Category: discipleship

“Someday We’ll Know” by the New Radicals (1999)

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music, 06 October 2019

Photo by Essow Kedelina on Pexels.com

I was a newly ordained priest assigned to an all-boys’ high school in 1998.

People were looking up to me as a priest or a “man of the cloth” but my students and the younger generation counted me in as “one of them” when they learned my favorite bands at that time were the Eraserheads, Sugar Ray, and New Radicals. And like this blog, I would spice up my homilies in the Mass and reflections in class and recollections with modern music so our students could make “sakay” (ride) with God’s words and lessons from the Bible.

Just like our featured song on this lovely Sunday by the New Radicals released in 1999 from the only album they have released a year earlier called “Maybe You’ve Been Brainwashed Too”, “Someday We’ll Know” is a song about love at the beginning was thought to be so perfect that later ended up in separation.

Two years after their split, the man was still wondering what happened to their seemingly perfect love, at why he was dumped for another guy by his beloved.

And the bittersweet part is the that the man in the song is wondering not out of desperation but because he still loved the woman, believing and hoping that…

Someday we’ll know
Why Sampson loved Delilah
One day I’ll go
Dancing on the moon
Someday you’ll know
That I was the one for you
I bought a ticket to the end of the rainbow
I watched the stars crash into the sea
If I could ask God just one question
Why aren’t you here with me

Faith and love always go together. People who truly love are the most faithful!

In the gospel today, the Apostles asked Jesus Chris to increase their faith upon learning from him the many trials they have to go through in fulfilling their mission from him.

Sometimes in life when things do not go according to our plans, when bad things happen to us despite our efforts to become better persons, we cry out to God in pain, even complain at all the destruction and disorder we go through in life.

And every time we pray to cry out to God in pain or complain, it is a sign of grace that he is within us. Prayer is an ability we can only do with grace from God; that is why, when we pray, our prayers are already half answered because prayer is definite sign of God being with us.

When things are not going well with you now, have faith in God.

Keep praying, keep believing, keep trusting God because someday we’ll know….

Ang mabuting balita ng karukhaan

Lawiswis ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 04 Oktubre 2019

Mula sa Be Like Francis Page sa Facebook.
Minsan daw ay nagimbal
kaibigang Kardinal ni San Francicso
na banal 
nang kanyang malaman
dukha nilang pamumuhay
na sa kanyang palagay
labis na kahirapan hindi naman
dapat nilang pagdaanan.
Katuwirang ipinaliwanag
ni San Francisco kay Kardinal Hugolino
kay gandang pagnilayan 
sa malalim nitong kahulugan:
"kung tayo'y maraming kayamanan,"
aniya ng ating banal
"kakailangan din natin mga sandata 
upang mga ito'y ipaglaban at pangalagaan." 
Sa kanyang isipan 
at banal na kalooban,  
ang pag-ibig ay namamatay 
kapag tao'y nagkamal maraming ari-arian;
hanapin kanyang paliwanag
kung masasagot kanyang mga katanungan 
na tila bugtong di lamang sa isipan
kungdi pati na rin sa puso at kalooban:
"Mapagnanakawan mo ba
na tao na walang ano man?
Maari mo bang gutumin 
ang nag-aayuno?
Mayroon ka bang sisirain
sa taong namumuhi
sa parangal at pagkilala?
Ano nga ba magagawa sa taong aba at dukha?"
Para kay San Francisco
ang mga dukha ang tunay na malaya
kayang ipaubaya lahat
pati sarili sa Bathala
upang makagawa 
ng kabutihan sa kapwa
na siyang simula ng ating kapatiran 
at ugnayan pati sa kalikasan.
Mula sa Reuters.
Sa ating panahon ngayon
karukhaan ay pinag-uusapan 
batay sa kawalan 
ng ari-arian na kabaligtaran
ng kung ano mayroon 
ang mayayaman na kadalasan 
mga bagay nabibilang 
at nabibili gaya ng kapangyarihan. 
Ngunit kung ating pagninilayan
ano mang mayroon ang mayaman
ay wala pa rin o "NOTHING"
kung Inglesin natin
dahil ang higit na mahahalaga
ay hindi nakikita 
ni nabibili o nabibilang 
gaya ng pera at iba pang kayamanan.
Gayun din naman
hindi masasabi ng sino man
na siya ay dukha
at "walang wala" ika nga
dahil kung tutuusin natin
ang lahat ay palaging mayroon pa rin
o "SOMETHING" 
kung Inglesin din natin.
Harinawa'y mapagtanto natin
sa pagdiriwang ng kapistahan
ni San Francisco na butihin
ito mismong buhay natin
ay dakilang kayamanan 
na dapat ipagpasalamat natin
sa karukhaan ng loobing maialay 
gaya ng Panginoon Hesus natin.
Ang Krus ng kapilya ng San Damiano na isinaayos ni San Francisco batay sa tinig na kanyang narinig habang nananalangin doon. 


	


	



			
				


			

			
To listen like St. Francis of Assisi
		
	
	

		

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul





Friday, Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, 04 October 2019





Baruch 1:15-22  ><)))*> 0 <*(((><   Luke 10:13-16





One of the scenes from Benozzo Gozzoli’s series of frescoes from the life of St. Francis (1450) that captures the saint’s “Sermon to the Birds” and the dedication of his basilica at Assisi.  Photo from Google.





Praise and glory to you, Lord God our loving Father for this week about to close with the celebration of another great saint, Francis of Assisi.





Two things I wish to thank you in giving us St. Francis of Assisi.





First is his total dedication in listening to you alone.  





St. Francis accomplished so much for you and had so much impact not only to the Church but for the whole world until now because he intently listened to your voice, to your calls, and to your instructions.










It does not really matter if he got your words literally or figuratively speaking like when he was praying inside San Damiano chapel and heard your voice saying, “Go, Francis, and repair my house, which you see, is falling into ruins.”





Or, when St. Francis finally found his vocation in life after listening to Matthew 10:9 in the Mass and felt you Jesus speaking directly to him to go preach the kingdom of God without extra clothes and money that right after that, he threw everything away to preach penance, brotherly love, and peace.





How ironic that in this world of modern means of communications, the more we have become fragmented than ever because we have lost the values of silence, prayer and listening to self, others, and you, O Lord.





Jesus said to them, “Whoever listens to you listens to me.  Whoever rejects you rejects me.  And whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.”
Luke 10:16





Teach us, dear Jesus to be poor and empty like St. Francis so we may always open our ears and our hearts to seek your voice, to listen to your words, and most of all, to follow your will.





From Be Like Francis at Facebook.





Second thing I am so grateful with you Lord in giving us St. Francis is his deep sense of gratitude to you that he was able to see our universal brotherhood in you God our Father.





Did he really preach to hundreds of birds and told them to be thankful to you dear God for their freedom and for your care to them?  I believe it must be true because where there is gratitude, there comes peace and serenity that attract than dispel people and animals alike.





Teach us to be grateful with whatever we have, Lord because the moment we learn to thank you and anyone here on earth, then we we realize our being one.  In his gratitude for your wonderful gifts to him, St. Francis not only embraced you Jesus on the Cross but also saw everyone as family with brother Sun and sister Moon, brother Wind and sister Water.  And even cousin Death.





Again, O Lord, in this age of affluence, the more we feel empty and lacking as we tend to acquire more of material things.  Teach us to repent for our sins like St. Francis and Baruch in the first reading, to acknowledge everything we have including our sins.





It is only in being thankful that we are able to realize who truly reigns in us like St. Francis.  Amen.









	


	



			
				


			

			
Prayer to understand God’s word
		
	
	

		

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul





Thursday, Week XXVI, Year I, 03 October 2019





Nehemiah 8:1-4, 5-6, 7-12  ><)))*> ><)))*>  Luke 10:1-12





Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com





Our loving Father, today I pray to you for more understanding of your words like the first reading.





Twice successively Nehemiah told us how





Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly which consisted of men, women, and those children old enough to understand.
Nehemiah 8:2, 3





Then, a few more verses, your prophet tells us





Ezra reads plainly from the book of the law of God, interpreting it so that all could understand what was read.
Nehemiah 8:8





Until, finally, Nehemiah concludes today’s reading with a solemn pronouncement:





Then all the people went to eat and drink, to distribute portions, and to celebrate with great joy, for they understood the words that had been expounded to them.
Nehemiah 8:12





Dearest God, I pray for all who read and pray our blog each day.  I pray that they may understand your words.  





Most especially, I pray for us priests and lay preachers to always read, study, and pray your words.





Let us be the first to understand your words by praying that you, being the “harvest-master”, to send more laborers for your harvest. 





Most of all, to truly understand your words, O God, let us be emptied of ourselves so we may only be focused on Jesus Christ, the word who became flesh.  He alone is the one we must preach and share in word and in deed.  Amen.

	


	



			
				


			

			
Confessing Jesus Christ
		
	
	

		

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul





Feast of St. Andrew Kim Taegon and Companion Martyrs, 20 September 2019





1 Timothy 6:2-12  ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*>  Luke 8:1-3





St. Andrew Kim Taegon, first Korean priest with his lay associate St. Paul Chong Hasan with 113 other Koreans died as martyrs between 1839 and 1867.





Thank you very much Lord Jesus for this wonderful Friday… not because it is the end of another week of work and studies but most of all, to remind us in this modern time how we must still confess our faith in you with the feast of the first Korean martyrs led by their first native-born priest St. Andrew Kim Taegon and his lay associate St. Paul Chong Hasan.





Every time we think of Korea, first things that come to our minds are their modern technologies and their very hip K-Pop culture.





How beautiful to reflect that deep in their modernity are the blood spilled and values instilled by their early Christians who have truly followed St. Paul’s admonition to St. Timothy.





But you, man of God, avoid all this.  Instead, pursue righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience, and gentleness.  Compete well for the faith.  Lay hold of eternal life, to which you were called when you made the noble confession in the presence of many witnesses.
1 Timothy 6:11-12





Amid the modern life we now have, remind us always Lord like St. Paul that our fulfillment lies in you alone who is coming back again at the end of time.  As we await for your return, may we live out our faith in you amid the changing times, always holding on to things of the above and eternal that never change and shall remain the same.





Like your women companion in your ministry, teach us Jesus to remain simple in following you without much fanfare and pomp pageantry.  Amen.





Photo by James Lucian on Pexels.com

	


	



			
				


			

			
Keeping the Faith
		
	
	

		

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul





Wednesday, Week XXIV, Year I, 18 September 2019





1 Timothy 3:14-16  ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*>  Luke 7:31-35





Cross atop Dominican Hills overlooking Baguio City, January 2019.





Lord Jesus Christ, how I wish we have a very reassuring and powerful St. Paul by our side these days when your Church comes under attacks from the outside and even from the inside.  





Beloved:  I am writing you, although I hope to visit you soon.  But if I should be delayed, you should know how to behave  in the household of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of truth.
1 Timothy 3:14-15





How unfortunate that our leaders in the Church and other institutions seem to be so silent these days amid the ongoing attacks against your “household” by SOGIE Bill and the Divorce and Dissolution of Marriage Bill.





How unfortunate also is the growing indifference within your “household” with these raging issues today that we are like what you have described in the gospel:





“To what shall I compare the people of this generation?  What are they like?  They are like children who sit in the marketplace and call to one another, ‘We played the flute for you, but you did not dance.  We sang a dirge , but you did not weep.”
Luke 7:31-32





Give us the strength and courage to stand for what is true in keeping our faith alive amid the rising tides of progressivism and modernity not only in the society but even within your household, Lord.





Let us follow more your voice, taking into our hearts the seriousness of these attacks on faith and morals that totally disregard your existence and plans.  Amen.

	


	



			
				


			

			
Clothed in Christ
		
	
	

		

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul





Thursday, Week XXIII, Year I, 12 September 2019





Colossians 3:12-17  ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*>  Luke 6:27-38





Sacred Heat Novitiate (Novaliches), July 2016.





It is only Thursday, Lord Jesus Christ, but suddenly your Most Sacred Heart came to mind, especially this beautiful hymn:





Heart of Jesus, meek and mild
Hear, O hear, Thy feeble child,
                                                    When the tempest’s most severe,                                                                                          Heart of Jesus, hear!





Sweetly we’ll rest on Thy Sacred Heart,
Never from Thee, oh let us part,
Hear then Thy loving children’s pray’r,
O Heart of Jesus, Heart of Jesus, hear!





Everyday, Lord, we think of the clothes we would wear and too often, our choices seem endless, taking so much of our time so we would always look good to others.





Today, O Lord, I pray, you clothe me with your person:  through your “compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, may everything I do be done in your most holy name, O Jesus”, (Col. 3:12, 17).





From Google.





To be clothed in you, O Lord Jesus, means to see the good in others than to see myself as the only one good.





To be clothed in you, O Jesus, is to get into the very heart of your gospel message of “loving our enemies” (Lk.6:27).  It is the most radical words in your preaching that seems so impossibly hard for us to follow – unless we are clothed in you, O Christ.





That is why it is very important for us to be clothed in you, Jesus, because loving our enemies is the clearest expression we are your disciples, that is, Christians in the truest sense.





Help us to take off our clothes of pride and selfishness, our clothes of greed and insecurities that make us want more than what we have and what we need, and thus lead to our making enemies because we try to possess and defend.





Instead, let us be clothed in you, Jesus, so that we become poor like you with nothing to keep except everything to give and share.





In that manner, we become open and hospitable instead of being hostile with others.  Amen.

	


	



			
				


			

			
Arising in Christ
		
	
	

		

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul





Wednesday, Week XXIII, Year I, 11 September 2019





Colossians 3:1-11  ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*>  Luke 6:20-26





Petra in Jordan.  Photo by author, May 2019.





Lord Jesus Christ, today your apostle Paul calls us to “Think of what is above, not of what is on earth” (Col. 3: 2).





Then, in the gospel also today, you raised your eyes toward your disciples and began your “sermon on the plain” (Lk. 6:20)





What is up there, Lord Jesus, that we have to look up, that you have to raise your eyes looking at us?





When I was young, I was so afraid of heights but I have always wanted to be on top to see the beautiful sights that I did my best climbing trees and walls, even rooftops.  





Now I am older, I still yearn to be on top to enjoy the sights but too weak to climb even the stairs.





All I can do now Lord is raise my eyes up to the skies, to treetops and mountains to enjoy the moments of looking up, and most of all, wondering at all your wonderful blessings to me — right here in my heart to find you and see you looking up at me!





What a beautiful lesson today of looking up, of seeing ourselves exalted by you despite our weaknesses and sinfulness.  What a wonderful teaching about our new stature as your brothers and sisters, O Jesus, redeemed and loved.  What a way of teaching us of our new life in you, dearest Christ and of the need to live accordingly as Christians!





So many times, we look down at ourselves, Lord, forgetting our blessedness in being poor and hungry, weeping and rejected in the name of your love and mercy.





Teach us to realise and value our being blessed in you so that our lives and actions may conform to your beatitudes.  Amen.

	


	



			
				


			

			
Being immersed in Christ
		
	
	

		

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul





Tuesday, Week XXIII, Year I, 10 September 2019





Colossians 2:6-15  >< )))*>  <*(((><  Luke 6:12-19





Blessed Sacrament Chapel of  the Sanctuary of  San Pietro Pietrelcina-Nuovo Chiesa in Italy.  Photo by Rev. Fr. Gerry Pascual, February 2019.





“Brothers and sisters:  As you received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in him, rooted in him and built upon him and established in the faith as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.  You were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised  with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead… he brought you to life  along with him.”
Colossians 2:6, 12, 13b





Praise and glory to you, our Lord Jesus Christ!  Thank you for dying with us in our sins, forgiving us and raising us to new life in you in the sacrament of baptism!





Let us be immersed in you, Lord Jesus.





Let us claim our new life in you by walking with you who is our Way and Truth and Life.





To be immersed in you, O Christ, is to be free and faithful to lovingly serve you with all our mind, heart and soul.  Being immersed in you is letting go of our pains and hurts in the past to start anew in you.  To be immersed in you, O Christ, is to see more the goodness within each one of us because of you, the most holy one. 





May we heed the call of St. Paul today not to be swayed by false beliefs and other philosophies not rooted in you, claiming elemental and dark powers here on earth. 





You alone are the sovereign power here on earth and the entire universe, Lord Jesus.





And the good news is that through baptism, you have made us share in your “cosmic victory” of the Resurrection.  More than a rite of initiation, our baptism is a sharing in your great power here on earth to conquer evil with good.





Let us be your modern “apostles” — an apostolein, someone sent ahead of you, someone with special relationship with you, someone truly immersed in you, very personal with you, Lord Jesus, who reign forever and ever.  Amen.






	


	



			
				


			

			
Christ among us, our hope of glory!
		
	
	

		

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul





Monday, Week XXIII, Year I, 09 September 2019





Colossians 1:24-2:3  ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*>  Luke 6:6-11 





Photo by Fernando Andrade on Pexels.com





What a wonderful way to start the week of work and school with you, O Lord Jesus Christ dwelling in me!  St. Paul perfectly said it in today’s first reading:





“God chose to make known the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; it is Christ in you, the hope for glory.” 
Colossians 1:27





Inspire me, Jesus, like St. Paul not to be disheartened by suffering, to be filled with passion in proclaiming your gospel not only in words but most of all in deeds.  Take away all the hurts and pains, insecurities and doubts within me that prevent you from reigning in me.





Remind me, Jesus, that your gospel is not a philosophy nor a collection of doctrines or of ethics but your very person so that in preaching and witnessing your gospel, I may lead others to a personal encounter with you, O Lord.





Dwell in me, Jesus Christ, and let me do something good today like what you did to the man with a withered hand on a sabbath day.  Amen.