A rockin’ playlist for Holy Week

Lord My Chef Sunday Music by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 29 March 2026

*Photo by author, St. Ildephonse Parish, Tanay, Rizal, January 2021.*

If you have a lot of cash to spend for a unique Holy Week just outside Metro Manila, I suggest you visit St. Ildephonse Parish in Tanay, Rizal and look for the Seventh Station of the Cross when Jesus fell for the second time on his way to the Calvary.

You won’t miss it as you enter the main door immediately to your left. Done by local artisans in 1785, these huge woodcarvings depict one of the most unique Stations of the Cross in the world where soldiers and characters including Jesus Christ have Malay features of brown complexion, large and round eyes, and “squared” body features. Everything was given a local taste to make the Station so Filipino like the soldier leading them blowing a carabao horn for a tambuli while another carried a bolo instead of a sword.

But, the most astonishing of all is a man so prominently portrayed at the middle wearing sunglasses, looking far outside. Yes, the dude wore shades!

Historians we consulted told us smoked glasses have been available in the Philippines during that time courtesy of Chinese traders. According to the catechists and volunteers we talked to while at the parish, they were told by their elders that man with sunglasses is the high priest Caiaphas who led the Sanhedrin trial of Jesus who declared him guilty of blasphemy in claiming himself to be the Christ, the Son of God.

But, why wear shades? Was it because he refused to see and accept the truth that Jesus indeed is the Christ, the Son of God just like us today who wear all kinds of colored glasses presenting our own image God too far from who he really is. Or, as my kinakapatid Dindo Alberto (+) who was my roadtrip companion at that time said it shows that rock and roll had long been in existence since the time of Jesus Christ, the real Superstar.

I believe Kuya Dindo that is why I prepared two rock and rollin’ music this Holy Week for you to listen and reflect while driving on your way to a visita iglesia to pray and be with family and friends.

I have always loved The Smiths since college especially when NU107 came out at the other end of the FM band in the late 80’s. Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now remains one of my personal anthems since it first came out in 1984.

When I was assigned as chaplain here at the Our Lady of Fatima University in Valenzuela in 2021, I was surprised to hear some of our college students singing and posting on their socmed There Is A Light that Never Goes Out – kids so young almost like my own pamangkins! And that’s one thing I like most with the Gen Zs and Millennials who also love and embrace our music and artists because they are simply the best. Period.

A week after Ash Wednesday last February 24, I used There Is A Light That Never Goes Out by The Smiths in my monthly spiritual talk to our employees at the University and the Fatima University Medical Center as a fitting music and guide in our 40-day journey of Lent which is more of an inner journey into our hearts to find Jesus Christ, the Light who never goes out amid life’s many darkness. Moreover, Jesus is the Light who never goes out as he restores our sight from the blindness we go through like in the healing of the man born blind that was the gospel last March 15, fourth Sunday in Lent. See how its lyrics also apply either to Jesus speaking to us or to anyone seeking Jesus.

Take me out tonight
Where there's music and there's people
And they're young and alive
Driving in your car
I never, never want to go home
Because I haven't got one
Anymore

Take me out tonight
Because I want to see people
And I want to see life
Driving in your car
Oh please, don't drop me home
Because it's not my home, it's their home
And I'm welcome no more

Of course, composer Johnny Marr and lyricist-vocalist Morissey may have other meanings behind this song considered as their finest but still, it speaks about finding hope that leads us to believe in ourselves, in others and in God. In this mass-mediated world that declares to see is to believe, Jesus tells us the other way around, believe that you may see!

When we believe, then we truly “see” and that is when we love, love, and still love until it hurts even unto death because that is when we find meaning in life and everything. And everyone.

And if a double-decker bus
Crashes into us
To die by your side
Is such a heavenly way to die
And if a ten tonne truck
Kills the both of us
To die by your side
Well, the pleasure, 
the privilege is mine

Jesus Christ did just that that is why we have Good Friday; he rose from the dead at Easter and since then, has remained the Light who never goes out, lighting our paths in this time of many darkness in life.

*Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2026.*

Sometimes, sunglasses help us see clearly as they filter distracting lights and contrasts that blur our vision with the naked eyes. And so, here is our second rock n’ roll song for Holy Week, Bruno Mars and Lady Gaga’s Die With A Smile which we used also in our employees’ Lenten recollection at the University and Hospital last February 24.

Aside from the striking contrast of The Smiths’ There Is A Light That Never Goes Out that represented the punk, alternative, dark side in me, Die With A Smile represented the 1970’s funky groove I grew up with. And that is why I love and follow Bruno Mars: aside from having a Filipino blood in his Pinay mother, his experiments with music strongly rooted in the 1970’s make us from the older generation feel so welcomed and relate so well with him and his message of faithful love until the end of time.

Along with its lyrics that speak from the heart, the melody and great combination of the voices and talents of Bruno and Lady Gaga make Die With A Smile so lovingly touching, even mesmerizing that make you think of the only one you truly love most that you want to spend the rest of your life with until the end of the world – to die with a smile.

Ooh
I, I just woke up from a dream
Where you and I had to say goodbye
And I don't know what it all means
But since I survived, I realized

Wherever you go, that's where I'll follow
Nobody's promised tomorrow
So I'ma love you every night like it's the last night
Like it's the last night

If the world was ending, I'd wanna be next to you
If the party was over and our time on Earth was through
I'd wanna hold you just for a while and die with a smile
If the world was ending, I'd wanna be next to you

Holy Week remind us of our only one true and first love of all – God. We call this the Holy Week in Filipino as mga Mahal na Araw from the word mahal that means mahalaga or important and essential. That is why another word for love in Filipino is pagmamahal, literally to give importance. Not just pag-ibig which is more about liking as ibig means.

In these days of rising costs of fuels and commodities, anything expensive is described too as mahal in Filipino because they are so important and essential. Like the ones we love. Holy Week is mga Mahal na Araw, the holiest days when Jesus Christ expressed his deepest love – pagmamahal – for each of one of us by dying on the Cross because everyone is loved so immensely by God.

Again, Jesus was the first to have “died with a smile” because he offered his very self completely and freely, willingly for us because he loves us. And he had promised that he shall come again at the end of time. Are we willing to wait for him by loving truly those persons he had entrusted to us in this life?

Until our next music, have a blessed Holy Week and most blessed Easter everyone!

Lent is believing in Jesus, the Resurrection & Life

40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Fifth Sunday in Lent, Cycle A, 22 March 2026
Ezekiel 37:12-14  +++  Romans 8:8-11  +++  John 11:1-45

*“The Raising of Lazarus” by Italian painter and architect Giotto di Bondone (1266-1337), fresco inside the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, Italy via commons.wikimedia.org.*

We now come to the final Sunday of our Lenten journey into Easter with John still as our guide telling us Jesus Christ’s raising to life of his friend Lazarus who had been dead for four days.

The raising of Lazarus is a prelude for the greatest sign of all by Jesus as the Christ – his Resurrection at Easter after his Passion and Death on good Friday. Though very long, it is a lovely story that speaks of Jesus Christ’s deep friendship with us by being most present in our most painful suffering of all which is death of a loved one as well as our many “deaths” in life.

And like in every true friendship, Jesus invites us like the sisters of Lazarus, Martha and Mary, to believe in him.

When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him; but Mary sat at home. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would have not died. But even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise.” Martha said to him, “I know he will rise, in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life, whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world” (John 11:20-27).

When Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her weeping, he became perturbed and deeply troubled… (John 11:32-33).

Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the dead man’s sister, said to him, “Lord, by now there will be a stench; he has been dead for four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?” (John 11:39-40)

*“The Raising of Lazarus”, 1311 painting by Duccio de Buoninsegna from commons.wikimedia.org*

“Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” We are all like Martha and Mary who believed in Jesus Christ. Both expressed to Jesus their faith in him, of believing in him and his powers.

To believe is the starting point of every relationship. With God and with others.

It usually begins in our mind, in our intellect. We believe because we know and have learned their names and backgrounds, their likes and dislikes, and a host of others things. We can truly be friends with others even by believing only with our intellect that is why we understand their predicament and situations, the way they react. Almost everything, we know and have known that we are still the best of friends. Including with God.

Martha exemplified that kind of believing.

Martha is good. If she is the same “Martha, Martha” mentioned by Luke whom Jesus visited, she was well meaning like most of us.

She believed in Jesus. In God. In the scriptures when she told Jesus she knew Lazarus would rise along with all the dead in the resurrection on the last day.

Jesus never argued because it was good. Same with us.

Our friends do not argue nor break away from us with our kind of believing. After all it is reasonable and sane. But, believing from the mind, from the intellect is not enough. For a more intimate and engaging relationship in friendship, believing has to deepen and take root in our heart.

Believing leads to love.

Whatever kind of love, it starts in believing.

We love because we believe as we have claimed last Sunday.

But, believing and loving do not stop there.

How deeply, how truly we believe indicate how deeply, how truly we love.

Without any intentions of comparing and pitting the two sisters against each other on who is better, John presents to us where believing leads us.

Like Martha, Mary expressed how she believed in Jesus and his powers by telling him “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” But it was not merely coming from her mind, from her head, from what she knew of Jesus but more of how she felt with Jesus.

Notice at the start of this long story (verse 2) how John described Mary as the one who anointed Jesus – six days after this raising of Lazarus – with perfumed oil and dried his feet with her hair as expression of her faith and love for the Lord on his burial. Getting some help from Luke’s account again, we find Mary’s level of believing as deeper and matured when she chose to seat at the Lord’s feet to listen to his teachings when he came to visit them.

Mary came to Jesus with her total self – unashamed to weep in front of the Lord. She spoke no words, showed no clues of her “theology” like Martha’s faith seeking understanding by studying the scriptures.

It was Mary’s heart that spoke to Jesus that he was “perturbed” twice and “deeply troubled” seeing her. Even the Jews with her felt the Lord so moved by her that led us to the final scene of this beautiful story.

Feel the revelations at the cave where Lazarus was buried:

When Jesus asked the stone removed from the cave, Martha stepped in. And it was reasonable of her. We do it so often in various occasions like in funerals and deathbeds.

That was when Jesus reminded her, “Did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?”

Everybody fell dead silent.

Jesus then prayed aloud briefly to the Father, shouting for Lazarus to come out – alive, still covered with cloth. End of scene.

What’s next?

You tell me. Tell me how much you believe Jesus, how much you love Jesus. And how much you love like Jesus especially when everything, everyone is dead, dead silent, dead still for many reasons.

How much do we believe in Jesus, the resurrection and life?

Think of our many deaths in life. Not only in losing a beloved but our very own deaths – when we were buried and dead to sin and failures, disappointments and losses like the Israelites thrown into exile that Ezekiel the Prophet described in the first reading. What a beautiful imagery of God raising us to life, opening our graves of sins and failures, weaknesses and darkness, breathing into us his spirit, now better. Or maybe still struggling in life.

Believing in Jesus is believing like Martha and Mary most especially, unashamedly pouring out our pains and griefs to Jesus, baring our battered hearts and souls to him because we have felt, we have experienced his very passion and death in our own life, with those we love and serve.

In these trying times, Jesus invites us to believe more than ever in him by believing also with those severely affected by the hard times like the jeepney drivers and minimum wage earners. Let us try to live in spirit as St. Paul reminds us in the second reading by feeling their struggles, their fears, their sufferings so that they may not cry, “Lord, if you were here our families would have not gone hungry, would have not died” because we his disciples were here for them.

That is believing in Jesus the resurrection and life – being present with those suffering and dying. Solidarity.

Jesus is not asking us to think nor understand their pains and miseries. He is asking us to feel within us their pains and miseries so that like Mary we can bring Jesus to them and raise them to new life. Let us pray:

Lord Jesus Christ,
before all these pains and
sufferings came to me,
you were there first 
to suffer and die for me
on the Cross.
Let me love you more
by loving others
especially those also
in pain and suffering.
Amen.

Lent is being rooted in God

40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Tuesday in the First Week of Lent, 24 February 2026
Isaiah 55:10-11     + + +     Matthew 6:7-15

*Photo by author, somewhere in the SCTEx, November 2018.*

Today I borrow
the words of your servant,
Lord Jesus Christ,
the late Fr. John Main, OSB
who wrote that
"The meaning of life
is the mystery of Love.
Just as the roots of trees
hold firm in the soil,
so it is the roots of love
that hold the ground 
of our being together."

Keep me rooted in you,
God our Father;
keep me rooted in your love
in Jesus Christ your Son;
water and nourish me
with your words of life
so I may grow tall,
spread my branches,
bloom and bear fruit
to share your love and
kindness and mercy
with others;
keep me rooted in you, 
Lord, 
strong and firm
to weather the harshest
storms and summer
in life, still full of sap,
still full of life.

Lord Jesus,
you have given me with so much
and I have given so little;
teach me to give more
of myself to you
so I can give more of you
and of your love
to others.
Amen.

*Photo by author, Ephesus, Turkiye, November 2025.*

Who’s in, who’s out?

Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Tuesday, Third Week in Ordinary Time, Year II, 27 January 2026
2 Samuel 6:12-15, 17-19 <*{{{{>< +++ ><}}}}*> Mark 3:31-35

*Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, August 2017.*

Your words today
are very interesting,
God our loving Father:
both the first reading and
the gospel show us a setting
of people gathered, inside and outside
a circle of crowd; but, what makes it
so interesting is the fact that more
than the location of being "inside"
and "outside" in any setting especially
in gathering and in coming to you,
what truly matters most is our action,
of what are we doing because many times,
we may be "inside" without doing your will
while be "outside" doing your will.

The mother of Jesus and his brothers arrived. Standing outside they sent word to Jesus and called him. A crowd seated around him told him, “Your mother and your brothers and your sisters are outside for you.” But he said to them in reply, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” And looking around at those seated in the circle he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother” (Mark 3:31-35).

Thank you dear Jesus
for coming to us,
bringing us closer to you,
to God our Father,
and most especially with everyone;
how sad at times when we
are seated right in your circle
yet too far from you and others
because we are away from your will,
from your very self, from your works;
it does not really matter wherever we
are seated but where we stand in you
and with you in doing the will of God.

Teach us to imitate King David
who rejoiced triumphantly in the 
arrival of the Ark of the Covenant
where he was closest to God's presence
not because of the Ark but most because
of his care for the people around 
to whom "he distributed to each man
and each woman in the entire multitude
of Israel, a loaf of bread, a cut of roast
meat, and a raising cake" (2Samuel 6:19).

Let us come
to you,
in you,
and through you, dear Jesus
in holy communion
welcoming everyone
with our loving service
so that no one may feel far
and outside from you
and one another.
Amen.

A more decisive 2026 in Christ

Lord My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, Cycle A, 11 January 2026
Isaiah 42:1-4, 6-7 ><}}}}*> Acts 10:34-38 ><}}}}*> Matthew 3:13-17

*Mosaic of the Lord’s Baptism by John at the Neonian Baptistery, Ravenna, Italy; from wikimedia commons.*

Still, our greeting today is a blessed Merry Christmas until the last Mass tonight when we close the Christmas Season with this Feast of the Lord’s Baptism. Tomorrow we shift into the Ordinary Time with the green motif back in our liturgy.

Most often during this time of the year, many of us make “new year’s resolutions” that always end up unfulfilled, discarded, and forgotten because these are merely based on whims or fads or anything less than a matured decision. A decision is the making up of the mind and heart to act firmly on something; hence, it connotes a sense of determination in fulfilling that decision made.

In this Feast of the Lord’s Baptism, Jesus invites us to reflect our decision-making process as we embark on another journey of twelve months in him with Matthew as our guide so we can be more matured in our faith and as a person.

Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. John tried to prevent him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and yet you are coming to me?” Jesus said to him in reply, “Allow it now, for thus, it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed him (Matthew 3:13-15).

See the brief and direct reportage by Matthew of the event that immediately followed his story last Sunday of the Lord’s Epiphany to the world represented by the wise men from the East as we meet Jesus today all grown up, so matured as a man in his decisions.

And what do we find so remarkable in his decision-making process we can all emulate? His obedience to the Father!

All throughout his ministry, Jesus always made known to everyone that whatever he said and did were not his but the Father’s will. From his coming here at the first Christmas until his death on the Cross, it was all about Christ’s obedience to the Father. In fact, there was no need for him to be baptized by John for it was a baptism of repentance because Jesus is sinless, being the Son of God. Yet, he decided to be baptized “to fulfill all righteousness” as planned by the Father. In a similar manner, see John’s obedience too to Jesus and the Father when he could had insisted not to do it because Jesus is the Christ.

Fulfillment of every aspiration and mission in this life becomes difficult when we insist on what we know or what we prefer rather than what God wills for us.

Obedience is one virtue that is vanishing in this modern age so characterized by everyone wanting to be in control of everything, of one’s life and even of others expressed in those handheld gadgets as well as cars and other vehicles. See how everyone would want to “drive” one’s own life, totally disregarding those in authority especially God.

The word obedience is from two Latin words “ob audire” that literally means “to listen attentively”.

One cannot be obedient without first learning to listen that begins with our willingness to to be silent. Jesus is obedient because he always listens to the Father through frequent and long periods of prayers. Even the Blessed Mother as we reflected last January first exemplified the virtue of obedience when she listened intently and treasured in her heart the words spoken by the shepherds who came to adore the new-born Jesus in Bethlehem.

It would be nice this 2026 that we start cultivating a prayer life by embracing silence to listen attentively to God’s plans for us so that we could make the right decisions in life.

The opposite of “ob audire” in Latin is “absurdus” – exactly what we are when we make the wrong decisions and become absurd.

And sorry, that’s how we can describe this year’s Traslacion – absurd. In fact, every year, it becomes more absurd than ever and something drastic even radical has to be done in the real sense of the word, that is, by going back to its very roots.

When the devotees refused to obey the priests to stop at the San Sebastian Church and insisted on bringing the Poon Nazareno to Quiapo regardless of its many safety and practical implications, it was a clear case of misplaced devotion. It is fanaticism. Selfish and un-Christian. Despite the many defenses and theologizing by many, it is about time Nazareno devotees examine themselves about this devotion, of their panata that admittedly have been so baffling that if our faith in God is such intense, why are we still electing corrupt and evil officials?

Obedience is always a virtue because everything that is good follows when we are obedient, like being more loving at its truest sense. Whenever we decide out of obedience to God and parents and superiors, it is most often because of love.

*Photo by Ryan Jacob, Paco, Obando, Bulacan, 2023.*

This is the second characteristic of Jesus Christ’s decision-making process that is based on his love for the Father expressed in his love for us.

Again, there was no need for Jesus Christ to be baptized by John in the river Jordan because he is sinless but, he chose to be baptized there as a sign of his solidarity, of his oneness with us sinners and weak people. It was all because of love.

Jesus chose to be baptized even there was no need because he loves us and wants to be one with us. Jesus chose to die on the Cross, as depicted in the Black Nazarene of Quiapo, because he loves us and wants to carry our burdens. Jesus chose to be eaten as bread in the Holy Mass all because he loves us too so that we may have eternal life.

When Jesus went down to Jordan river, out of obedience and most of all out of love for all of us, he became one with us in our pains and hurts and sickness and failures and even sins which St. Peter realized personally that he declared after Pentecost that “God shows no partiality” (Acts 10:34) that we are all loved by God and are called to be obedient to him always by loving one another as he loves us. That is our mission, to love and be like Jesus Christ, the “Suffering Servant” who was “sent to bring forth justice… to open the eyes of the blind, to bring out prisoners from confinement, and from the dungeon, those who live in darkness” (Is.42:1,6-7).

*Photo by Mr. Boy Cabrido, January 2024.*

In going down into the dirty waters of Jordan River that signifies this earth, this life, Jesus showed us his mission of redeeming us so that we can become like him, God’s beloved child with whom he is well pleased. Every morning when we wake up, this scene at Jordan happens anew. The choice is ours to make by being like Jesus Christ who throughout his earthly life was a total obedience and yes to God because of love.

Last week I went to Baguio to facilitate a retreat with some of my kababata or teenage friends from my hometown of Bocaue. Being the youngest among them at 60 years old, I reflected about our senior years. Two things I shared with them:

First, as senior citizens, let us stop thinking of getting old because we are already old. Stop saying pagtanda ko… matanda na nga tayo. Let us face the reality we are old and find most especially the grace of God of reaching this stage. Being senior is to look with gratitude to our youth and to our past as we look forward to finding and meeting God who continues to call us to him.

Second, I told them to stop saying or thinking about our coming death because we are already dying. Huwag na nating isipin yung “kapag namatay tayo” kasi namamatay na nga tayo. Being senior is doing away with all those bucket lists, of things to do or places to visit before we die. We are already dying; hence, do whatever you can do now!

Perhaps the same propositions are applicable to anyone of any age. What matters is how much we love God and others expressed in our obedience to them like Jesus Christ. Let us keep following Jesus in the next twelve months of this 2026 to be filled with himself. Amen. Have a blessed week ahead.

The Love of Christ

Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul, 30 October 2025
Thursday in the Thirtieth Week of Ordinary Time, Year I
Romans 8:31-39     ><))))*> + ><))))*> + ><))))*>     Luke 13:31-35

Brothers and sisters: If God is for us, who can be against us? What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will angusih, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword? As it is written: For your sake we are being slain all the day; we are looked upon as a sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us (Romans 8:31, 35-37).

What else can I say
to these profound words
by St. Paul?

They are so true even
with us until now 
with a new kind of paganism 
hostile to the official teachings
of the Church as they prefer to
worship self in their body and
in their thoughts,
overextending their rights,
redefining even gender and
other natural institutions,
glorifying wealth and fame,
protecting animal rights
and environment without 
any regard for persons especially
in their weakest stages in the
womb and old age...
the list goes on, Lord
but what's most sad,
even tragic
the attacks and hostilities
are not really from unbelievers
but from those who claim to be
Christians and Catholics.

Keep us strong
and faithful, Lord Jesus,
never let us separate from you;
fill us with courage too
to remain steadfast 
in your ways and teachings,
to speak the truth,
to protect fellow believers
and defenders of faith
and most of all,
to keep loving your
beloved Body,
the Church.
Amen.

Discipleship is loving more

Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul, 18 September 2025
Thursday in the Twenty-Fourth Week of Ordinary Time, Year I
1 Timothy 4:12-16     <'[[[[><  +  ><]]]]'>     Luke 7:36-50

*Photo by author, Manila Club, BGC, June 2025.*

Your words today 
surprised me again,
Lord Jesus:
so many times I find
myself like Simon the Pharisee,
always welcoming you
into my home,
into my life,
into my meal
and many times too
like him,
I am shocked,
becoming judgmental
at times like the others
when a sinner comes
like that sinful woman 
who gatecrashed
to get near you,
Lord.

When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, that she is a sinner.” Jesus said to him in reply, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” “Tell me, teacher,” he said. “Two people were in debt to a certain creditor; one owed five hudnred days’ wages and the other owed fifty. Since they were unable to repay the debt, he forgave it for both. Which of them will love him more?” Simon said in reply, “The one I suppose, whose larger debt was forgive.” He said to him, “You have judged rightly” (Luke 7:39-43).

Forgive me, 
Jesus,
when I fail to see
my own sinfulness,
my past where I came from
before being with you
as a disciple:
I, too, am a sinner
like that woman who
broke all protocols 
and conventions
just to get close to you,
to touch you
and be restored by you
in your mercy and forgiveness;
let me heed Paul's call to Timothy
to be "absorbed" 
in your love
because 
discipleship is more
than knowing you
and following you
but most of all,
loving you most
especially among 
the unloveable 
for we were once 
like them.

Like that sinful woman,
let me go in peace today
by rejoicing 
in your infinite mercy 
for us all,
not just me.
Amen.

Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Our Lady of Fatima University
Valenzuela City
(lordmychef@gmail.com)

Cross my heart?

Lord My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul, 14 September 2025
Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross
Numbers 21:4-9 ><]]]]'> Philippians 2:6-11 ><]]]]'> John 3:13-17
*This is a reissue of our 2023 reflection. Salamuch.

*Photo by Mr. Gelo Carpio, 27 January 2020, Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan.*

The cross is one of the most widely used but also abused and misunderstood sign in almost every generation. In fact, we are so accustomed with the cross of Jesus Christ found everywhere like in homes and offices, churches and classrooms, hospitals, restaurants and vehicles. Almost everybody carries it in our persons as an object of veneration, as a badge, or as a jewel.

On the cross we find Jesus shown in glory, peacefully sleeping in death, sometimes with his body broken by suffering. Hence, many times we use the word “cross” like in “cross my heart” to indicate our sincerity and truthfulness. But, are we truly aware of its meaning and significance in our faith, of its centrality as the symbol of God’s love for us expressed by the self-sacrificing death of Jesus Christ his Son?

*Photo by author, St. Scholastica Convent, Baguio City, 23 August 2023.*

This Sunday we take a break from our cycle of readings to celebrate this Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross which falls on September 14. Due to its centrality in our faith, it is still celebrated even if the date falls on a Sunday like today.

This feast started in the fourth century with the miraculous discovery of the True Cross by Helena, mother of the Emperor Constantine, on 14 September 326, while she was on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. She then ordered through her son the emperor the building of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre that was dedicated nine years later with a portion of the True Cross placed inside it in September 13, 335. The following day, the Cross was brought outside of the church to be venerated by the clergy and the faithful.

In the year 627, during the reign of the Emperor Heraclius I of Constantinople, the Persians conquered the city of Jerusalem and removed a major part of the Cross from its sanctuary. The emperor then launched a campaign to recover the True Cross which he regarded as the new Ark of the Covenant for the new People of God. Before embarking into war, Emperor Heraclius went to church wearing black as a sign of penance, then prostrated himself before the altar and begged God for courage. His prayer was granted as he won the war and recovered the Cross from the Persians. He brought the Cross back to Jerusalem in 641 amid great celebrations by carrying it on his shoulders. Upon reaching the gate leading to Calvary, the emperor could not go forward! Heraclius and his retinue were astonished and could not understand what had happened until the Patriarch Zachary of Jerusalem told him, “Take care, O Emperor! In truth, the imperial clothing you are wearing does not sufficiently resemble the poor and humiliated condition of Jesus carrying His cross.”

Upon hearing those words, the emperor removed his shoes and bejewelled robes, put on a poor man’s clothing and was eventually able to proceed to Calvary and replaced the Cross inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre where a number of miracles happened during the occasion: a dead man returned to life, four paralytics were cured, ten lepers were healed, 15 blind men were given their sight, with several possessed people exorcised and many sick people totally healed!

*Photo by author, Mirador Jesuit Villa & Retreat House, Baguio City, 24 August 2023.*

Very notable in this story were the words of the Patriarch of Jerusalem. It was only after the emperor had taken off his royal clothings and put on those of the poor was he able to carry the Cross.

It is the same thing that is asked of us today: it is so easy to display the cross inside our homes and cars, or wear it as a jewelry or even as a tattoo on our skin. But, that amounts to nothing unless we have the cross inside our hearts, our very being. More than the many signs of the cross and imaginary drawing of its lines we draw on our chest is the need for us to empty ourselves of our pride and sins so that we can be filled with Jesus Christ.

Brothers and sisters: Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2:6-8).

Called kenosis in Greek, self-emptying is the way of the Cross of Christ. It is choosing love and mercy than self-centeredness and self-righteousness; sacrifice than satisfaction; fairness and justice than greed and possession; bearing all the pains and perseverance than complaining and whining about difficulties and trials in life like the Israelites in the wilderness (first reading); and, thinking more of others than of one’s self.

The recent COVID-19 pandemic had taught something very amusing about the positivity of being negative, when negative was actually positive – healthy and COVID free! Remember how during those days when we would always wish we would yield negative results in our swab tests for COVID?

When we look at the sign of the cross (+), it is a positive sign, a plus sign. Though the cross calls us to let go, to be detached and dispossessed, it is actually an invitation to have more of God, of life and fulfillment! In this time of affluence when everything is easily available for as long as you have the means and the resources, the sign of the Cross reminds us that life is more of letting go and of giving than of having like God who “so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that he who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life” (Jn.3:16). St. Francis of Assisi said it perfectly why the Cross is an exaltation, a triumph:

For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned.
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Amen. Enjoy Sunday and have a blessed week ahead!

Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Our Lady of Fatima University
Valenzuela City
(lordmychef@gmail.com)

Uniqueness of the Cross

Lord My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul, 14 September 2025
Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross
Numbers 21:4-9 ><}}}}*> Philippians 2:6-11 ><}}}}*> John 3:13-17
*This is an updated version of our reflection last year; pray for our Marriage Encounter this weekend.

*Via Crucis at Fatima University Medical Center, Valenzuela City, 2025.*

This Sunday we have a unique celebration, the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross that falls on the 14th day of September. It is so important that even if it falls on a Sunday, the more it must be celebrated as it is most central in the teachings of Jesus Christ.

It is so unique because despite its being made up of two ordinary pieces of wood, the Cross is most unique with its deeply extraordinary in meaning as sign of God’s immense love for us humans through Jesus Christ’s Passion and Death.

From being the sign of the most inhuman punishment in history, the Cross is now the very sign of how God “so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that he who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life” (Jn.3:16). It encapsulates the whole mystery of Jesus Christ, of how this all-powerful God beyond the ordinary became weak like us in everything except sin so that we too may be like Him, divine and more than ordinary. In His suffering and death on the Cross, Jesus made the lowly wood so ordinary to be so exalted to become His sign of love and mercy, power and majesty.

Hence, in the Cross is the power of God’s love to transform us to better persons.

In the Cross is God’s power to lead us closer to Him with its vertical beam and to others with its horizontal beam.

In the Cross is the power of good if we choose to embrace it with Christ Jesus as our Lord and Master.

The Cross is most unique of all signs in the world because underneath its ordinariness, that is where we see God’s glory and majesty. It was underneath the Cross of darkness and gloom on Good Friday that humanity began to see light and hope in life’s many absurdities. Most of all, it was underneath that Cross of suffering and death of Jesus Christ that we feel and experience the assurance of the Resurrection.

How?

Through our own pains and sufferings that are most uniquely ours too!

With their patience worn out by the journey, the people complained against God and Moses, “Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in this desert, where there is no food or water? We are disgusted with this wretched food!” In punishment the Lord sent among the people saraph serpents, which bit the people so that many of them died (Numbers 21:4-6).

*Photo by author, Dominican Hills, Baguio City, January 2018.*

You must have heard that old story of a man who came to Jesus to return the cross given for him to carry; he asked Jesus to have it replaced with a lighter one. Jesus then led the man to a huge room with all kinds of crosses for him to choose which he prefers as the best one for him so that he would stop complaining.

After closely examining the specs of so many crosses, the man finally decided to pick one he deemed as perfect for him after considering its weight and other dimensions, only to find out from Jesus Himself that it was the same cross he had actually returned for exchange!

Many times in life we are like those people in the first reading, never ending in their complaints to God, even challenging Him, accusing Him of forsaking us, of being unfair when life becomes difficult and unbearable. There are times we feel being on the distaff side of life always like a flat tire, never on top. We cry foul to God especially with all our hurts and pains inflicted by others, asking Him where was He when most needed?

Photo by author in Jordan near the Israeli border where Moses put up the bronze serpent as instructed by God to heal those bitten by the snakes after they have complained of their conditions in the wilderness, May 2019.

While it is true life is indeed difficult, the cross reminds us of the fact that the pains and hurts we have are uniquely ours too, something we have to accept and most of all, own.

There are pains that are so deep and won’t go away that have in fact affected us dismally in our lives already. Instead of self-blaming and self-pity, we just have to ask for God’s grace to accept and own them like Jesus Christ. We just have to “bring it home” – that imagery of the Cross planted on the Calvary – into our very selves, in our being as something so true and real. And uniquely ours.

Stop thinking of others’ pains and hurts. We are not all the same. If ever we have similar experiences, the hues and shades even gravity and circumstances are not same because each pain and hurt, like the cross, is uniquely ours. Like every person, every cross is unique because it is also a gift, a mystery, and life. We have to “befriend” our pains and hurts, our own cross instead of resist it. It is in “befriending” our pains and hurts, our cross in life that we grow and mature, becoming more free to love and to be joyful because that is when the cross triumphs over its disgrace and shame in us and with others. That is when our pains and hurts, when our crosses begin to reveal to us the many beautiful truths of Easter awaiting us.

The Cross of Christ triumphed because Jesus carried it wholeheartedly, allowing those two pieces of wood to reveal not only to Him who knew everything beforehand its meaning but most of all to everyone of us the deeper truths the Cross signifies as St. Paul eloquently expressed in our second reading.

*The Cross of Christ atop the church of our Lady of Lourdes in France. Photo by my former student Ar. Philip Santiago during his pilgrimage, September 2018.*

One thing I realized after my mother died May last year is the fact that while there are so many pains and sufferings in this world, my own pain and suffering in losing her are most difficult to bear; hence, something I must carry because it is uniquely mine.

But, one thing so unique I noticed is that the more I see my cross following my mother’s death, the more I saw also the cross of others. The Cross of Jesus triumphed truly in me when I embraced and owned my cross, when I befriended my pains and hurts that eventually led me to recognize and see, to feel more and experience too the crosses of others.

When we become conscious of each one’s unique cross, slowly we are able to reveal to them the meaning of their personal crosses too because we become more sympathetic, more open, more silent to listen more, love more, care more and be more present with those in their own unique cross. No wonder, I find conversing more engaging with others who also grieve because we can see each other’s unique crosses!

Jesus calls us to imitate Him that by embracing and owning our cross, we too may lead others to finding the meaning of their own cross and thus experience Easter soon. Let us pray:

Give us the grace,
dear God
to always embrace the Cross
like your Son Jesus Christ
where we can all be empty
of ourselves to be filled
with your Holy Spirit
and make your love
visible in us.
Amen.

A blessed week to everyone!

Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Our Lady of Fatima University
Valenzuela City
(lordmychef@gmail.com)

Seeing Jesus Christ

Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul, 22 July 2025
Tuesday, Feast of St. Mary Magdalene, Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Song of Songs 3:1-4 ><}}}*> + ><}}}*> + ><}}}*> John 20:1-2, 11-18

“Martha and Mary Magdalene” painting by Caravaggio (1598). The painting shows Martha of Bethany and Mary Magdalene long considered to have been sisters. Martha is in the act of converting Mary from her life of pleasure to the life of virtue in Christ. Martha, her face shadowed, leans forward, passionately arguing with Mary, who twirls an orange blossom between her fingers as she holds a mirror, symbolising the vanity she is about to give up. The power of the image lies in Mary’s face, caught at the moment when conversion begins (from en.wikipedia.org).

Thank you dear Jesus
in giving us a chance to revisit
your Resurrection with this Feast
of St. Mary Magdalene, 
the Apostle to the Apostles;
she whom you love so much
by forgiving her sins and later
called her by name on that 
Easter morning reminds us of
your lavish mercy and love
for each of us; how lovely that
in that crucial moment of darkness
as she grieved your death
with your body missing,
she suddenly burst into deep joy
filled with life 
upon seeing you!

Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” and what he told her (John 20:18).

*“The Appearance of Christ to Mary Magdalene” painting by Alexander Ivanov (1834-1836) at the Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia from commons.wikimedia.org.*

"I have seen the Lord."

I have seen you,
Jesus when I stop
 clinging to my sinful past,
when I stop doubting
your mercy and forgiveness,
wondering how I could move
 the huge and heavy stone of my
weaknesses and failures,
addictions and vices
that make me mistake
you into somebody else
 like the gardener
 because I am so preoccupied
 with many things in life.

Teach me, Jesus
to stop clinging to you,
"touching" you and having you
according to my own view
and perception not as
 who you really are
 so that I may meet you
 to personally experience you
right here inside my heart
like St. Mary Magdalene
that Easter.

The Bride says: The watchmen came upon me as they made their rounds of the city. Have you seen him whom my heart loves? I have hardly left them when I found him whom my heart loves (Song of Songs 3:1, 3-4).

"I have seen the Lord."

I have seen you,
 Jesus when I love truly
like the Bride in the first reading
when I seek you in persons
not in wealth and power,
 in silence not in the noise
and cacophony of vanity and fame;
let me see you Jesus
by being still,
patiently
waiting
and listening
for your coming
and calling of my name
to proclaim You are risen
to others who believe in You,
also searching You,
waiting for You.
Amen.

Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Our Lady of Fatima University
Valenzuela City