Steps to God

Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 18 August 2025

*Photo by author, pilgrims awaiting their turn inside the Ascension site of Jesus outside Jerusalem, May 2019.*

It has been a month since I have taken a break from my daily walking following that fall in our garage when I hurt my left knee that still aches to this day. But as I rested my onehod (twohod if both knees), I have realized in prayers that there are just two important steps we have to take for a fuller life instead of those 10,000 steps daily.

The first is to always step back one or two steps backwards and stop to make a space for God and for others in our life. Though life is a constant moving forward, it is essential that once in a while we step back and stop to see everything in ourselves and around us. Let God direct you because life is more of adjusting to the many shiftings and transitions that happen every day (https://lordmychef.com/2025/08/11/god-in-our-many-transitions/). Stepping back is being flexible in life.

Since turning 18, we have all been taking charge of our lives, each of us demanding a driver’s license, but, as we approach the age of 60, our interest in driving wane that we prefer more to be a passenger than being on the steering wheel. I have semi-retired from driving last year as I leave my car behind six days a week to take ride-hailing and ride-sharing services. Aside from reasons of convenience, taking a Grab car makes me more productive and most of all, relaxed in getting to my destinations and back home.

When life is so confusing, so dark and you feel so lost, step back and stop. Many times in life what really happens is that we unconsciously eject God from our lives as we go on with our responsibilities and projects even apostolates and ministry thinking we are doing the work of God. The moment things go wrong, when failures and problems happen, we then question God where he is or why did he allow bad things to happen with us. Truth is, God never left us, has always been with us but we never recognized him because we were so busy. Hence, the need to step back and stop to meet him. Finally.

Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, the headland of Pisgah which faces Jericho, and the Lord showed him all the land… The Lord then said to him, “This is the land which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that I would give to your descendants, I have let you feast your eyes upon it, but you shall not cross over.” So there, in the land of Moab, Moses, the servant of the Lord, died as the Lord had said (Deuteronomy 34:1, 4).

See how Moses was portrayed in the first readings last week, slowly stepping back from the daily scene among the Israelites in the wilderness as he passed leadership to Joshua his successor. It is perhaps the earliest account in the Bible of the virtue of “ageing gracefully” in the Lord by Moses.

It is a virtue so needed these days in modern time that Pope Benedict XVI taught us in 2013 when he resigned, taking that bold step backward to stop from his active duties to spend the rest of his life in prayers. That move proved beyond doubts the true humility and holiness of Pope Benedict XVI who peacefully died right at the transition of the year on December 31, 2022.

Not only successions proceed smoothly when we learn to step back and stop as seen in Moses and Pope Benedict. Stepping back to stop and allow God to do his work among us strengthen and make better our human relationships often strained by those into sin and evil. See these as the steps proposed by Jesus in his instructions when one commits sin:

Jesus said to his disciples: “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone… If he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, so that every fact may be established on the testimony of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell the Church. If he refuses to listen even to the Church, then treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector” (Matthew 18:15,16-17).

Relationships are shattered when we “overstep” on family and friends into sinful situations where stepping backward is the more prudent choice to take. Stepping backward allows us to learn more the situation and avoid making rash judgments against anyone that often starts, then gets aggravated in social media. Stepping back is not just being circumspect at all but simply trying to be more fair and accurate where social media is filled with inaccurate and totally false reports or fake news.

*Photo by Dra. Mylene A. Santos, MD, 2023.*

The second important step that literally brings us closer to God and others is taking that first bold step into water. Yes. Stepping on water is the other special step we need to learn and make for a fuller life in God.

Recall whenever you go swimming at the pool or the beach. There is always that someone in the family or among friends or even our very self so timid or wary of the cold water who would ask that stupid question, is the water cold?

Of course – you will never know how cold the water in the pool or the sea until you take that plunge! It may sound simple but, many times we are afraid to take the first step forward into any body of water or even the shower due to the chills that quickly follow. But we also know very well from experience the great feelings that come after every plunge into water!

The spiritual value of making this crucial step forward into water is found in the first reading last Thursday at the crossing of the Jordan River by the Israelites into the Promised Land under Joshua. Leading them were the priests carrying the ark of the covenant who took the first steps on the banks of Jordan River that caused it to part and enabled the people to cross into the other side, reminiscent of the crossing of the Red Sea during their exodus from Egypt with Moses (https://lordmychef.com/2025/08/14/praying-to-step-forward-in-christ/).

The people struck their tents to cross the Jordan, with the priests carrying the ark of the covenant ahead of them. No sooner had these priestly bearers of the ark waded into the waters at the edge of the Jordan…than the waters flowing from upstream halted, backing up in a solid mass for every great distance indeed… while those flowing downstream toward the Salt Sea of the Arabah disappeared entirely. Thus the people crossed over opposite Jericho (Joshua 3:14-15, 16).

Water is life but it also evokes death at the same time. Too much water can drown and kill us that is why we are afraid to take the first step forward into the river or the sea. We fear, we doubt even mistrust God, others and our self in taking the first step forward into water without realizing how that step could be the only thing left for us to move on in life. Stepping into water and allowing our feet to get wet in order to cross a stream or a river is one of the boldest moves we can make in life because that could be the very moment when God is actually making a way for us when our usual routes are impassable.

That is why I tried linking that first reading with the story of the saint of that day, St. Maximilian Kolbe (August 14) who “stepped forward” to their prison guards to take the place of a married man to be executed as a punishment following the escape of a prisoner at Auschwitz. Like the priests of Joshua, St. Maximilian carried the ark of the covenant – Jesus Christ – inside the gas chambers that ignited the flames of courage and faith in God to other prisoners at that time.

These days, we need more men and women of faith, hope and love in God willing to step forward into waters that can be dark and murky, even lethal with unknown substances like the modern miseries of human trafficking, substance abuse, sex slavery, extreme poverty and other systematic inhuman conditions that now afflict mankind. Taking that bold step into water carrying Christ across the river is enabling the others to pass through from death to life, from grief to joy, and from hopelessness to love.

Pray for us your priests in the Diocese of Malolos as we go on retreat today until Thursday that we may truly step backwards and stop these days to let God take charge of our lives and ministry anew. Most of all, that we may have the grace of fervor and courage to carry and follow Jesus in crossing the many rivers and streams of life when the usual routes are impassable due to sickness and other miseries. Amen. Have a fulfilling week ahead.

Work of Christ, work of priests

Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 13 August 2025

*Photo from* *https://www.notrehistoireavecmarie.com/* *St. John Baptiste Marie Vianney speaking to a young boy identified as Antoine on his way to Ars in France.*

Salamuch again to your prayers and greetings on our priests’ day last August 4, the Memorial of our patron, St. John Baptiste Marie Vianney. With a Bible in hand in silent prayers that morning, I realized two of Jesus Christ’s important works as a priest we continue today.

First is to make God closer to people. And vice versa.

It is not my original; got it from Pope Benedict XVI’s Jesus of Nazareth series where he repeatedly mentioned Jesus Christ’s main achievement in his coming here on earth was bringing God closest to us humans. Recall how during that time in Israel when people felt God so far from them due to the legalisms of temple worship that sadly continues even in the church today that is worsened by trends in modernism like digitization that miss out the very essence of the personal aspect in our ministry of the priesthood.

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

Jesus came and continues to come to us on a person to person basis. It is the foundation of our interpersonal relationships, especially for us priests. Hence, before we priests can bring God closer to others, we must be the first to be closer to him. The way priests deal with others is a reflection of the kind of relationship priests have, or do not have with Jesus. What kept the Lord so close with the people was a result of his union and intimacy with the Father. Solidarity with the poor and marginalized in the real sense is always a grace from Jesus that first comes in every priest’s intimacy with Christ in prayers.

This is the major challenge to us priests these days in an age of too much technologies that ironically set us more apart than closer with each other. We promised to be celibate to offer our whole selves for the flock but sadly, many of us have become too hyphenated with many other duties that we are more professional than personal. Some could not even affix their personal signatures on letters and documents, preferring the e-signature that is so impersonal with the usual excuse it is easier and faster, totally forgetting about our life of sacrifice in such small thing.

While we priests need to take breaks, it is a different story when the pastor becomes engrossed into sports and recreation to the detriment of the pastoral needs of parishioners. When focus is more on the minister and his needs forgetting the ministry, problems arise. Most likely, the pastor is already in a crisis like when Masses even on Sundays are passed on to other priests for dubious excuses or reasons. Watch out for those red flags among pastors of souls who are too difficult to gather for clergy meetings and sick calls but so quick in rest and recreation, especially in going out-of-town or even abroad. Watch out too when pastors are more knowledgeable in politics and telenovelas than the scriptures and the faith, when the homily is more like a sing-along concert.

The kind of our intimacy with Jesus in prayers determines the kind of our relationships with his flock entrusted to us.

According to studies, most people spend an average of seven hours a day of screen time on their cellphone. So, seven hours a day multiplied by seven days a week equals 49 hours. That means most people, including us priests, lose about two days and one hour every week by just scrolling and interacting on our cellphones! How much time is left for us, especially priests to pray and serve the parish? Some would argue that those people we interact with in our cellphones are also the same people we serve; but, whatever happened to our person-to-person interactions?

See how the gospels teem with many stories of Jesus touching, doing other gestures of personally being with the people of his time especially in healing the sick. What a tragedy that we cannot freely be that personal like Jesus with people especially children following the sex scandals that have rocked the church that was largely due to priests’ lack of a prayer life. Every genuine relationship with people starts with intimacy with God like Jesus who would always go by himself to deserted places to pray.

That is why it is also important for us priests to educate our people to value our prayer time especially at night. We priests do not have a night life. Period. We may go out sometimes with laypeople and brother priests but never all the time. Though Jesus dined with the rich and sinful during his time, it was never social in nature; his simple acts of joining meals or visiting people were always apostolic in nature that led to conversion into faithful followers of his hosts. Do we keep that apostolic character in our frequent lunch or dinner buffets in expensive restaurants that some priests post in social media without any deference to the majority of our people struggling to make ends meet?

*Photo by FlickrBrett Streutker from catholic365.com.*

The second important work of Christ as a priest during his time on earth we priests today must continue is to inspire and organize people in keeping his work of bringing God to people and vice versa.

How sad to see the Church has become more like a bureaucracy with some dioceses a microcosm of the Republic of the Philippines with priests and bishops acting like politicians. Maybe next to the government, the Church comes close in churning out the most documents and statements nobody reads nor cares at all to implement. Actually, there is a book on social teachings of the Church aptly called “The Church’s Best Kept Secrets”.

How can synodality happen when priests are detached from the people in the first place? This is very evident in the composition of many Parish Pastoral Councils (PPC) who are never replaced at all except only when one finally dies. Some parish workers and volunteers are as old as their parish that some of them brag “bisita pa lang ito naglilingkod na ako!”

Is it really that difficult to inspire and find new workers and volunteers in the parish? Our faith teaches us that the Lord always provides us especially with fellow workers in his vineyard. Problem is when pastors refuse – not really fail – to attract and inspire more new volunteers and workers in the parish because that will require a lot of their time and presence. A parish that does not change its sets of officers and volunteers for years and years is a dead parish. It just exists for its traditions of devotions and fiestas people see every year and are most likely so fed up too.

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

This is perhaps the reason why despite our being a Christian nation that we still remain poor because even in parishes not many are given the chance to do the work of Christ. How can we imbue future leaders of both the country and the church with the gospel of Christ if we just allow a small circle, or sadly a clique involved in our parish affairs and activities? One reason Rome fell was the failure of the empire to prepare its next generation of leaders.

Likewise, “recyling” parish leaders and volunteers only continue the vicious circle among us Filipino Christians of being baptized but not evangelized. Notice how our parishes and dioceses have become mini-Republic of the Philippines that are so alive during calamities and holidays for ayudas and gifts but rarely involved in good governance and leadership or management. We priests and state officials are so good in building edifices and complex but that do not make the church nor the government at all. The more priests are personally involved with their parishioners, the more the people realize their importance in being a part and fellow builders of the Body of Christ, of the need for them to be involved in helping their pastors in bringing God to more people and in leading others to God.

Jesus gathered and formed those considered the least during his time to continue his work of bringing God closest to the people and the people closer to God. His Apostles and followers have no experiences in religion at all nor with evangelization. They simply knew how to pray and have faith in Christ above all that we priests and lay people must first do and keep on doing.

Priesthood is doing the work of Jesus Christ; it is not ours but the Lord’s. We are just his hands and limbs, mouth and body in doing his works. The good news is, Jesus our Eternal High Priest loves us so immensely that despite our weaknesses and sinfulness, he continues to call us to come to him, to find rest in him, to learn from him for he is gentle and humble in heart (Mt.11:29). Let us pray and do the work of Christ as priests with our lay people so that each day may be a Pentecost for us in the ministry. Amen.

*St. John Baptiste Marie Vianney from https://liturgiadashoras.online/.*

Healing our wounds

Quiet Storm by Lord My Chef, 31 July 2025

*Photo by author, somewhere in Rizal en route to Infanta, Quezon, March 2023.*

It is widely held that our physical well-being has a direct relationship with our spiritual condition and vice versa. That is why aside from the treatment of physical sickness, there is also a need to address the spiritual well-being of patients for their “healing” which is more wholistic in nature and meaning.

Jesus Christ himself showed this relationship of the physical and the spiritual. The gospels are filled with accounts of Jesus not only treating the sick but also of healing them by first touching them (physical) then telling them how their sins were forgiven or how great was their faith (spiritual).

Here we find that healing involves the total person in body, mind, heart and soul. Healing is not just the restoration of health but transformation of the person. This is the spirit behind hospital ministry. Patients eventually die but may have still experienced healing when properly prepared for death by a priest or pastor or a nun through counseling and administering of the Sacraments of Confession, Viaticum, and Anointing of the Sick.

As I immersed myself in this ministry since 2021 as chaplain of a university with a medical center, I have realized too that it is actually more of what Jesus is doing to me than of what I am doing to our patients and our medical professionals. Indeed, priesthood is a ministry seeking new directions in Jesus Christ that is most true in the hospital ministry when the tables – or beds – are turned on me as patient needing medical and spiritual attention!

Twice I have been rushed to the ER for minor accidents: first in 2023 and second only this Sunday when I slipped in our garage and hurt my left knee. While recovering in my room from this recent injury, I decided to put into writing to share with you some lessons from my two experiences that may hopefully help in the healing process of those who are wounded physically and emotionally.

*Photo by author, Hidden Spring & Resort, Calauan, Laguna, February 2025.*

First thing to do when we are wounded physically and spiritually or emotionally is to have the wounds “cleansed”.

We were having a tug-o-war during our 2023 team-building when the rope snapped and sent me rolling down the ground. I quickly stood up and brushed the dirt and blood on my left arm, declining offers of others to wash and clean my wounds as I insisted to them sanay po ako sa ganito.

But when our university physician approached me on my way to the wash area to check my wounds and asked if I had had anti-tetanus shots before because I would be needing one that afternoon, everything changed. Fear crept in me with all the scary imaginations running through my mind as I asked him why the tetanus shots? The doctor explained that the ground is dirty with harmful bacteria including animal shit that may infect my wounds; hence, the need to first wash my wounds with clean water and soap and get anti-tetanus shots for sure. Oh my God…

Looking back to that experience after this recent fall (when I got another pair of tetanus shots), I realized the same thing is true when our heart and soul are wounded: we need to wash them clean with sincerity and honesty of one’s self. Cleansing our spiritual and emotional wounds require self-confrontation, no ifs nor buts why it happened. It is recalling the incident no matter how painful it may be like in washing our physical wounds with water and soap to clean ourselves of harmful microbes of anger and hatred that might infect us later.

Cleansing our emotional and spiritual wounds is being true to ourselves to face, accept, then embrace the realities why and how it happened. Crying may be good as a catharsis which is literally a cleansing process. Cleansing our spiritual and emotional wounds is suspending any conclusions that may lead to unnecessary self-pity and self-blame of the incident by facing the mirror like when after we have washed our wounds on any part of the body to check and see its extent of damage. It is normal to be sad and even angry because it is painful as it is something hurting from deep inside us. The more we face our wounds, the more we become at home with them.

*Photo by author, Katmon Nature Sanctuary & Beach Resort, Infanta, Quezon, March 2023.*

Next is disinfect the wounds and apply medications to prevent infection. After washing my wounds with soap and water that Sunday, I disinfected these with Cutasept that resulted in more pain as if the antiseptic solution was fiercely battling the germs and microbes trying to infect my left knee.

When our soul is wounded, we do the same procedure after cleansing by facing the realities of pains and hurts with prayer, our spiritual antiseptic. Even doctors prescribe prayers to their patients in critical situation. And here is the interesting part in this process: prayer does not change the situation, it will not remove the wounds even the scars in our memory and soul; but, prayers make us stronger and better after the spiritual and emotional woundings we have had. Most of all, prayer facilitates our healing process because it opens us to Jesus, the only doctor who will heal us completely from both physical and spiritual and emotional wounds.

Part of disinfecting and applying medications to our spiritual and emotional wounds is seeking help from others, finding Jesus our healer from priests and nuns, pastors and counsellors, and persons you look up to for their wisdom and maturity in Christ. Like when we are physically wounded that we go consult doctors, the same thing is needed when we are emotionally and spiritually wounded. Prayers like disinfectants and medicines are not everything; persons give the personal touch of the spiritual disinfection and healing of our brokenness inside. There is no need to let everyone know our spiritual and emotional wounds; simply share your hurts with someone who could help you “treat” your wounds and willing to journey with you in its long process of healing.

Do not broadcast these in social media which would only worsen the situation. That’s rubbing salt on your wounds because not everyone out there cares for you! It will just feed the frenzy of the many “low life” hungry for anything negative to feast upon. Every time I come across selfies of people while at the ER or confined in the hospital, I wonder how sick they really are that they could still hold their cellphone while being treated for an injury. Getting sick physically and emotionally is always an occasion for more prayers and conversion in Christ.

Finally, dress your wounds for protection. I am from Generation X and most of us were never hospitalized nor brought to the ER for any treatment while still a child despite our many mischiefs and misadventures while growing up.

We only had our mother as doctor who treated our wounds with agua oxinada and gamot na pula that was so painful that we need to blow dry our wounds once dabbed with it. Then, mom would leave our wounds open like that, no kuritas and gauze because makukulob ang sugat, magtutubig at magnanana (infection).That is why after that 2023 injury, I did not follow the doctor’s instruction to cover my wounds on my left arm with gauze; I would later learn its value in a painful and embarrassing way a week after when I was called to anoint a patient in our ICU.

On my way there, the elevator door suddenly closed that instinctively I used my left wounded arm to stop it. Anyway, I thought the wounds were already healing and felt no pain at all when hit by the elevator door. When I entered the ICU, the nurses and doctors stared at me and asked what had happened because blood was dripping from my left arm. It was only then I realized the elevator door had scratched my wounds!

What a shame that doctors and nurses attended first to my wounds before letting me anoint the patient; I felt so embarrassed especially when the attending physician explained the need to cover wounds for protection from dirt and other elements as well as accidents like what had happened to me at the elevator.

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

From that experience, I realized that one reason our spiritual and emotional wounds never get healed is because we “expose” them. When a person is wounded in heart or soul, it is not enough we clean and disinfect and treat them. We need to protect them from further pains and hurts from those who have inflicted their emotional wounds. Protecting them is to stop blaming them in causing their inner pains and hurts. Nasaktan na nga, nasisi pa. Ibinaon pa!

Friends and loved ones are the spiritual gauze who cover and protect spiritual wounds from more hurts and pains. They are the Band-aid strips protecting those spiritually and emotionally wounded by being at their side, assuring them with love and support, of still believing them despite their painful experiences. There is no need to engage the guilty offenders into a skirmish. If their wounds were of their own doing, soften the impact by motivating them to be better, to hope for the best, that it is not the end of their lives. And most of all, assure them their life is not defined by their emotional and spiritual wounds.

Protecting those wounded emotionally and spiritually means helping them find anew their true selves and worth as persons who are beloved children of God. Protecting them like gauze is helping them bear the long process of healing.

There is a saying that “time heals” but time can only heal when there is human intervention in the treatment of our emotional wounds aided by prayers and faith in God. Time alone, no matter how long the years are, cannot heal us in itself if we remain exposed to dirt and elements that contribute to “infecting” us further. Or worst, if we remain with the very causes of our wounds.

For those hurting spiritually or emotionally, may Jesus Christ heal you and give you the courage to confront and deal with your inner wounds and pains. Seek God and seek persons too to help you. Amen. May God bless you on your road to recovery and healing! Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Our Lady of Fatima University, Valenzuela City (lordmychef@gmail.com).

Layak: basura ng baha

Lawiswis ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Ika-24 ng Hulyo 2025

*Larawan kuha ni Maria Tan ng ABS-CBN News, 24 Hulyo 2024 sa P. Florentino Street, Quezon City.*

Pangunahing problema tuwing bumabaha ang napakaraming dala nitong “layak” o basura dala ng baha at ng dagat.

Ngunit mayroong higit na marumi at masamang uri ng layak na dulot ng pagbaha. Hindi ito mga bagay na tinatapon sa kapaligiran na bumabara sa maraming kanal at daanan ng tubig kaya bumabaha. Katulad ng mga basurang nagkalat tuwing bumabaha, ang mga layak na ito ay kagagawan din nating mga tao – ito ang sobrang gamit ng cellphone at babad sa social media.

Madalas hindi natin alintana masamang dulot sa ating katauhan ng cellphone at iba pang gadgets na siyang kasangkapan natin upang malulong sa bisyo ng social media. Maraming nang pag-aaral na isinagawa sa pinsalang dulot ng sobrang gamit ng mga gadgets lalo na sa mga bata kaya ilang mauunlad na bansa sa Europa ang mayroong nang mga batas na ipinagbabawal ang mga cellphone sa paaralan.

Ayon sa mga dalubhasa, nakaka-manhid ng pagkatao ang sobrang gamit ng mga gadgets at pagkabantad sa social media. Mayroong kasabihan sa Inggles na “the medium is the message” na buhat sa yumaong Canadian communication expert na si Marshall McLuhan.

*Larawan kuha ni Lara Jameson sa Pexels.com*

Walang tahasang salin sa ating wika ang kanyang pahayag na nagsasaad na ang tao ay nahuhubog ng kasangkapang palagi niyang ginagamit. Katulad ng cellphone kapag sobra ang paggamit nito kaya marami ngayon ang makasarili. Hindi iyang maikakaila lalo sa tahanan na kapag tinawag mga bata upang utusan, ang sagot parati ay “wait” o maghintay kasi mayroong ka-text o mayroong nilalarong game. Higit sa lahat, kitang-kita ang masamang epekto ng cellphone sa katagang selfie na hindi malayo ang tunog at kahulugan sa Inggles na selfish.

Una ko ito napansin noong 2012 habang ako ay nasa parokya at pumupunta sa mga may-sakit at naghihingalo upang magpahid ng Banal na Langis. Matay ko mang isipin – ano nasa puso at kalooban ng isang anak na sa halip na malungkot at magdasal kung naghihingalo ang kanyang ina o ama, ang unang ginagawa ay buksan ang cellphone upang irecord aming pagdarasal? Nang malipat ako bilang kapelyan ng isang pagamutan, ganoon din ang palagi kong nasasaksihan kaya naman ginawa ko nang personal na adbokasya na sabihan mga bantay ng pasyente na bawal ang cellphone tuwing sick call. Mariin kong sinasabihan, minsan ng mga kasamang nurse ang mga bantay ng pasyente malubha man o hindi ang karamdaman na samahan ako sa pagdarasal para gumaling ang may sakit kesa sila ay magkuha ng larawan o video.

Ang masakit nito, pagkatapos kong pahiran ng langis ang pasyente, sasabihan ko mga bantay na mag-rosaryo at saka sila matutulala kasi wala silang rosaryo at ni hindi marunong mag-rosaryo, kabataan man o matanda! Sa pagkakataon na iyon tinuturo ko kabutihann ng cellphone: buksan ninyo ika ko ang YouTube tapos hanapin “how to pray the rosary” at sundan nila iyon upang madasalan kanilang may-sakit o naghihingalong mahal sa buhay.

Gayon din sinasabi ko tuwing magbabasbas ako ng sasakyan o tahanan: itago ninyo inyong mga cellphone at samahan ako na magdasal sa pagbabasbas. Sa halip na magpicture o magvideo wika ko sa mga may-ari ng bahay at sasakyan, magdasal tayo para higit kayong pagpalain.

*Larawan mula sa http://www.forbes.com, Hulyo 2019.*

Sa sobrang cellphone, marami hindi na hababatid ang realidad, ang katotohanan ng kapwa at kapaligiran. Kaya naman hindi na rin masyadong nakapag-iisip at minsan nakakasakit ng damdamin sa mga sinasabi at ginagawa.

Katulad nitong isang vlogger kamakailan nang kasagsagan ng ulan at pagbaha nang sabihin sa kanyang post na sa mga ganitong panahon makikita ang kainaman ng paninirahan sa condominium. Wala aniyang baha at tulo sa mga kisame kaya mahimbing kang makakatulog at pagkatapos ay kakain at manonood ng Netflix. Binatikos ng mga netizens kanyang pagiging insensitive sa kanyang post na di alintana ang maraming mga stranded at lumusong sa baha habang higit pa rin maraming kababayan natin ang ni walang masilungang sariling tahanan na madalas ay puro tulo tuwing tag-ulan.

Mabuti at humingi na ng tawad ang naturang vlogger habang kanyang niliwanag na kaisa siya sa paghihirap ng marami ngayong panahon ng pagbaha dahil aniya, lumaki siya sa mga bahaing lugar ng Valenzuela at Malabon.

Maraming pagkakataon na walang masamang intention ang mga vloggers sa kanilang mga posts; manapa’y, mabuti naman talaga ang kanilang layunin sa kanilang mga inilalabas na content. Subalit hindi po sapat na dahilan ang mabuting layunin sa ano mang gawain dahil wika nga ni San Agustin, “the road to hell is paved with good intentions.”

Parang ganito ang nangyari kahapon sa Calumpit, Bulacan – ang tila kawalan ng sensitivity ng kanilang lokal na pamahalaan sa pa-raffle na “E-Ayuda” na kung saan hinikayat ang mga nasalanta ng pagbaha ay magpadala ng kanilang selfie habang nasa loob ng binaha nilang tahanan.

Ano nga kayang pag-iisip nila sa pagtulong na ito? At sa kabila ng maraming pagbabatikos, itinuloy pa rin ang raffle na inere ng live sa Facebook kung saan ang background ay ang malaking imahen ng Mahal na Birheng Maria na marahil noon ay lumuluha sa kapighatian. At kahihiyan.

Hindi natin kinukuwestiyon kabutihan ng kanilang mayora. Maaring siya nga ay matulungin subalit ang kanyang pamamaraan ay sadyang nakakalungkot. Kung anong lalim ng baha sa Calumpit, tila siyang babaw yata ng kanilang pamamaraan ng pagtulong.

Ang higit na malungkot sa kanilang e-Ayuda raffle ay ang matinding pagsuporta at pagtatanggol ng mga taga-Calumpit sa mayora nila. Mababasa sa threads ng diskusyon na wala silang nakitang mali sa ginawa ng kanilang mabuting mayora. Higit sa lahat, anila, huwag makialam ang mga hindi naman taga-roon. Wala daw tayong pakialam dahil hindi natin dama kanilang kalagayan.

Iyan ang sinasabi kong masamang epekto nitong sobrang cellphone at social media na nagiging manhid o insensitive tayo sa iba. Iyan ang pinakamababang uri ng isang selfie. Wala daw tayong pakialam sa kanila. Ewan ko kung mayroon pang bababa doon? Sana ay wala na at magising tayo sa katotohanan ng ating pagkatao na mayroong dangal na siyang dapat itanghal sa lahat ng pagkakataon.

Nakakalungkot na isipin na naging manhid na tayo at tila di na dama pagkatao ng kapwa sa panahong ito. Ang pinakamasaklap nito, ang buhay ng tao parang naging showbiz na lamang o isang palabas na dapat panoorin.

Hindi palabas ang buhay kungdi paloob kung saan naroroon ang kabutihang-loob kaya mayroong utang na loob na palaging tinitingnan at tinatandaan. Kapag puro tayo palabas, mawawala na saysay ng buhay at katauhan ng bawat isa. Kaya marahil ganyan nangyayari sa atin ngayon, kanya-kanyang pasikat at pasiklab para sa katanyagan at aminin natin, pera pera na nga lang ang buhay ngayon sa karamihan.

Pagmasdan itong layak at basurang lumalaganap lalo kung panahon ng kalamidad at sakuna na kung saan inuuna ng karamihan ang buksan kanilang cellphone upang kunan o i-video mga nasalanta o naaksidente sa halip na tulungan muna. Maraming nakakalimot na ang mga pinakamahahalagang bagay sa buhay natin ay hindi maaring makita at ni hindi rin kayang ipakita sapagkat ang mga ito ay nakaukit doon sa ating puso at kalooban.

Ang mga higit na mahalalaga sa atin bilang tao ay dinarama sa kalooban. Wala ito sa panlabas nating anyo kaya naman dapat higit nating pangalagaan at ingatan ang bawat tao na nalikhang kawangis at kalarawan ng Diyos na hindi nakikita. Ito ang sabi ng minamahal na alagad ni Jesus, “Walang taong nakakita sa Diyos kailanman, ngunit kung tayo’y nag-iibigan, nasa atin siya at nagiging ganap sa atin ang kanyang pag-ibig” (1 Juan 4:12). Nawa maging tunay ating pagmamahalan at malasakit sa isa’t isa maski hindi nakikita. Basta nadarama. God bless po sa inyo!

Scammers & Samaritans: living in the net

Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 15 July 2025

Bless me, for I have sinned: this Father is a “dinosaur” so afraid of modern technology, so hesitant even in upgrading my cellphone and laptop. And most of all, always suspicious of messages in social media.

Generally, I am more inclined to mistrust everything in the net. But, something happened this Monday that I feel like changing this attitude.

I have celebrated Mass of the Holy Spirit in our Cabanatuan City campus before noon when I found multiple “message requests” from some people asking if I know their former boss at NEDA, Mr. Joseph T. Lalog, a first cousin we fondly called Kuya Jojo.

My initial reaction was budol. Scam.

But when I read that he was in the ER of a hospital in EDSA, I prayed and finally hit the number sent to me by a certain Byron to inquire about Kuya Jojo. After a brief introduction, I was told Kuya Jojo had just died after being rushed that morning to the Victor R. Potenciano Medical Center (VRPMC) in EDSA, Mandaluyong City.

Kuya Jojo was allegedly found by a janitress lying on the floor in one of the restrooms of Shangrila Mall morning of July 14, 2025. He was rushed by the mall’s emergency response team to the ER of VRPMC where doctors tried to revive him but later declared as dead around noon that Monday.

The people at the ER checked Kuya Jojo’s contacts in his cellphone and like my initial reaction, his former staff and colleagues at work thought it was also budol until after they have personally called the hospital with some of them going there to verify the report.

That was when Byron and his colleagues at NEDA who were under Kuya Jojo tried reaching out to us by checking his Facebook contact lists of “Lalog” and “Tobias”. And similarly, we all suspected it could be a scam because Kuya Jojo had always been healthy without any vice at all. He was a varsity of the track and field team at De La Salle University where he finished AB Political Science.

What convinced me to set aside my doubts and press that number provided by Byron was his message that my Kuya Jojo would always speak to him about my being a priest. He asked in one of his texts, “kayo po ba si Father Nick pinsan ni Sir Jojo?” With that, I finally felt deep inside this must be true. Not a scam. Or budol.

Mahirap palang maging netizen, mabuhay sa internet.

You know that daily or maybe every second of struggles just to verify and check whether those messages and information in the social media are true or not.

Baka niloloko ka lang? O, ako lang ang OC, takot at duda sa social media?

Ang hirap lalo na sa gitna ng maraming kuwento ng pangloloko at mga budol ng kung sino sino sa social media at internet na kahit kaming mga pari niloloko o ginagamit sa pangbubudol!

At ang pinakamahirap sa lahat – kapag binabanggit na pangalan ng mga taong malapit sa iyo katulad ng pinsan kong buo na si Kuya Jojo. Ang hirap at nakakatakot paniwalaan mga texts na namatay o kung napano na…

That entire stretch of travel from Cabanatuan City to EDSA, I felt being warped between reality and virtual reality, between the net and the real world. What if this is not true? Paano ako?

Aside from those things running in my mind, I was also thinking of my elder relatives. How am I going to break the news? How reliable were those people if they were really the colleagues and staff of my cousin even after I spoke to one of them on phone?

As I thought of my cousin lying on the floor of the CR of the mall, suddenly I remembered last Sunday’s gospel of the good Samaritan. It was like a modern version. My cousin almost dead or already dead on the marble floor of the restroom when a janitress had the courage and mercy to call their emergency response team.

Most of all, of the most kindred souls of Kuya Jojo’s friends and colleagues who never gave up on reaching out to us. They are all the modern good Samaritans who “treated him with mercy” (Lk.10:37).

I arrived 4:30 PM in the hospital where the ER doctor in charge briefed me of Kuya Jojo’s death. Soon Byron arrived and told the doctor my cousin’s medical condition while the funeral service sent by my uncle in Los Baños finally arrived at around 8:00 PM.

At the morgue, I gave the final blessings for Kuya Jojo before being transported to Los Baños where his wake will be held at the Heaven’s Gate Memorial Park in Bgy. Anos. After thanking and blessing Byron and the hospital staff, I booked my ride home as I had earlier sent home our university driver to rest for another trip to our Pampanga campus the following morning.

*Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com*

In less than ten minutes I was on board my Grab ride to Valenzuela City, still wondering what had happened that Monday. As I scrolled on my Facebook and Instagram with its bright light filling my ride, I felt a sense of relief that Jesus is very much present in the internet, in social media. St. Paul wrote it so well more than 2000 years ago that “where sin increased, grace overflowed all the more” (Rom. 5:20).

No matter how bad we see the world including the internet these days with its many sins and evil, God assured me that night that there are still far more good people, good Samaritans than evil ones. We simply have to make the right choice always by choosing Jesus who remains “the way, the truth, and the life” (Jn. 14:6). God bless everyone!

*Thank you to the staff and colleagues of the late Joseph T. Lalog at the NEDA. We do not have yet the details of his wake and interment as his sisters are arriving only this Thursday. On behalf of our clan, thank you and may God bless you more!

Mothers’ nine lives

Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 07 July 2025

For the first time in 25 years since daddy’s passing, I did not deliver any homily during his death anniversary Mass in our home last June 17, 2025. My sisters readily agreed when I told them after the gospel proclamation “hindi na ako mag-homily at baka maiyak lang tayo.”

It was the second time we celebrated daddy’s death anniversary after mommy’s passing last May 7, 2024 but, it was only at that time when I truly felt the deeper realities of both parents being gone, of being “ulilang lubos”.

Perhaps that’s because we have been preoccupied for over two decades with mommy’s grief when dad passed away right on her 61st birthday before dawn of June 17, 2000. We were at a loss how to pacify her with such a surreal date for the two most loving couple we have known first hand. During my dad’s wake, we have to warn everybody not to mention anything about mom’s birthday.

From then on, mommy practically stopped celebrating her birthday even when she turned 70, 75, and 80 as we threw small gatherings at home for her siblings and friends but she would always remind us all not to forget it was also daddy’s death anniversary.

That is why I have always dreaded the days approaching June 17 because I felt sad for her. I thought after her death last year, it would be different because we would no longer see mommy sad on her birthday mourning dad’s death. I told myself, “hindi na malulungkot si mommy… hindi na rin kami malulungkot.”

But I was wrong.

Hindi na nga malungkot ang mommy ko ngayon pero ako naman ang malungkot – malungkot na malungkot. Noon ngang araw ng Linggo bago mag-June 17, naalala ko ang mommy at daddy bigla kaya naluha ako sa bahagi ng Ama Namin noong aming Misa sa Dambana. Wala na sila dito. Iyon una ko nadama, ulila na nga kami at saka pa lamang naisip ko magkasama na sila sa buhay na walang hanggan.

Indeed, the pains of losing our loved ones never decrease through time but actually increase. Those pains will remain until we are reunited with them in death and eternity.

There are pains in life meant to remain, that cannot be removed like a hole or a scar in our hearts not to burden nor hurt us but to uplift us actually. These wounds keep us in persevering in love to keep our relationships alive with those left behind after the deaths of our loved ones like parents or children. These wounds enable our hearts to sing of faith, hope and love in God all merciful who would one day unite us all together as one family after our days on this earth. These pains make us see the very thin line separating us from eternity, telling us that life goes on among us even after death. They open our eyes to see beyond, to have visions of the future.

*Photo by author, my mom’s kitty bank, 10.5 inches to the tip of ears.*

While these things were running through me during our family dinner that night, my brother presented to me mommy’s “kitty bank” which is older than I am, 61 years old. It is one of her most cherished possessions she truly took great care as far as I can remember.

I have been thinking about it recently if it were still around though I never had any interest with it when growing up as a child except that I enjoyed counting the rare coins inside mostly dating back to the American occupation with the usual designs of the US flag and an eagle.

That evening on dad’s 25th death anniversary that could have been mom’s 86th birthday if she were still alive today, I felt a very strong attraction with that “kitty bank” whose face seemed to be speaking to me.

*Photo by author, my mom’s kitty bank, circa 1964.*

As I held it closer to see its many fissures and tapes following the wear and tear of over 60 years, I saw mommy again, of how she loved us and life so much, especially cats, dogs and fish, and most of all, plants- being a certified tita herself. Our house may be small but mommy lovingly took care of her pets and plants, always talking with them even after having a stroke.

Like the cat with its nine lives, death is never the end but the prelude to new life or, more lives hereafter.

And that is the nobility and giftedness of every mother – even after they are gone, they continue to bring forth and nurture life. God bless everyone… and the cats.

*Photo by author, my mom’s kitty bank in my room.*

Windows to past & to future

Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 24 March 2025

Some people have been asking me how does it feel to be sigisty years old? I really don’t have any complete answer yet except the feeling of sudden shift in my perspectives in life.

Whether it is what experts call as the gestalt shift, I do not know. However, since I have failed in a psychological exam to the major seminary in 1982 that forced me to forget all about the priesthood momentarily (nine years), I have always thought of myself as “crazy” with weird thoughts and ideas, weird perceptions coming from weird images and illusions I see on many things

These manifest in my photography subjects that are often wala lang, as in trip trip lang talaga. Like in my recent annual retreat at the Sacred Heart Novitiate in Novaliches where I have been coming since 2016. Suddenly this year, my focus were so bent on the most ordinary features of this venerable institution that is about 75 years old.

During my stay there last week, the stairs, the windows, and the arches that are even older than me be4came so lovely and interesting. I felt so drawn to them that I had a lot of shots taken upon my arrival.

The Sacred Heart Novitiate is my “happy place” because it is my Bethel where I “dreamt” like Jacob of the stairway to heaven (Gen. 28:10-22). It is also my Peniel or Penuel (Gen. 32:23-32) where like Jacob I also wrestled with God or an angel in deep prayers every year.

In my previous article, I have explained that maybe my focus on the stairs was due to my excitement in awaiting the Netflix documentary on Led Zeppelin whose most famous song is called Stairway to Heaven.

Today, I share with you some photos I have taken with my weird perceptions of the Sacred Heart Novitiate’s windows that suddenly evoked a lot of ideas in me as a sigisty year old man so loved by God.

Being a new senior sixty cent only last Saturday, I felt the joy of being able to look at a very long past of both beautiful and sad even painful memories that have made me who I am today.

Despite the hurts and scars from the many battles in life, I am still glad and thankful for the gift of six decades.

Being a sigisty year old man is like looking out the window, marveling at how fast times have flown that many times, some scenes in my life are like some spots outside that look so near that are actually so far and distant.

I felt my getting old started the time I kept saying “40 years ago ba iyon” when commenting on an event or a song or a movie. Parang kailan lang pero matagal na pala!

Like in life itself, you can choose your focus when looking outside the window: you may include the window itself in the vista like a frame or totally disregard its existence and simply look at the world outside or the past itself. You may also focus on the sceneries you prefer, more of the lovely ones and less of the unsightly.

On the other hand, I have strongly felt too as I turned sigisty years old how my remaining days on earth are numbered. Looking back to the past seems an endless horizon while looking into the future is very definite. You can see already the end of the line, so to speak s you get that feeling my days are numbered. That is the moment when the eternal spring within tells you that at the end of that tunnel or wall is eternity. But, before that, you know the end is near.

The word “window” came from the Old Norse vindauga, from vind or “wind” that was pronounced as the English “wind” and auga for eye that phonetically sounded as “ow” that literally meant “wind-eye” that became the Old English word wind-ow or “window” as we know and use it today.

Hence, window became the term for an opening in any building like home that allows air and light to pass through. Most of all, it is an opening for people inside to see the world outside while giving those outside a glimpse of what’s inside.

How lovely is that interplay happening in every window that opens a person’s vista outside and inside. It is how one looks on windows that makes the great difference that eventually forms our perspectives in life.

About three decades ago, Bill Gates launched his company Microsoft’s operating system called Windows that greatly revolutionized our lives with computers becoming easily accessible for everyone. Unlike its funny looking predecessor called dost, Windows was aptly called as one had to simply click a box like literally opening a window to explore its many programs.

Windows – the real ones like in buildings – still present us with such great possibilities when we look outside or into them.

But of course, that still greatly depends on that one great window God had gifted us – our eyes that have both sight and vision.

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).

How unfortunate that many times, we prefer to limit the use of our eyes to just sights that limit our perspectives on what are simply obvious and visible.

Only a few called as visionaries dare to use their eyes to have vision, that is, to see and look beyond what’s visible and before us, whether from the window or into the window.

If we can have our eyes synced together with both sight and vision, then we shall see much more in this life that we become grateful with our past while at the same time filled with joyful expectations of the fast approaching beyond of this world as we age. Amen.

*All photos taken by the author using the iPhone 16 Pro Max at the Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, March 17-22, 2025.

Sigisty years old

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.
Holy Land, 2017.
Diaconal ordination 1997
28 Pebrero 2025
GMA7 News, 1989.

Perspectives & stairs: a photo essay

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!

On the road to my 60th: perspectives and POV

Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 17 March 2025

*Photo by Alex Dos Santos on Pexels.com*

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.