The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Tuesday, Memorial of St. Clement, Pope and Martyr, 23 November 2021
Daniel 2:31-45, ><)))*> + ><)))*> + ><)))*> Luke 21:5-11
Photo by Mr. Jim Marpa, 2019.
Glory and praise to you,
our loving and almighty
God and Father!
Your power and might,
majesty and grandeur are
all around us, even deep
within each one of us and yet,
still many deny your presence,
deny your existence.
Enter our consciousness, Lord,
enter our dreams like with
King Nebuchadnezzar to remind us
nothing remains here on earth,
that you are always greater, O God,
"semper major"!
In the lifetime of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed or delivered up to another people; rather, it shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and put an end t0 them, and it shall stand forever.
Daniel 2:44
Even your Son Jesus Christ
reminded us through the apostles
how everything would crumble and
fall, including your Temple at
Jerusalem, putting an end to everything
until he comes again to bring upon us
new heaven and new earth.
And so, grant us, Lord,
perseverance and fidelity
to remain humble before you
like St. Clement who bore all sufferings
during the persecution but remained
faithful to you, calling on the early Church
he led as Pope at that time to remain
one in you, our only Rock foundation
in faith, hope and love. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music by Fr. Nick F. Lalog II, 21 November 2021
Photo by author, Singapore, 2018.
Please suspend any judgment yet for our choice of music this Sunday: I have waited so long for this inspiration to come in my prayers since we started this blog on music linked with the gospel.
Yes, I have always been a big fan – a Danhead – of Steely Dan since my elementary days in the mid-70’s and thanks to YouTube and the internet, the more I have come to love their music now that I am a priest!
Though I must confess that I have never learned nor fully understood their lyrics until now, I have always been faithfully in love with their music that is brusque and sophisticated at the same time yet charming and mysterious.
Just Google the meaning of Steely Dan, the band is essentially the duo of the late Walter Becker and Donald Fagen whose ability to gather the best musicians in itself is a stroke of genius.
Next to prayers, Steely Dan music has been my best antidote against all the blues, worries and fears since this pandemic began last year. And when burdens are so heavy that I feel so down, this is the Steely Dan tune I liked most at this time as it spoke so well exactly how I would always feel:
If I had my way I would move to another lifetime I’d quit my job Ride the train through the misty nighttime I’ll be ready when my feet touch ground Wherever I come down And if the folks will have me Then they’ll have me
Any world that I’m welcome to Is better than the one I come from
From their album Katy Lied released in 1975, Any World (That I’m Welcome To) speaks so well of our longing to go to another world where everything fits us right — the kind of feeling we tend to have when our plans do not happen, when everything seems to be wrong and out of order.
Like all their songs, Any World is loaded with philosophical musings by Becker and Fagen that words could not sufficiently express and that is why they always have to improvise and innovate in their music and instrumentations that sound so sublime, filled with enigma.
But, where is Jesus Christ and our celebration today of Christ the King in this music which many of my elders used to frown when I was growing up (and discerning my vocation)?
The inspiration came to me while praying on the first reading, on the “vision” of the prophet Daniel of the “Son of man” or Savior God sent to save us, Jesus Christ. Instantly, I remembered the last stanza of this song:
I think I’ll go to the park Watch the children playing Perhaps I’ll find in my head What my heart is saying A vision of a child returning A kingdom where the sky is burning Honey I will be there Yes I’ll be there
Any world that I’m welcome to Is better than the one I come from
And when we try visualize the gospel from John of the trial of Jesus before Pilate, the more we wish we are in any world where we are welcomed to! How ironic when we continue to put God on trial, always questioning him for all our woes, doubting his love and presence, his kingship, his very person in Jesus Christ (https://lordmychef.com/2021/11/20/jesus-truly-our-king/).
And that is where I find the genius and “spirituality” of Becker and Fagen: their music like Any World not only tells us of our deep longings but also at the same time of our convictions that there is something better, something good coming despite all the problems and darkness we have in life.
Yes, it will be pushing too hard to speak of faith and religion with Steely Dan music but, as I have cautioned you at the start, suspend any judgment and get the feel of Becker and Fagen in the second stanza of this great song:
I can hear your words When you speak of what you are and have seen I can see your hand Reaching out through a shining daydream Where the days and nights are not the same Captured happy in a picture frame Honey I will be there Yes I’ll be there
Any world that I’m welcome to Is better than the one I come from
Who else can understand us so well, who can see everything in us and most of all would be there? That must be Jesus, truly our King who died for us to make this a better world for us!
Have a blessed Sunday!
*We have no intentions of infringing into the copyrights of this music and its uploader except to share its beauty and listening pleasure.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Thursday, Memorial of St. Charles Borromeo, Bishop, 04 November 2021
Romans 14:7-12 ><)))*> <*(((>< + ><)))*> <*(((>< Luke 15:1-10
Photo by Mr. Jim Marpa, 2019.
Thank you dear Father
for the cold weather so
refreshing these days;
keep us safe from COVID-19
and may its infection rate continue
to go down so we can slowly come
out and find each other again.
We have learned our lessons so
well, Lord, in this pandemic as
St. Paul reminds us today in the
first reading:
Brothers and sisters: None of us lives for oneself, and no one dies for oneself. For if we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord; so then, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.
Romans 14:7-8
We are all relative, Father:
we are incomplete, always needing
somebody else to complete each
one of us in you, O God;
each one is important like the
lone missing sheep to complete
the 99 others or the woman's
missing coin to complete her
nine other coins.
Remind us dear God in Jesus
your Son that no one finds life's
meaning in oneself; we find our meaning
always in relation with others in YOU.
I admit that we are all weak, but if we want help, the Lord God has given us the means to find it easily… in meditation we find the strength to bring Christ to birth in ourselves and in other men.
St. Charles Borromeo, Bishop
May we learn to follow
the examples of your great Pastor
St. Charles Borromeo who left the
trappings of wealth and power
by finding fulfillment in Jesus our Lord
living among his parishioners,
becoming your very presence among them.
Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Wednesday, Memorial of St. Martin de Porres, Religious, 03 November 2021
Romans 13:8-10 ><]]]'> + ><]]]'> + ><]]]'> Luke 14:25-33
Your words from St. Paul today
are so sweet, O God our Father:
"Brothers and sisters: Owe nothing
to anyone except to love one another;
for the one who loves another has
fulfilled the law" (Romans 13:8).
That sounds so heavenly music to me,
Lord! In the world where we spend
so much time and money paying off
our debts, here is something that is so
good that we would never be able to
write off - the debt of love - because
the more we love, the more we are
indebted, the more we love it!
But it is not the kind of love that
the world knows which is not love
at all, a love that is just a feeling,
a self-serving desire with so many
attachments to self, things and others
that create a false sense of sufficiency
that we think the world owes us without
realizing we owe nothing to anyone
except to love one another.
Great crowds were traveling with Jesus, and he turned and addressed them, “If any one comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.
Luke 14:25-27
Teach us to be simple and humble
like St Martin de Porres of Peru
whose feast we celebrate today;
enable us to imitate him in living
out the gospel of Jesus daily,
forgetting his very self to follow
his Lord and Master on the Cross
by sharing whatever he has
not only to everyone but
even to animals and pests
that he became known as
"Martin the charitable"!
Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Wednesday, Week XXX, Year I in Ordinary Time, 27 October 2021
Romans 8:26-30 ><)))'> <'(((>< + ><)))'> <'(((>< Luke 13:22-30
Photo by Ms. Eunice Vergara in Victoria, Laguna, 2020.
Thank you very much, dear God
for the grace of being able to pray,
of being able to reach out to you,
to listen to you, and be with you;
indeed, "we do not know how to
pray as we ought, but the Spirit
intercedes with inexpressible
groanings" (Rom. 8:26).
How silly and sad when so often
we believe so much in ourselves
that we pray on our own abilities
that we always demand you to take
cognizance of this feat, not realizing
we are merely responding to you
who has always been communicating
with us ever since!
So many times, we pray and tell
you so many things that we need,
asking and demanding you for everything
forgetting that prayer is more of
simply being with you, listening to you
because you know everything we need.
And so, dearest God our loving Father,
today I pray that you let me pray often,
that I grow deeper in my relationship with
you because that is what prayer really is;
let me not be concerned with other things
like numbers and quantities, of whether
many or few will be saved like that man
in the gospel today because
what really matters is I strive to grow
in knowing you, loving you, and
obeying you so that in the end,
I am conformed to you and in you
through Jesus Christ your Son.
For those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined he also called; and those he called he also justified; and those he justified he also glorified.
Romans 8:29-30
I pray, O Lord, that my life
becomes a prayer in itself,
a oneness in you,
now and forever.
Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Tuesday, Week XXX, Year I in Ordinary Time, 26 October 2021
Romans 8:18-25 ><)))*> + ><)))*> + ><)))*> Luke 13:18-21
From Pinterest.com.
Today we share in St. Paul's
outburst of joy in you, O God
our loving Father when he claimed
"the sufferings of this present time
are as nothing compared with
the glory to be revealed for us"
(Rom. 8:18). Like Pope Emeritus
Benedict XVI, we are absorbed
in the reflection of St. Paul about hope:
For in hope we were saved. Now hope that see for itself is not hope. For who hopes for what one sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait with endurance.
Romans 8:24-25
So true, indeed, loving Father:
we hope because while we do not see,
we still believe and we have faith
in you through Jesus Christ
your Son and our Lord;
teach us to grow deeper in our
hope in you not just as a feeling
or a desire nor a wait-and-see
attitude but more as a conviction
in Christ that when worst comes to worst,
we hold on to you because only
you will remain even in the end,
loving us, believing in us,
transforming us.
Let us persevere in Christ with
our commitments no matter how hard
and even painful specially in this time
of pandemic and in moments of severe
trials and tribulations when people fail us;
like the mustard seed that grows into
a leafy plant providing branches for birds
and yeast that leavens a dough,
let us be surprised with your grace
of hope, Lord, by enabling us to see
light even in darkness,
life even in sickness and death
because to truly hope is to
trust and believe in you alone,
O God, who is our very life.
Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Thursday, Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary, 07 October 2021
Acts 1:12-14 ><}}}*> + ><}}}*> + ><}}}*> Luke 1:26-28
Photo from canningliturgicalarts.com.
This feast of the Holy Rosary has its origin in the victory of Christian forces against the Ottoman Turks in the Battle of Lepanto Bay in 1571 that decisively stopped the Moslems from occupying Europe. The first Dominican Pope, St. Pius V attributed that victory to the recitation of the Holy Rosary. Popularity and devotion to the Rosary eventually grew and spread when subsequent other victories in various parts of the world, including the Philippines’ La Naval were attributed to our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary.
In our gospel today, we find the key behind every victory attributed to the praying of the Holy Rosary: it is when we “lose” that we actually “win”! After explaining to her the plan of God, Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” Then the angel departed her (Lk.1:38). In a sense, Mary was a loser— she “lost” herself to God and eventually became an instrument for our victory in the salvation through her Son Jesus Christ. The Lord Himself was crucified, another “loser” in a sense but truly a victor because in dying on the cross, Jesus Christ resurrected on the third day and won over death and sin.
Sometimes it can happen we feel at a loss, when we have lost in some battles in life when later on, we find out we have actually won.
Some may have been bullied while in school. Or, sometimes we fail an exam or flunk a semester but eventually we graduated, now have a career, a wonderful family.
In business, sometimes investors and entrepreneurs may go bankrupt before hitting gold.
That’s how it is with life. Win or lose, in the end, it is always a win. Especially when we in God.
When we choose to be like Mary, to submit ourselves to the will and plans of God, we must be ready to endure so many sufferings and hardships in life that sometimes we feel like we are at the losing end. When we try to be patient, when we try to understand, when we forgive, when we bear all the pains because we love, that is when we win as we lose ourselves and begins to be filled with Christ Jesus like Mary in the gospel.
True, a lot often we lose so many battles when we try to stand for what is true and good but in the end, we actually win the war against evil. That is the greatest victory Christ had gifted us, first His Mother Mary: salvation. Hence, we find in Marian prayers and hymns the requests for the Blessed Mother’s prayer for us sinners to be saved from hell and be brought to her Son Jesus Christ in eternity. That’s the final victory we all hope for in praying and living out the Holy Rosary with Mary.
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music by Fr. Nick F. Lalog II, 26 September 2021
Photo by author, Singapore 2018.
Today’s featured music is one of our favorites by the great Paul Simon whose meaning we only realized now. We were discussing in our communication class last week the meaning of his classic Sound of Silence when I invited my senior high students to check this one too.
Released in 1986 from his seventh studio album Graceland that featured South African musicians, You Can Call Me Al according to Simon is inspired by a funny anecdote at a party he and his first wife Peggy Harper hosted in New York in 1970. Simon’s friend and fellow composer Stanley Silverman brought along the French composer and conductor Pierre Boulez who mistakenly referred to him as “Al” and his wife as “Betty”.
You Can Call Me Al became Simon’s first hit since 1980 which according to him is partly about himself and largely a man in a midlife crisis who went to South Africa at the midst of an economic embargo against that nation due to apartheid, so absorbed with so many mundane things that eventually ended up awakening to something extraordinary spiritual experience.
Filled with Simon’s poetic play with words that at first seem to be unrelated but by the time you are absorbed with his music, you realize how in this life God has blessed us with so many good things that we have marred with our selfish interests like labels and groupings, even names as Simon had experienced being referred to as “Al”!
A man walks down the street He says, “Why am I short of attention? Got a short little span of attention And, whoa, my nights are so long Where’s my wife and family? What if I die here? Who’ll be my role model Now that my role model is gone, gone?” He ducked back down the alley With some roly-poly little bat-faced girl All along, along There were incidents and accidents There were hints and allegations
If you’ll be my bodyguard I can be your long lost pal I can call you Betty And Betty, when you call me, you can call me Al Call me Al
A man walks down the street It’s a street in a strange world Maybe it’s the third world Maybe it’s his first time around Doesn’t speak the language He holds no currency He is a foreign man He is surrounded by the sound, the sound Cattle in the marketplace Scatterings and orphanages He looks around, around He sees angels in the architecture Spinning in infinity He says, “Amen and Hallelujah!”
In our readings today, we find how people would always resort to labels and tags, names and groups in determining what is good and best for everyone when God has total freedom in dispensing his blessings to everyone. All good gifts come from God which he gives us meant to be shared with everyone for the building up of the community. How sad that in our simplistic views, we feel that we are doing a great service in jealously guarding the generous prerogatives of God and others.
In this Sunday’s gospel, Jesus reminds us that “sky’s the limit” when it comes to doing good in the name of God. The only limitation and obstacle we have to guard against in this life is sin (https://lordmychef.com/2021/09/25/and-god-said-sanaol/).
Have a lovely Sunday and a blessed week ahead with Paul Simon’s feel good video to his 1986 hit You Can Call Me Al with his friend, actor Chevy Chase.
*We have no intentions of infringing into the copyrights of this music and its uploader except to share its beauty and listening pleasure.
The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Thursday, Memorial of St. Padre Pio, 23 September 2021
Haggai 1:1-8 ><]]]]*> + ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]*> Luke 9:7-9
Photo by author, 22 September 2021.
O dear God our Father,
without you,
we shall never be complete,
we shall always be empty.
How foolish that we keep on filling
ourselves with so many things
without realizing our fulfillment
is in you alone.
Twice you ordered us today
through the Prophet Haggai to
"Consider your ways!" or look at ourselves
to see how we think so much of ourselves,
when we think so much of our needs
without ever thinking of you from whom all
good gifts come from.
Now thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways! You have sown much, but have brought in little; you have eaten, but have not been satisfied; you have drunk, but have not been exhilarated; have clothed yourselves, but not been warmed; and he who earned wages earned them for a bag with holes in it. Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways!
Haggai 1:1-8
We know, O Lord God
that you have no need of anything
from us to be sufficient
for you are perfect;
if ever you "need" us,
it is for our own good and benefit!
Even the most powerful
know this like King Herod
in our gospel today who was
"greatly perplexed" at your Son Jesus Christ
that he "kept trying to see him"
because there must be a large
gaping hole in him without
Jesus.
Teach us to be like
Saint Padre Pio whose
memorial we celebrate today:
enlighten us to imbibe fully the meaning
of his expression that
"I only want to be a poor friar who prays."
How amazing and inspiring,
dear God are the many gifts you have
given St. Padre Pio who desired only
one thing in life, to be poor who prays.
Let us desire you alone
and that is more than enough.
Amen.
Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 14 September 2021
Photo by author, St. Ildephonsus Parish, Tanay, Rizal (January 2021).
Must you, O Lord,
come and suffer
so I may see
your great love
for me?
Must you, O Lord,
be betrayed and denied thrice
so I may see
your loyalty?
Must you, O Lord,
die and rise again
so I may see
your glory?
Jesus summoned the crowd with his disciples and said to them, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.”
Mark 8:34
So many times
like the young man
who came to you
I find myself asking too
"Lord, what must I do
to gain eternal life?"
But always the same
scene you repeat
again and again:
that I must deny myself,
take up my cross,
and follow you
my Lord to realize
the gravity of my sins
and the immensity of your
love and mercy for me.
Let me turn to you
and remain with you, Lord
at your Triumphant Cross
that I must raise up
over the world
to illumine the paths
that lead to life and love
into the gates of heaven
found here on earth
and not above;
must I fall and stumble,
raise me up
along with others
who are also following you
with whom I must find you too
to truly exalt your Cross!
lordmychef.com 