The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Friday, Memorial of St. John Chrysostom, Bishop & Doctor of Church, 13 September 2024 1 Corinthians 9:16-19, 22-27 <*((((>< + ><))))*> Luke 6:39-42
Photo by Mr. Jim Marpa, 2018.
Lord Jesus Christ, help me be like St. Paul, a man truly free: free from slavery of sin, free from selfishness, free from what others may say so that I may be truly free to love, free to serve, free to be my true self.
Although I am free in regard to all, I have made myself a slave to all so as to win over as many as possible. I have become all things to all (omnia omnibus), to save at least some. All this I do for the sake of the Gospel, so that I too may have a share in it (1 Corinthians 9:19, 22-23).
In a world when most people insist on their rights, you teach us Lord through St. Paul that inasmuch as the Church is the your Body, then being a slave to others is actually the path to true freedom, making no room for anyone to insist on his or her rights superseding the common good; most of all, in becoming all things to all men like St. Paul, then we acknowledge that the strong and powerful must take into consideration the needs of the weak and powerless; forgive us, Jesus, for blindly leading others to doom and more darkness; forgive us, Jesus, for always seeing defects of others without recognizing our own; cleanse us with your words like St. John Chrysostom who wrote us in one of his letters on the way to his exile, "Distance separates us, but love unites us, and death itself cannot divide us. For though my body die, my soul will live and be mindful of my people." Amen.
Lawiswis ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Ika-12 ng Hunyo 2024
Mula sa Colombo Plan Staff College, cpstech.org, 12 June 2020.
Tuwing sasapit petsa dose ng Hunyo problema nating mga Filipino nahahayag sa pagdiriwang na ito: alin nga ba ang wasto at totoo, Araw ng Kalayaan o Araw ng Kasarinlan?
Parehong totoo, magkahawig sinasaad ng mga ito ngunit malalim at malaki kaibahan ng mga ugat nito: kung pagbabatayan ating kasaysaysan araw ito ng kasarinlan nang magsarili tayo bilang isang bansa pinatatakbo ng sariling mamamayan, magkakababayan; ngunit totoo rin namang sabihing higit pa sa kasarinlan ating nakamtan nang lumaya ating Inang Bayan sa pang-aalipin ng mga dayuhan!
Kuha ng may akda, Camp John Hay, 2018.
Maituturing bang mayroon tayong kasarinlan kung wala namang kalayaang linangin at pakinabangan ating likas na kayamanan lalo na ang karagatan gayong tayo ay bansang binubuo ng mga kapuluan? Tayo nga ba ay mayroong kasarinlan at nagsasariling bansa kung turing sa atin ay mga dayuhan sa sariling bayan walang matirhan lalo mga maliliit at maralitang kababayan dahil sa kasakiman ng mga makapangyarihan sa pangangamkam?
Gayon din naman ating tingnan kung tunay itong ating kalayaan marami pa ring nabubulagan, ayaw kilalanin dangal ng kapwa madalas tinatapakan dahil ang tunay na kalayaan ay ang piliin at gawin ang kabutihan kaya ito man ay kasarinlan dahil kumawala at lumaya sa panunupil ng sariling pagpapasya na walang impluwensiya ng iba kundi dikta ng konsiyensiya!
Larawan kuha ni G. Jay Javier sa Luneta, 2022.
Kalayaan at kasarinlan kung pagninilayan dalawang katotohanang nagsasalapungan kung saan din matatagpuan ang kabutihan, paglago at pagyabong ng ating buhay!
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Wednesday in the Tenth Week of Ordinary Time, Year II, 12 June 2024 1 Kings 18:20-39 <*{{{{>< + ><}}}}*> Matthew 5:17-19
Photo from Colombo Plan Staff College, cpstech.org, 12 June 2020.
Praise and glory to You, God our loving Father for the gift of Independence, for the gift of a country and a nation, of culture and identity until now many of us continue to debate; forgive us, Father, for being like your people during the time of Elijah when we could not make up our minds on whether to follow and obey You or follow other pagan gods that still about these days. How sad, dear Father, when many of our supposed learned men and women are ashamed of our being the remaining nation faithful to You, making divorce illegal; doubly sad, O God, when some of our own countrymen laugh and insult the Spaniards who conquered our land to bring Christianity here.
Ahab sent to all the children of Israel and had the prophets assemble on Mount Carmel. Elijah appealed to all the people and said, “How long will you straddle the issue? If the Lord is God, follow him; if Baal, follow him.” The people, however, did not answer him.
Like the psalmist today, I pray that You "keep me, O God, for in you I take refuge, show me the path to life, fullness of joys in your presence, the delights at your right hand forever" (Psalm 16:1, 11); teach me the way to true freedom and independence of lovingly serving the weakest among us by protecting life in all its stages especially its basic unit, the family.
May we take into hearts Jesus Christ's words to bring into fulfillment the words of your laws into our own laws like the 1987 Constitution that had enshrined marriage as an "inviolable social institution" in Article XV; let us stop all these fantasies of legalizing divorce, of separating from your divine order of things that only enslave us to sin and evil. Amen.
Forty Days of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Ash Wednesday, 14 February 2024 Joel 2:12-18 + 2 Corinthians 5:20-6:2 + Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18
Illustration from Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, 14 February 2018.
This is not the first time that Valentine’s Day falls on Ash Wednesday, the start of the holy season of Lent of 40 days before Holy Week in preparation for Easter. The last time they coincided was in February 14, 2018.
Actually, there is no problem at all with both happening together on the same date. Both celebrations have the heart as its focus, inviting us to examine how much love we have in our hearts, because, ultimately when we die and face God our Creator, He will judge us on how truly we have loved while here on earth.
And because they both speak of love, Ash Wednesday and Valentine’s Day confront the reality of death.
Ash Wednesday reminds us that we all die which is the meaning of the imposition of the ash on our foreheads while the priest says, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” But, we do not merely die and end life on earth. Notice how the ashes imposed on us are shaped as cross because Ash Wednesday assures us that we die in the love of Jesus Christ our Savior who leads us into eternal life.
Meanwhile, Valentine’s reminds us of our undying love for those bonds of love we make throughout our lives as lovers, friends, and admirers. Lovers and couples pledge – with or without God – their love for each other “til death do us part.” Anyone who truly loves and had truly loved knows that death is love’s final test. And the whole world is filled with so many beautiful stories and magnificent buildings and structures that remind of us one’s undying love like the Taj Mahal in India.
Therefore, today is a wonderful celebration, an amazing juxtaposition of the sacred Ash Wednesday and the secular Valentine’s Day on this February 14 so that we may purify the love in our hearts, that our love is not merely expressed in words but most especially in deeds.
From Sisters of Providence of Saint-Mary-of-the-Woods.
For his Lenten Message this year, the Holy Father had chosen the theme of freedom in his reflection by going back to the Exodus experience of the Israelites. Indeed, love and freedom go together. Always.
Lent is the season of grace in which the desert can become once more – in the words of the prophet Hosea – the place of our first love (cf. Hos 2:16-17). God shapes his people, he enables us to leave our slavery behind and experience a Passover from death to life. Like a bridegroom, the Lord draws us once more to himself, whispering words of love to our hearts.
Pope Francis, “Through the Desert God Leads Us to Freedom” (Lent 2024)
Love is most true when there is freedom. We cannot truly love if we are not free. And the more we love, the more we are free, that is, free to love, free to be caring, free to be kind, free to be honest and true, free to be sincere.
From simchafisher.com.
Remember your first crush or your first love. Amid all the exciting feelings and “kilig moments” we have had every time our eyes met those of our crush or when our skin touched each other, one thing we always made sure was to keep it a secret.
During our time, it was imperative that we boys and men keep our feelings to our selves about our crush and love interests because, the moment our love, our feelings are made known, problems happen. Everyone in the class or barkada starts teasing, making us unnatural in our words and actions as they dictate us on what to do and what to say. Our crush or beloved then gets irritated and uncomfortable with all the attention she gets not really from us but from every Maritess and Marisol around!
I have realized later in life that when something so deep is so true, most often we treasure it in our hearts, keeping it in secret not for anything else but to make it grow and mature. In this case, into selfless love. People who brag their love or crush or just everything in life are often the most untrue and unfree. Everything is just a show or palabas for them, a front that is not real which is what we see on social media. Jesus tells us true love that is free is something more of the inside than of the outside appearances:
Jesus said to his disciples: ”Take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them; otherwise you will have no recompense from your heavenly Father. When you give alms, do not blow a trumpet before you… When you pray do not be like the hypocrites, who love to stand and pray in the synagogue and on street corners so that others may see them… When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites… your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you.”
Matthew 6:1-2, 5, 16, 18
Photo by author, Our Lady of Fatima University-Laguna, 19 January 2024.
Love and freedom go together. Love grows and deepens only when there is freedom because love is a grace from God that naturally flows out from us, from our being. There is no need to make noise about it or be dramatic for everyone to see. Just let your love flow as the song from the 1970’s said.
When we “manipulate” our love, we become self-conscious instead of being mutual. Love is always other centered as the late American Trappist monk Thomas Merton said, “the sign that we truly love is when we love somebody more than ourselves.” When we have so much of ourselves, when we are selfish, that is when we reject God and eventually others. That is why every sin is essentially a refusal to love which bothers us inside as we feel guilty and become unfree to be who we are, beloved and loving.
Lent invites us to love and be free through conversion, a turning of our hearts away from the wrong loves we have pursued and led us to loneliness, emptiness, and sadness within. Love and freedom come from within our hearts where God dwells; hence, the call of the Prophet Joel to turn our hearts back to God:
Photo by author, Lent 2019.
“Even now, says the Lord, return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, and weeping, and mourning; rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the Lord, your God.”
Joel 2:12-13
To speak of the heart is to speak of the whole person whose only fulfillment is found in God. A heart that is far from God is a person separated not only from God but also from others, even from himself. Only a heart that is inclined to God is able to truly love and be truly free. A heart without God is a heart without love, a heart that is not free because it had gone cold and dead.
Conversion then leads us to reconciliation, to being one again in God in Jesus Christ as St. Paul admonished in the second reading, “We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God” (2 Cor. 5:20). To be reconciled with God is to be one with Him in our hearts through prayer, almsgiving, and fasting that are the hallmarks of the Season of Lent that lead us to true freedom that deepens our love for God and others.
Prayer enables us to pause and regain our freedom to examine our real selves, of how truly free are we especially in this world when there are so many voices dictating us on everything that have left us alienated, lost, and confused within.
Almsgiving sets us free from greed and helps us regard our neighbors as brothers and sisters. It deepens our love for God because our daily encounters with those who beg for our help point us to God Himself who provides us with everything we need.
Fasting on the other hand weakens our tendency to be self-centered, “disarming” us of our false selves, removing the masks we put to impress others so that we can grow and mature as it makes us more attentive to God and others.
As we begin our 40 days of Lent today, let us journey into our hearts and into the heart of God so we can truly be free to love like Jesus Christ His Son who died on the Cross on Good Friday.
Ash Wednesday on a Valentine’s Day is the perfect reminder to us all that the Cross is the best expression of love symbolized by the heart that is free and willing to suffer and die for a beloved. May we “not receive the grace of God in vain” (2 cor. 6:1). Amen. Have a blessed week ahead.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Thursday in the Twenty-Ninth Week of Ordinary Time, Year I, 26 October 2023
Romans 6:19-23 <*((((>< + ><))))*> Luke 12:49-53
Photo by Dr. Mylene A. Santos, MD, 2022.
Your words, O Lord,
today sound old, even archaic
but they evoke so beautiful
feelings within that lead us
into deeper realities we often
ignore and take for granted:
slavery and separation.
But now that you have been freed from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit that you have leads to sanctification, and its end is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:22-23
Many times we wrongly
choose to become slaves of sin
because of the belief that is when
we are most free in doing
whatever we want,
whatever we like,
whatever we desire
but always, we are proven wrong,
sadly wrong,
disastrously wrong;
being free O God is being
tied up to you,
being your slave
being at home with
what is true and good;
your laws and teachings
are not burdens but are
in fact what lead us to true freedom
without guilt,
without darkness,
without shame.
Most of all,
it is the slavery that leads
us to life and fulfillment in
Jesus Christ who had come
to liberate us from slavery to sin.
In the same manner,
to be your slave, O God,
is to be on your side,
to separate from those
against Jesus;
it is always painful
like every separation
but what makes it a good kind
of separation like slavery to you, God,
is how the fires of Christ's love
and mercy purify us into
better persons that enable us
to prosper,
grow,
and mature.
In the power of the
Holy Spirit,
let us choose always
slavery to you, dear Father,
and separation with you, dear Jesus
lest we become like the chaff
which the wind drives away
(Ps.1:4). Amen.
The Lord Is My chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Wednesday, Memorial of St. Francis of Assisi, 04 October 2023
Nehemiah 2:1-8 <*{{{{>< + ><}}}}*> Luke 9:57-62
Photo by author, “Homeless Jesus” at Capernaum in Galilee, Israel, May 2019.
Praise and glory to you,
loving God our Father
on this most joyous day
of the Memorial of St. Francis
of Assisi, one of those who
truly followed your Son Jesus Christ
in complete freedom to be poor
and empty for him and others.
Grant us the same gift of freedom,
Father; teach us to be like St. Francis
who was totally free for Christ,
living in poverty and simplicity,
renouncing the lures of this
world so he can be solidly
faithful in Jesus and his gospel.
Many times in this life,
in this world with so many things
meant to lighten our lives
to be able to do and accomplish much,
the opposite happens; we save
so much time in doing our jobs and
other tasks easily but the more we
get tied even enslaved to our gadgets,
selves, and other preoccupations
that separate us from one another,
especially our loved ones and you;
we save money and earn so much
by doing less but the more
we desire to earn more,
to have more wealth in all its
forms, becoming more selfish.
Free our selves,
purify our intentions
and cleanse our dispositions
to be free for Jesus,
free from persons
and things that hold us
to truly follow Christ.
As Jesus and his disciples were proceeding on their journey someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” Jesus answered him, “Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head.”
Luke 9:57-58
Thank you, dear God
for the desire within for
Jerusalem; what we lack is
the willingness,
the drive,
and the enthusiasm
to search and follow you
in Christ to Jerusalem
where the sick and the poor
are like what St. Francis did;
we lack the deeper longing and
resolve to rebuild our destroyed
Jerusalem of relationships and
intimacy with you like
Nehemiah in the first reading.
Like St. Francis,
may we be free
and faithful in Jesus
always, finding him not
only in others and nature
but most especially at the
Cross where you have redeemed
us as your people.
Amen.
Photo by Fr. Gerry Pascual, Sculpture of the young St. Francis in Assisi, Italy, 2019.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Thursday in the Fifteenth Week of Ordinary Time, Year I, 20 July 2023
Exodus 3:13-20 >><)))*> + >><)))*> + >><)))*> Matthew 11:28-30
Photo by author, Mt. St. Paul Spirituality Center, La Trinidad, Benguet, 2017.
Let me come to you,
God our loving Father;
let me come to you
in Jesus Christ
to take his yoke and learn from him,
so I may be meek and humble of heart
(Matthew 11:28-30).
Let me come to you,
God our loving Father
like Moses, openly and humbly
wondering at your majesty
in the burning bush, in the many events
happening in my life I take for granted
and missed you.
How funny, O God,
you always desire we become free,
we become lighter from our burdens
as you called Moses to liberate your people
and sent Jesus to save us;
and yet, we always suspect you
of keeping us prisoners,
of not wanting us to be free,
of hindering us from pursuing
and doing whatever we wanted.
Let us learn and realize,
O God how you value freedom
so much that you gave it to us
as your most wondrous gift
that we have unfortunately abused;
let us learn and realize
how your Son Jesus Christ
had to suffer and die on the Cross
so that we may experience true freedom;
let us learn and realize, Lord,
that freedom is being free and faithful
to you always through our loved ones
and mission in life.
Amen.
Photo by author, Mt. St. Paul Spirituality Center, La Trinidad, Benguet, 2017.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Thursday, Solemnity of Sts. Peter & Paul, Apostles, 29 June 2023
Acts 12:1-11 ><}}}}*> 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 17-18 ><}}}}*> Matthew 16:13-19
The lithography of Sts. Peter and Paul in Missale Romanum by unknown artist with initials F.M.S (19. cent.) printed by Typis Friderici Pustet. (Renáta Sedmáková | us.fotolia.com)
Praise and glory to you,
Lord Jesus Christ
for this Solemnity of your
two great Apostles,
Sts. Peter and Paul
whom you have both
chosen to be the solid rock
on which your Church is built,
remaining forever her
protectors and guides;
to them Rome owes her greatness
when you, O Lord, led them to
sanctify that capital of the
ancient Empire
with their martyrdom
to become the center of
the Christian world
until now.
In their great efforts
of fulfilling your mission,
there emerged a most unique
even unlikely partnership
in making you known,
O Lord, teaching us
that important lesson
that discipleship is always
being together with others
being sent on a mission,
never alone nor simply a case
of "me and Jesus"
as we would always
insist.
Teach us, dear Jesus,
to be like Sts. Peter and Paul
focused only in you to overcome
our many differences in the Church;
help us to set aside
our biases and prejudices
to always find you
as the very essence
of our discipleship;
may we learn to
respect each other
by finding you in
each co-worker
and with everyone
we serve and meet.
May our lives
mirror your true person,
Lord Jesus,
so that people are not
misled to who
you really are.
How inspiring
that both Sts. Peter and Paul
were imprisoned for preaching
your name and yet,
no bars nor chains not
even death held them captives
in spreading your good news;
in fact, some of the finest
parts of the New Testament
were composed when both
Apostles were in prison;
what a grace for us today
their many letters
still sound
so true and relevant,
providing us compass
in charting our ways
in a world so divided
and so sick with
individualism, relativism,
and materialism.
Help us, dear Jesus,
to break free from
the many prisons
that hold us from freely
witnessing your loving service
for others like Sts. Peter
and Paul; set us free, Lord,
from the chains that hold us
and make us fearful
of standing by our faith
and of your teachings
in this time of total disrespect
for life; most of all, free us, O Lord,
like St. Peter from our prison cells
of indifference in the face of
continued erosion of
marriage and family
as envisioned by God
since creation.
Dear Jesus,
make us realize
that every present moment
is the time of our departure;
may we live fully at your service
by keeping the faith in you
like Sts. Peter and Paul.
Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Tuesday in the Eleventh Week of Ordinary Time, Year I, 20 June 2023
2 Corinthians 8:1-9 ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> Matthew 5:43-48
Photo by author, Anvaya Cove in Morong, Bataan, January 2023.
How deep are your mysteries,
O Lord Jesus Christ,
so irresistibly true
but at the same time daring
and challenging for us
who are focused
on what we have
without realizing
everything
comes from you.
Many times, dear Lord,
we are like the Corinthians
rich in so many things
yet not convinced
we are so blessed
that we are also afraid
of losing whatever we have;
make us emulate the
solicitude of the Macedonians
in sharing their treasures
with the needy churches
even if they were less affluent
than the Corinthians;
make us realize that true wealth
is freedom from our possessions,
of being free for sharing our gifts
and talents and treasures.
Help us realize, Jesus,
that true excellence in faith
is expressed in charity,
in oneness with those in need.
Now as you excel in every respect, in faith, discourse, knowledge, all earnestness, and in the love we have for you, may you excel in this gracious act also. I say this not by way of command, but to test the genuineness of your love by your concern for others. For you know the gracious act act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that for your sake he became poor although he was rich, so that by his poverty you might become rich.
2 Corinthians 8:7-9
Teach us to immerse ourselves
to your mystery of self-denial
and self-sacrifice,
to your process of being
perfect like the Father
in heaven.
Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Tuesday, Memorial of Sts. Cyril, Monk & Methodius, Bishop, 14 February 2023
Genesis 6:5-8; 7:1-5, 10 ><]]]'> + ><]]]'> + ><]]]'> Mark 8:14-21
On this most joyous day of hearts,
dear God our Father,
I pray for us all with a heart
to have a natural heart
not hardened by sin and bitterness,
not a heart lacking in understanding
nor a heart so caught up with selfish
and personal agenda.
When the Lord saw how great was man’s wickedness on earth, and how no desire that his heart conceived was ever anything but evil, he regretted that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was grieved.
Genesis 6:5-6
Give us a heart
inclined to you, O Lord,
a heart that listens in silence,
a heart that rejoices in truth,
a heart that celebrates what is good,
a heart that sings amid the many scars
and pains of infidelity and betrayal,
unkindness and unfriendliness,
a heart that is whole and undivided
in courage and freedom to do what
is most loving, most self-sacrificing
and self-giving like that of Jesus Christ.
Let us not be carried away
and worst, give rise to the commercialization
of Valentine's Day that we forget the
true meaning of loving which is
forgetting one's self and thinking more of
the other person; how lovely it is to read how
you, O God, directed Noah to build an ark
to save his family from the great flood:
Everyone inside the ark was in pair -
Noah and his wife,
his three sons and each one's wife
as well as the animals with one male
and one female each to show us that
love is never alone,
always with another person
with a community of believers!
Many times, O Lord,
we miss your point because we are so
caught up with our own thoughts and ideas
that our eyes cannot see,
and ears cannot hear.
Teach like our brother saints today,
St. Cyril and St. Methodius
to seek your holy will
so we may love truly
like Jesus Christ who
died on the Cross
for us.
Amen.
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