Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 10 March 2025
When the devil first tempted Jesus "If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread" the devil tempts us too to forget our being beloved children of God by doing everything and anything for us to be reduced to human doing forgetting we are human being.
And so, Jesus told
the devil, "One does not live
by bread alone",
he tells us too today
even if we cannot do anything
because we are weak and sick,
even if we fail to do something
because we have forgotten or
was so afraid,
we are still loved
for God is greater than
our hearts who cannot be seen
yet so true and so real,
fulfilling not just satisfying
than any bread.
Photo by author, Timberland Highlands Resort, San Mateo, Rizal, 08 March 2025.
When the devil tempted Jesus the third time, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here", the devil tempts us too to totally forget God because, after all, whatever we do, God still loves us; of course, that is true: we are humans loved and cared in our being not in our doing.
And so, Jesus told the devil "You should not put the Lord, your God to the test", he tells us too today for us to stop pushing the limits of morality and decency, and simply let the mysteries of God and of life wrap us because they are greater than us, not problems to be solved nor principles to be understood.
Photo by author, 10 March 2025.
Life is a daily Lent, a journey towards Easter, a return to our first love, - God in Jesus Christ his Son in whom we have been baptized and adopted as his beloved children as our being and identity: so let us simply be our true selves - his beloved since the beginning - loving him totally in our loving service to others.
This Lent let us journey in Jesus in prayer to be one in him; in fasting to create space for him within; in alms-giving to be one with fellow human beings for we are not human doings who cannot do everything who cannot know and explain everything except to wonder more, to love more, to appreciate more, to believe and trust God more.
*Collage are photos of our students last February 09, 2025 spending a Sunday afternoon of love with children with cerebral palsy and family.
**Special thanks to our sister in faith, Nicola who gave us the idea for this poem, the beautiful terms "human being, human doing" from her blog https://eaglesight.blog/2025/03/02/rest-and-replenish/.
On this first Sunday in Lent, we find our Lord Jesus Christ led into the desert by the Holy Spirit after his baptism at Jordan for forty days to pray and later tempted by the devil. It is exactly the picture of our daily life wherein the closer we come to God, the more we strive to be good and holy, the more we are intensely tempted by the devil.
Indeed, life is a daily Lent of spiritual battles with the devil and as we enter the first Sunday of this 40-day journey, Jesus reminds us we too can overcome this temptations if we remain in God by taking into heart his words that give life.
Of course, Jesus was tempted by the devil not just thrice but many times until his crucifixion; however, turn your attention my dear friend to the first and third temptations that are very similar:
The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” Jesus answered him, “It is written, One does not live by bread alone” ….. Then he led him to Jerusalem, made him stand on the parapet of the temple, and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written: He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you, and: With their hands they will support you, lest you dash your foot against a stone.” Jesus said to him in reply, “It also says, You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test” (Luke 4:3-4, 9-12).
In this scene that comes right after the baptism of Jesus at Jordan by John the Baptist, Luke wants us to see how the devil would always challenge the identity of Jesus Christ, “If you are the Son of God.”
Recall that after his baptism while praying, the heaven opened with the Holy Spirit descending on him in the form of a dove with a voice declaring “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased” (Lk. 3:22). Everyday the devil tempts us too in that way, always challenging us with the same line, “if you are the Child of God, do this, do that” as if our identity is on doing than being.
In our baptism, we have become the beloved children of God in Christ which is our identity and being that is an inherent gift from God no one can take away which the devil works so hard to destroy. The devil’s devious line of challenging us “if you are the child of God” to prove ourselves by doing certain actions is designed to wear us off and eventually for us to self-destruct for not keeping up with the demands of the world and of others.
Our worth is not found in what we can do; we are worthy because God made us in his own image and likeness, giving us the unique identity as his beloved children in Jesus Christ. Even when we get old and sick in the future, not able to do anything worthwhile for the economy or the family, we remain worthy and valuable in God’s eyes.
Photo by author, Sakura Farm, Atok, Benguet, 27 December 2024.
Like Jesus we face intense spiritual battle with the devil daily, tempting us in various ways with desires for wealth and fame, power and pleasures. He tempts us in our personal and professional lives, in our relationships with God and with others, even with our very selves with long lists of things to do to prove our worth.
Remember, the devil tempts us not just to sin but ultimately to destroy our lives by separating us from our grounding, our root who is God our Father.
The devil’s dare to Jesus that “If you are the Son of God… turn this stone into bread” is echoed daily in our own temptations when the evil one through people aided by the consumerist culture ask us to prove our worth by doing many things without any regard to the values of life and human person, or the importance of virtues and spirituality.
When the devil repeated the same line of temptation to Jesus “If you are the Son of God… throw yourself down from the parapet of the temple”, the same trick is played on us by the world luring us to forget morals, to disregard traditions that in the process we already deny the value of life and persons by pushing the crazy, modern ideas of relativism and wokism.
How sad in this world today when everyday we are dared to prove our worth in doing not realizing that our worth remains even if we can’t do so much. That is why youth and strength are glorified while sickness, disability and old age are frowned upon these days simply because we can’t do as much, including life in its earliest and weakest stage in the mother’s womb. Our worth as a person is in our being, not doing.
It is so crazy that eventually we have replaced life with lifestyles, while persons are degraded as objects and commodities to be possessed than loved and cherished. In our desire to prove our worth with everything we can do and accomplish, we end up more empty and lost in the process, reduced to nothingness.
Now see the ways of Jesus which is the theme of Lent every year – conversion of sinners, a return to God our Father by trusting his words again as our source of life and being.
When Jesus answered the devil that man does not live by bread alone, the Lord is inviting us to have a more wholistic view on life, on those hidden and not seen, on the mysterious that makes us experience life more not just skin-deep but within no one can snatch nor steal. In a world so amazed with big, spectacular things, the truth remains that the most wonderful things in life are those found within our hearts and lips, those words that build and comfort us as St. Paul tells us in the second reading.
In the third temptation, Jesus thwarted the devil completely when he declared you must not put God to the test. It is a clear reminder for us to keep in mind always that we are the creatures not the creator, telling us all those vain attempts of playing God since time immemorial have gone to nothing.
We can’t just do anything nor everything in this world and in this life. All of the mysteries around us and within us are not meant to be solved but simply accepted and embraced, allowing ourselves to be wrapped in God to find him deep inside us that in itself a vast universe of beauty and majesty.
This is what Moses was telling the people in the wilderness as they prepared to enter the Promised Land. See how the first reading is like a dream sequence, of the many beautiful scenarios that could happen once they entered the Promised Land. Moses was telling his people and us today to be ready with God’s many surprises if we abide in him and trust him. No need to test God nor play God because we are all covered in God’s grace!
This first Sunday, Jesus invites us back to the wilderness of our lives to be still, to rest in God, to trust his words as we experience and appreciate our giftedness in him even if we can no longer move and do things because more than anything else in this world, each of us is precious in God’s sight and presence. Amen. Have a blessed week! Keep yourself hydrated this summer.
Photo by Dra. Mylene A. Santos, MD, somewhere in Palawan, 2023.
40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Thursday after Ash Wednesday, 06 March 2025 Deuteronomy 30:15-20 + Luke 9:22-25
Why always the Cross, Lord Jesus Christ? Many times I grapple not only with myself but especially with others at how to explain, what to tell them the need for your Cross when all in our lives has always been the cross. Even the simple act of choosing, of deciding is a cross.
And yet, we still foolishly choose death in the process by avoiding your Cross, Lord.
Moses said to the people: “Today I have set before you life and prosperity, death and doom” (Deuteronomy 30:15).
In this Season of Lent, let me appreciate anew the beauty and majesty, nobility and divinity of your Cross, Jesus; always looming in our lives is your Cross because that is where you are always found, that is where you stay most of the time to heal us, to forgive us, to save us. There is always the Cross in our lives because it is the direction to life, to fulfillment, to fruitfulness in you, Jesus who was the first to suffer and die on the Cross for us so we can have life. Let us carry our Cross to make that crossing into life in you. Amen.
40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Ash Wednesday, 05 March 2025 Joel 2:12-18 ><}}}*> 2 Corinthians 5:20-6:2 ><}}}*> Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18
Life is a daily Lent, a journey towards Easter.
We go through a pasch everyday like Jesus Christ’s Passion, Death and Resurrection when we “pass over” from sin into grace, from darkness into light, from death into life.
Life is a daily Lent because everyday, we go through an “exodus” from another day to the next new day, from sunset to sunrise. However, Lent as a journey is about direction, not destination. This we find clearly at the start of our 40-day journey of Lent with Ash Wednesday.
“Even now, says the Lord, return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, and weeping, and mourning; Rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the Lord, your God” (Joel 2:12-13).
It is strange that while Jesus Christ asked us in the gospel to “Take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them; otherwise, you will have no recompense from your heavenly Father” (Mt.6:1), what we are doing this Ash Wednesday is exactly the opposite!
Alam na this… that if you meet anyone with ashes on his/her forehead, definitely he/she is a Catholic who had gone to Mass or at least had observed Ash Wednesday.
There are some who would surely be teased by friends as being too serious as they practice abstinence by avoiding meat today and on Fridays this Lent. Most likely too, many would be giving alms today in the collections for the poor in the parishes all because for the reason it is Ash Wednesday.
These three pillars of Lent – prayer, fasting and alms-giving are not only meant for this Season that lasts only for 40 days but something we are hoped to practice the whole year through until we are slowly transformed into the likeness of Jesus Christ.
The purpose of Jesus in asking us in the gospel to do these all in secret is to avoid falling into the trap of the people of His time who flaunted to everyone their prayer, fasting and alms-giving, forgetting God in the process because focus had been on them. And yes, it continues among us that we have religiosity without spirituality, devotion without evangelization.
Moreover, to practice these in secret is actually to enter into our very selves, into our hearts where God dwells, where we meet Him personally.
Our Lenten journey becomes a direction when we take it into our hearts, when we open and rend our hearts to let Jesus come and dwell within by letting Him empty us of our pride to be filled with His humility, justice and love.
Lent then becomes a direction leading us not only to daily Easter but ultimately to our eternal salvation not just in heaven or any “place” but to be one with the Person of God Himself and the persons along the way we shall meet with whom we are called by Christ to be one with in Him.
Therefore, Lent as a direction is an inner transformation as companions in Christ.
In this age of WAZE and GPS, we can easily seek directions to a particular destination. Problem with being focused more on destination is we miss the fun and adventure of every journey. When we reach our destination, what do we do?
We cross out from our list of travel goals every destination that we make and start looking for new places to visit until we have been to every place on earth that we plan to visit the Moon and Mars next! Eventually we get tired with travels and after covering so many distances and destination, we still feel lacking and incomplete. There is no more destination to go to that we confront ourselves with the existential question, is this really what I need most in life? Is this all?
To see life more as a direction means to find its meaning in God that we keep on maturing, we keep on sustaining our journey in Him and with Him. It does not matter wherever He leads me or where I go or stay because what matters most is I am in and with God.
Lent is entering God in and through Jesus Christ. It is going back to Him, staying in Him and with Him in love. This is the reason why we fast, we empty ourselves even our sights and other senses so that we become more sensitive to God’s presence. There are no flowers, no decors, no Alleluia, no Gloria in the church and liturgy. Everything is bare essential so we are not distracted in finding and following God right in our hearts.
Recall the first time you truly fell in love, when truly loved that you literally see and hear even smell your beloved everywhere and in everyone. You always thought it is your beloved whom you saw walking or speaking somewhere but it wasn’t really she! Akala mo lang…
When we truly love, the time and place are not important because all we have are the here and the now together.
Oh how easy to say we love God or somebody! But if we try to probe deeper into ourselves, we find that we have not truly loved God or anyone that much because in many instances, we always prevail over them. We choose our own will than God’s or our beloved’s.
That is when we sin as we turn away from God and our beloved. To sin is not just to break laws and turn away from God and our beloved but ultimately a refusal to love which is actually losing one’s direction in life.
Lent is the wonderful season of finding again our direction in life, our true love, God. Love needs no justifications. And we can only love persons, not things. Hence the need for oneness, for reconciliation as St. Paul asked us in the second reading to be “reconciled with God” (2 Cor.5:20).
Working together, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For he says: In an acceptable time I heard you, and on the day of salvation I helped you. Behold, now is a very acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation (2 Corinthians 6:1-2).
Now is the best time to find our life direction in God in our personal and communal worship and practices this Lent. When you find your direction, you find God, yourself and others. And that is when you find joy and peace which is Easter, the direction of every Lent and life. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Thursday, Sixth Week in Ordinary Time, Year I, 20 February 2025 Genesis 9:1-13 <*{{{{>< + ><}}}}*> Mark 8:27-33
Jesus and his disciples set out for the villages of Caesarea Philippi. Along the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” They said in reply, “John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others one of the prophets.” And he asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter said to him in reply, “You are the Christ.” (Mark 8:27-29)
You are always on the move, Lord Jesus: you are always moving, crossing the lake, hiking in the mountains and most often, walking the streets.
What a lovely imagery of you, Jesus, always on the road with me following you, watching you, observing you, sometimes stopping because of being tired but you are always there waiting for me.
And now, what a lovely scene of you back on the road again but this time asking those closest to you - including me! - with that most personal question of all: "But who do you say that I am?"
Who are you for me, Jesus?
So many, actually. I may not be as eloquent like Peter, but no doubt about who are you for me, Jesus: my life, my meaning, my love, my hopes, my fullness.
But, very often along this road, on these streets we walk and cross, dear Jesus when that who are you for me is shaken, is tested, even doubted like Peter: how could you allow yourself and us your followers suffer and cry, and die?
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 (Mark 8:31-32).
Let us think always as God does, Jesus, not as human beings do seeking fame and prestige, comfort and wealth, self and ego; let me walk closer with you Jesus on the streets, on whatever road you take upholding that covenant of God with Noah to uphold and respect human life by "accounting for human life" (Genesis 9:5); more than the colorful rainbows of the skies, may we always see in your outstretched arms on the Cross the true and new covenant of God with us sealed in your blood. Amen.
Photo by author, St. Scholastica Spirituality Center, Baguio City, August 2023.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Wednesday, Sixth Week in Ordinary Time, Year I, 19 February 2025 Genesis 8:6-13, 20-22 <*0000>< + ><0000*> Mark 8:22-26
I really wonder, dear God, how it felt to be inside Noah's Ark for 40 days? The feeling of restlessness, of anxiety and uncertainty of the future, so unsure of what was to come while at the same time filled with hope praying for the best.
How was the boat too? How did it look like? What was the smell inside, the feeling inside that big ark, the sounds from all the animals and everything within and outside?
We have been there many times, Father, in that big ark called life; we have passed through many floods, have waited many times for the waters to recede, for the sun to shine, for life to return to normal.
Through it all, you never left us, Lord; send us Noah who would stand with us inside the ark for 40 days and 40 nights, stay afloat, stay alive wherever direction you bring us.
Help us, dear Father to be patient even if we can't see right away the distant shore like that blind man healed by Jesus at Bethsaida; lead us, Father in this ark of life away from the idolatry of modern world, away from the trappings of easy and comfortable life, away from sin and evil to be closer to your mercy, to your "beth hesda" - to your house of mercy. Amen.
Photo by author, Cathedral of St. Catherine of Alexandria, Dumaguete City, November 2024.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Wednesday, Fifth Week in Ordinary Time, Year I, 12 February 2025 Genesis 2:4-9, 15-17 ><000'> + ><000'> + ><000'> Mark 7:14-23
Photo by author, sunrise in Atok, Benguet, 27 December 2024.
Bring me back, Lord to Eden to Paradise where everything started; bring me back inside my heart, inside you, Lord, the beginning of your creation, the center of your attention:
Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east and he placed there the man whom he had formed… to cultivate and care for it. The Lord God gave man this order: “You are free to eat from any of the trees in the garden except the tree of knowledge of good and evil. From that tree you shall not eat; the moment you eat from it you are surely doomed to die” (Genesis 2:8, 15, 16-17).
Photo by author, morning in Atok, Benguet, 27 December 2024.
Take me back inside my heart, Jesus, to be clean and free again to choose you, to be faithful, to be loving; indeed, "what comes out of a person is what defiles him" (Mark 7:20) even from the very start when the Father created us; until now, even inside you our "home" we still could not understand it like the disciples (Mark 7:17-18) because we would always choose our own selves, our own desires, our limited knowledge.
Photo by author, afternoon in Atok, Benguet, 27 December 2024.
Let me remember Eden and let me return to Eden, Jesus, to be one with you again - me the creture, you my Lord and my God; take me back in your presence, Jesus and let me realize that though man is the master of his world, God is man's Master and Lord for He is the Creator, we are the creature. Amen.
Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 05 February 2025
Photo by author, Cathedral of St. Catherine of Alexandria, Dumaguete City, 07 November 2024.
Discipline is a word so misunderstood these days that too often, it is frowned upon or even feared by many. In this age of so much “freedom” without any regard to “responsibility”, discipline has become its main casualty.
Discipline has very interesting origins. From the Latin verb discere which is to learn or to follow, its noun is disciplina for teaching or learning from which came the word discipulus for disciple, a follower or a pupil. Hence, a person of discipline is one who follows or obeys teachings.
The more disciplined a person is, the more free a person becomes!
As we have mentioned at the start, due to the wrong perception of “freedom” these days as the ability to do whatever one wants, many see discipline as suppression of freedom. But what is most true is its opposite – the more disciplined a person is, the more free the person becomes!
Photo by author, sunrise at St. Paul Spirituality Center, Pico, La Trinidad, Benguet, 06 January 2025.
When we discipline ourselves in every aspect of our lives like in food and drink intake, in using our time wisely, in budgeting our money and resources among other things, the more we become free to many other things in life. Remove discipline and do whatever you like in your life, eventually you become “unfree” because definitely you will miss your responsibilities and obligations like studies in school and duties at home and the office.
Freedom is never absolute. It has always been limited to choosing and doing what is good. When freedom is abused, it can lead us into being not free at all.
Likewise, some people think discipline is temporary and optional. Many believe that discipline is just for kids and young people who ought to follow their parents and elders. What about adults following their superiors and those above them in the natural and social hierarchy of things and relationships? This perhaps explain the reason why there is a growing complaint against young people lacking respect to elders and those in authority.
Discipline is a life-long process, the one sure thing we would need even rely upon so much as we age and get old. Discipline is imposed and taught in our younger age so that we would mature, grow and develop as persons. It is a lifelong process, a habit, a good that we keep on doing until we die. Or, even if we get old and sick, discipline is our North Star, the Polaris within ourselves especially when everything is dark, when we seem lost in life. Discipline enables us to succeed and be fulfilled in life. Find any bum and surely you shall find no discipline at all; but, you can never find a successful person without any discipline.
“Jesus Unrolls Book In the Synagogue” painting by James Tissot (1886-1894), brooklynmuseum.org
Our Lord Jesus Christ is the most perfect example of a disciplined person, of leading a disciplined life. All evangelists tell us how Jesus always went to the synagogue on a sabbath to worship and to preach. Most of all, Jesus always prayed early in the morning or later in the evening in some deserted place. These were all forms of discipline He must have learned from His parents Mary and Joseph who were both portrayed in the gospels as devout Jews, both with high degrees of discipline in life even before Christ was born.
Prayer after all is a discipline, something we have to cultivate that leads to a loving relationship with God and with others too! And here we find the deeper reality of discipline which is not just a human effort and endeavor. Discipline is the work of God, His gift and grace to each one of us to have fulfillment in life
Discipline is not just a human effort; discipline is the work of God too!
Brothers and sisters: You have also forgotten the exhortation addressed to you as children: My son, do not disdain the discipline of the Lord or lose heart when reproved by him; for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines; he scourges every son he acknowledges. Endure your trials as “discipline”… At the time, all discipline seems a cause not for joy but for pain, yet later it brings the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who are trained by it (Hebrews 12:5-7, 11).
Photo by author, St. Scholastica Spirituality Center, Tagaytay, August 2024.
How I wish parents would still use that analogy by the author of the Letter to the Hebrews regarding discipline. When we were growing up, our parents would always explain to us after scolding us due to misdemeanor or a mistake that it was to discipline us in doing what is right or what is good.
This is something so evident these days, when you hear the older folks saying how life was more orderly before because of discipline unlike today. And one may find this lack of discipline everywhere – in public places not only home, including in churches. Partly to be blamed for that is us, the older folks who have stopped teaching discipline to kids and the youth.
Lately I have been seeing many of my former students in elementary and high school. I have always known many of them hated me when in school because I was a strict teacher (and priest). Including many of our teachers too! That is why whenever we talked about their school days, I always asked them to forgive me for making their lives so difficult as I demanded excellence and precision in their studies and most of all, discipline at all times like cleanliness in their clothing and bearing, order and silence in classrooms, and of course, proper decorum inside the church.
At the wedding of one of my former student with his classmates in January 2020.
Surprisingly, they always ended up thanking me for the discipline I have taught and instilled in them that according to them led to their success in both their personal and professional life. Many of them have their family of their own now with some living overseas. It brings me so much joy with some tears when they tell me how they have taught their own children of the discipline I drilled in them about studies and reading, of prayer, and of simply being the very best for God in everything. It is the same thing with some of our teachers who have remained some of my dearest friends today with some living and working abroad. In fact, they claimed that it was my “terroristic discipline” that greatly prepared them for their lives and work in foreign lands and cultures.
We need to discipline ourselves for God’s grace to work in us. And remember, grace builds on nature – that’s the beauty of discipline: the more we practice it, the more blessed we become! It is a built-in app or program God has installed in each of us. Use it extensively by switching it on always. In case there’s a glitch, still, switch it on and surely it would work. As always. Have a disciplined week ahead.
Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 03 February 2025
Photo from the Presentation Chapel of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington DC.
Every night before going to bed, we priests and religious along with some laypeople pray the Compline or Night Prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours. From the Latin completus, the Compline completes the daily prayers of the Church.
It is also my most favorite since our seminary days when we chanted Simeon’s Canticle which we heard proclaimed in yesterday’s gospel in the celebration of the Feast of the Lord’s Presentation.
He (Simeon) came in the Spirit into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to perform the custom of the law in regard to him, he took him in his arms and blessed God, saying: “Now, Master you may let your servant go in peace, according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you prepared in sight of all the peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and glory for your people Israel” (Luke 2:27-32).
A painting of Simeon with the Child Jesus from the dailyprayerblog.blogspot.com
The Simeon Moment is befriending death as we find Jesus Christ.
The “Simeon Moment” is when we are like Simeon in realizing that nothing matters most in this life except God found within us and those closest to us like family and friends whom we would never trade for anybody and anything. It is finding true joy in Christ alone that we are able to befriend death like St. Francis of Assisi who called death a “cousin”.
According to Luke, God had promised Simeon that he would not die until he had seen the promised Messiah (Christ). All his life, Simeon prayed and offered sacrifices at the temple in Jerusalem awaiting the coming of Christ – and he was not disappointed even if it took so long! That is why, he burst into a song which we now pray every night because that is when we experience in the stillness of the darkness within and outside us that only Jesus and always Jesus who fulfills us.
Those who have cared and lost a loved one to cancer or any terminal illness have experienced that “Simeon Moment”. Remember when our loved ones have finally accepted their fate, when they suddenly become more emotionally stable and even joyful in their dispositions? Unlike before when they were first diagnosed with their illness, they were so afraid, always crying but as they came to embrace the reality, they cried less with a strong sense of courage while we are the ones crying more and most stressed out?
Photo by author, November 2024.
That is because the dying must have seen their their final destination in life, Jesus Christ. Like Simeon during the presentation at the temple after seeing and holding in his hands so close to himself the Holy Infant, we find the dying so calm and peaceful during their final hours because they have seen or were already in the presence of the Lord.
Like Simeon, they were silently joyful in Christ’s presence while we who were left behind cried not only due to the pain and sadness of separation but because we do not know where we are going, where we are heading unlike our departed loved ones.
Feel the courage and confidence of Simeon boldly telling God to “take him” at that instance because he had found Jesus Christ. Its Filipino translation says it so well, “Kunin mo na, Panginoon, ang iyong abang alipin, ayon sa iyong pangako, yamang nakita na ng aking mga mata ang iyong pagliligtas (Lk.2:29-30).”
We Filipinos often take it as a joke, always laughing to dismiss the topic or cope with the reality that to see God literally means to die like when we say “gusto nang makita si Lord”. But, that was how Simeon really felt because he had literally seen the Son of God, as if telling him to take him “now na!” because the Simeon Moment is therefore we have that realization within us that coming to terms with death is coming to terms with life, and vice versa.
Photo from crossroadinitiative.com.
The Simeon Moment is living in the Holy Spirit
Wherever is Jesus Christ, there is always the Holy Spirit. We will never find Christ and have the Simeon Moment unless we are attuned first with Holy Spirit who animates us and opens us to Christ’s coming.
Imagine the great crowds of people at the temple on that day, of couples trying to fulfill the law of Moses of purification and presenting their first-born son to God. How did Simeon know Joseph and Mary were the parents of the Christ? How was he able to accurately spot and find Jesus is the Messiah amid the many male children being offered on that day at the temple?
“To come in the Spirit” like Simeon is more than being faithful to God; it is having a good and pure heart that is ready to believe and act openly with courage, always looking forward at the fulfillment of what we believe. Coming in the Spirit is being at the right place at the right time when we make things happen than wait, exactly how Luke portrayed Simeon and Anna who both lived in the presence of God! Coming in the Spirit is living in the present moment in God.
We cannot see Christ nor live in the Spirit unless we humbly submit ourselves to God, our Lord and Master. Seeing Christ and living in the Spirit presuppose humility before God – we His creatures, He our Lord and Master.
Most of all, our origin and our end too!
It is the principle and foundation of life as St. Ignatius of Loyola stressed in his Spiritual Exercises, “El hombre es criado para alabar, hacer reverencia y servir a Dios nuestro Señor, y mediante esto, salvar su anima”, that is, “Man is created to praise and serve God his Lord and Master and by doing this save his soul”.
There is something so beautiful and lovely, so touching in the opening verse of Simeon’s canticle that underscores firmly this basic truth we have always forgotten since the fall of Adam and Eve when he asked God to take him after seeing the Christ. Every time we sin, we act like Adam and Eve, playing gods, desiring to be like God.
Also known as Nunc Dimittis, Simeon’s canticle echoes the fiat of Mary to God during the Annunciation, expressing his fidelity and humility, his total submission to God. Most of all, it summarizes both the Magnificat of the Blessed Mother and the Benedictus of Zechariah, making Simeon’s Nunc Dimittis the finale in Luke’s Christmas “concert” on the birth of the Messiah.
This is the reason why we chant Nunc dimittis at the end of our Night Prayer. It is the perfect prayer to close each day as we prepare for the coming new day to meet Jesus again, hoping we may be enlightened in our life’s mission expressed by the antiphon we recite before and after chanting it, “Protect us Lord as we stay awake; watch over us as we sleep that awake we may keep watch with Christ and asleep rest in his peace”.
Or, if ever we ever do not wake up the following day, we still thank God all the more in making us meet Jesus the past day, eager to finally sing to him our praises in eternity with Night Prayer’s final blessing, “May the Lord grant us a restful night and a peaceful death”.
The Simeon Moment is a grace and gift Jesus gives us daily not only for the dying but to everyone of us seeking Him, awaiting Him like Simeon. And like Simeon, we are assured that anyone who seeks and awaits God is never disappointed. Have a blessed day in Christ Jesus! Amen.
Photo by author, sunrise bursting through thick fogs over Taal Lake in Bgy. Dayap Itaas, Laurel, Batangas, 17 January 2025.
Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 26 January 2025
Photo from vaticannews.va.
The Vatican recently invited several journalists from all over the world last January 24, 2025 to celebrate the Jubilee of Communicators in Rome.
Traditionally, the Pope issues on that date which is the Memorial of St. Francis de Sales, the Patron of Catholic journalists and writers, his message for the coming World Communication Sunday celebrated every Ascension or Pentecost Sunday. As far as I can remember, that tradition has been broken perhaps twice when Pope Francis was delayed in releasing on that date his messages for the World Communication Sunday.
But, that is another story… we write this in reaction to a very disturbing message of Rappler’s Ms. Maria Ressa in her interview after her speech at the Vatican gathering last Thursday (correction: this interview happened before her speech).
We do not question Ms. Ressa’s credentials as a journalist for 39 years, having worked with the CNN and before establishing Rappler, was for a long time the head of ABS-CBN News.
We wonder why of all Filipino journalists she was the one chosen by the Vatican is something only the Archangel Gabriel could explain. There are so many other competent Filipino journalists and writers who are good, practicing Catholics who could have shed more light in the celebration of the jubilee of communicators. We name some of whom we personally know like former Inquirer editor Lito Zulueta, Facts First host and Inquirer-ABS-CBN veteran Christian Esguerra, and Prof. Felipe Salvosa II who stood against his bosses at the Manila Times and resigned for the sake of truth and decency when he disagreed in the publication of photos of Sen. De Lima’s affair with her former driver. Two other strongly-grounded Catholics in the field of communications we wished were invited to the Vatican are EWTN’s head in the Asia-Pacific Edwin Lopez and Cambridge-trained lawyer and Business World columnist Atty. Jemy Gatdula who defends our Church stand against divorce in Congress and other halls of discussions.
Due to our aforementioned reasons, I never bothered to read nor listen to Ms. Ressa’s speech at the Vatican gathering; however, my conscience was bothered, even revolted after listening to Ms. Ressa’s interview by her Rappler reporter Peterno Esmaquel II before her speech at the Vatican. Click this link and wait for her final statement.
Photo by author, Cathedral of St. Catherine of Alexandria, Dumaguete City, November 2024.
When asked for any message for Filipino Catholics, Ms. Ressa minced no words that betrayed her unCatholic stance: “Stay away from dogmas and be good.”
We understand how most journalists are “positively ignorant” about the Catholic faith and her teachings. They do not even know what is the Holy Mass or what is a parish or the distinctions of basilica, cathedral and church.
Most likely, Ms. Ressa along with most journalists take dogmas as teachings of the Church like the ones in the Catechism of the Catholic Church as well as the various writings of the Holy Fathers we also refer to as doctrines.
All dogmas are doctrines but not all doctrines are dogmas. Dogmas are solemnly defined doctrines we have to believe in. There are only two solemnly defined doctrines as dogmas, the Immaculate Conception issued by Pope Pius IX in 1854 through Ineffabilis Deus, and the Bodily Assumption of Mary defined by Pope Pius XII in 1950 through Munificentissimus Deus. Related to these, there are four Marian dogmas we believe: the Motherhood of God (theotokos), her Immaculate Conception, her perpetual virginity and her bodily assumption.
Going back to Ms. Ressa’s message to Filipino Catholics last week from the Vatican that we “stay away from dogmas and be good” is very wrong no matter how you look at it in whatever angles.
Photo by author, Nuestra De Guia Church, Manila, November 2024.
One cannot be good without obeying the teachings of the Church that are based on Jesus Christ’s teachings and the Sacred Scriptures.
One cannot be a good Catholic and yet believe and practice divorce and same sex marriage or premarital sex. We are not judging anyone here. Only God will judge us but we are morally bound to reiterate these teachings that came from the Lord Himself, including the fact that there are only two genders, “male and female, he created them” (Gen.1:27).
In my 26 years as a priest, I have witnessed so many Catholics especially those approaching death so bothered in their conscience for so long a time as they disregarded our many Church teachings like those against contraceptives and abortion. As a hospital chaplain, one of the greatest worries of many family and relatives with their patients is about euthanasia, making sure they do not commit it in dealing with their terminally ill patients.
Jesus Himself clearly said that we have to obey the commandments, the teachings found in the scriptures:
“Do not think that I have come to abish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill… Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:17, 19).
Recall how on the issues about divorce and even the paying of taxes, Jesus would always direct us to the Sacred Scriptures, the very word of God to find His Divine Will. That is why, despite the many changes in the world, the Church has remained standing by its teachings because they are God’s teachings, not ours. Priests did not invent them and we are duty bound to stand by them no matter what – though there are some among us who have joined the modern trend in the world in the name of inclusivity and other woke thoughts which is sad. And shameful.
Photo by author, Atok, Benguet, December 2024.
One last note for this piece from that video clip of Ms. Ressa’s interview: she never spoke the word GOD (even in her speech at the Vatican, she just mentioned God once, not even directly as a point reference).
We talk about good because of God; excluding Him from the discussion is totally a fake, a budol. Any good is not good without God.
What are your thoughts with Ms. Ressa’s message to us Filipino Catholics to “stay away from dogmas” and simply be good?
