Category: Life in God

Jesus “looking with love”

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B, 13 October 2024
Wisdom 7:7-11 ><}}}}*> Hebrews 4:12-13 ><}}}}*> Mark 10:17-30

Lately in my prayers I have felt so drawn on the “face” of Jesus, trying to imagine and feel how He looked at the various people He met in the gospel accounts. Most of all, of how Jesus looks at us too (https://lordmychef.com/2024/10/09/to-his-face/).

Consider our gospel this Sunday that shows us how Jesus has that “look of love” to everyone. No matter how bad and sinful we may be, He is full of love and mercy, compassion and joy in seeing us. The problem is often the way we look at Him like that man who approached Him as well as the disciples conversing with Him who were all so much like us.

Photo by Mr. Jim Marpa, 2019.

As Jesus was setting out on a journey, a man ran up, knelt down before him, and asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus answered him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments…” He replied and said to him, “Teacher, all of these I have observed from my youth.” Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him, “You are lacking in one thing. Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” At that statement his face fell, and he went away sad, for he had many possessions.

Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” The disciples were amazed at his words. So Jesus again said to them in reply, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!” It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of the needle than for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” They were exceedingly astonished and said among themselves, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “For human beings it is impossible, but not for God. All things possible for God” (Mark 10:17-27).

Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2024.
Jesus, looking at him, loved him...
his face fell, went away sad,
for he had many possessions.

We readily identify with this man because all of us have the same question deep in our hearts to Jesus, wondering there must be more to keeping the commandments, of being good, of a better way to get into eternal life that is not necessarily a shortcut.

In fact, we have to rejoice, dear friends if we ask the same question because it is a grace that can only come from God, so unlike the Pharisees who asked Jesus last Sunday on the legality of divorce because they wanted to “test” Him. See how Jesus like last week brought us all back to the Sacred Scriptures, the very word of God expressing His will in human terms. The question was a sincere longing for God like the Psalmist, “Your testimonies are my delight; they are my counsellors”; “I observe your precepts and testimonies; all my ways are before you” (Ps. 119:24, 168).

Jesus looked at the man with love because He saw a great opening for more grace in him that is why He told him to sell everything he had, give it to the poor and follow Him. At that moment, like most of us, his face fell and went away sad because he had many possessions.

Are we not this man too who can’t look at Jesus with the same love because we probably love somebody or something else than Him found among those in the margins of our lives?

Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2024.
Jesus looked around...
the disciples were amazed.

If Jesus did not care at all and has no love for those around Him, He would have not looked around after that man had left. Here is the lovely thing with Jesus: His look is always filled with love for us His disciples, a look so penetrating, so luminous because He is divine.

What is amazing is not only that it is difficult for us to enter the kingdom of God due to our many attachments, sinfulness and weaknesses, but, despite all these, Jesus still speaks to us, conversing with us because He simply loves us so much! Jesus never looks on qualifications but instead qualifies His call so we can follow Him. Most of all, look at Him too!

Consider the amazing grace for us to remain in Jesus, albeit hiding that question in our hearts so afraid to ask because we know His answer would be so unexpected like in this scene and yet, here is Jesus looking around, looking at us with love sincerely telling us it is not easy at all. Remember the bread of life discourse of how Jesus talked straight because He was sincere and truthful to us that it is difficult to follow Him to the Cross which is what discipleship is all about. Just keep following Jesus, keep looking at Him no matter what!

Photo by Mr. Jay Javier, Quiapo Traslacion 2020.
Jesus again said to them...
they were exceedingly astonished.

Wow…! See the style of Mark who was not contented in writing how astonished the disciples were by describing them as “exceedingly astonished”. See his attention to details, so wonderful and beautiful because what is exceedingly astonishing is Jesus Christ’s love for us, not just His words!

Here, Jesus was already telling the disciples what would happen on Good Friday, of how Jesus would do everything for us all – that is, in doing the impossible that is only possible with God because He loves us so much.

Like what St. Paul had extensively reiterated to the Galatians in the weekday readings last week, Jesus did everything for us to be saved. Salvation is a gift, a pure grace from God. It is never our work; stop playing God, or a Messiah! There is nothing we can really do to be saved except to be like a child as Jesus had reiterated these past two Sundays.

To be like a child is to completely trust Jesus every step of the way especially on His way to Jerusalem. Now we see the importance of having that child-like attitude to belong in the kingdom of God as Jesus identified what await His disciples in following Him: “houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and eternal life in the age to come” (Mark 10:30).

Photo by Mr. Jim Marpa, 2019.

Don’t be sad now. Mark had a purpose in writing the persecutions that await every disciple of Jesus because these shall purify us, give more depth and meaning to our lives and existence.

Mark knew so well how everyone is like the author of the Book of Wisdom who lived in a time similar with ours with all the affluence around us that deep inside us we still feel and know for sure that life is more than comfort and pleasures. He knew too the story of King Solomon like us so blessed with that consciousness that more than the material wealth and fame the world offers us, what matters most in life is wisdom to discern what is right and good.

These are difficult indeed for us, like getting married threatened by divorce then and now; but, again Jesus proposes an ideal, inviting us to remain in Him in prayers. After all, Jesus is the word of God who became flesh is “living and effective” among us found in the Sacred Scriptures (second reading) to guide us closer to Him.

Let us not worry because Jesus had done everything for us to be saved. Stay in the Lord, and let our face shine with His love! Keep looking at Jesus who looks at us full of love today and always. Have a blessed week ahead!

From forbes.com, 2019.

Inmost being for connecting, reconnecting

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Tuesday in the Twenty-seventh Week of Ordinary Time, Year II, 08 October 2024
Galatians 2:1-2, 7-14     ><000'>  +  <'000><     Luke 10:38-42
Photo by Ms. Ria De Vera at Banff, Canada, August 2024.

O Lord, you have probed me and you know me, you know when I sit and when I stand; you understand my thoughts from afar. Truly you have formed my inmost being; you knit me in my mother’s womb. I give you thanks that I am fearfully, wonderfully made; wonderful are your works (Psalm 139:1-2, 13-14).

Thank you,
loving God our Father
for this brand new day!
Like the psalmist today,
I am at awe with your creation,
beginning with me
at how you have formed
 my inmost being
that enables me to connect
with You through your wonderful
creation!

In forming my inmost being,
You have made me yours,
enabling me to realize my connection
with You, O God, my Creator
as well as with your entire creation;
and if I am lost or had gone astray,
it is still my inmost being You have formed
in me that enables me to reconnect
with You and myself
and others.
Photo by Ms. Ria De Vera at Banff, Canada, August 2024.

Brothers and sisters: You heard of my former way of life in Judaism, how I persecuted the Church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it… But when he, who from my mother’s womb had set me apart and called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, so that I might proclaim him to the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were Apostles before me: rather, I went into Arabia and then returned to Damascus (Galatians 1:13, 15-17).

How lovely and so true
like St. Paul, 
You have formed our inmost being
so that we may remain connected
or be reconnected with You 
when we are lost
and separated.
Grant us O God
the gift of discipline in 
cultivating a prayer life,
a life centered in You so that 
we remain connected in You
through Jesus Christ like Mary
sitting beside Him at His feet,
listening to His every word;
let us be aware of your precious gift
of our inmost being
by cultivating a prayer life
to make our connections stronger;
You created us, O God
to be connected always
with You,
our self,
and with others;
keep us strong in resisting
temptations to sin,
to separate and be isolated
from You and others
by destroying our connections,
disregarding our inmost being.
Amen.
Photo by Ms. Ria De Vera at Banff, Canada, August 2024.

Jesus, the “love language” of God

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B, 06 October 2024
Genesis 2:18-24  ><}}}}*>  Hebrews 2:9-11  ><}}}}*>  Mark 10:2-16
With our student sacristans in our San Fernando Campus in Pampanga during the Mass of the Holy Spirit last year.

One of the joys of my ministry as chaplain in a university and a hospital is the daily interaction I have with young people who keep me young like them, always updated with the many trends happening among them especially in the languages they speak. In them I continue to find the many faces of Jesus Christ who continues to pass by even in this modern world so swiftly changing due to social media.

Two terms I have recently learned from them are “love language” and “situationship”. Let’s just talk about “love language” this Sunday that is more appropriate with our gospel and reserve that other word “situationship” when the setting is more apt. Lately I have noticed the term “love language” mentioned quite often in social media posts and reels. I never bothered to know it until somebody asked me what is my “love language” that threw me off balance with many wild things rushing into my mind, thinking what is it!

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

It turned out that “love language” is a term coined in 1992 by Baptist pastor Gary Chapman in his book of the same title where he identified five love languages we give and (prefer) to receive: words of affirmation, acts of service, receiving gifts, quality time, and physical touch. It was an amazing moment of learning from me when I realized that everyone – including us priests – has a favorite love language in expressing our love to everyone. And in our gospel today, we find that even God who is love Himself has a love language in the very person of His Son Jesus Christ!

The Pharisees approached Jesus and asked, “Is it lawful for a husband to divorce his wife?” They were testing him. He said to them in reply, “What did Moses command you?” They replied, “Moses permitted a husband to write a bill of divorce and dismiss her.” But Jesus told them, “Because of the hardness of your hearts he wrote you this commandment. But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, no human being must separate” (Mark 10:2-9).

Photo by author, 2024; I have loved mosses that thrive even with little sunlight, reminding us of God’s grace especially when we are in darkness and tribulations.

Jesus and the Twelve continued their journey to Jerusalem with His teachings not only getting more exciting but actually more difficult and hard as He addressed the thorny issue of divorce which continues to divide us in this modern age.

Interestingly enough, this scene happened while Jesus and the Twelve were in Judea, the province governed by King Herod who had John the Baptist arrested and later beheaded upon the instigation of his wife Herodias. John spoke against Herod’s taking of Herodias as wife because she used to be the wife of his own brother Philip then governing another province. One can just imagine the grave danger the Pharisees have exposed Jesus in discussing divorce right in the turf of an evil ruler living with an adulteress!

As usual, Jesus did not fall into the test by the Pharisees because He had no intentions of joining our endless debates about divorce as He knew very well that it is something so complicated that has continued to ruin human relationships as a result of the “hardness of our hearts”. Recall too similar instances when Jesus was asked for an opinion in politics like the paying of taxes to Caesar and the settlement of disputes among brothers regarding their inheritance. See how Jesus would always make it clear that His mission is not to settle our disputes in economics and politics nor personal relationships but to always reveal to us the will of God.

Instead of giving a simple answer of “yes” or “no” on the lawfulness of a divorce or the paying of taxes to the Romans, Jesus would always bring us to God our Father, the very core of our being and relationships. It is only in being rooted again in God when we realize personally, existentially why we have to strive in choosing what is true, good and beautiful no matter how difficult it may be.

Photo by Deesha Chandra on Pexels.com

This Sunday, Jesus is not offering compromises to us weak human beings about divorce but rather proposes the ideal of marriage by going back to its very source and beginning, God Himself who is love.

That is why our first reading was taken from Genesis to remind us and make us realize that everything, most especially man and woman – is created by God. Everything in this world was from God, especially our desire for union and communion which we also find expressed even by trees and plants as well as animals.

However, what makes us distinct from the rest of creation as we see in other parts of Genesis is God breathing on us His breath of life that gives us the consciousness of our oneness, of that transcendent otherness called humanity that makes us realize our deeper reality in the “I-Thou” relationship. Plants and animals do not have that consciousness.

Photo by author, St. Scholastica Retreat Center, Tagaytay City, August 2024.

The creation of a woman as suitable partner of man is not a result of an after-thought of God as if He never knew man would never be fulfilled without a woman. The creation of woman being taken from one of the ribs of man cast into a deep sleep by God reminds us of each person being a gift to everyone. No pet nor plant can bring that kind of ecstasy and joy of finding somebody like us, of bringing unity in every one who is incomplete in one’s self.

See how Jesus repeated the Genesis account “that is why” or “for this reason” a man leaves his father and mother and be joined with his wife to become one.

This tendency of ours towards one another, a consciousness of then other person, is a gift and a grace indicating our origin who is God who always relates with us. Every time we destroy this unity, whenever we upset this complementarity among us in God, that is when disorder happens, generating competitions among us that lead to our endless conflicts that only leave us with more pains and sorrows. Hence, back in the house again towards the end of our gospel scene this Sunday, Jesus reiterated the example of the child after His disciples drove them away.

Photo by author, statue of the Child Jesus hugging St. Joseph, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, March 2024.

How lovely and ironic that despite the weaknesses and incompleteness of children, we find in them all five love languages too. What a joy to play and converse with children, especially carry babies despite their lack of language skills we find each one a love language in himself/herself – exactly like Jesus Christ, the love language of God who gave us everything to experience oneness in love.

God knows everything that He created us in His own image and likeness. Nothing, not even sin could ever destroy His grand design for us since creation so that right after the Fall, God right away promised salvation fulfilled in Jesus Christ whom He had sent to remind us anew of His wonderful plan for us.

I have a similar image like this in my room, my most favorite statue of St. Joseph as protector of the Child Jesus and Mary. But most of all, we find Jesus being the love language of God even in his childhood with His all-encompassing love that reached its highest point at the Crucifixion.

God knows everything, especially our weaknesses in keeping our relationships. Jesus is not judging us and knows very well the pains many are enduring as a result of separation and divorce. The Letter to the Hebrews we heard in the second reading tells us how Jesus in suffering death has become like us in order to share with us the grace we need to keep our human relationships strong.

Every Sunday, I visit our patients in the hospital to give them Holy Communion, hear their confessions and often, anoint most of them with Oil for the sick.

Whenever I meet couples especially those already old and with debilitating sickness, I praise God for the tremendous grace he gives them. In them I always find God so truly present among us, especially in every husband and wife lovingly serving each other in sickness and in health. Let us pray for all couples that they may cooperate with God’s grace in keeping their marriage alive. Amen. Have a blessed week ahead!

Job, St. Francis of Assisi, and… Pocahontas

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Friday, Memorial of St. Francis of Assisi, 04 October 2024
Job 38:1, 12-21; 40:3-5     <*{{{{><  +  ><}}}}*>     Luke 10:13-16
Photo by Fr. Bien Miguel, Diocese of Antipolo, 25 September 2024.

This is actually a rejoinder to our prayer earlier published today on the Memorial of St. Francis of Assisi. And how I love the first reading today, of God’s “speech” to Job’s lamentations that remind us all of the wonder and majesty of creation St. Francis of Assisi highly regarded in his life and teachings.

The Lord addressed Job out of the storm and said: “Have you ever in your lifetime commanded the morning and shown the dawn its place for taking hold of the ends of the earth, till the wicked are shaken from its surface? Have you entered into the sources of the sea, or walked about in the depths of the abyss? have the gates of death been shown to you, or have you seen the gates of darkness? Have you comprehended the breadth of the earth? Tell me, if you know all” (Job 38:1, 12-13, 16-18).

How interesting too these words written about 2700 years ago in the Middle East are echoed in our own time in theme song of the Disney movie Pocahontas, “The Color of the Wind”:

Have you ever heard the wolf cry to the blue corn moon
Or asked the grinning bobcat why he grinned?
Can you sing with all the voices of the mountain?
Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?
Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2024.

Like Job, who was a fictional character, Pocahontas went through a lot of great sufferings beyond explanations which is the aim of the authors of the Book of Job – to reflect on the mystery of human sufferings and misery amid a loving God.

It is easy to understand our sufferings in life when we are the ones who have caused them like making wrong choices and decisions or simply not exerting enough efforts to our endeavors or projects.

The most painful sufferings that are really bothersome are those we feel “undeserved” at all like getting a rare cancer and disease, being offended by someone close to us despite our being good to them, or like Pocahontas who was then living in peace and quiet until the English colonizers came to America who kidnapped and gang raped her.

I have never seen that Disney movie Pocahontas that is loosely based on the life of a native American Indian woman Pocahontas whose actual name was Matoaka; she was the daughter of the Chief of the Powhatan tribe in Chesapeake, Virginia during the early 1600’s.

According to historians, there was really no romance at all between Pocahontas and the British colonizer Captain John Smith as portrayed in the Disney movie. After getting pregnant from that gangrape, Pocahontas was forced to marry the English explorer John Rolfe as a condition for her release that only made her life filled with great sufferings and humiliations until her death.

Though a work of fiction but a fruit of prayerful reflections about life’s realities unlike the Disney movie Pocahontas, Job suffered severely when he lost his children, properties and livestock in a single day. Worst of all, he was stricken with a rare disease and left to the care of a “nagging” wife and three friends who wanted him to curse God or admit his guilt for a sin for which God was punishing him.

But Job’s conscience was clear, remaining faithful to God throughout all his sufferings. His complaints and cries were actually a voicing out of his inner pains to God, an expression of his trust in Him, “But as for me, I know that my Vindicator lives, and that he will at last stand forth upon the dust… And from my flesh I shall see God; my inmost being is consumed with longing” (Job 19:25, 27).

Job like us today was not seeking any answer nor explanation at all for his sufferings; he cries to God like us because we believe only God can save us. We do not cry or air our pains to someone we do not trust or believe in; the same is true why we cry and complain to God!

God’s response to Job’s laments remind us today of the need for us to see the whole picture we are into in this vast universe, of how everyone and everything is interconnected in God through His own Son Jesus Christ.

Notice how the author structured the speech of God of seeming opposites in life: commanding the morning and being shown the dawn in verse 12; sources of the sea and depths of the abyss in verse 16; and, gates of death and gates of darkness in verse 17. Jewish thought at that time was so structured that they saw everything distinctly different like morning and dawn, sea and abyss, death and darkness. That explains why they were so strict with the letters of the law that they eventually forgot the primacy of the human person which Jesus tried to emphasized to them in His teachings and healings. Jesus came to show us how everything and everyone in this whole creation is linked together, interrelated in God through Him.

This He did when He died on the Cross.

Photo by Fr. Gerry Pascual of the fresco at the Assisi Basilica, Italy, 2019.

It is sad that St. Francis of Assisi is often “romanticized” by many nature lovers even by some “new agers” for his love for nature and animals. More than sentimental reasons, St. Francis’ love and concern for nature and animals were all the result of his deep love and devotion to Jesus Christ crucified found daily in the celebration of the Holy Eucharist.

St. Francis realized and experienced the interconnectedness of everything and everyone in his own sufferings and pains in life he humbly embraced and accepted as we see in that verse we pray at every Station of the Cross he had composed:

V. We adore You, O Lord Jesus Christ, and we bless you. R. Because by Your holy Cross, You have redeemed the world.

For his love for the Cross and his own sufferings, Jesus blessed St. Francis with the stigmata, His five wounds at His crucifixion.

Photo by Fr. Gerry Pascual, Sculpture of the young St. Francis in Assisi, Italy, 2019.

After receiving those wounds, St. Francis was blinded as he went through severe sufferings after going through well-intentioned surgeries that went so bad. He was in his 40’s at that time and despite his great sufferings, it was during that period when he produced so many great writings we all cherish until now, notably the Canticle of the Sun where we find his famous expressions “brother sun, sister moon, and cousin death” – the very same things God expressed to Job in that speech out of the storm in our first reading today that is echoed by Disney’s Pocahontas in the theme “The Color of the Wind”.

But unlike that Disney movie that sugarcoats life’s realities of sufferings and pains, both Job and St. Francis of Assisi remind us today that the more we embrace our pains and sufferings in life like them, the more we see life’s wholeness, our oneness in God and the rest of His creations when seen in the light of the Cross of Jesus Christ.

When we see this oneness and interconnectedness in life, that is when we actually grow and mature, become fruitful as we find fulfillment in life despite the difficulties and pains we go through. Have a blessed weekend everyone! Happy feast day too to our Franciscan brothers and sisters!

From YouTube.com.

Have you…?

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Friday, Memorial of St. Francis of Assisi, 04 October 2024
Job 38:1, 12-21, 40:3-5     <*{{{{><  +  ><}}}}*>     Luke 10:13-16
Photo by Ms. Marissa La Torre Flores in Switzerland, August 2024.
As we celebrate today the
memorial of St. Francis of Assisi
in the light of our first reading
from the Book of Job,
You open our eyes anew
O God our loving Father
into your unfathomable mystery
of majesty and love for us.

Like Job,
we ask many questions
not really because we complain
to You but simply we have no one else
to turn to; we have so many questions
in life and we are willing to wait if ever
there would be any answer at all
but one thing for sure,
we are certain You have all the answers.
Be patient with our many whys, 
O God, for we have no any reply
to any of your single question
"Have you ever in your lifetime commanded
the morning and shown the dawn its place...?
Have you entered into the sources
of the sea, or walked about in the depths
of the abyss?
Have the gates of death been shown to you,
or have you seen the gates of darkness?
Have you comprehended the breadth
of the earth? Tell me if you know all" 
(Job 38:12, 16-18). 
Like St. Francis of Assisi,
give us the grace to dare follow
your Son Jesus Christ not only
in humility and poverty 
but most especially in His Cross;
forgive us, Father
and let us do away with all the
"sentimentality" cultivated by
nature lovers including "new agers"
on St. Francis' love for nature
rooted in Christ's sufferings and
commitment to a poor and simple life. 
Like Job
and St. Francis who 
lovingly embraced Jesus with
His Cross, may we also realize our
"smallness" before you, O Lord
in our trials and sufferings to experience
at the same time the joy and glory
in comprehending the "breadth 
and length
and height 
and depth" 
of Christ's love
that surpasses knowledge
so that we may be filled with
your fullness,
dear God
(Ephesians 3:18).
Amen.
Photo by Ms. Marissa La Torre Flores in Switzerland, August 2024.

We are an angel too of everyone

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Wednesday, Memorial of Guardian Angels, 02 October 2024
Exodus 23:20-23     <*((((><  +  ><))))*>     Matthew 18:1-5, 10
Photo by author, Baguio City Cathedral, January 2019.
How good and gracious
are You, God our Father
in assigning a guardian angel
to each one of us in order 
to lead us closer to You
and eventually,
face-to-face with You
in all eternity!

“See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father” (Matthew 18:10).

Forgive us, O God,
for disobeying our guardian
angels so often when we
choose to sin than remain
in your grace;
forgive us most especially
when we forget we too
are an angel to everyone
tasked to care and look after
of every one especially the
children and elderly who are weak,
the sick and the poor,
those disadvantaged
in our society that does not believe
in You anymore
and in angels.
Photo by author, Fatima Avenue, Valenzuela City, December 2023.

“See, I am sending an angel before you, to guard you on the way and bring you to the place I have prepared. Be attentive to him and heed his voice. Do not rebel against him, for he will not forgive your sin. My authority resides in him (Exodus 23:20-21).

Bless us, dear God
to be humble always
like your angels
leading others from
darkness into light,
from ignorance into wisdom
and knowledge,
from bondage to sin
into the grace of freedom
to be more loving and 
faithful in serving You
through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Photo by author, Fatima Avenue, Valenzuela City, December 2023.

Seeing Jesus is seeing the Cross

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Thursday in the Twenty-fifth Week of Ordinary Time, Year II, 26 September 2024
Ecclesiastes 1:2-11     <*((((><  +  ><))))*>     Luke 9:7-9
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Vanity of vanities, says Qoheleth, vanity of vanities! All things are vanity! What has been, that will be; what has been done, that will be done. Nothing is new under the sun (Ecclesiastes 1:2, 9).

How lovely are your words today,
God our Father:
"All things are vanity",
a mist, 
a dew,
or breath
that vanish quickly,
no permanence,
and no real value at all
but because of You,
everything got meaning,
got value
especially in the coming
of Jesus Christ your Son,
our Lord and Savior.
You are no longer far from us,
dear God;
in Jesus Christ,
You have been among us,
most of all within us;
yet, many of us
could not find you
nor experience you.
Like Herod the tetrarch,
so many of us have heard
a lot about you, O God,
in Jesus Christ
but are still perplexed,
refusing to believe,
refusing to recognize,
refusing to accept
especially His Cross.
Bless us, dear Jesus,
especially those who keep
on trying to see you
but could not find you
because to see you
O Lord is to forget
one's self,
take up one's cross,
and follow You.
Amen.

When is life empty?

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Friday, Memorial of St. Andrew Kim Tae-gon & Companion Martyrs, 20 September 2024
1 Corinthians 15:12-20     <8{{{{><  +  ><}}}}8>     Luke 8:1-3
Photo by author in Bolinao, Pangasinan, 2022.

"And if Christ 
has not been raised,
then empty too is our preaching;
empty, too, your faith"....

and empty too is our life!
St. Paul's words 
to the Corinthians 
echo so well in our own time 
when many of us believers
live as though there will be no
resurrection of the dead;
so many of us believers today
see life limited only to this
temporal world
that we indulge in everything
that is material and pleasing,
avoiding all pains and sufferings,
simply subscribing to that dictum
to drink and be merry 
for tomorrow
we shall die.
Forgive us,
Jesus, when we see 
life's fullness is found only
in things and pleasures 
of the world that we forget
the truth that life is empty
without your Cross
because it leads us to
Resurrection each day
like the sunrise;
life is empty when we have
more of the world
and less of God
whose ultimate reality
is in the resurrection 
and life everlasting.
Grant us the grace
of those holy women
who followed you in your
ministry, giving up everything
they have especially their
sinful past because in you
they found and experienced
resurrection; most of all, 
like the more than 100 martyrs
of Korea whom we remember today,
let us bear our cross of witnessing
to you and your gospel, 
Jesus, so that people may
realize that truly,
life is most meaningful
most fulfilled
only in you.
Amen.
St. Andrew Kim Taegon, first Korean priest with his lay associate St. Paul Chong Hasan with 113 other Koreans died as martyrs between 1839 and 1867.

A special prayer for widows

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Tuesday, Memorial of St. Hildegard, Virgin & Doctor of Church, 17 September 2024
1 Corinthians 12:12-14, 27-31     <'[[[[><  +  ><]]]]'>     Luke 7:11-17
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Jesus journeyed to a city called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd accompnaied him. As he drew near to the gate of the city, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. When the Lord saw her, he was moved with pity for her and said to her, “Do not weep” (Luke 7:11-13).

Today, O God our Father,
you remind us of life's fragility, 
of life's daily crossings
into a gate, a portal
of death and life,
of weeping and rejoicing,
of absence and presence
like Jesus drawing near
to the gate of the city of Nain;
you give us each day
a chance to enter each day
filled with life and joy,
love and mercy
of your Son Jesus Christ.
We pray most especially for widows
who have lost everything:
their husband,
their son or daughter,
their joy and meaning in life;
help them cross each day's
gate and portal of their daily Nain;
how lovely that Jesus was 
moved by the widowed mother
not by the dead son to be buried;
many times we forget the living
especially widows
without realizing the unique
pains and hurts they go through
in losing a husband
and a child.
Take care, dear Jesus,
of the widows and widowers too
who often cry alone,
suffer in silence
for their loss;
visit them today with
your warmth and joy
to comfort them with your
loving presence through
their family and friends,
the Church which is your Body.
Through the intercession of the 
great mystic St. Hildegarde von Bingen,
may widows and widowers
experience what she had written that
"The mystery of God hugs you
in its all-encompassing mystery."
Amen.
From quotefancy.com