The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Tuesday in the Thirteenth Week of Ordinary Time, Year II, 02 July 2024 Amos 3:1-8, 4:11-12 <'[[[[>< + ><]]]]'> Matthew 8:23-27
Photo by author in San Juan, La Union, 25 July 2023.
Your words are weighty and terrifying today, O God as You left us with a warning - "prepare to meet your God, O Israel" (Amos 4:12); how must we prepare to meet You, O God, whom we have turned away from so often in the past? How must we prepare to meet You, O God, whose voice we have never heeded despite our hearing them?
Let us learn from nature who heeds your voice like the storm and the waves in the sea becoming quiet at Jesus Christ's command; let us learn to accept the simple laws of nature governing this world, of simply following the cause and effect pattern in everything instead of destroying it for in the end, it shall get upon us:
Do two walk together unless they have agreed? Does a lion roar in the forest when it has no prey? Does a young lion cry from its den unless it has seized something? Is a bird brought to a snare when there is no lure for it? Does a snare spring up from the ground without catching anything? If the trumpet sounds in a city, will the people not be frightened? If evil befalls a city, has not the Lord caused it? (Amos 3:3-6)
For so long, You have been most patient with us, Lord, letting us go on our own sinful ways despite all the love and graces You have showered us; You are all good, loving Father, full of mercy and forgiveness for our sins but lest we forget, there are so many sinful things we do with irreversible consequences that can unfree us, making us suffer from its dismal effects. This we pray we may realize so that when we meet You, O God, there may be justice still left for us. Amen.
Many people today see marriage in the human level, downplaying or outrightly refusing its supernatural dimension being a gift and a grace from God. What is most funny with them is how they also insist on giving weddings some semblance of “spiritual” meanings with all the crazy symbolisms and dramatics conjured by some wedding planners that have prompted – rightly so – many parishes to impose strict rules and guidelines to stop all these follies that have robbed Matrimony of its holiness and sanctity.
We in the Church have never failed to remind couples getting married that more important than their weddings becoming Instagrammable is their spiritual preparation because marriage is a vocation, a call from God to a life of holiness for husband and wife to become Christ’s saving presence in the world.
Divorce has always been the easiest way out of many failed marriages even among God’s chosen people in the Old Testament, an attempt to free couples of moral responsibility and culpability in their failures they could not humbly admit. Jesus had explained and clarified it 2000 years ago and still, here we are insisting for divorce which is a symptom of pride, the first sin of Adam and Eve when they broke away from God. That is why, divorce is a breaking away from God too.
There are many ways to succeed in marriage but there is only one sure way to fail which is to turn away from God, to disregard God, to stop believing in God. Here now is a homily I shared two years ago at the wedding of a very good friend in my former parish in Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan.
Photo by author, Don Bosco Chapel on the Hill, Bgy. Cahil, Calaca, Batangas, 03 January 2023.
My dearest Gracie and Chino:
Congratulations on this most joyous day of your lives. Finally, after much prayers and waiting, following so many detours in your lives, you are now before the altar of the Lord to exchange vows in the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony.
I am sure you must have heard so many things on being successful and fruitful in marriage. In fact while praying over this homily since last year (yes, believe me), a lot of things have also come to my mind that I felt very important so you may grow and mature in your married life. But, as I prayed more, I realized lately that while there are many ways to be successful and fruitful in marriage, there is only one sure way in order to fail as husband and wife.
Disregard God.
Stop believing in God.
Live as if there is no God.
Do not pray. Do not celebrate the Sunday Mass.
Forget God. And you will surely fail in marriage.
Without God, Gracie and Chino, you cannot truly love each other because the only true love we must all imitate despite our weaknesses and imperfections is the love of Jesus Christ poured out on us there on the Cross. He said it so clearly today in our gospel, “This is my commandment: love one another as I have loved you. There is no greater love than to offer one’s life for a friend.”
Remember, Gracie and Chino, human love is always imperfect; only God can love us perfectly.
Here lies the great mystery and joy of human love, of marriage: God willed from the very start that man and woman be united in marriage. When His Son Jesus Christ came to the world, He not only reminded us of this wonderful plan of the Father for us but also elevated marriage into a sacrament, a sign of the saving presence of God.
In sharing His life with us, we are able to love like Jesus that is why He tells us too that it was Him who chose and called you, Gracie and Chino, not you who chose Him. God willed that on this day, Gracie and Chino that you get married. It was also part of His plan that you met during the COVID pandemic when we were locked down and when many weddings were either postponed or cancelled.
Very clear, Gracie and Chino, it was God who designed your marriage! Do not disregard Him. Invite Him daily into your lives in the same manner you invited Him on this day of your wedding.
Photo by author, Don Bosco Chapel On The Hill, Bgy. Cahil, Calaca, Batangas, 08 February 2023.
Let me warn and remind you, Gracie and Chino, that a wedding nor a sacrament is not everything. Love is difficult because love is not just a feeling but a decision we renew daily. You must have heard how some couples ran out of love that eventually, they split up, separated and failed. When we have that deep faith, fervent hope and unceasing charity and love of God, you will never run out of love, Gracie and Chino, because God is love.
Keep that in mind. If you want to remain in love, love God. That is what marriage is all about: in loving your wife, your husband, you are actually expressing your love to God who is after all our very first love. That’s what Tobias realized when he married Sarah in our first reading. Tobias went to a far away land not only to look for a wife and a cure for his father Tobit’s blindness but also for God! When he found Sarah, he also found God.
Is it not the same thing happened with you, Chino, upon meeting Gracie? It was not love at first sight but more like the experience of Tobias when God revealed by silently speaking into your heart Gracie is the woman whom you shall marry. In a flash, you felt so certain about it, Chino, and despite your distance from each other, you felt this love growing deeper every day.
There is no perfect marriage, Gracie and Chino, but every couple is surely blessed by God. Cooperate with Him, do whatever He tells you as the Blessed Mother told the waiters in the wedding at Cana where Jesus transformed water into wine. Imagine, the first miracle by Jesus Christ was in a wedding just like this!
You know why? Because love is most truest when there is forgiveness and mercy. As I have told you, human love is imperfect, only God can love us perfectly. Without God, it is impossible for us to forgive and move on with life. Without God, it is impossible for us to say sorry and ask forgiveness too. It is God who gives us the grace to be sorry and to be merciful and forgiving like Him.
Photo by author, Don Bosco Chapel on the Hill, Bgy. Cahil, Calaca, Batangas, 08 February 2023.
When couples become hardened in their hearts as they keep tabs of each other’s sins and mistakes and misgivings, they get tired and fed up with each other and then separate.
With God, we are able to clean our slate, delete our memories and restart/refresh our programs like the computer to begin anew each day.
Without God, the festering anger within us gets worst and soon, everything crashes. That is when we fail because we do not have God as our foundation and root.
Try seeing it this way: human relationships are like two hands together.
Without God, they are like interlocking fingers where the partners are both so good, so bilib in themselves, filling each other’s needs that soon, they get filled with themselves. Like interlocking fingers that get painful, they eventually breakaway or separate from each other because love has become a demand than a gift, sex an obligation than an offering, with each one becoming more an object to be possessed than a person to be loved.
With God, human relationships are like two praying hands. Very flexible. You keep your identities and personalities intact, growing together, maturing together in love as you both create an empty space for each one’s shortcomings and most especially for God to have a place in your lives.
Like Tobit and Sarah in our first reading, pray always. Handle your lives with prayer, Gracie and Chino. The more you pray and believe in God, the more you will love Him, and the more you will believe each other too and hence, love more each other too! Keep God in your life as husband and wife. Whatever you do to each other, that you do first to Jesus who is always between you.
You see, Gracie and Chino, there are so many ways to be fruitful in marriage for as long as you are rooted in God. Take away God and you will surely fail as an individual and as a couple.
My prayer for you, Gracie and Chino is that today may be the least joyful day of your lives. Live in God through Jesus Christ with Mary our Mother. Amen.
It’s been more than four years since the breakout of the COVID-19 pandemic that threw many of us out of sync in life, especially those planning to get married during those critical years of 2020-2022.
I had four weddings affected by the COVID-19 lockdowns in that period; three were postponed but I was able to officiate at the two weddings when reset to another dates except the first one that did not fit my schedule. The fourth wedding I was not able to officiate because I got the virus and had to be isolated.
This is the homily I delivered at one of those three weddings postponed I officiated, between Cris my former student at the Immaculate Conception School for Boys (ICSB) in Malolos City and Tim whom I met when they were going steady while we were all taking MA courses at UST.
More funny than that was the fact Cris and Tim have planned of getting married in 2020 but have to move it to 2021 due to the pandemic; but, when COVID still persisted that year, they finally fixed their altar date to early 2022. Alas! Just as they were all set in January 2022, the church was closed on the week of their wedding after its priests got the virus!
Cris and Tim were at a loss when their wedding would finally take place until they were offered by the parish the date February 22, 2022 after the weddings of those others postponed like them. I told them to go for it than wait further for other dates lest they in turn get the virus too!
Looking back to their wedding day, I have realized how God always finds ways in helping married couples in all their problems for as long as they are willing to cooperate. This is why we cannot allow divorce to be legalized in the country for God never fails in His grace and blessings. We just have to work on them.
From stillromancatholicafteralltheseyears.com, January 2022.
You must have heard the saying that “God writes straight crooked lines”. And today that proves so true not only with how God wrote so crooked His straight lines in your life, Cris and Tim, but even wrote in circles to make this date your wedding day – 22 February 2022!
Cris and Tim, God has always been so sure in calling you before His altar on this date, which will similarly happen again in 200 years – 22 February 2222! God writes straight crooked lines because everything in him is perfect, like numbers. Precise and exact. Like this date you never chose, 02-22-2022.
When you consulted me last month when priests here offered you this date due to their recent lockdown, right away I told you it is the most wonderful date for your wedding being the Feast of St. Peter’s Chair… St. Peter as in San Pedro like Cristopher Tabafunda San Pedro and later, Mrs. Fatima Macam San Pedro!
It was God who willed in all eternity that you, Cris and Tim, be married today — not last year, not the other week nor next week because today is the day that the Lord has made!
Cris and Tim are both very prayerful and good, practicing Catholics.
You are both good with numbers like God, a mathematician who is very precise and exact like an economist and stock trader (Cris) and a marketing and sales executive (Tim) who used to do a lot of chemical research before.
But God has better and deeper plans for you that numbers cannot count nor quantify.
God wants you to always go back to basic numbers, not to those found in equations only you two can understand or multiple digits only you can count.
Jesus said it so well in the gospel today: two is equal to one. So mathematical ba?
Photo by author, 2021.
“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.”Matthew 19:5-6
Life is not about having the most but the least. That is where faith grows and deepens.
When we have so much in life, when we feel so sufficient, when we are so filled with things, we forget God. We stop believing in him, we believe more in ourselves.
And when we stop believing in God, we lose our faith and then, we stop loving, too. Sooner or later, we become empty and miserable.
So, be simple, Cris and Tim.
Reduce everything to the barest and simplest. Simplify, simplify, simplify as Henry David Thoreau said: “let your affairs be two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand.”
When we get complicated like our Facebook, life becomes difficult as we can’t find right away who and what matters most to us.
Kaya nga isa lang ang asawa, Cris at Tim, kasi hindi puwede marami.Hindi lang magulo. Magastos pa. Imagine kung dalawa o tatlo wedding rings? Pag isa lang, kita agad at alam na this – married na ang mamang ito na may cute na dimple o itong girl na ito na naka glasses at dalawa pa ang dimples! Hayaan ninyo sabihin ng mga makakita singsing ninyo na sayang at taken na pala siya!
You see, the lower the number, the simpler, the better. Madaling tumaya at manampalataya.
That’s faith! Parang PBA game kung saan kayo nagkakilala. And you have both experienced, walang tatalo sa faith in God ninyong dalawa!
God is greater and more than the numbers the wiz kids and supercomputers of the world can calculate and predict. His thoughts are not our thoughts, nor His ways. He first created just one man and one woman – just two – to be one with each other in Him, and to be faithful to Him and each other.
Because the more we become faithful, the more we become loving.
That is the message of this Feast of the Chair of St. Peter which is the “Primacy of Rome” or of the Pope: it is the primacy of faith and the primacy of love together which cannot be separated.
Chair of St. Peter in Rome, from Wikipedia.
Forget all those numbers Cris and Tim, focus only in the One – God in Jesus Christ. Just focus on Jesus, always Jesus.
Love is not about counting or keeping tabs and tallies, like how many “likes” and “followers” we get in our posts.
The true measure of love is when we love without measure, when we simply love, love, love. And love.
That is why we only have one heart so we can love with all our heart. Forget Sana Dalawa ang Puso Ko. It is just a song.
When you have LQ (lover’s quarrel), who should blink first, or smile? Who should take the first move to reconcile, the first to offer the hand of peace?
Whenever lovers and couples or even friends quarrel, I always say, whoever has more love to give must be the first one to initiate reconciliation, the first to blink, or smile, the first to offer the hand of peace.
To have the most love to give and share does not mean to be better or superior than the other; to have the most love to give and share is to have more faith, to have a deeper faith the he/she is ready and willing to lose everything for the sake of the loved one.
Like Jesus Christ who gave everything for us on that Cross because of love.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Monday, Solemnity of the Birth of John the Baptist, 24 June 2024 Isaiah 49:1-6 ><}}}}*> Acts 13:22-26 ><}}}}*> Luke 1:57-66.80
Photo from Wikipedia, mosaic of Jesus with Mary and John the Baptist at the Hagia Sophia in Turkey.
Praise and glory to You, God our loving Father in sending us John the Baptist as Precursor of your Son Jesus Christ our Savior; on this Solemnity of his birth six months before Christmas during the summer solstice to remind us of John's vocation, "a burning and shining lamp" (John 5:35) set to decrease when the Light that illuminates the world appeared in December, the winter solstice.
Everything about John pointed to the unexpected - his conception in the womb of his old, barren mother Elizabeth, his being named not after his father Zechariah, and his life being spent in the wilderness, not in the temple to follow the footsteps of his father; most of all, his "manifestation to Israel" (Lk.1:80) was not about himself but pointed to the Christ, Jesus our Lord and Savior.
What is not unexpected, dear Father, is the connection between John and Jesus and the salvific events that have everyone filled with joy and fear at the same time for "surely your hand hand was with him" (Lk.1:66).
Photo by author, Binuangan Is., Meycauayan, Bulacan, 31 December 2021.
Open our eyes and our hearts, merciful Father, to always expect the unexpected in this life and mission, to learn to withdraw in the wilderness of our lives like John to realize that our whole being like his is directed to our relationship with Jesus the Christ.
Let us decrease
so that Jesus may increase!
Let us strive to go to the wilderness
to empty ourselves to be filled
by the Holy Spirit;
most of all,
let your words comfort us
when life becomes so difficult
in being a herald of Jesus by proclaiming
repentance and conversion (Acts 13:24):
“You are my servant, he said to me, Israel, through whom I show my glory. Though I thought I had toiled in vain, and for nothing, uselessly, spent my strength, yet my reward is with the Lord, my recompense is with my God” (Isaiah 49:3,4).
How wonderful that when I learn to expect the unexpected from You, O God, that is when I am less, Jesus becomes more in me, then truly, You are most gracious, Father through me, like John. Amen.
Photo by author, birthplace of St. John the Baptist beneath the church in his honor in Ein Karem, Israel, May 2019
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B, 16 June 2024 Ezekiel 17:22-24 ><}}}}*> 2 Corinthians 5:6-10 ><}}}}*> Mark 4:26-34
Photo by author, Camp John Hay, Baguio City, 12 July 2023.
While preparing this homily, I cannot resist thinking of this poem by Joyce Kilmer because of its similarities with the first reading from the Book of Ezekiel and partly with the parables of Jesus in the gospel.
Kilmer tells us in his poem that trees are God’s presence among us, a sign of His own majesty, a reminder of life’s mysteries, something many of us seem to have learned only recently after the scorching heat of last summer when everyone was posting on Facebook the need to plant trees!
I think that I shall never see A poem lovely as a tree.
Photo by Dra. Mylene A. Santos, MD, April 2020 in Infanta, Quezon.
In the first reading, the Prophet Ezekiel picturesquely imagined how God would plant a great Lebanon cedar on a mountain as a sign of His divine intervention for our salvation that was eventually fulfilled in Jesus Christ’s coming.
Ezekiel lived during the Babylonian exile, the lowest point in life of Israelites when they did not have a country, nor a temple, not even a future. They felt abandoned, punished by God due to their sins; hence, Ezekiel was sent to give them hope. Through this beautiful allegory of the future Israel, Ezekiel tells his countrymen including us today how God would eventually intervene in a very personal manner to fulfill His promise of salvation.
Thus says the Lord God: I, too, will take from the crest of the cedar, from its topmost branches tear off a tender shoot, and plant it on a high and lofty mountain. It shall put forth branches and bear fruit, and become a majestic cedar. Birds of every kind shall dwell beneath it, every winged thing in the shade of its boughs. And all the trees of the field shall know that I, the Lord, bring low the high tree, lift high the lowly tree, wither up the green tree, and make the withered tree bloom. As I, the Lord, have spoken, so will I do.
Ezekiel 17:22-24
Photo by Dra. Mylene A. Santos, MD, April 2020 in Infanta, Quezon.
That beautiful imagery of the cedar tree planted in Israel reminds us that in whatever state of life we may be – whether we are like a tall or a lowly tree, a green or withered tree – it is always God who has the final say in life because He is the very reason for our existence.
Jesus declared to us in one of the Sundays of Easter, “I am the true vine and you are the branches…without me you cannot do anything” to show that more than a giver of life, He is life Himself because He is the tree planted firmly by God in our midst.
Incidentally, the word “tree” which is treowe in Old English is the root of the word true which connotes something firmly rooted, steadfast and faithful. From the same word treowe came trust because the roots of a tree signify relationships or interconnectedness. That is why the Anglo-Saxons have always traced their ancestors and family by using the diagram of a tree from which came our concept of “family tree” today.
How lovely to imagine that tree planted by God in our midst is Jesus Christ, “the Way, the Truth and the Life”, the One we must trust always!
Hence, Mark invites us today to listen more attentively to the Lord’s teachings, asking us to not just sit beside or around Him but try to “get inside” Him by taking into our hearts His words like Mary His Mother as we have reflected last Sunday.
Photo by Dra. Mylene A. Santos, MD, April 2020 in Infanta, Quezon.
Again, Mark surprises us in his story of Jesus teaching the people about seeds and plants, and ordinary activities like sowing we take for granted but so rich in meanings. That is what a parable is – a simple story with deep meanings about life.
Our life itself is a parable wherein we find the most profound realizations in the most ordinary things and events in our lives. And that is where Jesus Christ comes too often. He is in fact the kingdom of God He spoke so often in His teachings and parables.
Jesus said to the crowds: “This is how it is with the kingdom of God; it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land and would sleep and rise night and day and through it all the seed would sprout and grow he knows not how (Mk.4:26-27).”
Mark 4:26-27
This parable of the seed growing by itself tells us of that reality of God living among us, right with us in Jesus Christ. The seed is His word germinating in us if we cultivate it daily in prayer and good works. Just like the fecundity of the tiny seed planted in the field, God grows in us beyond all our hopes and expectations because He is never absent nor distant from us.
Photo by Ms. April Oliveros on Mt. Pulag, 2023.
Look back in your life this past week or past month, examine how many times you were blessed, of how you were pulled out and saved from a dire situation in the nick of time. Surely you can offer a lot of rational explanations but, when you come to think of it, there’s always an “Invisible Hand” saving you, guiding you.
That’s the point of the parable of the seed planted without the farmer knowing how it grows: God works best in our lives in silence.
This is the reason why St. Paul tells us to “walk in faith, not by sight” (2Cor.5:7): our life is a journey of faith wherein we cannot see everything clearly, cannot appreciate right away the extent of how God works His miracles in us daily.
Yesterday we celebrated the 40th day of my mom’s passing then tomorrow, June 17, is her 85th birthday which is also the 24th death of my dad. I told my sisters and brother that maybe that is the reason why dad died on mom’s birthday 24 years ago: so that it would not be difficult for us to visit their graves on June 17. Isang lakad at punta na lang para matipid!
But kidding aside, though it is so difficult and painful to be ulilang lubos (orphaned), I still feel so positive more than a month after my mother’s death because in those 24 years when my father died, God never abandoned us. With mom’s passing, I’m sure God will never forsake us too.
When I look back at how many times God has blessed us in the past, I also see that soon in the future, if we remain faithful to Him, Christ shall unfold in us and around us in ways we never imagined.
Photo by Ms. Analyn Dela Torre, March 2024.
Time flies so fast indeed these days; we are almost done with the first half of the year. In a short while we shall be hearing Jose Mari Chan singing again “Christmas In Our Hearts” as the Christmas countdown begins even before September first.
And that’s what I have noticed these past 20 years: with all the comforts in life, we have become impatient that we rush everything, even Christmas and holidays. We live in a world of instants that we cannot wait anymore like the farmer in the parable of Jesus. Or the Prophet Ezekiel imagining God coming soon.
We don’t have to discard the modern amenities we have in life today for most of these are gifts from God Himself. However, we must remember these are not everything, that many times in life despite all our careful planning, things still do not turn out as we expect.
There is only one thing we can be sure of, Jesus Christ silently in our midst. Look at any tree around you, the many years it had weathered all kinds of storm and heat. Still standing, still green, reminding us of Jesus. Let us pray:
God our Father, teach us to be patient like the farmer who sows seeds to his field, not knowing at all how these germinate and grow; teach us to be faithful to You in Christ Jesus, always open to find Him and embrace Him in the ordinary things in life; teach us to have more of You, God in Jesus through prayers and Sacraments, to have more faith than gadgets, more hope than instant gratifications and more love than social media. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Friday in the Tenth Week of Ordinary Time, Year II, 14 June 2024 1 Kings 19:9, 11-16 <*((((>< + ><))))*> Matthew 5:27-32
Photo by Mr. Vigie Ongleo, Sagada, Mt. Province, 2014.
O God, dear Father, how I have loved so much ever since today's story of Elijah fleeing from death at the hands of Jezebel's army; so many times I have felt like Elijah, so tired, fed up fighting, hoping for death when the going gets tough and rough; and so many times too, You have never forsaken me, Father like Elijah, asking me many times that question, "Why are you here?" (1 Kings 19:9, 13).
Very often, I get confused, Father,
if I am that zealous for You
like Elijah or just me so insistent
with what I believe,
with what I know,
with what I hold so dear
in You and for You;
many times I do not know
if I am still doing your will
especially when it is so difficult,
so uncomfortable and,
yes, I have asked You many times
why not just make me
an ordinary man,
instead of being your prophet....
Photo by Mr. Vigie Ongleo, Sagada, Mt. Province, 2014.
But your question remains, Lord, that I rarely face nor answer squarely: "Why are you here?"
You know me so well, Lord: like Simon Peter in Capernaum after your discourse on the bread of life, my favorite response to You is "Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God" (John 6:68-69).
But most of all, I am here because like the psalmist, "I long to see your face, O Lord" (Psalm 27:7-8); and for me to see your face means to love more until it hurts me; to see your face, Lord, is to be still and silent amid the noise of this world for you are always there in our midst among the weak and voiceless, among those in the margins and underneath the heaps of scraps and garbage; to see your face, O Lord, is to remember always it is your work, not mine that I must accomplish.
Why am I here, Lord? Because You told me so. Thank you so much in bringing me here this far, no matter what for as long I feel getting closer with You. In that case, I shall always be here for You! Amen.
Photo by Mr. Vigie Ongleo, Sagada, Mt. Province, 2014.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Thursday, Memorial of St. Anthony of Padua, Priest & Doctor of the Church, 13 June 2024 1 Kings 18:41-46 ><]]]]’> + <‘[[[[>< Matthew 5:20-26
Photo by author, 2023.
God our loving Father, thank you for this memorial of St. Anthony de Padua, your humble servant who is also the patron of lost items; in sending us your Son Jesus Christ, You gave us the chance to recover, to have anew, to find whatever we have lost like our dignity and honor as your children, life in You with all the grace and fulfillment, forgiveness, and peace.
In a trice, the sky grew dark with clouds and wind, and a heavy rain fell. Ahab mounted his chariot and made for Jezreel. But the hand of the Lord was on Elijah, who girded up his clothing and ran before Ahab as far as the approaches to Jezreel.
1Kings 19:45-46
How lovely is this scene, Father: of You sending rains again to Israel after punishing them with a drought that lasted three years; most especially of your prophet Elijah despite his old age and weak body being able to outrun King Ahab in your immense power and grace simply because he relied only in You; help us find our way back to You, O God, through Jesus Christ your Son; take us back to your side, to seek and follow your will by being pure and clean before You through our dealings with one another; like St. Anthony, may we immerse ourselves in your words and teachings so that we may be more loving caring and understanding, Amen.
St. Anthony of Padua, Pray for us!
The former residence of St. Anthony in Lisbon, Portugal converted into a church after his canonization as saint, a year after his death in 1231 at the age of 36. Photo courtesy of Mr. Jilson Tio of Our Lady of Fatima University, Valenzuela City.
Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 11 June 2024
From stillromancatholicafteralltheseyears.com, January 2022.
What is very sad in this ongoing debate against divorce in our country is how some people claiming to be graduates and professors of Catholic institutions insist on their many “intellectual reasonings” why divorce should be allowed while at the same time declaring it is wrong to profess we are against divorce simply because we are Catholics.
What a tragedy when those educated or teaching in Catholic schools and universities who are supposed to know more and better about Jesus Christ and His teachings are the ones favoring divorce. They cite so many studies and authors even theologians to support their stand in favor of divorce without ever mentioning Christ’s teachings found in the Sacred Scriptures that were explained by the Church in our Catechism as well as in so many other documents by the Popes and bishops.
We understand how journalists could err regarding names and other details that essentially do not effect the veracity of their news like the recent sakalan blues in Gagalangin, Tondo when the interview of a priest was ascribed to another; but, to be one sided in the presentation of a story is something else like Rappler’s “The Problem with I am Catholic, I say no to divorce”. There’s a reliable maxim in journalism that says “Opinions are free but facts are sacred.”
The main fact we have been holding on the sanctity and indissolubility of marriage for over 2000 years is our Lord Jesus Christ’s teaching against divorce that the pro-divorce everywhere have refused to accept.
Yes, we need to listen to different views about divorce but not to those views condemned by the Church because they are wrong.
Divorce cannot be isolated as merely a political issue to be resolved because marriage as a natural sacrament is spiritual in nature, a path to holiness.
Marriage is a gift and a call from God for men and women to live and work together in order to attain eternal life. This we achieve firstly by having a prayer life, a relationship with God expressed in our love for one another especially between husband and wife.
In arguing against divorce, we need to look for those couples who have made it through thick and thin in their marriage in order to inspire others in following the path of Holy Matrimony.
Joyce and Tony in 2019 with son Atty. JA and wife Kathleen with their two sons, and daughter Rosella.
As a contribution in our fight against divorce, I share with you my homily at the 40th wedding anniversary of my cousin Joyce Pollard to Tony Lopez in October 2019 which I titled as “Married life is a prayer”.
Oh what a joy to officiate weddings especially of relatives and friends!
Hope you find some lessons and inspirations on the beauty of marriage we have to keep.
As I prepared my homily for your anniversary, Joyce and Tony… “the moment I woke up and before your Mommy Fely put on her make-up, I said a little prayer for you.”
Of course that is not the theme song of Joyce and Tony. They haven’t met yet in 1967 when Dione Warwick recorded I Say a Little Prayer. But they were already married when it became one of the tracks in the movie “My Best Friend’s Wedding” starring Julia Roberts.
And since this is my “best cousin’s wedding anniversary” in this part of the city, I have thought of reflecting on married life as a prayer.
In our gospel we have heard Jesus Christ narrating the parable of the unjust judge and persistent widow to underscore “the necessity to pray always without becoming weary” (Lk. 18:1).
Prayer is an expression of faith.
When there is faith, there is also love.
And when there is prayer, faith, and love, what we have is a relationship, a community of believers who love each other.
People who love and believe with each other always talk and communicate. They make time to be with one another. And most often, that is what really matters with people who love and believe – simply to be together.
Even in silence.
Like prayer.
Prayer is more than asking things from God but most of all, prayer is a relationship with God expressed with others. That is the beauty of the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony: husband and wife are bound together in marriage to become signs of the saving presence of Jesus Christ.
Marriage as a sacrament means it is a prayer as well, a relationship of a man and woman with God as its source and foundation.
I am sure, Joyce and Tony along with all the other married couples here today will agree that married life requires a lot of prayers. In fact, married life is a prayer, a very difficult one that is much needed.
Like in that movie My Best Friend’s Wedding, there are real forces of evil that are trying to destroy couples. So many couples have already fallen, going their separate lives after several years of being together while on the other hand, more and more couples are refusing to get married at all due to this reality of breakups and separations.
And that is why we are celebrating today Joyce and Tony’s 40th wedding anniversary! We are praying with them in expressing our faith and love for them in Christ Jesus. Prayers have kept them together, transforming them into better persons.
At the end of the parable of the persistent widow and unjust judge, Jesus posed a very crucial question for us, especially to every married couple here today: When the Son of Man comes again at the end of time, will he find faith on earth? (Lk.18:8)
And what shall be our response?
“Yes, Lord, you shall find faith when you come again in Joyce and Tony!”
Like Moses in the first reading, they both prayed hard with arms outstretched on many occasions as they battled life’s many challenges and struggles.
“Yes, Lord, you shall find faith when you come again in Joyce and Tony” because they have both proclaimed your word with persistence, whether it is convenient or inconvenient like St. Paul in his second letter to Timothy. They have weathered so many storms in the past 40 years and your words, O Lord, have kept them together, sharing these with their children and with everyone in their life of fidelity and love.
“Yes, Lord, you shall find faith when you come again in Joyce and Tony” now before your altar to renew their vows to love and cherish each other for the rest of their lives!
“Yes, Lord, you shall find faith when you come again” among the many couples gathered here who have remained faithful to each other despite their many sins and failures, weaknesses and shortcomings.
Joyce and Tony, you are not only a prayer of faith but also a homily of the Holy Matrimony, showing us the light and power of Jesus Christ to transform people in prayer and bring them to fulfillment.
Prayer does not change things like typhoons and earthquakes. We cannot ask God in prayer to spare us from getting sick or be exempted from life’s many trials and sufferings. Prayer cannot stop those from happening.
What prayer does is change us, change our attitude so we may hurdle life’s many blows and obstacles. Especially with couples who always find God in their lives, in good times and in bad.
Prayers transform us into better persons as children of God, especially couples who eventually look like brothers and sisters after living together in faith, hope and love.
Tony and Joyce, I am sure everyone in our family and among your friends here can attest to the many good things that have transformed you in the past 40 years.
You have changed to become the best for each other.
In the bible, the number 40 means perfect.
May God continue to perfect you, Tony and Joyce.
Keep us too in your prayers as we pray for you. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Monday in Tenth Week of Ordinary Time, Year II, 10 June 2024 1 Kings 17:1-6 <*((((>< + ><))))*> Matthew 5:1-12
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2024.
Your words today, O Lord, seem to be so apart, unconnected, even disconsonant to some respect: in the first reading, You declared a drought as punishment against Israel who turned their backs from You, worshipping Baal; in the gospel, Jesus preached His Sermon on the mount, declaring as "blessed" are those who are poor, the meek, the hungry and thirsty, the persecuted and insulted - conditions and situations directly contrary to the ways of the world, so uncomfortable and difficult.
Every time we are facing trials and difficulties in life, we consider it as a drought, a time when You, O God, seem to be so far from us when in fact, it is us who have gone astray and away from You!
Let us see, dear Jesus, your blessings in every drought, in every hardship, in every poverty, and persecutions we go through; let us realize the blessedness of these moments of drought and trials and difficulties when we can examine what's in our hearts, who's in our hearts.
Many times we unconsciously drift apart from You, O Lord, when we are carried away by our modern baals and gods that separate us from You and one another; help us find our way back to You, rejoicing always in times of drought to seek You and follow You. Amen.
Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Friday, Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus-B, 07 June 2024 Hosea 11:1, 3-4, 8-9 ><}}}*> Ephesians 3:8-12, 14-19 ><}}}*> John 19:31-37
Being tender and caring are essentially your works, O God, made known to us by your Son Jesus Christ in His Most Sacred Heart where there is enough room for each one of us wounded and hurting to find healing; bitter and disgusted to have rest and solace; lost to find way back home.
Thus says the Lord: When Israel was a child I loved him, out of Egypt I called my son. Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk, who took them in my arms; I drew them with human cords, with bands of love; I fostered them like one who raises an infant to his cheeks; Yet. though I stooped to feed my child, they did not know that I was their healer.
Hosea 11:1, 3-4
I must admit, O God, that I have not yet really known You that until now, I lack your tenderness and care for others; to have tenderness like You, Lord, is first of all for me to be intimate with You, my Father, my Life, my Mission; You have nurtured me as your son but I never recognized You fully that is why many times I followed my doubts and negative thoughts than You. So many times I pray yet still so far from You, O God!
Lord Jesus Christ, "dwell in my heart through faith so that I may be rooted and grounded in love" (Ephesians 3:17) because when my love with God is superficial, all my relationships are also skin-deep that make me forget my love experiences, giving more emphasis on others' shortcomings, expectations, and returns; tenderness is being like You, O God, of having a big heart able to accommodate those suffering because You know and realize the gravity of what others are going through; more than a feeling, tenderness is love and mercy in action because it is to feel what others are going through.
Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make my heart like Thine, close to the Father, close to His children. Amen.
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2024.
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