The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Monday, Sts. Cornelius, Pope, and Cyprian, Bishop, Martyrs, 16 September 2024 1 Corinthians 11:17-26, 33 <*((((>< + ><))))*> Luke 7:1-10
Photo by author, Alfonso, Cavite, 21 April 2024.
Therefore, my brothers and sisters, when you come together to eat, wait for one another (1 Corinthians 11:33).
Lovely words, God our Father, for this lovely, cold Monday of overcast skies most likely with a lot of rains ahead.
Wash us clean, O God, with your rains of mercy and wisdom: it must be so easy to understand what St. Paul meant that we "wait for one another" when we come to eat together but that is exactly what has become a rarity these days; forgive us, Father, for like the Corinthians we have become like pagans, so unChristian in our lives especially at the Eucharist of your Son Jesus Christ; we no longer "wait" for one another as in we do not celebrate as one due to factions and selfishness that come in all forms; we no longer "wait" not serving each other truly as brothers and sisters; worst of all, we live for the present moment alone, being so unwise like unfaithful servants not "waiting" for Christ's return.
Let us "wait" for you, Jesus, like the people in Capernaum: the locals "waiting" for the centurion as they "strongly urged" you to help him because of his kindness to Jews; lovely was how the centurion "waited" for you, sending emissaries asking you Jesus for the healing of his slave; but, most wonderful of all, was the centurion's faith in you, Lord as he described how his slave faithfully "waited" on him, prompting him to tell you:
“Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; but say the word and let my servant be healed. For I too am a person subject to authority, with soldiers subject to me. And I say to one ‘Go’, and he goes; and to another, ‘Come here,’ and he comes; and to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and he does it” (Luke 7:6, 7-8).
Indeed, dear Jesus, to "wait" is to serve; to "wait" is to be one with others and with you; to "wait" to find myself always not worthy to receive you but you chose to "wait" for us in the Cross with your words of mercy and forgiveness that we are all healed, we are saved.
Pray for us, holy martyrs Pope Cornelius and Bishop Cyprian who both waited faithfully for their flock especially those who have lapsed in faith, those who have sinned and erred. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B, 15 September 2024 Isaiah 50:5-9 <*{{{{>< James 2:14-18 ><}}}}*> Mark 8:27-35
There is something very striking with the similarities and differences in our gospel last Sunday and today that greatly reveal to us the person of Jesus Christ whom we all imitate and follow as His disciples.
In Decapolis last Sunday, Jesus separated a deaf man – “took him off by himself away from the crowd” – to heal him by putting his fingers into the man’s ears, then spitted and touched his tongue as he groaned “Ephphatha” – be opened – and the man was healed as “he spoke plainly”.
Further up north of Decapolis which is the chief pagan city of Caesarea Philippi, the Apostle Peter took Jesus away from the crowd after the Lord spoke openly of His coming Passion, Death, and Resurrection.
But unlike the deaf mute healed when separated from the rest, Jesus rebuked Peter as He returned to the crowd as He continued to speak openly of His coming Passion, Death, and Resurrection.
He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and rise after three days. He spoke this openly. Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. At this he turned around and, looking at his disciples, rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do” (Mark 8:31-33).
Photo by author at Petra in Jordan, May 2019.
I love the contrast of these two events Mark tells us so succinctly without missing details that speak so well of God’s ways and man’s ways, of what is to think and act like Jesus and how the devil tricks us into its devious and insidious ploys.
See also how last Sunday the healed deaf-mute “spoke plainly” in Christ while today we are invited by Mark to “openly speak” like Jesus of life’s sufferings and death.
When God separates us from the rest of the people and our usual routines like what happened at Decapolis last Sunday, it is because He wants us to experience Him more closely, for us to be healed, and for us to touch base with Him anew who is the very root of our being. Like that nameless deaf man, we need to separate once in a while from the world for us to be healed of our many deafness so that we may listen more intently to God’s voice and words right in our hearts, in the scriptures, and in the cries of the poor and suffering among us.
Actually, Jesus was continuing in Caesarea Philippi His method last Sunday of “separating” when He first asked the Twelve “Who do people say that I am?” that prompted them to tell Him the many misconceptions about His identity. In a similar way with the deaf at Decapolis, Jesus took off the Twelve in Caesarea Philippi when He asked them the more specific question “But who do you say that I am?” and Peter rightly answered Him, “You are the Christ.”
Matthew has a similar story probably with some additions from other sources that we find Jesus praising Peter for his answer, entrusting to him the church, and promising him with the key to heaven. The rebuke of Peter would happen later in their journey.
Mark had none of that considering his gospel was Matthew’s basis. We find in Mark’s brief account of Peter’s confession at Caesarea Philippi Perhaps how often just as when we feel so close with God like Peter, it is the same moment when the devil comes to trick us to break away from God and follow our own ways, not His.
Photo by author near ancient city of Caesarea Philippi, May 2017.
The event at Caesarea Philippi gives us clearest sign to identify Jesus as the Christ, that is when Jesus speaks openly of His coming Passion, Death, and Resurrection.
He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and rise after three days. He spoke this openly (Mark 8:31-32).
Jesus never hides us from the realities of life as He speaks “openly” of His Pasch. From Caesarea Philippi, Jesus and the Twelve would head back south towards Jerusalem making a stop over on Mount Tabor for the Transfiguration where Christ’s glory was revealed to Peter, James and John.
It was during His Transfiguration that that Father and the Son made clear that Christ’s glory cannot be separated from the Cross. It was after Caesarea Philippi when Jesus announced thrice to the Twelve His coming Passion, Death, and Resurrection.
Notice too that qualifier “must” – that He “must suffer greatly”.
Just one word but so powerful, showing us the consistency of Jesus in speaking about His Pasch, the Cross, and later its relationship with discipleship, of the need for us to forget ourselves, take up our cross and follow Him.
Our motorized procession of the Blessed Sacrament in our previous Parish at the start of the COVID-19 lockdown in March 2020. Photo by Ms. Anne Ramos.
It saddens me when some priests and people in the Church shy away from talking openly about life’s many sufferings. We recognize their good intentions of not forgetting the beautiful and brighter side of being a Christian but to look at the Cross negatively and all its other implications is totally unChristian.
We cannot disregard the pains and darkness that come in being a disciple of Jesus; the Cross is the life of a disciple because it is the center of Christ’s person and teachings as expressed in yesterday’s Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross. All these “health and wealth” style of many preachers even in the Church are red flags of the devil’s ploy, of Peter separating Jesus from the Cross.
We act like Peter rebuking Jesus in Caesarea Philippi whenever we try to soften or hide, even cover the corruption and abuses going on in the society and families, the Church and our communities. That is clearly thinking in man’s ways not in God’s ways.
We cannot arrive at the truth and beauty of life disregarding the falsehoods and negativities around us. That was the problem with the people in mistaking Jesus as one of the prophets who were seen more as miracle workers who instantly healed them of their sickness.
Photo by author in my previous parish, 2017.
And here lies the danger too to us that we will never be able to have a good answer to Christ’s question “But who do you say I am?” if we avoid the many passion and death of this life in Jesus.
To openly speak like Jesus and embrace the sufferings and death we must endure is our first expression of faith with works we heard in the second reading from James.
To openly speak like Jesus and embrace the sufferings and death we must endure is the fulfillment of the first reading’s Song of the Suffering Servant who is Jesus Himself.
When we openly speak and embrace life’s daily sufferings and deaths like Jesus is to trust completely in God like Him. Let us speak openly of the Cross, of love and mercy, of God like Jesus Christ! Let us pray:
Lord Jesus Christ, let me continue to follow you closely by separating from the rest often to hear you more, to love you more, to trust you more; let me know you more clearly so that I may love you more dearly and follow you more closely speaking plainly, speaking openly without sugarcoating your call, your Cross. Amen.
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.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Monday, Memorial of St. Peter Claver, Priest, 09 September 2024 1 Corinthians 5:1-8 <*((((>< + ><))))*> Luke 6:6-11
God our loving Father, make me a yeast, a leaven for your people, bringing them into a community, a communion.
Do you not know that a little yeast leavens all the dough? Clear out the old yeast, so that you may become a fresh batch of dough, inasmuch as you are unleavened. For our Paschal Lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us celebrate the feast, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavend bread of sincerity and truth (1 Corinthians 5:6-8).
Many times, we in the Church fail to recognize the importance of corporate witness to the Gospel as one body; many times, we pretend to be blind and deaf and mute in the evil pervading among us, afraid of hurting others feelings, worst, afraid of being unmasked in living a double standard life; straighten our lives, Lord Jesus like that man with a withered hand in the synagogue; straighten our paths to your righteousness as we discern justice and mercy and love whenever there are some of us on the wrong side of the road. Like St. Peter Claver who called himself a "slave of the slaves forever" in his pioneering work among the African slaves in in Colombia, grant us the grace of courage and strength to dare start the impossible of being a yeast, a leaven to the people transforming them into witnesses of your Gospel. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B, 08 September 2024 Isaiah 35:4-7 ><}}}}*> James 2:1-5 ><}}}}*> Mark 7:31-37
Photo by author, sunrise at Galilee, the Holy Land, 2017.
Thank God the rains have finally stopped here in Metro Manila and nearby provinces but the flood remains widespread as we brace for two more weather disturbances due this week.
So timely is our gospel this Sunday that reminds us of something so essential during calamities, the need to speak plainly and clearly.
Image from crossroadsinitiative.com.
Again Jesus left the district of Tyre and went by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, into the district of Decapolis. And people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment and begged him to his hand on him. He took him off by himself away from the crowd. He put his finger into the man’s ears and, spitting, touched his tongue; then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him, “Ephphatha!” – that is, “Be opened!” – And immediately the man’s ears were opened, his speech impediment was removed, and he spoke plainly (Mark 7:31-35).
"...and he spoke plainly."
From forbes.com, 2019.
Think of our many misunderstandings and quarrels happening in these days of modern means of communications. How ironic that in this age of instant and wireless communications so accessible to everyone, the more we have misinformation and miscommunications.
No one seems to be speaking plainly and clearly anymore because we have been so blinded by the many images and colors competing for our attention, becoming deaf and mute due to the cacophony of sounds we hear even from machines and things that speak. Instead of life becoming easier and convenient in this age of social media and modern technologies, it has become so complicated like Facebook as more and more of us becoming deaf and mute to the realities within and around us.
I have just checked the internet today to find out that there are now over 7.2 billion cellphones in the world as of June 2024, a figure that accounts for about 90% of the global population now at 8 billion. Of course, it does not mean that 90% of the peoples across the world own a cellphone but we can just imagine how this little gadget has become the new “god”, a baal of the modern world everybody worship and follow. Jesus comes to us today, inviting us to separate ourselves from everything mundane even for a few hours to experience Him and His healing of our own deafness and blindness.
Photo by author, shore of Galilee, 2017.
Once again we find Mark guiding us in Jesus Christ’s itinerary that is often so quick and most of all, not really a destination found in maps but within us.
From Gennesaret last Sunday when Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem questioned Him about the disciples’ non-compliance with their rites of washing and cleansing, Jesus swiftly moved to visit the pagan territories of Tyre and Sidon, making a stop-over at Decapolis where He healed a deaf-mute. Those pagan territories are not mere locations nor sites in the Holy Land but areas within each one of us, our very person who have forgotten God completely even on Sundays as we worship so many other gods running our lives.
Jesus is now visiting us in our own paganism, asking us to separate ourselves even for a while from everything to experience humanity, our human-ness, our being one with God who is the very basis and foundation of our lives.
We are probably one of those people in Decapolis who begged Jesus to heal the nameless deaf-mute or most likely, ourselves the deaf-mute needing healing by Jesus! This healing of the nameless deaf-mute is a parable of the cure of another kind of deafness and speech impediment afflicting us these days that only grace can heal.
Photo by author, wailing wall of Jerusalem, 2017.
Recall how last Sunday Jesus reminded us of checking into our motivations, on what is inside us in doing things. Jesus was not actually against rites and rituals but simply wants us to do things for the glory of God.
Today, Jesus separates us from our daily routines, from the mundane to touch us, to breathe on us His spirit so we can be more attuned with Him and therefore reflect Him in our lives by opening us – Ephphatha – to speak plainly again of God’s love and mercy, of life’s beauty, of our own giftedness.
To “speak plainly” like that healed deaf-mute at Decapolis is to be able to put into actions the words of Jesus Christ. To “speak plainly” is more than verbally pronouncing words and sounds but most of all touching others with our kindness and love. To “speak plainly” is to hold the hands of those afraid to move on in life after a failure, to caress a sick’s forehead or feet, to hug and embrace the lonely and lost, to be present with those in grief and in pain. To “speak plainly” is to be a presence of God to everyone especially strangers, the elderly, the weak and the helpless.
To “speak plainly” first of all requires us to be opened to God’s words. The gospel accounts teem with many instances of Jesus reminding His disciples that include us today of taking into our hearts to understand and put into practice His words. In the second reading, St. James reminds us how we have become deaf and blind of each other that we behave so badly because we have been so molded by worldly standards even in the church:
My brothers and sisters, show no partiality as you adhere to the faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ. For if a man with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and a poor person in shabby clothes also comes in, and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say, “Sit here, please”, while you say to the poor one, “Stand there”, or “sit at my feel”, have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil designs (James 2:1-4)?
Photo by author at Dominus Flevit church outside Jerusalem, 2017.
Think of our many rules and regulations, of our so many documents not only in government but even in the Church. Do they speak plainly?
Many times, we have so much rites and rituals as well documents and laws everywhere that are far from God and from the people, speaking so eloquently of lofty thoughts that are empty, so far from realities that have become only a burden to many, mostly the poor and the powerless.
How sad that those in power, both civil and ecclesiastical authorities have only complacent ears, oblivious to the din from below, the very voice of God among the ordinary people. They have not only turned deaf to the voice of the masses but have even forgotten God’s name in the process! The Apostle Paul gives us the most wonderful lesson about “speaking plainly” of God’s mystery by proclaiming more of Christ crucified than using the world’s “sublimity of words or wisdom” (cf. 1 Cor. 2:1-5).
Photo by author, 2017.
This is the tragedy among us modern Christians today, of us denying even totally unaware of our own deafness, of being mute not able to speak plainly of God in Jesus Christ who came to fulfill Isaiah’s prophecy in the first reading to heal the sick, to strengthen the weak and afraid, and to redeem us held captive by the world’s lies and evil.
Let Ephphatha be our prayer too this Sunday to heal us of our deafness so we may speak plainly again of God’s love and mercy and kindness. Amen. Have a blessed week ahead, everyone!
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Friday in the Twenty-Second Week of Ordinary Time, Year II, 06 September 2024 1 Corinthians 4:1-5 <*((((>< + ><))))*> Luke 5:33-39
Photo by author, 15 August 2024.
Thank you, our loving Father for another week about to close; thank you dear God for this first Friday in September 2024: despite the rains and the floods and the inconveniences these have brought, thank you for a new beginning today. Let us celebrate this gift of life you have given us by putting on a new attitude, a new disposition, a new outlook in life for you have made everything new in Jesus Christ.
And he also told them a parable. “No one tears a piece from a new cloak to patch an old one. Otherwise, he will tear the new and the piece from it will not match the old cloak. Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled, and the skins will be ruined. Rather, new wine must be pured into fresh wineskins” (Luke 5:36-38).
Make us your trustworthy stewards of your mysteries, Lord; make us truly your servants who shall reveal your many mysteries of life and death, of joy and sufferings, of poverty and wealth, of fruitfulness and fulfillment, of redemption and forgiveness be known in our life of witnessing without any regard for fame nor popularity except that we do your work in Jesus faithfully. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B, 01 September 2024 Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-8 ><}}}*> James 1;17-18, 21-22, 27 ><}}}*> Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2024.
After five Sundays of journeying with John, we now return to Mark’s Gospel and shall continue to read it through the 33rd Sunday before we cap the current liturgical calendar with the Solemnity of Christ the King on November 24, 2024.
Oh yes! It’s beginning to feel like Christmas but the liturgy cautions us this Sunday through Mark that there are still many things we have to fix and cleanse in our hearts in the remaining stretch of the year, particularly our motivations in doing things. After dwelling on the “bread of life discourse” from John for five Sundays that gave us time to examine our faith, Mark brings us now to the other side of the lake in Gennesaret to listen to a discussion about the Jewish customs and traditions of ritual cleansing and washing in chapter seven.
When the Pharisees with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus, they observed that some of his disciples ate their meals with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands. For the Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews, do not eat without carefully washing their hands, keeping the tradition of the elders. So the Pharisees and scribes questioned him, “Why do your disciples not follow tradition of the elders but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?” He responded, “Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written: This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts. You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition” (Mark 7:1-3, 5-8).
Photo by author, St. Scholastica Spirituality Center, Tagaytay City, 20 August 2024.
It is easy to see in this scene how Mark must have tried to explain the many Jewish rituals and traditions that was a source of clashes among Jewish and pagan converts to Christianity in the early Church like circumcision and of eating of meat offered to gods. These were finally resolved in the Council of Jerusalem in year 50 when the Apostles acted upon instructions by the Holy Spirit “not to place on the pagan converts any burden beyond these necessities” (Acts 15:28).
However, it is unfair and a misreading to limit ourselves to this as a lesson in history because the practices criticized in this scene continue among us when we focus on the externalities of any ritual and tradition while missing their more essential and deeper meanings. Worst of all is the strong temptation among us to believe that by our actions and good deeds, like the Pharisees and scribes of that time, we make ourselves worthy of God or of anyone!
That is why Christ’s teaching in this Sunday gospel on the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and scribes of that time refers also for us today.
From Facebook, 29 August 2024.
From the halls of Congress to our own homes, classrooms and offices, pulpits and parish halls, we find many of us acting like the Pharisees and scribes who have come from Jerusalem to test and intimidate Jesus through people around us and under us by flexing their muscles in insisting strict adherence to their rituals and traditions that were passed on from Moses we have heard in the first reading. Observe how the Pharisees and scribes capitalized on these as “tradition of the elders” without really going into its very core and essence because they have forgotten or were totally unaware of Moses’ reminder that faithful observance of the Law and its tradition and rituals is a form of witnessing to God before all the peoples.
Observe them carefully, for thus you will give evidence of your wisdom and intelligence to the nations, who will hear of all these statues and say, “This great nation is truly wise and intelligent people. For what great nation is there that has gods so close to it as the Lord our God, it is to whenever we call upon him? Or what great nation has statutes and decrees that are as just as this whole law which I am setting before you today?” (Deuteronomy 4:6-8)
Photo by author, St. Scholastica Spirituality Center, Tagaytay City, 20 August 2024.
Every adherence and compliance to the Laws, to its accompanying rites and rituals must come from the heart, a result of the conversion of heart, of purification of one’s heart, especially the celebration of the liturgy we refer to as “the summit and font of our Christian life”. Every Mass celebration is an outflowing of what is in our hearts, beginning with the priest as celebrant.
But, what is the reality we have? As we concluded last Sunday Jesus Christ’s “bread of life discourse”, we realized the “shocking truths” of so many Catholics who have totally stopped coming to Sunday Masses, of some priests not giving the proper respect in prayerfully celebrating the Eucharist and the other Sacraments, and of most faithfuls just simply coming without seriously taking part in the Mass. That is why this gospel scene applies to us this time too as Jesus asks us, do we understand the things we are doing in the Church? What is in our hearts in doing these?
He summoned the crowd again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand. Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile. “From within people, from their hearts, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within and they defile” (Mark 7:14-15, 21-23).
Photo by author, St. Scholastica Spirituality Center, Tagaytay City, 20 August 2024.
This Sunday, Jesus is inviting us to a new perspective at looking at things, not just from what is clean and not clean, or simply what is good and evil, what is traditional and modern; Jesus wants us to examine our motivations, of what is in our hearts in doing things, anything and everything.
Ultimately, it is a question of who is in our heart, Jesus or somebody else or another thing?
It is reality versus hypocrisy. Reality is the truth and meaning that things, events, persons, most of all, of our very selves have before God and for God. It is in this reality that we must scrutinize to strip ourselves naked of the hidden hypocrisies, the many masks and alibis we use to justify our selves.
Photo by author, 13 August 2024.
I have something to confess to you, my dear followers: I have been sick these past three weeks with different ailments. All my lab tests were good. Doctors find nothing wrong with my body with everything normal.
Last Tuesday I saw my longtime doctor for my scheduled check-up. As I explained everything to her, I broke down in tears as I admitted the fact I am in denial stage of my mom’s passing last May. I have repressed my griefs, trying to fill in the void within me with workloads as if I am still young that finally, it manifested in my body. That same Tuesday evening, I dreamt of my mom: she looked younger and healthier without signs of stroke but she wore a black dress and looked to have cried. I hugged her tightly in my dream, we cried together as I said sorry to her, promising that I would finally come home even if it hurts me to see her room empty.
Two days after that, we celebrated John the Baptist’s passion with a reading from Mark telling us of the “grudge” Herodias had on him that led to his beheading. Many times, grudges and other negative things that Jesus cited in today’s gospel not only cover us but actually destroy us, eating us up in the process. The festering negativities in our hearts cannot be hidden, eventually erupting like blisters, not only hurting others around us but most especially us.
In the Mass, Jesus knows very well we are not worthy with our hypocrisies to receive Him but only say the word, we are healed. And blessed to cleanse ourselves. Let us pray:
God our loving Father, "all good giving and every perfect gift is from You with whom there is no alteration or shadow caused by change"; empty our hearts of pride and evil to welcome Jesus your Word who became flesh to dwell inside us so that we may be "doers of the word not just hearers" (James 1:17, 22) by being more loving to others without any strings attached. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Friday in the Twenty-first Week of Ordinary Time, Year II, 30 August 2024 1 Corinthians 1:17-25 <*((((>< + ><))))*> Matthew 25:1-13
Photo by author, Chapel of angel of Peace, Our Lady of Fatima University, Valenzuela City.
For Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are called, Jews and Greeks alike, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength (1 Corinthians 1:22-25).
One of the most enduring and endearing words by the great St. Paul, O Lord this final Friday of August.
In a milieu when even the Church is threatened by interest groups and ideologies running down to the many parishes sowing distractions and divisions, let us find our unity anew in the crucified Jesus Christ; let us be like the five wise virgins who brought extra oil in waiting the groom's coming, accepting the situation of darkness and bringing along extra oil of faith, hope, and love in Christ; make us humble, O Lord, that whatever we have achieved and gained are all by your grace, O God; let us not be complacent like the five foolish virgins; let us choose whatever is difficult like Christ crucified allowing each of us to change for the best in God; let us choose whatever is painful like Christ crucified allowing us to empathize more; let us choose always Christ crucified because the Cross is a plus sign, an addition than a subtraction in this life through eternity. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Tuesday, Memorial of St. Monica, Married Mother, 27 August 2024 2 Thessalonians 2:1-3, 14-17 <*((((>< + ><))))*> Matthew 23:23-26
Photo by author, St. Scholastica Spiritual Center, Tagaytay City, 20 August 2024.
I thank you today, dear God our Father for the gift of mothers as we celebrate today the Memorial of St. Monica, mother of St. Augustine.
Therefore, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught, either by an oral statement or by a letter of ours. May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting encouragement and good hope through his grace, encourage your hearts and strengthen them in every good deed and word (2 Thessalonians 2:15-17).
How wonderful to find St. Monica handled her life with prayer, the most beautiful tradition the Church had always taught and passed on since its beginning; it was St. Monica's life of prayer that flowed out into the grace of patience and perseverance as well as kindness to others leading ultimately to undying hope in God's goodness in converting first her pagan husband Patricius and then their three sons led by the eldest St. Augustine.
Thank you dear God for our mothers who shed tears when we go wayward as children so lost in a life of sin, and for us aching and hurting deep inside only mothers can detect and empathize with.
Thank you dear God for our mothers who have taught us the importance of prayer and goodness to others and most especially of the value of sincerity than hypocrisy. Bless all mothers today, merciful Father, may they find comfort in Jesus always. Amen.
Photo of St. Monica from the cover of the book “St. Monica Club: How to Wait, Hope and Pray For Your Fallen-away Loved Ones by Maggie Green, Sophia Institute Press, 2019.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Monday in the Twenty-first Week of Ordinary Time, Year II, 26 August 2024 2 Thessalonians 1:1-5, 11-12 <*((((>< + ><))))*> Matthew 23:13-22
Photo by author, St. Scholastica Spirituality Center, Tagaytay City, 21 August 2024.
Thanks be to God, our loving Father, the month of August is about to end, always a difficult time of the year for various reasons that some have called it a "ghost month"; of course, it is not true at all! August is the month of so many great saints and celebrations that remind us of your presence among us amid the many hardships and difficulties.
We ought to thank you God always for you, brothers and sisters, as is fitting, because your faith flourishes ever more, and the love of every one of you for one another grows ever greater… This is evidence of the just judgment of God, so that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God for which you are suffering. We always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and powerfully bring to fulfillment every good purpose and every effort of faith, that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and you in him, in accord with the grace of our God and Lord Jesus Christ (2 Thessalonians 1:3, 5, 11-12).
Dear God our Father, make us twice worthy like the Thessalonians in the midst of many trials this August: to be worthy of the kingdom of God who is Jesus Christ our Lord, and to be worthy of your calling in His most Holy Name; many times, we have become the modern scribes and Pharisees, modern hypocrites who "lock the Kingdom of heaven before men" with so many of us, especially in the clergy without any desires at all of getting closer to Jesus nor entering heaven!
Make us worthy of Jesus Christ, the Kingdom of God by embracing and carrying our cross, of suffering with the people, most especially praying and sacrificing with the people.
Make us worthy of your calling, dear Father to be your presence among men and women in this turbulent times when ironically, as we advance in science and technology, that more we grow apart from each other and from our very selves.
Help us find our way back to You, Father in Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit with Mary and your Saints. Amen.
Photo by author, St. Scholastica Spirituality Center, Tagaytay City, 21 August 2024.
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