Ang Krusipihiyo ni Sta. Mother Teresa

Lawiswis ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, ika-16 ng Abril 2019

Ngayong Semana Santa aking naalala
Aking nabasa isang tunay na istorya
Tungkol kay Santa Mother Teresa 
Noong nabubuhay pa siya sa Calcutta.

Minsan daw isang alaga nilang kulang-kulang
Sinidlang bigla ng galit na di maintindihan
Krusipihiyo sa dingding nabalingan ng pansin
Ibinato sa Santa nating taimtim nananalangin.

Walang nakapansin nang ito'y kanyang gawin
At nang ito'y pulutin ng butihing Mother natin
Nakita niyang bali-bali ngunit nakapako pa rin
Si Kristong Panginoon natin.

Kanyang pinagdikit-dikit bali-baling katawan
Na parang nabendahan tulad ng isang sugatan
Saka inutusan ng madreng maalam kanyang mga kasamahan
Kanyang tinuran sa kanila, mahigpit na tagubilin:

Isabit muli sa ating dingding nabaling Krusipihiyo natin
At inyo ring idikit kalapit yaring panalangin,
"Hayaan po ninyo Panginoon na paghilumin 
Nitong aking mga kamay nawasak mong katawan."

*Larawan ng mosaic sa kripta ng Katedral ng Maynila. Kuha ni Arch. Philip Santiago, Oktubre 2016.*

Ito ang aral na lagi nating pakantandaan
Kaya minsan-minsan dapat nating pagnilayan
Paano nasugatan at patuloy nating sinasaktan
Ng ating mga kasalanan yaring Mahal na Katawan.

Sa naturang kuwento ng ating banal  
Kanyang dasal sana'y di lamang natin mausal
Katulad niya'y ating maisabuhay 
Paano ating mga kamay makakaramay.

Mga kamay ni Hesus sa krus katulad ay tulay 
Nag-uugnay, nagbibigay-buhay 
Sa mga handang abutin Diyos at kapwa natin 
Sa pag-ibig na walang kapalit na hinihiling.

Breaking the cycle of evil

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe, Holy Monday, 15 April 2019

Isaiah 42:1-7///John 12:1-11

*Dominican Hills, Baguio City, January 2019 by the author.*

This Monday is supposed to be different from all the other Mondays of the year for it is supposed to be holy. It is a step to your Paschal Triduum, Lord Jesus Christ, that begins on Holy Thursday evening leading to the glory of your Easter Sunday.

Being holy, O Lord, is being filled with you, being like you, Isaiah’s “Suffering Servant”:

Here is my servant whom I uphold…upon whom I have put my Spirit; he shall bring forth justice to the nations, not crying out, not shouting, not making his voice heard in the street. A bruised reed he shall not break, and a smoldering wick he shall nto quench, until he establishes justice on the earth.
Isaiah 42:1-4

Yesterday I found a beautiful quotation from the Facebook page of the Franciscans that I strongly feel making it my prayer this Holy Monday. It is easier said than done, Lord, but it is doable with your grace.

Give us the courage and grace Lord Jesus this Holy Monday to break the cycle of evil in our midst, to act not like some of those people of your time who tried to plot not only against you but also against your friend Lazarus whom you have raised from the dead.

It is very difficult, and even crazy but it is your way as the Suffering Servant, our Christ who broke our cycle of hate and violence. Amen.

“Stuck In A Moment You Can’t Get Out” by U2 (2000)

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music, Lent Week 1-C, 10 March 2019

Every year on this first Sunday of Lent, we always hear the story of the tempting of Jesus by the devil in the wilderness. According to St. Luke, Jesus was “filled with the Holy Spirit” when He went to the desert to pray and fast for 40 days. He was able to resist the temptations of the devil because Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit.

To be filled with the Holy Spirit means to be docile to the Holy Spirit. Being docile is not merely being obedient; from the Latin word docilitas, being docile literally means being “attentive”. Lent is the season that invites us to bring back the spirit of docility in our lives, that is, to be attentive to one’s self, to God and to others. How sad that in this world of advanced technologies, we have become more attentive with things and gadgets than with persons. Maybe if we are more attentive to our inner selves, to God and to others, we could have prevented the many disasters and problems we now have.

If we have been attentive to our self, to God and to others, we would not be “stuck in a moment we can’t get out” – the very same title of a cut from the U2’s 2000 album All That You Can’t Leave Behind. I have always loved that song – and that album which I feel is their second best after Joshua Tree – that I used it so many times in my talks and recollections with young people. According to Bono, it was written after his friend from another band committed suicide, of how he wished he had exerted more effort to prevent his friend from killing self, of being stuck in a moment you can’t get out.

The song perfectly suits our gospel today. Every time the devil tempts us, its aim is not merely for us to commit a sin. The devil’s ultimate goal in tempting us to sin is to destroy our lives, to get us stuck in a moment we can’t get out. The good news is that Jesus had shown us how we can get over every temptation by the devil. Moreover, He has filled us with the Holy Spirit so that like Him, we can be docile – attentive – to God, to others and to our self so that we avoid sins and avert destroying our lives.

 
You've got to get yourself together
You've got stuck in a moment
And now you can't get out of it
Don't say that later will be better
Now you're stuck in a moment
And you can't get out of it

Photo above from Bing.com; music video from Youtube.

Listening With Our Hearts

openheart — *Image from Google: Open ears, Open hearts, Open minds.*

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Friday, 15 February 2019, Week V, Year I

Genesis 3:1-8///Mark 7:31-37

Our dearest God and loving Father, thank you very much for this month of February when we celebrate Valentine’s, the day of hearts.

It must had been your Holy Spirit guiding us these days when we prayed the other day that we may look inside our hearts to see you and follow your holy will; yesterday as we celebrated Valentine’s, we prayed for the grace to see with our hearts.

Today we pray for the grace to listen with our hearts so we may not repeat the sin of Adam and Eve when they listened to the voice of the serpent who misled them into believing that the moment they eat the fruit of the tree of in the middle of the garden, “their eyes would be opened and they would be like gods who know what is good and what is evil” (Gen.3:5).

Give us the grace to separate ourselves from the crowd, from all the noise and different voices of the world, to listen with our hearts in silence with Jesus Christ like that deaf man brought to Him in Decapolis.

“Ephphatha!” (Mk.7:34)

Let our ears and our hearts be opened to you O Lord.

Let us be “deaf” sometimes to the cacophony of sounds in the world, competing for our attention, listening intently with our hearts to your tiny voice deep within us, telling us to love freely and truly by avoiding sins and doing only what is good. Amen. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan.

heart-reason

Seeing With Our Hearts

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Thursday, 14 February 2019, Week V, Year I

Genesis 2:18-25///Mark 7:24-30

A blessed day of the hearts to you O God our loving Father!

Everybody is greeting happy Valentine’s in honor of your saint who found ways of bringing together in holy matrimony lovers forbidden by so many circumstances. On the other hand, our liturgy reminds us on this day the holiness of two brothers, St. Cyril and St. Methodius who preached the gospel among the Slavs.

All three saints showed what true love is, a love that is rooted in you expressed in their love for others. This is the love that your Son Jesus Christ had concretely showed us, to make us experience anew that we are all one, brothers and sisters in you our Father despite our different colors and beliefs.

On this day of hearts, remind us O Lord to always see with our hearts so we can be filled with awe and joy in seeing one another like the first man, saying “This one at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh” (Gen.2:23). Give us also the courage of that Syrophoenician woman who came to beg Jesus to heal her daughter possessed by the devil by admitting her being a foreigner and different in race yet the same in stature as a child of God (Mk.7:28).

Like the first man and the Syrophoenician woman who saw with their hearts the other persons and Jesus, then we can destroy the walls that separate us from one another and build bridges of love that bring us together in kindness and respect.

May we always look with our hearts, O Lord Jesus, because it is only with the heart that we can truly see. Amen. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan.

“Waiting for Love” by Sergio Mendes and Brazil ‘77

waiting for love

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music, 06 January 2019

It’s the first Sunday of 2019 and we are celebrating in the Church today the Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord used to be known as feast of the Three Kings. From the Greek word epiphanes that means appearance or manifestation, today’s celebration reminds us that Jesus came for everyone especially those forgotten and unloved, the poor and marginalized, the sinner and those lost. Most of all, Christ became human like us except in sin so that it would be easier for us to find God. In fact, it is actually God who searches for us and always finds us. Whenever we think we are looking for God and have found Him, it was actually God who first sought us and found us.

While praying over the scriptures for today’s celebration, one song kept playing at the back of my mind, “Waiting for Love” by Sergio Mendes and the Brazil ’77. Composed by Randy McNeill, it is from their 1974 album “Vintage 74” that features for the second time around the vocals by Gracinha Leporace and Bonnie Bowden. It is a very beautiful song with a haunting music because it is so true with many of us who are so afraid to love, afraid to follow our stars, and perhaps afraid to fail and get hurt in life. “Waiting for Love” challenges us like the Epiphany if who among us are wise enough to recognize and follow Jesus appearing daily in our lives in many occasions and circumstances? Surely, there were other people who have seen the bright star of Bethlehem when Christ was born but why only the three magi from the East came to follow it and search for Jesus? Matthew tells us how the whole Jerusalem along with Herod were greatly troubled upon hearing the magi looking for the newborn king of the Jews as indicated by the bright star! This is what the song “Waiting for Love” is saying, of how often that “(And) it seems I’ve spent my whole life, Waiting for love, And when it comes, I always run away.” This 2019, stop being “afraid of being close where I need to be the most” – follow and believe in the bright star of Jesus Christ! Cheers to more love this 2019!

Photo from Google.

Our Little Stories Make God’s Great Story

LordMyChef “TGIF” Quote, 02 November 2018:

“The word of the Eucharist makes us part of the great story of our salvation. Our little stories are lifted up into God’s great story and there given their unique place. The word lifts us up and makes us see that our daily, ordinary lives, are in fact, sacred lives that play a necessary role in the fulfillment of God’s promise.” (Henri Nouwen, “With Burning Hearts”, page 59.)

*Photo by Dra. Mai B. Dela Pena, Mount Carmel Monastery, Haifa, Israel, 2016. Used with permission.

Be A Responsible Giver

LordMyChef “I-Like-Mondays” Quote, 29 October 2018:

“You don’t have to wait until you’re very rich to start helping others. and exactly like blood, you can only give away a certain amount, depending on your capacity, so you can remain healthy and able to keep helping others. Like blood, money is a blessing that should be shared, but you must be a responsible giver.”

Edgar “Injap” Sia with Kristine Fonacier, “Life Principles” pp. 88-89.

fishing

From Google.

God’s word, God’s presence

LordMyChef “TGIF” Quote, 26 October 2018:

“God’s word is full of God’s presence. But the full power of the word lies, not in how we apply it to our lives after we have heard it, but in its transforming power that does its divine work as we listen… it is a word to heal us through, and in, our listening here and now.” (Fr. Henri Nouwen, “With Burning Hearts”, pp. 55, 57)

MaiAthens

Photo by Dra. Mai B. Dela Pena, sunset in Athens, Greece 2016. Used with permission.

On Decision-Making

LordMyChef “I-Like-Mondays” Quote, 22 October 2018:

“I think success is a series of correct decisions. Every decision that’s made today was made because you thought it was right today; and, as a leader and a business founder, that’s your job- to keep making decisions all day.

For ten decisions you make, maybe seven will be perceived as immediately correct. While others may not perceive the other three decisions as right, if you’re blessed, it will turn out correct in the long run. And that blessing comes about as a combination of instinct and guidance.”

Edgar “Injap” Sia with Kristine Fonacier, “Life Principles”, page 106.

MaiTokyo1

Photo by Dra. Mai Dela Pena, Tokyo, Japan 2018. Used with permission.