Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 20 August 2026
How amazing, O Lord Jesus that when it is already evening, when darkness is all around us, that is when you are actually inside us, if we could just open our hearts and eyes of faith then we shall see you truly our Light glowing within, bringing warmth and joy.
Many times in our darkness we lose sight not only of you, Lord Jesus but also of our self that away from you we lose our identity and let our job and tasks define us or worst, our possessions and achievements as well as pains and hurts; we cave into our darkness within not seeing your wounded handed touching me holding me unmindful of your holding me, loving me.
When things get dark and we can’t see anything teach me Jesus to listen to your silence to feel your presence sense your movements follow your steps waiting trusting self-emptying.
Most of all, Jesus, help me emulate your Mother our Mother too, Mary most holy, to remain focused on you cusping you in my palms when all is dark holding on to your words believing they shall be fulfilled when I remain and stay with you there on the Cross. Amen.
Lord My Chef Sunday Recipe for Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A, 12 July 2026 Isaiah 55:10-11 ><}}}}*> Romans 8:18-23 ><}}}}*> Matthew 13:1-23
Photo by author, Lake of Galilee, the Holy Land, May 2019.
Matthew’s opening lines in today’s gospel present us a beautiful image of God’s abundance we often take for granted just like the parables of Jesus that remind us of our interconnectedness as brothers and sisters.
On that day, Jesus went out of the house and sat down by the sea. Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat down, and the whole crowd stood along the shore. And he spoke to them at length in parable, saying: “A sower went out to sow” (Matthew 13:1-3).
For the next three Sundays beginning today, all our gospel readings are taken from this 13th chapter of Matthew known as the “Discourse in Parables” that forms one whole unit of the Lord’s teachings in parables.
From the French word parabolein or “along the way”, a parable is a simple story often taken from ordinary things and events in life that offers valuable lessons about life; but, because it is a story taken from ordinary things and events, a parable is often taken for granted.
Many times we only realize later that the most profound realities in life are those found in most ordinary like God who comes to us daily in simplest ordinary things and people and events we take for granted or even refuse to recognize.
Our Filipino word for parable which is talinghaga captures this very well. From the phrase natatalinghiwaga that means “tied mystery”: tali is a rope or a tie that binds things together like mystery or hiwaga. Hence, we have talinghaga for parable that indicate how a mystery is tied with the ordinary and simple things and persons and events.
That is the purpose of Jesus in teaching us in parables: that we may learn to find the hidden truths and mysteries of life in the most ordinary things. His teaching in parables is a continuation as well as a deepening of his call to us last Sunday to “come to him and learn from him” so that we may find rest and fulfillment in him.
Photo by author, Lake of Galilee, the Holy Land, May 2019.
What I find amazing in our gospel scene this Sunday is how Jesus was by the shore of the Lake of Galilee yet, his parable is about the sower.
Why not narrate something about the life of fishermen or fish vendors?
Photo by author, Lake of Galilee, the Holy Land, May 2017.
Again, let us situate ourselves in Matthew’s opening line, “On that day, Jesus went out of the house and sat down by the sea.”
Imagine the scene, it was early morning, the sun had just risen, and people were starting to go about their usual lives when they heard Jesus teaching while seated on a boat perhaps owned by Peter. More than the parable of the sower itself, Matthew is showing us in this scene the very parable of our life that the whole world is God’s.
Every pilgrim to the Holy Land can attest to this unique beauty of the Lake of Galilee that is so lovely, so peaceful and yes, divine. It tells us of God’s superabundance in all of his creation, interconnecting us as brothers and sisters in him our Father.
This is the same parable and truth of life that God had spoken through the Prophet Isaiah in the first reading:
Thus says the Lord: Just as from the heavens the rain and snow come own and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it fertile and fruitful, giving seed to the one who sows and bread to the one who eats, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; my word shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it (Isaiah 55:10-11).
Nothing happens by accident in life; God knows everything. And the good news is, he gives everything that is good like the sower. Not just the seeds but the bread we eat, the water we drink, even the very breath we breathe.
Moreover, there is the connectedness of everything in God’s superabundance like that of the rain and snow making the earth fertile and fruitful, giving seed to the sower so that there would be bread for everyone, even clothes to wear.
Painting by Van Gogh, “The Sower on Sunset” from wikipedia.org.
God is the Sower always coming to us, tending us, sowing us with seeds that are absolutely good. It does not really matter what kind of soil receives the seed that even the pathway becomes a conduit in feeding the birds of the air!
The seed is definitely good because God is good. In all instances where the seed had fallen, we find God the Sower himself moving in each step of our life. Observe how in this image of the sower moving from his home to his field, it shows us also the journey of the word and the purpose of God in our life. There is no problem with the seed that is so fecund and definitely efficacious as God had told Isaiah that “my word shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it.”
If ever the word is not fruitful, it is due to our poor disposition as listeners or recipients. That is why St. Paul reminds us in the second reading of how we must responsibly be true to our call and role as disciples of Christ. It is a process we have to be patient but must be consistent. What we are working for is not just for this time or for one’s self or society or country: we have to see the whole reality of life from here to eternity in Christ’s work of salvation is for all. We are all interconnected so that whatever good we do will always bear fruit, “some a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.”
Photo by author, St. Michael Retreat House, Antipolo City, 16 June 2026.
This Sunday, in this beautiful scene by the Lake of Galilee, or right there on your comfortable seat or wherever you are, Jesus is asking, “where do I see myself in this wide picture and chain of events?” What have I done with the “word”, the “seed” Jesus had sown in me?
In this age of relativism worsened by social media that have blurred reality with algorithms manipulating the way we see and understand truth and reality, the more we have become empty and alienated from one’s self and one another despite the abundance of material things.
How sad that despite the worldwide connections we now have, the more we have been detached from each other, even from one’s self and ultimately from God so that indeed, many of us “look but do not see and hear but do not listen or understand” (v.13) because we have taken life in the ordinary things for granted. We live in Facebook or social media where everything has to be spectacular, even “imeldific” or at least, enhanced if not AI-generated. This Sunday, let’s get real. Enough with fakes and AI’s. Amen. Have a blessed, fruitful week ahead everyone!
Lord My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time-A, 05 July 2026 Zechariah 9:9-10 ><}}}}*> Romans 8:9, 11-13 ><}}}}*> Matthew 11:25-30
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2024.
What a refreshing gospel we have today with Jesus asking us to come to him to find rest, four weeks after being moved with pity at the sight of the crowd who were like sheep without a shepherd that he called and sent his Twelve Apostles to bring them his good news of salvation (June 14).
The following two Sundays he taught us of our work in harvesting the abundant harvest by being brave and gracious, and hospitable (June 21, 28).
This Sunday, Jesus wraps up his teachings on our work after he himself was rejected by his own folks because he knows very well ours is a difficult mission (June 21) as he praised the little ones who have accepted him like the poor and marginalized.
At that time Jesus exclaimed: “I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to little ones… Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for your selves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:25, 28-30).
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2024.
What are the lessons Jesus is asking us to learn from him, especially in these troubled times of ours when the corrupt and idiots reign supremely simply because they are more in number?
See how difficult it is to be a Christian these days when you hear and see all over social media all kinds of inanities and stupidities happening everywhere like callous politicians acting as clowns with a massive crowd of idiots parroting the words of their cult leaders masquerading as religious men. Or the two couples who climbed atop the Empire State Building in New York for a performance of unfurling a banner calling for more love in the world, with the man pretending to propose to the woman who turned out to be his wife for several months already.
From #philstar via FB, 02 July 2026.
Haynaku! Juice colored!
Everything is so exhausting. The only good news we have these days is again our very own Alex Eala “smoking” the grass at Wimbledon. And perhaps the President going to Vancouver to inaugurate the newest Jollibee there with the Canadian Prime Minster enjoying a more joyful chicken joy. Sanaol!
But, amid all these dismal happenings, Jesus is here with us calling us to his side, to experience his warmth, to learn from him how we can feel light amid all these heavy burdens around us.
Notice how with the social media all over us with its bad news that it has become so easy to feel lumbered with all the contradictions in our lives plus see the various needs we feel missing in our relationships that it has become our past time to worry and feel so burdened most of the time.
Jesus promises us this Sunday that following him brings lightness not heaviness of compulsion and duty as most people would think of his demands. However, it is not a kind of R&R we all aspire every weekend at the beach or a mountain resort.
Christ calls us today to come to him and learn from him on how to have a steady, realistic, day-to-day approach to life lived in his company.
First lesson Jesus is teaching us to learn from him today is to rejoice always.
Photo by author, St. Michael Retreat House, Antipolo City, 16 June 2026.
Being joyful is more than being happy; to rejoice is to have our heart smiling because deep down inside we are assured that no matter what happens in life, even if worse comes to worst, Jesus remains with us and would never ever abandon us. That’s because he is not like a stern master without any love and concern for his slaves.
Jesus is the fulfillment of the first reading calling us to rejoice because he is the king who had come, “a just savior is he, meek, and riding on an ass, on a colt, the foal of an ass” (Zec.9:9).
Recall Jesus Christ’s triumphant entry to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday riding an ass so that he could be at eye-level with everyone in the city unlike riding a horse that is so high and even menacing in stature.
Imagine the setting of this Sunday gospel: Jesus was lamenting at how his fellow Jews have rejected him despite his many miracles but at the same time, he was rejoicing, praising the Father in sending him the poor and outcasts of their society as his first believers and followers. Yes, Jesus was hurting for being rejected but he found more reasons to rejoice than sulk. Why waste energy on the negative when there are a lot of good things happening?
Rejoicing means looking beyond the physical and temporal things; rejoicing is being a visionary who sees opportunities behind every problem and issues at hand. Rejoicing is seeing grace than curse, focusing more on Christ than the problems. Indeed,“every gising is a blessing” because every morning we wake up, God assures us of his immense love for us, that he believes in us, and is sending us on a mission to share that joy of living. And believing in him!
Photo by author, July 2011.
Second lesson Jesus is teaching us to learn from him this Sunday is to surrender, to set aside our personal agenda so that we can take up his yoke that is easy and burden that is light.
One reason we cannot rejoice is our refusal to give up our many yokes and burdens that are mostly much ado about nothing at all.
Let go and let God!
Surrendering is daily dying to one’s self to rise to new life in Christ which leads us to the third lesson Jesus wants us to learn from him this Sunday:
Live in solidarity with Christ empowered by the Holy Spirit as St. Paul tells us in the second reading.
Brothers and sisters: You are not in the flesh; on the contrary you are in the spiritr, if only the Spirit of God dwells in you. Consequently, brothers and sisters, we are not debtors to the flesh to live according to flesh. For if you ive according to the flesh, you will die, but if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live (Romans 8:9, 12-13).
Solidarity with Christ is the opposite of solidarity with the old humanity with Adam enslaved to sin which is not just body versus soul nor should flesh be understood as sexual immorality; solidarity with Christ is life in the Holy Spirit that results in eternal life in God. It is a choice we make daily, of whether we shall heed Christ’s call to come to him and learn from him who is meek and humble of heart. Solidarity with Christ is living in the love of Christ.
The good news is, Jesus gives us all the grace we need to love and choose him, to learn from him even if many times we fall and stumble because of our heavy burdens due to sin. This Sunday and every day, make the right choice. Choose Jesus, chose love to be light, choose life. Amen. Have a blessed, light and joyful week ahead.
Photo by Mr. Vigie Ongleo somewhere in Colorado, 03 June 2026.
Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 30 April 2026
This front-page photo of the Philippine Daily Inquirer on August 20, 2021 is my favorite shot taken during the COVID pandemic coverage by the local media. It is worth a thousand words indeed.
I remembered this photo last month before the Holy Week when a friend and former colleague in GMA News texted me about the death of her former staff member. Her message read, “please pray for the soul of ____ who had lost the battle with cancer.”
It is perhaps one of the most widely used template in announcing a death, lost a battle. In my 28 years as a priest, it is only now as a senior citizen that I have reflected about that most common text I receive whenever somebody dies after a lingering illness. Or battle.
Since turning “sigisty-one” years old last March, I have considered it as grace that the more I have now become aware of the reality of my mortality, the more I have become more filled with hope in life too.
Despite death becoming so real this time as I really feel ageing through weakening of muscles, diminishing stamina, failing memory, and most especially of the onset of comorbidities like diabetes, the more I am most convinced that life is beautiful, always good to be alive. Every gising indeed is a blessing!
This is not an attempt to romanticize or make death palatable. I know. This is easier said than done. Memento mori is a reality like the sword of Damocles literally above us daily, not just a fashion fad we put on our t-shirt or some on their skin as a tattoo.
We all shall die. What is scary is the process of dying, not death itself which we shall not feel because we are already dead. Dying is a defeat, a loss when all we have is bitterness and anger, unforgiveness and resentments because that is when we resign and stop living, losing life by default.
Death is a loss as in a battle when we deny its reality, its being a fact and part of life that we have refused to look beyond it that is fuller and eternal.
Photo by author, Manaoag Basilica, 09 January 2026.
But, when we have love and forgiveness, contrition and acceptance, death turns into a victory. And life. Especially when we have Jesus Christ.
In Jesus, every death and its other faces of poverty, losses, failures, sufferings and sickness are all a gain, a true wealth, a victory because these lead us to fulfillment not just happiness; fruitfulness not only success in life because death leads us to the hereafter.
Recall Luke’s beautiful account of the road to Emmaus when Jesus joined the two disciples walking at the opposite direction, leaving Jerusalem late afternoon of Easter. They did not recognize Jesus during their journey because their eyes were fixated on what happened on Good Friday; their eyes would only be opened after Jesus broke bread with them in their home in Emmaus. It is when we are broken like bread that we experience the fullness and meaning of life. (See https://lordmychef.com/2026/04/18/leaving-disbelieving/)
Photo from Sel Nanquil-Darilag.
I recently went to the wake of former RPN-9 reporter Ed Nanquil who “battled” prostate cancer for sometime until dementia hit him two years ago that abruptly cut off our communications.
Despite my busy schedule that week, I made sure to come to his wake to offer Mass as a final tribute and gratitude to Ed who was very instrumental in my becoming a priest.
We last met in 1993 at the WPD headquarters in UN Avenue, Manila. It was our seminary break and I have come to join my former GMA News cameraman Jun Fronda in his graveyard shift duty when Ed approached me that night at the lobby of the police headquarter.
“Totoo pala ang chismis na nagpapari ka,” Ed calmly told me in his characteristic genteel voice.
I looked at him and laughed, telling him how I have been used to that comment. As we talked about my vocation, I told Ed how I felt God playing a big joke on me: first, when he made me a TV reporter when I do not have the broadcast voice at all, explaining that I applied as a news writer but by God’s grace, I was catapulted to being a reporter. And secondly, how God brought me back to the seminary to become a priest who would be preaching, singing and chanting a lot when my voice has remained small and sintonado!
That was when Ed told me that “many times, the things we hate and do not like in ourselves are exactly what God likes in us.” Whoa! It was the tipping point in my vocation story as I felt Ed was an angel sent by God to assure me He wanted me to become a priest, that I have to stop doubting Him and His call despite my many weaknesses and limitations. And sins.
That night at his wake, as I blessed the remains of Ed, I silently thanked him, and whispered to him he had not lost his battles with cancer and dementia. I have become a priest partly because of him who had taught me along the way how to battle with my many doubts of self and of God.
Photo from Sel Nanquil-Darilag.
When we refer to death as a battle we have lost, it means more of the grief of losing a beloved because the truth is the opposite: it is when we die that we win the war in life with the many lives we have touched and won over who would continue to live and touch others too in the process.
For those battling with cancer and other sickness, as well as those hurdling so many obstacles and trials in this life, especially those “lumalaban ng patas”, God is with us always. Our battle had long been won by Jesus Christ. We just have to be present. Do not lose by default. Accept. And “surrender” like St. Paul:
…the time of my departure is at hand. I have competed well; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith. From now on the crown of righteousness awaits me, which the Lord, the just judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me, but to all who have longed for his appearance (2 Timothy 4:6b-8).
May we have the same courage of St. Paul in life. And in death. To live forever and ever. Amen.
Photo by author, Don Bosco Batulao, Batangas, 08 April 2026
Lord My Chef Sunday Recipe by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Fourth Sunday of Easter, Cycle A, 26 April 2026 Acts 2:14, 36-41 ><}}}*> 1 Peter 2:20-25 ><}}}*> John 10:1-10
Photo by author, 09 February 2026, Museo Valenzuela.
In the next three Sundays beginning today, our gospel readings will bring us back to Jesus Christ’s teachings before his passion and death because all his pronouncements then are clearest when seen in the light of his resurrection.
As we have mentioned last Sunday, it does not really matter that many or everyone would see the Risen Lord in order to believe him. Like what Jesus had told Thomas the other Sunday, blessed are those who believe without having seen him while last week we have realized in the story of the two disciples returning to Emmaus that the mystery and beauty of Easter is found in the “breaking of bread” when our eyes are opened to recognize Christ who immediately vanishes. This breaking of bread is not just the Holy Eucharist but includes our many experiences when we too experience brokenness in life like the Jews addressed by Peter after the Pentecost.
Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice, and proclaimed: “Let the whole house of Israel know for certain that God has made both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and they asked Peter and the other apostles, “What are we to do, my brothers?” (Acts 2:14, 36-37)
“The Road to Emmaus” painting by Ronald Raab, CSC, from ronaldraab.com.
What a beautiful expression by Luke, “they were cut to the heart” that means they were stirred, they were moved deep inside to a great reality, to a truth that led to their conversion.
It is in our own brokenness when our eyes are opened, our hearts are cut that we find Jesus and become converted.
Despite the scathing words of Peter on their sins on having Jesus crucified, the people did not feel “guilty” in the negative sense of being hopelessly mired in sin. The same thing is true with us: there are moments in life we realize deeply, truly feeling the hurt of having offended God in our many sins that actually lead us to conversion and be transformed into a better person as a disciple of Christ. True contrition does not stop in the realization and admission of our sins; true contrition always leads to conversion. Though we are broken, we are not scattered. In fact, it is in our being broken that we become one, we become whole in Jesus Christ.
Guilt buries, conversion liberates because we find Jesus as the true gate to life who leads us to freedom. In Jesus as our gate in life, we enter a new phase of being free and faithful and loving.
So Jesus said again, “Amen, amen, I say to you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy; I come so that they might have life and have it more abundantly” (John 10:7-10).
Photo by Dra. Mylene A. Santos, MD, at Katmon Nature Sanctuary & Beach Resort in Infanta, Quezon, 03 April 2024.
Every fourth Sunday of Easter is known as the Good Shepherd Sunday. Only John has this section of Jesus teaching actually to the Pharisees of himself as the Good Shepherd following the controversy in his healing of the man born blind on a Sabbath day.
But before Jesus spoke of his being the Good Shepherd, he first identified himself as the “gate” where the shepherd and the sheep pass through, the direct opposite of the Pharisees and priests of their time who have taken upon themselves as the final standard and arbiter of what is good and holy, of actually usurping the role of God but so stern, so strict. And impersonal.
Hence, the distinction by Jesus in this passage between “thieves and robbers” like his enemies and himself as “the gate” and “the shepherd”.
Whenever I bless homes, I always begin at the door. From the many house blessings I have made, I am not really impressed with the modern, “minimalist” doors with sleek metal handles. What fascinates me most are simple doors with bold colors like lively red or blue. For me, a door is something that exudes with security and protection, not necessarily massive, evoking power.
Photo by author, Angels’ Hills Retreat Center, Tagaytaty City, April 2025.
That’s Jesus Christ for me as the gate. My security and protection.
However, still with house blessings, I have always wondered why we Filipinos even abroad are so fond of two things so peculiar just to us: first is having a regular kitchen often for display and a dirty kitchen for daily use and second, side doors to pass through because the main door is kept locked, used only for visitors.
I think they both reveal something about our spirituality wherein we recognize Jesus our gate, our door, our shepherd yet, we still desire to have other doors and gates, perhaps even shepherds like buddhas and amulets we hung in our homes.
This we find when we examine our inner selves, the cacophony of negative voices that fill us, even entertain us like jealousy, envy, anger, resentment, bitterness, greed, and lust. There are times despite our having faith in Christ, we are filled with more negative than positive like curse than blessing, revenge than reconciliation, war than peace, and worse of all, death than life.
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2026.
Where are they coming from?
Very often, we take them for granted, allowing them to percolate inside us until they boil and burst that we hurt others, most of all, our selves in the process.
“I come so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.”
Jesus our door, our gate, our Good Shepherd invites us anew this Sunday to remain in him, to stay with him. Jesus calls us to break free from these other doors and gates that trap us within so that we may be free and faithful. Most of all, be more loving in the real sense.
Jesus invites us to examine our lives today, before having him and after having him. Like what Peter tells us in the second reading, we are reminded of the new freedom we have in Christ: “By his wounds you have been healed. For you had gone astray like sheep, but you have now returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls” (1Pt.2:24-25).
During the Last Supper, Judas (not the Iscariot) asked Jesus why he would appear only to them and not to everyone and he replied with mysterious words, speaking about love and keeping his commandments so that he and the Father would dwell on his disciples (Jn.14:23-24). Actually, in speaking that way, Jesus was showing his disciples who include us today that his revelation is not about public display of power but of personal relationship in him based on love. In the whole discourse of Jesus during their last supper from the perspective of John, what is most essential is the love of Jesus and the love of his disciples. And this we shall explore in the next two Sundays before Jesus ascends into heaven.
Again, there is no need to see Jesus physically; the more we love, the more we believe, the more we see him in our hearts. Most especially when we pass only in him as our gate, our door to life and fullness. Amen.A blessed week ahead to everyone.
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2026.
Lord My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Third Sunday of Easter, Cycle A, 19 April 2026 Acts 2:14, 22-23 ><}}}*> 1Peter 1:17-21 ><}}}*> Luke 24:13-35
Photo by author, view from Jerusalem Temple, May 2019.
We heard last Sunday Jesus Christ’s coming to his disciples on the evening of Easter and a second time eight days later when Thomas was present, reminding us how Easter is a story of coming and believing, of believing and coming.
This Sunday we find an opposite movement and direction in the two disciples leaving Jerusalem in disbelief at the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
That very day, the first day of the week, two of Jesus’ disciples were going to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus, and they were conversing about all things that had occurred. And it happened that while they were conversing a debating, Jesus himself drew near and walked with them, but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him (Luke 24:13-16).
“The Road to Emmaus” painting by Ronald Raab, CSC, from ronaldraab.com.
Easter is also about leaving in disbelief. Not necessarily because of not believin like Thomas last Sunday.
Cleopas and the other disciple were leaving Jerusalem in disbelief which our Filipino language adequately express in “hindi makapaniwala” and “matay ko mang isipin” that both indicate a strong sense of belief with a dash of doubt because the story, the event, or the very person involved is beyond comprehension.
Or, bigger than reality like Jesus Christ and his very mystery of love for us.
Many times, we could not believe how good and loving God can be to us, so personal, so real and true but how can it be he “allows” bad things to happen to us or in the world.
Like the two disciples going home to Emmaus, we walk away from God to distance from him and everything and everyone to find our selves and see the real picture of what is going on when times are rough for us.
Those are the times we silently tell ourselves “this could not be happening” especially when it is so difficult, so unbelievable simply because – we believe. Hence, our usual litany of striving to be good, of serving the poor and needy, of going to Mass every Sunday, of always praying…
Look back in our many experiences in life when we could have died or have lost more or could have been a total wreck. Amazingly, despite our being in the opposite direction in life, consciously or unconsciously, that is when we feel more blessed. That’s when we are able to declare with conviction, “hindi ako pinabayaan ng Diyos, napaka-buti ng Diyos, and binigay niya pa rin ang lahat”. This is what the first reading reminds us of Peter’s speech before the Jews at Pentecost, at how God never left us, sending us Jesus Christ as fulfillment of his promise to Abraham and David.
Modern painting of the road to Emmaus from the internet.
Like in the road to Emmaus, Jesus journeys with us in the opposite direction only to bring us back to Jerusalem filled with joy by reminding us how everything that happens in our lives, Jesus had gone through the same sufferings too as foreshadowed and explained in the Sacred Scriptures.
Here we are reminded of the importance of personal prayer which is more than the mere recitation of prayers but having a relationship in God who never leaves nor abandons us.
Most of all, here we are reminded too of how the Sunday Eucharist opens ourselves to Christ’s reality and loving presence among us as experienced by the two disciples after Jesus had broken bread with them. It is called a Holy Communion because in that “breaking of bread”, we share in our common experiences of suffering and death. That we are not alone. Most of all, that we too like others rise to new life in Jesus Christ who suffered, died, and rose to life first for us.
It can happen that our eyes too are prevented from recognizing Jesus like Cleopas and companion on the road to Emmaus because of our many fixations in life like that blessings can only be in positive things like good health, security like steady income, a rising career or a profitable business and endeavor.
But, experience has taught us so many times that blessings are not only found in good things but even in bad or negative ones like sickness, failures, losses and death. And when we look back, they were not really that bad at all because it was in our failures and losses, sickness and deaths when we realized and learned most in life.
Notice how Luke succinctly narrated the breaking of bread in the home of Cleopas in Emmaus, it was so swift unlike the building up of drama along the road to Emmaus. It was so simple because that’s how things happen in life too – so quick that the simplest things and gestures, even so bad can suddenly become so loaded with meanings that we realize God’s loving presence in us.
“Supper at Emmaus” by renowned painter Caravaggio. See the emotion depicted by Caravaggio with his trademark of masterful play of light and shadows. At the center is the Risen Lord blessing the bread that caught the two disciples who are seated in disbelief, one outstretching his arms and the others pushing back in his chair. The third character in the painting is the innkeeper unaware of the significance of the gesture of Jesus. It was at this instance that the two disciples recognized Christ as the travelling man with them to Emmaus.
During the COVID pandemic, on the first Sunday of lockdown when there was no public Mass, I started a motorized procession of the Blessed Sacrament in my former parish by mounting our big monstrance on the roof of a parishioner’s truck. I announced the route of our procession during our online Mass that Sunday and people waited.
What an amazing sight of the people’s deep faith in God as they knelt and bowed before the Blessed Sacrament whether on the main highway or the inside streets. Some were crying while everyone was deep in prayer.
There lies the great mystery of Easter: Jesus need not appear to us in person because as he vanishes in the Blessed Sacrament, that is when we recognize him!
In the most simple gestures of the Mass under the most simple signs of bread and wine, Jesus vanishes from our outward view and through this vanishing our interior or inner recognition opens up that we “see” him in the many instances he had touched us especially in our “heart-breaking” experiences in the past, our Emmaus road.
Photo by Ms. Anne Ramos, 22 March 2020, Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan.
We know with certainty that “it is the Lord” – Dominus est – present in every breaking of bread because part of the Easter mystery tells us deep within that it is only in his vanishing that he truly becomes recognizable to us. That is why we have to stop all those “theatrics” in our liturgy as noted by many netizens this past Holy Week and Easter. Unknown to many priests and their alalays, the more we have gimmicks in the Mass or even in our sacred spaces, the more we “displace” and remove Christ.
After an hour every Sunday, we leave the Mass and go back to our usual way of life, facing life’s many challenges. Peter reminds us in the second reading to hold on to that “faith and hope in God” who gave us Jesus Christ, “the spotless unblemished lamb.”
Let us not forget this mystery of Easter that, the more Jesus vanishes, the more we recognize him because Jesus is more than enough than anybody or anything else especially when we in our Emmaus experience. Let us pray like Cleopas and companion “Stay with us, Lord” so we may show him in our witnessing especially when we could not find him in others. Amen.
From Facebook, 21 April 2021: “There is an urgency to announce the Joy, the joy of the Risen Lord.”
40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Friday in the First Week of Lent, 27 February 2026 Ezekiel 18:21-28 + + + Matthew 5:20-26
Photo by Dra. Mylene A. Abad Santos, MD, February 2021.
Thank you, dear Father for the first week of Lent about to end; much is still to be desired to be closer to you, to be faithful to you, to be one in you; teach me in your Son Jesus to go beyond the letters of your laws, to go beyond the minimum requirements, to go beyond of what is asked of us in order to be more loving to others in you:
Jesus said to his disciples: “I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the Kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20).
Photo by Dra. Mylene A. Abad Santos, MD, February 2021.
Teach us to be holy or righteous like you; make us whole, to be different and be radical by going back to you our very roots of being and existence; instead taking the path of supremacy especially when we are angry that we are unafraid of breaking away from others, insisting on what is right than on what is good, let us be reconciled with you in others and in our very selves where peace remains the best to have.
To go beyond than what is required is to be humble and gentle like you, dear Jesus, caring more for people and relationships than on being right which often is not the case; holiness or righteousness is confronting and accepting our limitations so that your infinite power of love and mercy may work in us and through us, Lord Jesus.
Photo by Dra. Mylene A. Abad Santos, MD, February 2021.
Lent is going beyond the ordinary because it is about choosing you, Lord above all else always: you never condemn us letting go and forgetting of our past sins when we choose to finally live in your presence doing your will; however, let us not be complacent in your presence, Lord for our good record can be undone completely when we refuse to love you in others.
O Lord Jesus, you have given me with so much chances to become better; help me to remain in you so I can also give more chances more mercy and more love to others lost and trying to find you. Amen.
40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Thursday after Ash Wednesday, 19 February 2026 Deuteronomy30:15-20 +++ Luke 9:22-25
Can my life, or life itself be separated from you, my God?
Then he said to all, "If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it" (Luke 9:23-24).
As I immerse myself to your words today, Jesus, I remember so many occasions when I was younger always trying to save my life, simply clinging to my life, or asserting my life, that's when I lost in every count: it seems to me now that when we are young - and strong - we choose ourselves more, insist on ourselves, even shouting deep within "It's my life"...!
Sad truth is, we lost always as we felt most empty, no direction, no meaning in life. When life is too cushy, without any problems and challenges, that is when life is deep in serious trouble. It is not even life at all but felt like death!
But, Lord, I remember too that since I took that dive, when I thought less of my self, when I started following you, of losing my life for your sake, that was when I found meaning and fullness in life, when I truly save my life; it was a bumpy road, Lord - you know it very well how many times I stopped along the way to choose my own path, even dared leaving you but you were always there waiting for me, walking with me even in the opposite direction just to bring me back to you to gain my life in you.
Glory and praise to you, Lord Jesus! Your words are not just a rhetoric, nor a poetic overstatement of a guru or a teacher but actualizing words of the Son of God, our Savior and Messiah; you have given me with so much and I have given you so little; teach me to give more of myself to you so that I can give myself to others by giving more of you in loving service.
Let me choose you always, Jesus, for life itself cannot be separated from you who is life yourself. Amen.
Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 15 January 2026
Photo by Ar. Philip Santiago, Basilica of the Annunciation, Israel, October 2025.
Two priests and a former nun personally known to me died in our diocese last Sunday. It was also the birthdate of the late Bishop Cirilo Almario, Jr. whom I had remembered in my two early morning Masses on that Sunday, January 11, 2026.
In those two Masses too I mentioned in my homily the retreat I facilitated first week of January with my friends about “ageing gracefully” – my own realizations since joining their ranks as senior citizens last March.
Let me elaborate those two points I have shared with them and in my homily last Sunday.
From forbes.com.
First, let us embrace our being old. Stop saying “when we get old”, pagtanda natin because we are already old. Period. Matanda na tayo.
We cannot reverse our ageing process and it is useless to have all these cosmetic manipulations like dyeing our hair black or stretching our sagging skin and removing those wrinkles.
Embrace old age. It is beautiful and wonderful because it is so good. Our Filipino word for “old” says it all – matanda – which ironically so many women hate to hear as they stress that kalabaw lang ang tumatanda. That is not true.
Our word matanda is from the root word tanda which means “sign” that is why an old person is rightly called matanda because he/she is a sign of God’s goodness, a sign of God’s mercy and love, a sign of God’s beauty and majesty.
Moreover, a matanda is a sign of wisdom and grace that is why when we were young boys, we wanted to be old by putting our dad’s eyeglasses or taste his cigarettes and beer while girls put on their mom’s make up and high heeled shoes. How funny that when we are already old, we resist to accept the fact that we strive to look young again, sometimes ending up as nagmumurang kamatis.
Photo by Mr. Jim Marpa, 2019.
Technically speaking, “old” is actually harsh. Old is something about a past phase that has ran its course like being outdated. Luma in Filipino that connotes stale, passe, lacking relevance and sadly, useless. Just for display purposes. As a person, that is the one we refer to as walang pinagkatandaan. Or huklubang matanda.
To be more specific, the better English term referring to ageing gracefully is ancient that exudes with a sense of timeliness, of being perpetually relevant like the ancient ruins in Rome, Athens, and Jerusalem. Actually, some biblical experts have wanted to rename the “Old Testament” as “Ancient Testament” following this line of thinking.
Photo by author, Ephesus, Turkiye, November 2025.
Things and even persons can rightly be referred to as ancient because of their beauty still intact that inspires us and makes us wonder about life itself. They are not just old sites nor old persons that remind us of the past long gone but ancient because still lovely, “still full of sap and green” as the psalmist extolled the seniors of his time.
Persons who age gracefully like ancient sites stir our inner selves with deeper beauty and realities of life that eyes cannot see. That is perhaps the reason these days many senior men and women are so “in” and considered as attractive.
It is the same wisdom realized by St. Augustine when he wrote about God, “Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you. You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you.”
Being ancient -whether as a person or a thing – is something of the inside we must turn to not outside like our skin and physical body. From that inside realization and acceptance of being senior or elderly we experience the grace of ageing because we experience God still present in us, in fact loving us more as he makes as a sign or tanda of his loving presence.
Ageing gracefully is a modern virtue we need to cultivate in this age of instants that glorify youthfulness equated with usefulness. That is why when Pope Benedict XVI resigned from the Papacy in 2013, the more I have come to love and admire him. In his resignation, he taught us the importance of embracing and lovingly accepting our old age when we can no longer adequately perform our many tasks in office even in life itself. It was not a failure nor a surrender in the negative sense but more of a deep courage and trust in God that we accept our being weak and ready to come to him soon.
Photo by author, Pundaquit, San Antonio, Zambales, May 2025.
This brings me to my second realization since turning sigisty years old last year: corollary to embracing old age is accepting death. That is why, as seniors, let us stop saying and thinking of our coming death because we are already dying. Huwag na nating isipin yung “kapag namatay ako” dahil namamatay na nga tayo.
Being senior is doing away with those bucket lists, of thinking about things to do, places to visit before we die. We are already dying and hence, whatever you can do, do it now. There could be no more tomorrow. All we have is the present moment. Anything could happen to us, for better and for worse.
Ageing gracefully is coming to terms with life which leads us to coming to terms with death. Yes, this is easier said than done, but slowly, I am learning and loving it!
Photo by author, Bucharest, Romania, November 2025.
One of the reasons that made me decide to become a priest in the early 1990’s was the conviction that I have felt so deeply God’s love for me as a person in the many experiences I have gone through in life. I felt at that time that by becoming a priest, I could convince more people about the truth and existence of this loving God we have.
I still hold on to that but a year after turning sigisty, becoming sigisty-one in March 22, another fascinating realization I have had is how wonderful this life is. Now that I am old, the more I can boldly claim with conviction that it is good to be alive. Masarap pa rin ang mabuhay! Maganda ang buhay maski mahirap!
Accepting and embracing our ageing, our getting weak, our failing memory are all kinds of dying. And in that midst that we actually live fullest and meaningfully. I don’t know if I can write any further because I ain’t dead yet but… just in case, it was worth the trip. Amen. May you have a fruitful and fulfilling weekend ahead.
Lord My Chef Christmas Eve Recipe, 24 December 2025
Photo by Ar. Philip Santiago, a mural of angels announcing the birth of Jesus Christ to shepherds in the field, Angels’ Field Chapel in Bethlehem, October 2025.
A blessed Merry Christmas, friends ad relatives, especially our followers. In our Monday’s Simbang Gabi when Mary sang her Magnificat during her Visitation of Elizabeth, we reflected how songs not only express our innermost thoughts and feelings but reveal our very person, too.
Allow me this Christmas to share with you a song I have recently heard to reflect on the meaning of Jesus Christ’s birth. The song is called “My Lord Has Come” written in 2010 by Will Todd, a renowned contemporary British composer and pianist who blends melodic classical compositions with jazz elements. Check YouTube to feel its moving music but for now, experience the sense of wonder in its inspiring lyrics.
Shepherds, called by angels,
called by love and angels:
No place for them but a stable.
My Lord has come.
Sages, searching for stars,
searching for love in heaven;
No place for them but a stable.
My Lord has come.
His love will hold me,
his love will cherish me,
love will cradle me.
Lead me, lead me to see him,
sages and shepherds and angels;
No place for me but a stable.
My Lord has come.
Photo by Ar. Philip Santiago, a mural of shepherds as first visitors to the newborn King of kings, Angels’ Field Chapel in Bethlehem, October 2025.
I learned and heard this song last week while researching for materials this Christmas. And the word “stable” struck me.
See its varied meanings. First, “stable” means firm and sturdy, unshakeable like a stable table, stable ground, and stable truth or opinion. But during this period, we know a “stable” also refers to the Nativity scene or creche which we Filipinos call as a Belen that is actually a translation of the Lord’s birthplace of Bethlehem.
In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole world should be enrolled. This was the first enrollment, when Quirinius was governor of Syria. So all went to be enrolled, each to his own town. And Joseph too went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David that is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. While they were there, the time came for her to have her child, and she gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn(Luke 2:1-7).
How lovely that God manifested to us in the most humble way, being born on a manger, at a stable for animals!
And see now why Christmas is the greatest exchange gift of all time when God became human like us born in a stable so that we too may become divine like Him.
But, it is no easy exchange gift we often do in our Christmas parties when we just have to buy gifts that fall within the range of prices we have agreed upon. Jesus Christ the Son of God came not for any price that can be bought and paid by humans for He came with His whole life and being.
Picture the Christmas stable, of how the eternal entered the temporal, the infinite and perfect became flesh and bones and blood among us, so intimate with life and all the mess and chaos of living including death itself. He was born because He loves each one of us immensely.
And listen now to Will Todd telling us, “The Lord has come in a stable… anyone searching for Him – whether angels or shepherds or sages like the Magis, there’s no place except the stable.
Even for me and for us searching for stability in life, meaning in life, direction in life that can be found only in the stable where the Lord has come. How lovely!
In the silence of the darkest night of the year, amid the loud claims of everyone being the greatest and most powerful, the best and brightest, unknown to them the only true great and mighty one is in the stable.
In the gospel we heard too how the shepherds went in haste to visit the newborn Messiah in the stable, rejoicing afterwards at the great sight and good news they have found.
But, how about us today? How sad nobody cares at all to go to the Holy Mass which is actually the modern Christmas stable of Bethlehem which means “house of bread”. Jesus is the Bread of life as He preached later in life in the Gospel of John. On the eve of His death at the Last Supper, Jesus gave Himself as the Bread broken and shared for all lifetime to lead us to eternity.
How sad that we search for life’s meaning and sense in the most unstable of all instances like science and technology, new thoughts and ideas that overextend our rights without any regard for responsibilities and true freedom. If there is anything that merits haste these days, it is the things of God like the Mass and prayers and Sacred Scriptures. Not social media and all those viral and trending reels of our follies and stupidities we love to follow.
Photo by author, Christmas 2021 at Basic Education Department Chapel, OLFU-Valenzuela City.
See also the animals in the Christmas stable especially the ox and donkey who all symbolize our blindness to God who humbly came to us in the stable. Isaiah and the other prophets in the Old Testament lamented how animals particularly the ox and donkey “know” so well where to go when hungry and thirsty which is the stable while we humans wander far because we are so blinded by many things.
Christmas tells us humans to stop looking so far as Will Todd insists in his great composition My Lord Has Come inspired by our readings last night and today: it is only in Bethlehem that we find the true stable reality of life where the Son of God was born so that we now reckon time according to His birth with BC and AD because humans and civilizations do not last. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebews 13:8).
Our only stability in life is found in the Christmas stable especially when the nights are dark and long. Amen. A blessed and stable Merry Christmas to you!
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