ng ulan” (he/she will pour rains). How insanely they use the Filipino demonstrative pronoun “ito” or this for persons like “ito ang nanay ko” (this is my mother instead of she is my mother) or “ito ang mahal ko” (this is my beloved instead of he/she is my beloved)!
You see how we have now come to regard persons as things and things as persons?
And worst, we now see persons as food to be eaten and consumed when good looking men and women are described as “yummy” and “delicious”. It is utilitarianism at its worst when people are seen like food as if they are good only when “fresh, hot and tasty” but when already old and sickly, they are regarded like leftovers kept on the fridge, even discarded. In the same manner, see how in our country we take people like ice cream with those belonging to the “AB” crowd or the rich and famous as “flavor of the month” or “all-time favorite” while those from the lower segment of the society, the “CDE” or “chineleas-duster-estero” crowd as “dirty ice cream” or sorbetes.
From Google.
Here lies the legitimacy of the question who is my neighbor? — when we not only shorten words for the sake of convenience and do the same to persons, shortchanging them with the respect and dignity we all deserve.
A friend and fellow blogger recently wrote a piece about the growing number of young people who are so inconsiderate in using specific lanes and counters reserved for seniors and PWD’s in malls and stores. Even in churches, there are also inconsiderate, and hypocrite or unChristian, able-bodied people occupying pews reserved for seniors and PWD’s, claiming they will just leave and move when they arrive?! How I really feel like adding to our notes that “This pew is reserved for seniors and PWD’s. And morons too.”
How ironic that in this age when almost everyone is supposed to be tech savvy, being able to read every sign and logo yet refuse to respect give way to our seniors and PWD’s. Here is a classic case of us having smartphones but not so smart people, guided missiles and misguided children. They are like the Levite and the priest in the parable of the Good Samaritan who simply “saw” the victim lying on the road, failing to see him as another person in need. Unlike the Samaritan who saw the victim and was moved with compassion to help him.
From Google.
The question “who is my neighbor” becomes more legitimate and pressing when we in the Church, in our own homes and family are overtaken by things of the world, from money and gadgets to fame and convenience that we not only forget one another but ultimately Jesus Christ our Lord and Master.
When we are more concerned with raising funds or earning money for more buildings, more gadgets, for more privileges and convenience, becoming vain even if beyond our means or not in our calling and state of life, that is when people start asking again “who is my neighbor” because nobody seem to care anymore. No one is with compassion and mercy anymore that everybody seem to have become robots and sadly, inhuman when all we see are things than persons.
The Church since Vatican II has always seen these modern means of communications as gifts from God meant to be used for the the “advancement and unity” of man (Communio et Progressio). Let us put technology and things at their proper place. And that is always at the service of mankind and glory of God.
Lawiswis ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog, ika-27 ng Mayo 2019
Larawan mula sa Google.
Ipagpaumanhin kahit ako'y hindi naman mahinhin Bakit tila baga tayo ay nahuhumaling sa mga usapin At paksang karimarimarim kung saa'y Kalaswaan nagiging isang katatawanan?
Hindi lamang minsan kungdi kadalasan Ito na nga yata katauhan ng mama sa Malakanyang Na kung hindi kasinungalingan o kalokohan Kasalahulaan at kalaswaan laging binibitiwan.
Kailanman ay hindi katatawanan Gawing biro lamang o paksa sa usapan Na wala namang katuturan Panghahalay sa kababaihan.
Larawan mula sa Google.
Simula't sapul palagi na lamang Kababaihan tampulan ng mga panlalait at sisihan Na tila baga walang kasalanan Mga kalalakihan sakdal sa kalinisan at kahusayan.
Madalas hindi nalalaman ng kalalakihan Hinugot ang babae sa kanyang tadyang Hindi lamang upang siya ay ingatan at pangalagaan Kungdi dahil kapantay sa dangal at katauhan.
Sa lahat ng paglapastangan sa kababaihan Panghahalay ang kasukdulan Dahil niyuyurakan sinapupunan Na siyang pinanggalingan ng sangkatauhan.
Larawan mula sa Google.
Napakinggan mo na ba Daing na hindi maisigaw o maibulalas Ng isang hinalay, lalo na yaong nag-alay ng buhay Upang mamasukan sa ibang bansa?
Nakita mo na ba mga mata na hindi makatingin Ulo ay nakatungo dahil sa bangungot na hindi magising Luha hindi mapahirin sa bigat at sakit ng damdamin Ng isang babaeng hinalay o puri'y nadungisan?
Aynakupo...! Nag-aalimpuyong galit kasabay Ang pait at sakit sa tiyan at dibdib Na halos ika'y mabuwal at maduwal Sa gayong sinapit na dama pa rin ang sakit.
Ang pinakamalupit kapag babae ay hinalay Ay iyong mapagtanto na isa itong impakto Nagkukubli sa inapi na maaring babaeng iyong itinatangi: Sariling ina o asawa, kapatid o anak.
Kapag kalaswaan ay nagiging isang katatawanan Dangal ng katauhan di lamang ng kababaihan Ang hindi na pinahahalagahan hanggang maubos ang halakhakan Dahil mga tao'y magsasakmalan na parang mga hayop na lamang.
Estatwa ni Maria nang dalawin niya si Elizabeth sa kaburulan ng Judea; mula sa kanilang sinapupunan sumilang ating kaligtasang hatid ni Hesus na inihanda ni Juan Bautista. Dalawang kababaihan kumakatawan sa kadakilaan at karangalan ng mga babae sa ating buhay: ina, asawa, kapatid, anak, at kaibigan. Larawan ng may-akda, Abril 2017.
It’s a lovely day but before thoughts of the work load waiting for you tomorrow distract you, here’s The Boomtown Rats’ 1979 hit “I Don’t Like Mondays” for our last Lord My Chef Sunday Music this month of May.
Written by Sir Bob Geldof and his fellow Irish Johnnie Fingers, I Don’t Like Mondays is a song about the 1979 Cleveland Elementary School Shooting in San Diego, California that killed two adults and injured eight children and a police officer.
According to Geldof, he wrote the song after reading a telex report of the shooting incident while being interviewed at Georgia State University’s campus radio station WRAS. In that report, he learned how 16-year-old Brenda Ann Spencer fired at children in a school playground in San Diego because she said, “I don’t like Mondays. This livens up the day.”
Geldof found Spencer strange who also showed no remorse for her crime. She gave no other answers except “I don’t like Mondays” when journalists asked her to “tell me why” the shooting spree. On his way to his hotel, Geldof kept thinking about Spencer’s “senseless reason for the senseless act” that he told himself the “silicon chip inside her head had switched to overload.” He then wrote the song “to illustrate the perfect senseless reason for doing the perfect senseless act.”
Geldof clarified he never intended to exploit the tragedy though, after many years later, he admitted he regretted writing the song that made “Spencer famous.” The song hit the number spot in the UK charts after its release but reached only the 73rd spot in the US where the Spencers tried unsuccessfully to prevent the single from being released there.
In our reflection for this Sunday’s gospel, we said the Holy Spirit promised by Jesus and sent by his Father acts as the “memory” of the Church. Jesus told his disciples during their Last Supper that the “Advocate, the Holy Spirit will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you” (Jn.14:26).
Like the “silicon chip” of a computer, the Holy Spirit “processes” in us the meaning of the words of the Sacred Scriptures so that we can respond accordingly to the many issues presented to us by the modern world. In that way, we continue to become the presence of Jesus Christ today where some people have become not only senseless but also loveless, causing so many pains and miseries among us.
I Don’t Like Mondays reminds us that despite the modern technologies we have today, what is still most essential among us is the love we have inside, the respect and concern we have for others around us. And this can only be found in Jesus Christ who dwells inside our hearts. Let us “switch” him on and become his presence of love and mercy in this world that is becoming heartless and even senseless sometimes.
Lawiswis ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Ika-20 ng Abril 2019
Larawan mula sa Google.
Ano nga ba ang kabuluhan Nitong mga panata na sinasakatuparan Kung wala namang kahulugan Maliban sa ito'y nakagisnan?
Inyong pagmasdan itong ating mga nakagawian Na pawang puro kaluhuan Puro palabas wala na sa kalooban Kaya nawala na sa atin ang kahulugan.
Pagkakataon sana upang ating masalamin At mapaglalim mga minanang kaugalian natin Ngunit nagiging isang malagim na tanawin Karima-rimarim na pag-uugali ng marami sa atin.
Larawan mula sa GMA News.
Isang kabataan nadismaya sa nakita Nang gawing malaking basurahan simbahan nila Ng mga nag-visita iglesia na walang pakundangan Nilapastangan at sinalaula tahanan ng Diyos.
Hindi lamang iyan sa Antipolo Kungdi maging mula Aparrri hanggang Jolo Eksenang ganyang kagulo Ng mga Katolikong sira ang ulo.
Larawan mula sa Google.
Anong uri nga ba ng pananampalatay mayroon tayo Mga Filipino diumano Katoliko sarado Hindi mababago anila pagiging Kristiyano O sarado isip at puso sa katotohanan ni Kristo?
Ngayong "nakahimlay" Panginoon natin Suriin mga pagkukulang natin Kung bakit mga pagdiriwang at gawain Sa simbahan nawalan ng taginting.
Mga simbahan ba natin maituturing na bahay dalanginan pa rin Kung punung-puno ng mga palamuti, walang katapusang mga pagawain? Puro flat screen at tarpaulin mga dingding Lahat na lamang naka-recording, ang Diyos wala nang dating.
Nasaan na ang marubdob na pakiramdam Kung ang simbahan mistulang tindahan At ang masaklap na katotohanan minsan o palagian Kay Father walang maramdamang kabanalan.
Madalas nating mapakinggan itong kasabihan Kung ano ang gobyerno, ganoon din ang mga tao; Huwag nating kalilimutan ang katotohanang iyan Sa simbahan ma'y matatagpuan una doon sa mga kaparian.
lordmychef.com 