40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Tuesday, Fourth Week in Lent, 01 April 2025 Ezekiel 47:1-9, 12 + + + John 5:1-16
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 17 March 2025.
Thank you dear Jesus for the Lenten reminder of our Baptism, of the sign of water in our faith and in our lives; Lent is water that cleanses us, refreshes us, hydrates us to keep us moving in your mission.
But what I like most, dear Jesus is your healing of the man seated at the pool of Bethesda for 38 years - like him, Jesus, I have been waiting for healing, for blessing, for your coming! Now you have come, still many among us refuse to welcome you nor accept you; instead, they question your healing on a sabbath with others still shouting for freedom for Barabbas.
How sad, dear Jesus that until now there are people who rejoice with death and evil and sin; cleanse those who rejoice in all forms of killing especially of the innocent and young, of the poor and disadvantaged; cleanse us all in your waters, Jesus so that like in the vision of Ezekiel, we may bloom too as a nation close to God, upholding life and justice always. Amen.
Photo by author, Hidden Valley Spring Resort, Laguna, 20 February 2025.
40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Monday, Fourth Week in Lent, 31 March 2025 Isaiah 65:17-21 + + + John 4:43-54
Photo by author, sunrise at Taal Lake from Laurel, Batangas, 16 March 2025.
Thus says the Lord: Lo, I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the things of the past shall not be remembered or come to mind. Instead, there shall always be rejoicing and happiness in what I create; For I create Jerusalem to be a joy and its people to be a delight (Isaiah 65:17-18).
Oh what a great joy to listen to you, God our loving Father this Monday promising us of you creating new heavens and new earth!
There is that great excitement always in everything that is new - a new home a new job a new relationship a new destination a new phone or car; but Father, that is how we look at everything new - always outside of us; this Lent, turn us to look inside our hearts, into our very selves as the new beginning; let us be excited and joyful for a new self a new heart a new attitude! like that official from Capernaum who begged Jesus to heal his son, let us realize new heavens and new earth begin with a new me. Amen.
Lord My Chef Sunday Music by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 30 March 2025
Photo by author, ceiling lights, Canyon Woods Resort, Batangas, 16 March 2025
Glad to be back dear friends with our Sunday music featuring secular music that echoes the good news of Jesus Christ. So excited with today’s feature because it is by one of our favorite musicians, Michael McDonald.
McDonald is that most unique voice in many of Steely Dan’s hits in the early 70’s where he got recognized, thus becoming the most sought partner of other great artists like Christopher Cross before settling with the Doobie Brothers with their signature song What A Fool Believes.
After leaving the Doobies in the early 80’s, McDonald came up with his first solo album called If That’s What It Takes from which came out our featured song I Keep Forgettin’ in 1982.
I keep forgettin' we're not in love anymore I keep forgettin' things will never be the same again I keep forgettin' how you made that so clear I keep forgettin'
Everytime you're near Everytime I see you smile Hear your "hello" Saying you can only stay a while
And I know that it's hard for you To say the things that we both know are true But tell me how come
While praying over our beautiful gospel this fourth Sunday in Lent (Laetare or Rejoice Sunday), I could hear McDonald singing this lovely song at the back of my mind that became the inspiration for our Sunday homily:
We do not tell God and our family and friends that we don’t love them but our walking away from them tells that so clearly. However, as we refuse to love when we sin, that is also when we deny the love right in our hearts, that we cannot stop loving because whatever we take after we have left are actually the very love of God and of our family and friends!
There is nothing truly ours in this world and because of God’s Mystery, we never lose His gift of love within us that when things get worst in our lives, it is the same love that gives us the spark to hope and believe again. It was that love that the youngest son missed and realized despite all his dramas as he went home to his loving father just like us too (https://lordmychef.com/2025/03/29/mystery-of-god-mystery-of-sin/).
Can we really forget or delete permanently a love that is especially so true, so great? In the parable of the prodigal son heard in churches this Sunday, Jesus reminds us that every time we sin – that is, when we refuse to love – we deny His very love in our hearts that remains there, only to be recognized or rediscovered by us when we are down like the prodigal son. That love of God we keep denying eventually is the very same love that gives us the spark to hope and believe again when we realized the foolishness we have done with our sins.
In this song by McDonald, we are reminded too of the same truth: we cannot forget nor deny the love we have especially to a beloved sweetheart even if things do not turn out well, when we part ways because our relationship wouldn’t work. The love remains there, is it not? Most often, we simply mature in our perceptions and relationships and yes, love because that love remains there.
How much more with God’s love?
Now, imagine Jesus Chris singing this McDonald hit?
And yes, that’s how He feels for us: God “keeps forgettin’ we’re not in love anymore” when we sin and yet, He keeps blessing us. Because, God simply loves us so much that even if we refuse to love Him, He still loves us, waiting for us to return to him like the loving father in the parable of the prodigal son.
That is why – rightly – the Doobies got another hit called Jesus Is Alright With Me but that’s for another piece perhaps this Holy Week.
Here now is Michael McDonald in his first solo hit, I Keep Forgettin’…. have a blessed, rockin’ week ahead, everyone.
40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Fourth Sunday in Lent (Laetare Sunday), 30 March 2025 Joshua 5:9, 10-12 ++ 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 ++ Luke 15:1-3, 11-32
Photo by author, Chapel of Angel of Peace, RISE Tower, Our Lady of Fatima Un iversity, Valenzuela, 28 March 2025.
We enter the fourth Sunday in Lent today with shades of pink to “rejoice” not only because Easter is getting close but most of all for the joy of God’s immense love expressed in His mercy and forgiveness to us sinners.
Known as Laetare Sunday from the Latin entrance antiphon of the Mass calling us to “Rejoice!” as it is hoped that by this time, we feel nearer to God in our Lenten journey, having experienced His Mystery which our gospel presents today courtesy of Luke who invites us to enter the scene of the Parable of the Prodigal Son. Many times we find ourselves wrapped in God’s Mystery with a capital “M” while entangled too in that other mystery of sin with a small “m” as this parable shows us.
Tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to listen to Jesus, but the Pharisees and scribes began to complain, saying, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” So to them Jesus addressed this parable: “A man had two sons…” (Luke 15:1-3, 11).
Jesus came to make God closest to us as our breath. As a Mystery, God is neither a concept nor an idea we have to understand in order to have or grasp to be possessed. It is God Whom we let to possess and wrap us in His Mystery for He is totally transcendent yet so personal with each of us. We do not see Him but we feel and experience Him as all-encompassing like nature around us that can be so breath-taking and awesome yet cannot be totally captured even by cameras. God is like the presence of insects and birds in a forest we delightedly listen to but so difficult to find or see.
Photo by author, Chapel of Angel of Peace, RISE Tower, Our Lady of Fatima Un iversity, Valenzuela, 28 March 2025.
That’s God – all around us, all-encompassing. Unfortunately, we are like the youngest son, proud and feeling independent with the gall and guts to ask God for our share of everything to be on our own when we do not have anything at all.
And off we leave to live a prodigal life or “wasteful extravagance”, slaving ourselves for wealth and fame and power until we hit rock bottom when suddenly we find ourselves empty and lost, sick and even alone. That is when we remember to come “home”, to return to our roots where it all began who is God.
As we sank deep in despair, we find a glimmer of hope within us where God is, where God had never really left us, always awaiting our return right there in our heart. He has always been there though we never recognized Him. Actually, that very moment we realized we are down and out, that was when God immediately ran to meet us.
Now, that mystery with a small “m” called sin we hardly notice.
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 17 March 2025.
See again Luke as master storyteller in this lovely parable he alone has. See how Luke presents in a most subtle manner the mystery of sin not only as a breaking away from God and a violation of laws but a complete refusal to love.
Feel the youngest son in his asking for his share of inheritance from his father and his leaving home was not simply a breaking away but a refusal to love, a refusal to live, a refusal to be with the father.
That happens when we sin.
We do not tell God and our family and friends that we don’t love them but our walking away from them tells that so clearly. However, as we refuse to love when we sin, that is also when we deny the love right in our hearts, that we cannot stop loving because whatever we take after we have left are actually the very love of God and of our family and friends!
There is nothing truly ours in this world and because of God’s Mystery, we never lose His gift of love within us that when things get worst in our lives, it is the same love that gives us the spark to hope and believe again. It was that love that the youngest son missed and realized despite all his dramas as he went home to his loving father just like us too.
On the other hand, the parable presents to us too another pernicious effect of sin as a mystery which is its direct effect to our personality. As a refusal to love, sin has a direct effect to our personality because every time we sin we become a less loving person that is a contradiction of our identity and nature.
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 17 March 2025.
Its worst part happens when we take small sins for granted including the little decisions we make that do not seem to be evil or bad, even without any vice at all; notice how after sometime of repeatedly committing them, our personality is affected, making us a less loving person that eventually breaks out in the open and we freakout like the elder son or those people caught on cam doing all the crazy stuff in public.
He said to this father in reply, “Look, all these years I served you and not once did I disobey your orders; yet you never gave me even a young goat to feast on with my friends. But when your son returns who swallowed up your property with prostitutes, for him you slaughter the fattened calf” (Luke 15:29-30).
How often have we made the excuse para yun lang naman? That a little lying or cheating once won’t really matter, asking ano ba masama doon? (what’s bad/wrong)? as an excuse for things that seem to be not bad or sinful at all.
Recall the first Sunday of Lent, the temptation of Jesus, of how the devil is always in the details, tempting us with that device of increments, of apportioning to little things the big evil things, not showing us the whole picture like fake news peddled by demons.
A sin is always a sin, a refusal to love. Period. Whether we go big time in sins like the youngest son or small time in sins like his elder brother, sin is clearly a refusal to love that greatly affects our personality, our lives and that of others.
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 17 March 2025.
We rejoice today for that great Mystery of God, of His immense love for each of us no matter how bad and how dark our sins are. God’s Mystery is His abounding love and mercy, forgiving our sins the moment we feel sorry for them.
He said to him, “My son, you are here with me always; everything I have is yours. But now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found” (Luke 15:31-32).
As I turned 60 last Saturday, the overwhelming feeling I have had inside me is that deep gratitude to God’s love for me. Everything is grace that all the more I pray, “Lord you have given me with so much but I have given so little; teach me to give more of myself, more of your love, more of you to others.”
This time, I pray it with deeper conviction as I see both with joy and fear the bright horizon ahead with a distant shore beyond. There’s no more time to waste as St. Paul had noted in the second reading, I feel life now more definitive, that God is so undeniably real. Like St. Paul, “we are ambassadors for Christ” with the mission to help people “reconcile to God” especially in this final journey in life. God reminds us today that like during the time of Joshua in the first reading, the Eucharist is our new Passover where we thank God for His abounding love and mercy for us in this life and beyond. Amen.
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 17 March 2025.
40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Friday, Third Week in Lent, 28 March 2025 Hosea 14:2-10 + + + Mark 12:28-34
And when Jesus saw that he answered with understanding, he said to him, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.” And no one dared to ask him any more questions (Mark 12:34).
Lord Jesus, bring us close to the Kingdom of God; let us return home to you to ourselves to one another in love.
We have “collapsed“ due to sin which is a refusal to love; many times we are so concerned counting our ways to love when we just have to love, love, and love the way you love us.
Make us realize, be aware and most of all, be convinced of your immense love for each of us, a love so unbelievable yet so real so true!
In this season of Lent, bring us close, not far from the Kingdom of God by being more loving to you in others; let us get rid of our many small choices in life though not really a vice but has a tinge of selfishness that eventually make us a less loving person and far from God's Kingdom. Amen.
Oh God... I can hear your voice so loud today; your words are meant for us though you have proclaimed it thousands of years ago through Prophet Jeremiah.
Thus says the Lord: This is what I commanded my people: Listen to my voice; then I will be your god and you shall be my people. Walk in all the ways that I commanded you, so that you may prosper. But they obeyed not, nor did they pay heed. They walked in the hardness of their evil hearts and turned their backs, not their faces from me. Say to them: This is the nation which does not listen to the voice of the Lord, its God, or take correction. Faithfulness has disappeared; the word itself is banished from their speech (Jeremiah 7:23-24, 28).
God our Father, we have become so possessed by the deaf mute demon you exorcised by Jesus in today's gospel: almost everyone has that thing plugged into the ears, listening by themselves, speaking by themselves, laughing by themselves, walking by themselves unmindful of the persons around, not hearing the cries of the poor and suffering, not caring at all to those slumped on the floor due to failures and sickness even death; living in their own world wired to technology but never to one's self, to others and to God.
Forgive us, O God, in rejecting you so many times, in believing more in ourselves, to our technology than to you; open not only our ears but also our hearts to listen to you; a long time ago, it was deemed crazy to be walking speaking to one's self, or laughing alone but today it has become a mark of honor and prestige when people talk alone, laugh alone with the aide of blue tooth; we have been so foolish, Lord that despite all these technologies and affluence of today, we are more lost because we walk aimlessly to nowhere as we have forgotten to listen to you for directions in life. Amen.
40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Wednesday, Third Week in Lent, 26 March 2025 Deuteronomy 4:1, 5-9 + + + Matthew 5:17-19
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 21 March 2025
“However, take care and be earnestly on your guard not to forget the things which your own eyes have seen, nor let them slip from your memory as long as you live, but teach them to your children and to your children’s children” (Deuteronomy 4:9).
God our loving Father, you encompass the whole Earth and universe where nothing is hidden from you nor escapes your notice even the smallest of particles in your whole creation most especially us, your beloved children, that, though we are sinful, you loved us beyond measure, mindful of us always.
But, we are all beings of forgetfulness. easily forgetting even your most recent blessings as well as intimacy and bond with us in Jesus Christ your Son; many times, we get distracted by so many concerns we forget you that we disregard one another in love and kindness; we easily forget your mercy and forgiveness that we return to our wayward life of sin quickly; most of all, we turn away from you as we refuse to love you when we get impatient in life, believing there could be better and other ways to fulfillment.
Direct us, dear God into becoming more loving like you, into desiring the Cross of your Son Jesus Christ for our love in him so that we may never forget to love you always in others for it is in our love for one another especially the weakest where our greatness as a nation is recognized. Amen.
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 17 March 2025
40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord, 25 March 2025 Isaiah 7:10-14;8:10 + Hebrews 10:4-10 + Luke 1:26-38
“Cestello Annunciation” by Botticelli painted in 1490; from en.wikipedia.org.
As we journey towards Easter, we thank you dear God our Father for the gift of this Solemnity of the Annunciation of the birth of Jesus to the Blessed Virgin Mary, teaching us how the Christ came into this world with the Blessed Virgin Mary's attitude and example worth emulating as our companion in this Lenten journey when she asked Archangel Gabriel, "How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?" (Luke 1:34).
Photo by author, Our Lady of the Poor, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 17 March 2025.
Many times in life, we live as if there is no God, with us not only playing like you, O God but actually acting truly as God. We live our lives according to our own ways, to our own standards, to our own thinking that most often lead to more disasters, more problems and worst, broken self and broken relationships; we feel we know better than you than anyone.
Teach us, Jesus, to be humble like your Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary: in her asking Archangel Gabriel "How can this be", she had already expressed her acceptance of the Father's invitation to be your Mother; many times, we refuse to even listen to God’s plan for us as we we rarely or have stopped praying at all so unlike Mary who must have been at prayer when Gabriel came. In her asking "How can this be?", Mary was already setting aside her own plans in life to give way to God's plan; in asking "How can this be?", Mary showed us the beauty of prayer as a relationship where there is true freedom and openness to God in you, Jesus.
Forgive us Jesus when we act like King Acaz so hypocrite, pretending not to test you when in fact we have already decided on our own without considering you at all. . How, O Lord, can we truly change our ways to follow God’s plans and most unique ways for nothing is impossible in him? Amen.
Photo by author, Our Lady of the Poor, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 17 March 2025.
40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Third Week in Lent, Cycle C, 23 March 2025 Exodus 3:1-8, 13-15 + 1 Corinthians 10:1-6, 10-12 + Luke 13:1-9
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 17 March 2025.
Thank you very much for all your birthday greetings yesterday, my 60th. Until now my heart overflows in joy from your expressions of love to me that confirmed God loves me so much in the most personal manner. Hence, my firm resolve in these senior years of my life to be able to love like God, to desire always the Cross for the love of our Crucified Lord Jesus Christ.
Yes, it is very ambitious, too idealistic but, that is God’s love for each one of us! Jesus became human like us so we may finally experience God’s immense love for each of us. And that is the invitation of Lent to us – that we go back to God, our very first love. Very often, we experience that very personal love of God for us in the desert of our lives when we are in darkness and emptiness like Moses in today’s first reading.
Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. Leading the flock across the desert, he came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There an angel of the Lord appeared to Moses in fire flaming out of a bush. As he looked on, he was surprised to see that the bush, though on fire, was not consumed (Exodus 13:1-2).
Fire is a very powerful sign not only in the Holy Bible but in every culture for the warmth it generates and the light it illuminates the surrounding. Fire signifies power because of its unique abilities to cleanse, purify and transform materials into something better. It is history’s most significant discovery of all time, facilitating our growth and development as peoples and nations with the advent of cooking that gave us food that delights and nourishes us.
That is the fiery love God has for each one of us we often find when we least expected like Moses in the first reading. Moses ended up in the wilderness tending sheep after fleeing from Egypt when he learned it was widely known that he had murdered an Egyptian maltreating a Hebrew slave.
What a beautiful image here of God’s love so fiery yet not burning us! In the burning bush, God revealed Himself as the omnipresent One always with us we are rarely aware of. There in the burning bush, God also reminded Moses and us today how this whole planet Earth is a sacred ground, His dwelling-place that we keep on desecrating with our sins.
And there lies the great paradox of our lives where God lighting us, straightening our crooked path to help us find our way back to Him, to life and to meaning. God is the fire burning the impurities in us without us knowing in many instances while He prevents us from being consumed like the burning bush. In fact, many times unknown to us, the fires of our failures and disappointments, pains and trials have actually brought out the best in us. Unconsciously to us, we are like the burning bush aflame with God’s fiery love that transforms us into better persons and more committed disciples of Christ.
Some people told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with the blood of their sacrifices. Jesus said to them in reply, “Do you think that because those Galileans suffered in this way they were greater sinners than all the other Galileans? by no means! But I tell, if you do not repent, you will perish as they did! Or those eighteen people who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them – do you think they were more guilty than everyone else who lived in Jerusalem? By no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will perish as they did!” (Luke 13:1-5)
How timely is our gospel today, reminding us to go deeper into our very selves, into those dark places in our hearts to realize too God’s message to us in the light of recent turn of events in the country.
What a mess we are now into that we easily blame on others except us. We have become so divided as a nation that we have refused to find the face of God, choosing to remain in the level of personalism and worst, of politics.
Sin is not just a turning away from God nor a breaking of any law but a complete refusal to love. When there is no love, there is no trust, there is no other person, there is no God. Just one’s self. Sin, therefore, is selfishness, the thinking more of one’s self, not of others.
That was the very sin of the people after the exodus when they refused to love one another, grumbling against Moses and even God most of the time. St. Paul has a grim reminder to each of us this Sunday as he recalled that desert experience of the Israelites when he wrote:
I do no want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea… Yet God was not pleased with most of them, for they were struck down in the desert. These things happened as examples for us, so that we might not desire evil things, as they did. Therefore, whoever thinks he is standing secure should take not to fall (1 Corinthians 10:1, 5-6, 12).
Five years ago I celebrated my birthday on a Sunday, the fifth in Lent just before Palm Sunday. That was very memorable to me because it was the first Sunday during the COVID lockdown when public Masses were prohibited.
That afternoon, I decided to go on a motorized procession of the Blessed Sacrament around my parish with a handful of our parish volunteers using a borrowed F-150 truck of a generous parishioner. Oh how the people knelt while lining up the main highway and inner streets as we passed by with the Blessed Sacrament.
Halfway through our libot, it started to rain but I instructed my companions to still go on even if it there would be a downpour. As we approached the last purok of our parish, I saw a rainbow. And cried as I felt God telling me at that moment like Noah after the floods that He would not forsake us in that time of COVID.
God kept that promise until I left Parokya ni San Juan Ebanghelista in Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan that was the least affected barangay by COVID in the whole town during my term.
Reflecting on that scene of Moses before the burning bush, I remembered that rainbow during my 55th birthday at the start of the COVID pandemic and lockdown. God often comes to us in many disguises, enlightening us to see the present situation we are into especially when it is all dark. It is the time we look inside our hearts to find God and experience His love; if we can’t find God or feel His love, let us be converted. Let us do penance as Jesus told the people in the gospel. Only with a contrite heart that one can truly find love again because being sorry for one’s sin is the beginning of loving.
That is the surest sign of God’s love for us – when everything especially us and our relationships become visibly clear , no matter how slowly it may be, one step at a time. The more we experience the love of God, the more we resolve to love; that is when this life and world become brighter. Let us love like God by returning to Him in His love. Amen. Have a blessed week ahead.
40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 19 March 2025 Solemnity of St. Joseph, Husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary 2 Samuel 7:4-5, 12-14, 16 + Romans 4:13, 16-18, 22 + Matthew 1:16, 18-21, 24
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 17 March 2025.
God our most loving Father, thank you for this Solemnity of St. Joseph, the most chaste husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary who witnessed to us with his life of faith the important aspects of Lent that have become a rarity these days - silence and stillness in you.
In this world of 24-7 when everything is "instant", we have lost the sense and beauty of silence and stillness in you, O Lord, making us to drift farther away from you, not believing you, not obeying you relying more in our powers and control of everything.
But life is not about doing and things as your Son Jesus have shown us: life is about being and loving, of persons in whom we find you and meaning of our lives.
Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man, yet unwilling to expose her to shame, decided to divorce her quietly. Such was his intention when, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home…She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home (Matthew 1:19-20, 21, 24).
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 17 March 2025.
Teach us, Jesus to be like St. Joseph your foster father to be holy and righteous: obedient to your laws but most of all, faithful and loving to God through one another.
Teach us, Jesus
to be like St. Joseph
your foster father
to be silent because
silence is the domain of trust:
let us trust you more
than our selves,
than our gadgets,
than our modern thoughts
and beliefs;
teach us Jesus
to be like St. Joseph
to be still in this time
when everyone is easily
agitated foolishly
by the cacophony of
various shouts and cries
in social media that are mostly
not true.
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2024.
Teach us, Jesus, that life is a daily Lent, of being silent and still in your presence, in your voice, in your plans so that like St. Joseph your foster father we may take care of you found in each one of us especially the weak and the poor. Amen.
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