Photo by author, morning sun at Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, Quezon City, 20 March 2023.
One with the Psalmist today,
O dear Jesus Christ,
I also proclaim that indeed
"The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord"
(Psalm 33:5)
because even in our sadness,
right in our weeping and in
our crying,
that is where and when you come!
Jesus said to Magdalene, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” She thought it was the gardener and said to him, “Sir, if you carried him away, tell me where you laid him, and I will take him.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni,” which means Teacher.
John 20:15-16
Like Magdalene,
there are times we are overtaken
by our grief and sadness over our
many disappointments and failures,
losses and defeats like deaths
that we could not see
your loving presence,
your consoling comfort
O Lord Jesus Christ.
Like the listeners of Peter on that
day of Pentecost, "cut us to the heart"
(Acts 2:37), lay bare before us this
glaring truth of your Resurrection, Jesus,
of your victory over death and darkness,
over sin and sickness
that we may be more open to accept and
embrace your loving presence
with us and in us during the most
trying times of life like death of a loved one
or a sudden shift in our lives.
Amen.
Photo by author, Jesuit Cemetery, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, Quezon City, 20 March 2023.
40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Wednesday in the Fourth Week of Lent, 22 March 2023 Isaiah 49:8-15 >>> + <<< John 5:17-30
Photo by author, sunrise at the Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 22 March 2023.
Loving God our Father,
Your words say it all today,
my birthday:
Thus says the Lord: In a time of favor I answer you, in the day of salvation I help you; and I have kept you and given you as a covenant to the people… Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb? Even should she forget, I will never forget you.
Isaiah 49:8, 15
The Lord is gracious and merciful.
Responsorial Psalm, Ps. 145:8
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, QC, 22 March 2023.
More than words, dear Father,
I praise and thank you
for your boundless love
and kindness to me all these
58 years!
You have always been present with me,
in me, for me, and through me in Jesus Your Son.
And so, I pray this to you:
Dearest Lord,
you have given me with so much,
I have given you so little;
teach me to give more
of my time and talents,
to give more of my self
so I can give Christ Jesus to others,
especially his love and mercy,
kindness and forgiveness;
empty me of my pride, Lord,
and fill me with your humility,
justice and love.
Amen.
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, QC, 22 March 2023.
40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Friday in the Second Week of Lent, 10 March 2023
Genesis 37:3-4, 12-13, 17-28 >> +++ << Matthew 21:33-43, 45-46
Photo by author, sunrise at Katmon Nature Sanctuary & Beach Resort, Infanta, Quezon, 04 March 2023.
Today O God you speak to us
of the most lovely virtue of kindness
which is more than being good to another
but precisely of treating others as a "kin"
or a kindred; being "kind" is the most
Christian word because it refers to our
being one big family in you our Father
with each one a brother and a sister in
Jesus Christ.
How sad we have become more
unkind than ever, just like the sons of
Jacob, the brothers of Joseph:
They said to one another:
“Here comes the master dreamer!
Come on, let us kill him and throw him
into one of the cisterns here;
we could say that a wild beast devoured him.
We shall then see what comes of his dreams
(Gen.37:19-20).”
From petty jealousies among us,
our being unkind deteriorate further
into sinister plots right in our hearts
to destroy our own loved ones,
those closest to us; worst of all,
it happens in the midst of us recognizing
them as "our own flesh" like Judah
and yet still "sell" them!
Forgive us, dear Jesus, for being so unkind:
“when the tenants saw the son,
they said to one another,
‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him
and acquire his inheritance.’
They seized him,
threw him out of the vineyard,
and killed him (Mt.21:38-39).”
Our responsorial psalm captures
the reason why we must always be kind,
“Remember the marvels the Lord has done.”
Let us heed your warning against being unkind,
“When the Lord called down a famine
on the land and ruined the crop
that sustained them,
he sent a man before them,
Joseph, sold as a slave
(Ps.105:16-17).”
Teach us to be kind with everyone because
"the stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
by the Lord has this been done,
and it is wonderful in our eyes" (Mt.21:42);
This season of Lent,
let us bring back kindness in our hearts,
in our words,
in our thoughts
and in our deeds
even if others are not kind to us
because very often,
kindness has a way of teaching us
the importance of this virtue
that may not always be kind at all.
Amen.
40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Thursday in the Second Week of Lent, 09 March 2023
Jeremiah 17:5-10 >>> +++ <<< Luke 16:19-31
Photo by Dr. Mylene A. Santos, MD, 2022.
God our loving Father,
let me come to you closer,
let me get nearer to you
in Jesus Christ present
among the sick and suffering,
among those we take for granted,
in those we have forgotten
in our family, in the church,
and in the society.
Jesus said to the Pharisees: “There was a rich man who dressed in purple garments and fine linen and dined sumptuously each day. And lying at his door was a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who would gladly have eaten his fill of the scraps that fell from the rich man’s table. Dogs even used to come and lick his sores.
Luke 16:19-21
Yes, O Lord Jesus,
your parable continues to
happen among us today
despite our many technologies,
we have grown more apart
from each other not only in
physical distance but worst
even in heart as being kindreds in you.
Indeed, what you had told Jeremiah
is most true even today,
"More tortuous
than all else
is the human heart,
beyond remedy;
who can understand it?" (Jer. 17:9)
but you alone, O Lord!
Cleanse our hearts,
incline our hearts to you,
dear Jesus;
let us be nearer to you
than anyone or anything else;
let us trust in you alone
for it is in you only is
found life and its fullness
here and the hereafter.
Amen.
40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Ash Wednesday, 22 February 2023
Joel 2:12-18 ><))))*> 2 Corinthians 5:20-6:2 ><))))*> Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18
Our opening antiphon
of today's celebration of
Ash Wednesday gives hint
of the joyful tone of our Lenten journey:
"You are merciful to all, O Lord,
and despise nothing that you have made.
You overlook people's sins,
to bring them to repentance,
and you spare them,
for you are the Lord our God."
Amid the shades of violet to signify our confession of sin and movement of repentance is also a profession of our faith in your love, kindness and mercy, O God our Father! The joy of Lent is YOU, O God our loving Father who lavishes us with mercy in Christ Jesus.
Thank you for calling us to enter into this holy season of Lent; let us not forget that YOU are the center and focus of this journey, never us despite the good works we all have to do like praying, fasting and alms-giving; YOU are the one whom we must please, not people so they may return to you; YOU are not appeased by what we offer and do; in fact, we are able to come to you because you are "gracious and merciful" - we have come to know you by your concrete actions of love and mercy, kindness and tenderness.
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. For gracious and merciful is he, slow to anger, rich in kindness, and relenting in punishment.
Joel 2:12-13
Rend our closed hearts, O Lord;
tear apart the hard coverings of
bitterness and rejection,
doubts and mistrust
so we may open ourselves
to your coming in Christ Jesus;
strengthen our hearts so we may
come back to you in genuine conversion,
to be reconciled to you, O God,
for "now is a very acceptable time,
the day of salvation" (2 Cor. 5:20,
6:2).
Grant us the right attitude of heart,
take away our vanities and hypocrisies
that neither deceive you nor fool people;
let us get inside ourselves to meet you
right inside us where you dwell,
waiting for us
to console us,
to refresh us,
to comfort us.
Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Tuesday in the Seventh Week of Ordinary Time, Year I, 21 February 2023
Sirach 2:1-11 ><0000'> + ><0000'> + ><0000'> Mark 9:30-37
Photo by author, 09 February 2023.
On this final day
of Ordinary Time
as we begin tomorrow
our Lenten journey into
Easter, we pray to you,
God our loving Father,
to give us the grace to stay
committed to you in your Son
Jesus Christ.
In this journey of life
which is characterized by the
40 days of Lent,
let us be focused on the words
and teachings, and life of your Son
Jesus Christ.
Let us stay committed in him,
in you like a child to his father.
They came to Capernaum and, once inside the house, he began to ask them, “What were you arguing about on the way?” But they remained silent. They had been discussing among themselves on the way who was the greatest.
Mark 9:33-34
Like the psalmist today,
we pray that we may commit
our lives to you, Lord;
let us heed the teachings of
Ben Sirach to "prepare ourselves
for trials" by being "sincere of heart
and steadfast, listening to your words"
and most especially, to "wait on God
with patience, cling to him, forsake him not"
(Sirach 2:1-2, 3).
May we truly prepare ourselves
this day internally for tomorrow's
Ash Wednesday so that we may
focus more on God than on ourselves
and on the externalities of the
rich rituals of Lent
meant to touch our hearts
and soul in order to find
you in our brothers and
sisters.
Let that be our commitment
to you today
and always.
Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Friday in the Sixth Week of Ordinary Time, Year I, 17 February 2023
Genesis 11:1-9 ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> Mark 8:34-9:1
Thank you, O God our loving Father
for this wonderful Friday;
after a week of stories of our Creation
and Fall, your words today invite us
anew to look deeper into our hearts
to find you and see your plans for us.
The story of the tower of Babel reveals
many things about our hearts,
of how we would always start seeming
to be good, like being one and united
as a people which you have always desired;
but, like the people at that time, our seemingly
good and innocent plans reveal sinister
evil within our hearts: "Come,
let us build ourselves a city
and a tower with its top in the sky,
and so make a name for ourselves;
otherwise we shall be scattered
all over the earth" (Genesis 11:4).
Forgive us, O God,
the many times we have tried
manipulating you, fooling our selves
with our supposed to be good intentions
when in fact full of evil and selfish motives;
how funny we have never learned that in
our efforts to preserve ourselves through
our many selfish schemes, the more we fall,
the more we ended up divided like at Babel.
The Lord brings to nought the plans of nations; he foils the designs of peoples. But the plan of the Lord stands forever, the design of his heart through all generations.
Psalm 33:10-11
Let us not confuse unity
with oneness right away;
yes we have to be one in you
through others, but never one
in ourselves or with others for a
vested interest for it shall surely collapse
and crash like Babel;
take away our arrogance that pretend
to be sincere and true in always having
the best intentions, the most beautiful plans
when in fact are all self-serving,
trying to impose our very selves on others;
make us realize that life is fragile,
that anything can always happen
with us and with our plans,
that we have no total control of everything
and hence, simply be open to your
new directions and instructions.
Help us forget our selves,
to take up our cross and follow
your Son Jesus Christ
in humility and simplicity,
in hiddenness and silence,
in kindness and love
for others which is your
original plan for us as a people.
Make us one in you, dear Father,
regardless of our language and color,
or any other differences like at Pentecost.
Amen.
It has been 24 hours since
Valentine's Day
and I wonder what happened
with all the flowers
not sold yesterday;
do the lovers still stay
and remain true with
all that they say
to love and behold each
other every day?
The flowers declare
what the hearts convey
but too often they are so
lovely beyond compare
when love is not that easy
because in reality,
love is difficult, even painful
that most likely I would
dare say that a loving heart
is more of thorns than of blooms.
A loving heart is first of all
a listening heart;
a heart that listens in silence,
a heart that hears and feels
the silent screams and cries
of a beloved;
many times in life,
when our hearts are tired and weary,
saddled with burdens so heavy,
the most lovely company to have
is a listening heart
where words do not matter
because what we bear are too painful
to bare; just a warm, loving heart
that listens and cares is more than enough.
A loving heart is a heart that sings.
Have you noticed
the loveliest love songs
are those that speak
of a love lost,
of a love that did not end
happily ever after,
a love hoping against hope
that someday would be
redeemed , if not here, even beyond?
A loving heart is able to sing
only when that heart is scarred
for not being loved in return,
of being disappointed,
even betrayed,
of losing
because a heart that continues to love
in darkness and pains
is the one that truly loves,
creating harmony and melodies,
a song or a poem
that ease and soothe
the many hearts hurting.
When a heart listens in silence
and sings amidst the pain,
then the heart celebrates
in finding love in what is true
and in what is good,
in self-sacrifice and
in self-giving;
only the ones who dare
to love even in pain of losing
one's self can celebrate
because in the end,
love prevails,
love triumphs;
that is why we have
Valentine's day -
a celebration of
how lovers of God and
lovers of fellowmen
overcame death
in giving their hearts,
their very selves.
Not just flowers
and chocolates.
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.
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Sunday in the Sixth Week of the Ordinary Time, Cycle A, 12 February 2023
Sirach 15:15-20 ><]]]]'> 1 Corinthians 2:6-10 ><]]]]'> Matthew 5:17-37
Photo by author, Tagaytay City, 08 February 2023.
We are two days away from Valentine’s Day and a week from Ash Wednesday for the start of the Lenten Season. And our Gospel this Sunday speaks so much of how our hearts may be whole and pure like that of Jesus, filled with love for others as Christ’s disciples.
We are still with Jesus giving us his Sermon on the Mount. Last week we have heard him showing us the practical side of the beatitudes, of blessedness which is being the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Today, Jesus elaborates to us the meaning of putting into practice our blessedness, of being the salt of the earth and light of the world by going right into our hearts in fulfilling the Laws in him as he clarified, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill” (Mt. 5:17).
Living our lives as disciples of Jesus means that we follow a standard or norm totally different from the world’s standard that has become very personalistic and self-centered. The late Pope emeritus Benedict XVII called it as “dictatorship of relativism” – no more absolutes, no more God nor morality to follow because everything is relative that had given rise to everyone invoking each one’s rights totally disregarding the rights of others especially the weakest and most vulnerable. Worst, as most people insist on their individual rights these days, they also forget the other aspect of every right which is responsibility. What happens now is the covering up of temptations of lust so as not to deal with it like the promotion of abortion and artificial contraceptives or of divorce as a solution to marital infidelities.
The problem is not with the laws but with the heart of every person.
Photo by author, Don Bosco Chapel on the Hill, Batangas, 08 February 2023.
Jesus is challenging us today to look into our hearts, placing the responsibility on every individual and not on the object of temptations or anger or lust. He is inviting us to lead our lives with integrity where we follow not only the letter of the law but more important, its spirit. This integrity calls us to a whole-hearted living whereby more than the beautiful words we speak, our lives, our very actions reveal we are the children of the Father in Christ Jesus, animated by the Holy Spirit.
See how Matthew composed and arranged the Lord’s teachings today; there is always the reminder from the Laws of the Old Testament followed by the Lord’s clarification of its deeper meaning and application.
You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, “You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment. But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. You have heard that it was said, “You shall not commit adultery.” But I say to you, everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Again you have heard that it was said to your ancestors, “Do not take a false oath, but make good to the Lord all that you vow.” But I say to you, do not swear at all. Let your “Yes” mean “Yes,” and your “No” mean “No.” anything more is from the evil one.
Matthew 5:21-22, 27-28, 33-34, 37
See how Jesus is directing us into his own heart, into the very heart of his Gospel found in the beatitudes we heard the other Sunday so that our hearts would also imitate. To be truly blessed, to be a salt of the earth and a light of the world is to have a clean, pure heart like Jesus, a heart filled with love and mercy. It is very difficult to do on our own but in the grace of Jesus Christ, it is doable.
At the very heart of Christ’s teachings today is the fact that not everything in life can be written and even fiscalized or enacted as a law. Human life is dynamic, always changing, supposedly for the best. Unfortunately, what we are seeing these days in history is decadence: when we are supposed to know more and know better, the more we are becoming less human, less personal because in our “reasoning”, what prevails upon us is our ego, our pride, our self-interests. These are what Jesus is attacking in his teachings today as he invites us to examine and cleanse our hearts, and to truly “feel” the depths and meaning of the Laws long given by God.
How sad that our usual argument against old laws is how they have become obsolete, not attuned with the times like the proponents of divorce. The problem is not with the natural order of things but us. And the tragedy is that we have not only polluted our hearts but also our minds, turning them away from God and from others.
Photo from reddit.com.
Very often, especially these days, many people insist on their freedom, on their power to choose forgetting that freedom is never absolute, that freedom demands also responsibilities. Though we are free to express our thoughts and feelings, it is not allowed to use the same freedom in spreading lies or maligning others.
The key to such “whole-hearted” living is found in our first reading from the Book of Sirach which emphasizes the meeting of the heart and the mind in God to choose, to decide and to do what is right, what is good.
If you choose, you can keep the commandments, they will save you; if you trust in God, you too shall live; he has set before you fire and water; to whichever you choose, stretch forth your hand. Before man are life and death, good and evil, whichever he chooses shall be given him. No one does he command to act unjustly, to none does he give license to sin.
Sirach 15:15-17, 20
We have the natural laws etched by God in our hearts to always do good, to do no harm on others. We also have his words and teachings finally revealed and fulfilled in Jesus Christ that must guide us in making the right exercise of freedom, of choosing life not death. Here we have true integrity, the meeting of the mind and the heart at what is true, what is good!
Freedom is the ability to choose what is good. Moreover, to be free is also to decide knowingly. Freedom is diminished and impaired when judgement is disturbed. As the Latin saying goes, Mens sana in corpore sano – a sound mind in a sound body. That is why our responsorial psalm says it so well that “Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord”.
One fine example of this blessed man who follows the Lord is our national athlete and the world’s number three pole vaulter, EJ Obiena.
A UST student who has represented us in various competitions including the 2020 Olympics in Japan, Obiena opened 2023 by winning two gold medals in four tournaments. Unfortunately due to usual red tapes and inefficiencies of those in government, Obiena had to skip the Asian Indoor Championship in Kazakhstan this weekend because of lack of logistical support and fundings. He never ran out of problems despite the many honors he had brought to our country in sports that in the process had shown us also his giftedness as an athlete and as a person with his good moral character.
What I like with him most is his passion for what is ethical, for what is right. He is very consistent with that. He is a man with an undivided heart, clearly inclined to what is true, good and just.
When people wrote and offered him help to join the competition in Kazakhstan, Obiena politely declined the offers because of ethical reasons, of “double-dipping” wherein he explained how the people have already given their share for him with their tax payments, that for them to give donations was too much already, even unjust.
Wow! Praise God for a man like Mr. Obiena! Truly a man with a heart full of passion in God, in what is right, what is true!
What EJ Obiena has consistently shown us – and taught us unconsciously – is the wisdom of God in Christ crucified, the favorite topic of St. Paul in his letters like the one we have heard earlier. See how Obiena was ready to suffer and sacrifice for what is true and good that so often, he is vindicated and has won our hearts and admiration.
This Sunday, let us listen more to God’s voice there in our heart, often the softest and most feeble covered by the more noisy sounds of the world. Let us look into our hearts and see if we have more of our selves, or of others? Of persons or things? Of laws or spirit of the laws? Amen.
