Category: love

The beauty of love

Quiet Storm by Fr. Nick F. Lalog II, 07 November 2019

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Love can never be defined because it is a reality that cannot be restricted to certain parameters unlike other words or virtues or concepts for that matter.

The most we can do about love is describe it.

And, live it — as St. Paul has been telling us this week in our daily readings.

Let love be sincere; hate what is evil, hold on to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; anticipate one another in showing honor.

Romans 12:9-10
Photo by Ms. Jo Villafuerte, Atok, Benguet, 01 September 2019.

There lies the beauty of love, in being sincere, being true.

Not fake as we know and must have experienced somehow.

Sincere literally means “without plaster” that came from two Latin terms, sin for without and cero for plaster.

In ancient Rome, good sculptures were highly prized, must be “sin cero” – no plaster and purely carved out from wood or stone. Like in the usual practice today, some sculptors “fake” their work with plasters (masilya) to cover uneven surface or disfigured portion that eventually wears out.

To love sincerely means loving like Jesus without strings attached, not expecting anything in return.

But, how can we love sincerely when others are so untrue with their love to us? How can we hate evil and hold on to what is good when people continue to hurt us, or oblivious to their wrongdoing and sins? Most of all, how can we anticipate one another with honor when nobody seems respectable at all these days?

It is always difficult to love because it is also difficult to be true when everything is artificial these days.

And that makes love beautiful not only because it is true but it is something we assert and insist despite the many evils around us.

Violets in our old sacristy, 2016.

Love becomes more beautiful when it is hurt and rejected, continuing to love, doing good and showing kindness even if others are not true because it is only then in pains and sufferings when more love is born and summoned from within us.

The more tears we shed, the more love flows to clean the mess.

Love never runs out, never dries up like a well or a river. It is the greatest virtue and gift we can have as St. Paul tells us in another letter because in the end, only love remains as it is from God who is Love himself.

When our love is true, no matter how untrue are the people around us, for as long as we love in Christ, the more we are able to love, the more love we have to share and give. The more we love, the more love we receive; withhold love, keep love to yourself, that is when you lose love.

Photo by Mr. Chester Ocampo, multi-media artist, and teacher (October 2019).

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

During his last supper, Jesus mentioned to his Apostles about his new commandment of loving each other as “I have loved you”.

Though other ancient sages have taught about love or similar attitudes especially in the East long before Jesus Christ’s coming, his commandment was new because it is a love rooted in God. More than a moral prescription or a code of conduct as seen in other religions and cultures, Christian love is so unique because it is rooted in God who is love himself.

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s first encyclical issued on Christmas 2005.

Love is the only thing asked of us by God; hence, any failure to love is always a sin.

How sad that in this age of affluence and sophistication in terms of technology and knowledge, men and women are getting more isolated and alienated, giving rise to hosts of mental illnesses that lead into rising incidence of suicides worldwide.

One usual complaint of many people, young and old alike, is the lack of love. They always ask “where is the love?” even in the midst of every relationship that have become transactional in nature, forgetting the human face longing for affection, crying inside, alone.

Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another because it is love that defines us; without love, we are nothing.

To live is essentially to love.

If you have love in your heart, you have been blessed by God; If you have been loved, you have been touched by God.

Author unknown

Love and let someone be touched by God today!

Photo by Dra. Mai B. Dela Pena, Holy Land, 2016.

When “I-O-U” means “I love you”

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Wednesday, Week XXXI, Year I, 06 November 2019

Romans 13:8-10 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Luke 14:25-33

Photo by Mr. Jim Marpa, market in Carigara, Leyte, September 2019.

Glory and praise to you, O God, for this Wednesday!

Your words through St. Paul today are very encouraging and reassuring as well.

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

How sad, O Lord, that these days, one of the cries and questions we either hear or ask is “where is the love?”.

Even in our personal relationships, we have forgotten love and kindness, mercy and forgiveness, always insisting on the letters of the laws disregarding the human face crying for help, crying in pain. 

We have become so materialistic and legalistic, going into the details and other nitty-gritty in life forgetting the warmth of a human face, of a person.

It is love that defines who we are; without love, we are nothing! 

Love speaks well of you, O Lord our God whom we believe in; without love, then, we have become monsters and Antichrists! 

In the midst of our many transactions today, let us keep in mind to “owe nothing to anyone except to love one another”!

As I start this day, fill me with your Holy Spirit to cleanse and purify me with your breath, with your life, with your joy. Empty me of my pride, fears, insecurities and replace these with your humility, justice and love.

Help me renounce things that I am supposed to own yet possess me in reality so that only you, Jesus, always you, Jesus whom I shall only have and share. Amen.

Love that is sincere

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Tuesday, Week XXXI, Year I, 05 November 2019

Romans 12:5-16 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Luke 14:15-24

Photo by Mr. Chester Ocampo, October 2019.

Lord Jesus Christ, I come to you in darkness, desolate and sad with so much pains and fears. And anger.

You are the only one I can turn to, Lord.

You alone are the one who can heal me and console me.

You alone can fill me with life and love.

Like the psalmist, it is only in you, O Lord, can I find peace.

Help me to respond to St. Paul’s call today:

Brothers and sisters: Let love be sincere; hate what is evil, hold on to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; anticipate one another in showing honor.

Romans 12:9-10

How can our love be sincere and not hate evil or even show honor to those who continue to do evil against us?

O sweet Jesus, give us the courage to come to your “banquet”; enable us to let go of our many excuses like those you have invited to your banquet.

It is only in communing in you, in being with you can our love be sincere, Lord, when we are able to disarm ourselves of our doubts and anxieties, fears and hatred to receive you and share you with others. Amen.

“Never Existed Before” by Minnie Riperton (1979)

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music, 03 November 2019

My cousin Joyce Pollard-Lopez with Tony during their honeymoon 40 years ago in Greece, still together and very much in love with each other!

It’s the end of a long weekend of bonding and prayers for the All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day that ushered in the penultimate month of every year that is November.

Let us not forget that on these days dedicated for our departed loved ones, we are also reminded to remember more of God and those people he sends us to experience his immense love for us.

They are the people who have profoundly changed us into who we are today, that made us live like we never existed before…

So you ask me what do I see
When I look in your eyes
I see things that have never existed before
Shall I tell you all that I find
In those beautiful eyes I can try
But it never existed before
The silvery moon… a walk in the park
The tunnel of love… a kiss in the dark
The light of the stars… the clouds in the sky
The fireworks on the fourth of july
And you ask me what do I hear
When you whisper my name
Music plays that has never existed before
Oh, and I don’t know why
But it’s there just the same
And it’s plain that it never existed before
The song of the rain the flowers in spring
The wind in the willow trees murmuring
The laughter that falls the children at play
Like church bells that call all the people to pray
So you ask me why do I glow
Well, I think you should know
I’m in love and I never existed before

Minnie Riperton co-wrote this song released in May 9, 1979 as part of her fifth and final album called Minnie.

Two months later, Minnie died of cancer at the age of 31.

Never Existed Before speaks so well of how Minnie had experienced the great love of her husband Richard Rudolph especially in her long struggle against cancer.

The song leaves no trace of her great sufferings as Minnie herself was filled with joy by actively working for her advocacies in cancer prevention and research.

Beautiful voice, beautiful woman, and beautiful song.

Just like Zacchaeus.

He only had one desire – to see Jesus who surprised him by coming into his house as a guest!

It is a story of faith, no matter how little it may be for as long as there is that desire for God.

Jesus comes first in our hearts, to those who truly seek him in their hearts.

And the mark of being saved and loved by Jesus is to be filled with joy like Zacchaeus who promised to change his life and even repay those he had cheated.

Truly, any encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ can change us deeply to live differently, like we never existed before.

“Love On a Two Way Street” by The Moments (1968)

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music, 27 October 2019

Photo by d0n mil0 on Pexels.com

We have reflected last week that prayer is an expression of our faith by citing Dione Warwick’s 1967 hit, “I Say a Little Prayer”.

When there is faith expressed in prayer, there is also love.

And when there are faith, prayer and love, then we have a relationship like family and friends, and community.

Today in our gospel, Jesus tells us the right attitude we must have in maintaining our relationships, not only with him but also with others.

Jesus addressed this parable to those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else. “Two people went up to the temple area to pray; one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector. The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself, ‘O God, thank that I am not like the rest of humanity – greedy, dishonest, adulterous – or even like this tax collector.’ But the tax collector stood off at a distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast and prayed, ‘O God, be merciful to me, a sinner.’ I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former.”

Luke 18:9-11, 13-14

From Dione Warwick’s 1967 “I Say a Little Prayer”, we move to the following year when Sylvia Robinson and Bert Keyes composed Love on a Two-Way Street recorded by The Moments as a filler for their 1968 album Not on the Outside, But the Inside, Strong!

It did not fare well in the charts and was released again as a single in 1970 when it spent five weeks at number one on Billboard’s Soul Singles chart. It become one of the greatest R&B song of that year that was later covered by other artists.

In 1981, 14-year-old Staci Lattisaw did a cover of the song that became so popular that others have thought it as her original.

But with all due respect to Staci, I have also always felt her version very cheesy that I prefer the originals singing it because they give more character and soul to the song.

I found love on a two way street and lost it on a lonely highway
Love on a two way street and lost it on a lonely highway

There was no specific experience behind the composition of Love on a Two-Way Street except that it was just a product of a play on words and poetry by Robinson supported by Keyes’ music.

The moment we become convinced of our righteousness that we despise everyone else (cf. Lk.18:9), then we shut ourselves in and leave no space for others even God.

Photo by Alex Powell on Pexels.com

Love as a two-way street based on today’s parable by Jesus requires three attitudes so our relationships would mature and grow deeper: a sense of sinfulness, self-surrender, and self-offering.

No love and faith would ever grow on a lonely highway, with no one else to relate with. That’s when we stop communicating and relating until we break up with others and end up alone and isolated.

That is when we become a “lonely highway” with nobody else but I, me, and myself.

Go back to the two-way street of God and others.

Though crowded with some traffic jams, there is always a space for everyone.




When Jesus speaks

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Thursday, Week XXIX, Year I, 24 October 2019

Romans 6:19-23 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Luke 12:49-53

The late Joey Velasco at work. From Google.

As I prayed today’s gospel, Lord Jesus, I remembered the late painter Joey Velasco who is best known for his “Hapag ng Pag-Asa”.

Joey portrayed you in a very unique way that is very disturbing, even harsh just like the way you spoke in today’s gospel.

Jesus said to his disciples: “I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing! There is a baptism with which I must be baptized, and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished! Do you think I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.”

Luke 12:49-51

Why did I feel that way, Lord?

It seems I have been so conditioned to your image of being “meek and humble”, so gentle like Isaiah’s Suffering Servant who bore all pains and insults.

But more than that imagery that we have nurtured of you like a “baby” within us, Joey’s paintings of you among the poor and suffering disturb us because we are so detached from you.

Yes, we are disturbed and even pained because we have refused to follow you closer among the poor and suffering.

So often, your words shock us and actually bring us back to life because we have actually been dead to sin and evil or the “wages of sin” according to St. Paul in our first reading today.

“That All May Be One” painting by Joey Velasco.
Photo from Google.

We are disturbed because our silence in reaching out to the poor and oppressed is more harsh than your words.

Your words are “harsh” because they are so radical in the truest sense, from the Latin radix or roots – you are shaking us down into our inner core and being to set the earth out on fire with your love!

Your words disturb us because they call us to leave our comfort zones and sidewalks to follow you right onto the dirty road of pain and suffering with the poor.

Yes, you have come Jesus to bring divisions, but not out of our petty quarrels and whims and fanaticisms.

Let us be divided for what is true and good, for what is just and fair.

Let us be divided, Lord, by choosing your side, by standing by your side at the foot of cross with the wounded and unaccepted.

Open our hearts, O Jesus, to the truest sense and meaning of your words to reawaken in us your fire and spirit of loving service for the less fortunate. Amen.

Married life is a prayer

The Lord Is My Chef Recipe for 40th Wedding Anniversary

Tony and Joyce Lopez, 20 October 2019

Presentation of Our Lord Parish, Filinvest 1, Batasan Hills, QC

Tony and Joyce on their 40th Wedding Anniversary, 20 October 2019 at the Presentation of the Lord Parish, Filinvest I, QC joined by their son Atty. JA and wife Kathleen with two kids, and youngest daughter Rosella.

Every Sunday I write a blog connecting the gospel with a secular song.

As I prepared my homily for your anniversary, Joyce and Tony… “the moment I woke up and before your Mommy Fely put on her make-up, I said a little prayer for you.”

Joyce mom Fely Pollard with late husband Charles’ cousin, Beth Javier.

Of course that is not the theme song of Joyce and Tony. They haven’t met yet in 1967 when Dione Warwick recorded I Say a Little Prayer. But they were already married when it became one of the tracks in the movie “My Best Friend’s Wedding” starring Julia Roberts.

And since this is my “best cousin’s wedding anniversary” in this part of the city, I have thought of reflecting on married life as a form of prayer.

In our gospel we have heard Jesus Christ narrating the parable of the unjust judge and persistent widow to underscore “the necessity to pray always without becoming weary” (Lk. 18:1).

Prayer is an expression of faith.

When there is faith, there is also love.

And when there is prayer, faith, and love, what we have is a relationship, a community of believers who love each other.

People who love and believe with each other always talk and communicate. They make time to be with one another. And most often, that is what really matters with people who love and believe – simply to be together.

Even in silence.

Like prayer.

Joyce: “During our first few years as couple, I was the one always embracing Tony; but, later until now, it is Tony who often hugs and embraces me! Nabaligtad ang scenario.”

Prayer is more than asking things from God but most of all, prayer is a relationship with God expressed with others. That is the beauty of the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony: husband and wife are bound together in marriage to become signs of the saving presence of Jesus Christ.

Marriage as a sacrament means it is a prayer as well, a relationship of a man and woman with God as its source and foundation.

I am sure, Joyce and Tony along with all the other married couples here today will agree that married life requires a lot of prayers. In fact, married life is a prayer, a very difficult one that is much needed.

Like in that movie My Best Friend’s Wedding, there are real forces of evil that are trying to destroy couples. So many couples have already fallen, going their separate lives after several years of being together while on the other hand, more and more couples are refusing to get married at all due to this reality of breakups and separations.

And that is why we are celebrating today on this 40th anniversary of Joyce and Tony’s wedding! We are praying with them in expressing our faith and love for them in Christ Jesus. Prayers have kept them together, transforming them into better persons.

At the end of the parable of the persistent widow and unjust judge, Jesus posed a very crucial question for us, especially to every married couple here today: When the Son of Man comes again at the end of time, will he find faith on earth? (Lk.18:8)

Tony and Joyce at Villa San Miguel, Mandaluyong 1979.

And what shall be our response?

“Yes, Lord, you shall find faith when you come again in Joyce and Tony!”

Like Moses in the first reading, they both prayed hard with arms outstretched on many occasions as they battled life’s many challenges and struggles.

“Yes, Lord, you shall find faith when you come again in Joyce and Tony” because they have both proclaimed your word with persistence, whether it is convenient or inconvenient like St. Paul in his second letter to Timothy. They have weathered so many storms in the past 40 years and your words, O Lord, have kept them together, sharing these with their children and with everyone in their life of fidelity and love.

“Yes, Lord, you shall find faith when you come again in Joyce and Tony” now before your altar to renew their vows to love and cherish each other for the rest of their lives!

“Yes, Lord, you shall find faith when you come again” among the many couples gathered here who have remained faithful to each other despite their many sins and failures, weaknesses and shortcomings.

Joyce and Tony, you are not only a prayer of faith but also a homily of the Holy Matrimony, showing us the light and power of Jesus Christ to transform people in prayer and bring them to fulfillment.

Prayer does not change things like typhoons and earthquakes. We cannot ask God in prayer to spare us from getting sick or be exempted from life’s many trials and sufferings. Prayer cannot stop those from happening.

What prayer does is change us, change our attitude so we may hurdle life’s many blows and obstacles. Especially with couples who always find God in their lives, in good times and in bad.

Prayers transform us into better persons as children of God, especially couples who eventually look like brothers and sisters after living together in faith, hope and love.

Tony and Joyce, I am sure everyone in our family and among your friends here can attest to the many good things that have transformed you in the past 40 years.

You have changed to become the best for each other.

In the bible, the number 40 means perfect.

May God continue to perfect you, Tony and Joyce.

Keep us too in your prayers as we pray for you. Amen.

“I Say a Little Prayer” OST “My Best Friend’s Wedding” (1997)

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music, 20 October 2019

Photo by Emre Kuzu on Pexels.com

It’s a lovely Sunday especially for all married couples.

I am officiating the 40th Wedding Anniversary later today of a dear cousin when I remembered the 1997 movie “My Best Friend’s Wedding” with one of its most romantic scene with the singing of I Say a Little Prayer.

Composed by Burt Bacharach and Hal David in 1966 for Dionne Warwick, the song is meant to convey the woman’s sentiment for her man serving at the Vietnam War. It was finally released in 1967 and became an instant hit not only in the US but around the world. Since then, I Say a Little Prayer has been covered so many times even by male vocalists and went back to the charts again in 1997 as one of the tracks in the romantic comedy that starred Julia Roberts.

Prayer is the expression of our faith that always presupposes the presence of love. If there is love, there must be a community, a relationship.

Like people who love each other, believing in each other, they always speak and communicate even in silence. What matters most is their being together, their being one in faith and in love.

Exactly like in prayer.

If we love God, then we must always speak to him and most of all, be one with him, like most people who truly love.

We have chosen that lovely scene from “My Best Friend’s Wedding” singing I Say a Little Prayer because it evokes a lot about prayer: faith and love and relationships.

Most of all, in that movie, the prayer was heard loud and clear for Julia’s best friend.

See the movie again and have those kilig moments back with your loved one 22 years ago.

Remembering Mary and our own mother on this month of Rosary

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Friday, Feast of St. Luke the Evangelist, 18 October 2019

2 Timothy 4:10-17 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Luke 10:1-9

From Google.

Lord Jesus Christ, on this feast of your Evangelist and Apostle St. Luke that falls in the month of the Holy Rosary, we remember your Mother and our Mother too, the Blessed Virgin Mary.

It is so edifying to learn that St. Luke did not only write a two-part series of your gospel but is also considered as the first iconographer of the Blessed Mother Mary.

Mother of Perpetual Help. Photo from Aleteia/Google.

How wonderful that there are four popular icons of Mary attributed to him: the Our Mother of Perpetual Help, the Our Lady of Czestochowa, the Our Lady of Vladimir, and the Salus Populi Romani or Mother of the Savior of the Roman People.

These are considered as the earliest icons of Mary and although there are not enough historical proofs to ascertain these traditions of whether St. Luke could have painted these icons or not, one thing clearly remains: St. Luke had a particular trait of the Blessed Mother of being faithful in Jesus Christ.

Our Lady of Czestochowa. Photo from Aleteia/Google.

St. Paul tells us in our first reading this wonderful distinction of St. Luke that is so similar with the Virgin Mary for being faithful and true to Jesus most especially during his darkest moments in life while there on the Cross. See how St. Paul narrated in the first reading his sad plight with no one else left to accompany him but St. Luke.

Our Lady of Vladimir. Photo from Aleteia/Google.

Beloved: Demas, enamored of the present world, deserted me and went to Thessalonica, Crescens to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia. Luke is the only one with me.

2 Timothy 4:10-11

Mary stayed at the foot of the Cross of Jesus Christ, remaining faithful and true to her Son and Lord. Like Mary, St. Luke stayed behind with St. Paul in prison.

Too often, O Lord, we feel like St. Paul, of being so alone and abandoned with no one to turn to in times of trials and sufferings.

Like that famous tune by the Beatles, we find solace in the warmth and love of our own mother who has become like Mother Mary to us. Paul McCartney admitted that those lines of their last famous song was inspired by his own mother and the Blessed Mother herself.

When I find myself in times of troubles

Mother Mary comes to me.

Speaking words of wisdom: Let it be.

Paul McCartney, “Let It Be”

Maybe, St. Luke must have developed that devotion and love for the Blessed Mother Mary from the great love he had experienced from his own mother who must had been so loving and merciful, faithful and simple in her ways.

Salus Populi Romani. From Aleteia/Google.

Most of all, in both his gospel and Acts of the Apostles accounts, St. Luke never failed to mention the important role Mary played in giving birth to Jesus and taking care of his infant community, the Church, after he had Ascended into heaven.

Mary has always been there, her presence inspiring the Apostles and early Christians to strive further in the mission of evangelization.

And so, we pray for all mothers, especially our own mother who taught us our first prayers, narrated our first stories from the Bible, and taught us as well as made us feel the immense love of Jesus for each one of us.

Behind every evangelist and missionary is always a faithful and loving mother like Mary. In response to calls by Jesus Christ to pray that the Master of harvest may send out more workers for his harvest, bless all mothers to ensure that children continue to experience the love of the Father for everyone.

Always misunderstood in her ways and concern for us, we pray for all mothers may have the strength and patience to stand by their children even in their old age. And when their final hour comes to leave this earth, we pray Lord Jesus that you make it peaceful as you grant them eternal rest with your Mother Mary. Amen.

St. Luke, pray for us to genuinely love our mother and the Blessed Mother Mary too!

Let nothing disturb you…

Quiet Storm by Nick F. Lalog II, 15 October 2019

Photo by Mr. Jim Marpa at Panglao, Bohol, September 2019.

Which is more difficult to confront, the fact of dying or that of suffering through a serious sickness? I have been thinking these for the past couple of days following my recent visitations of sick parishioners.

Today I visited a parishioner sick for the past three months with a lung disease. She’s 76 years old.

Right upon seeing me, Lola Milagros cried, telling me to ask God to take her because she’s so tired of suffering and waiting for death.

I just let her cry, holding her hands, as I listened to her pouring out of her aches and pains.

After that, I whispered to her the words of St. Teresa de Avila whose feast we are also celebrating today:

Nada te turbe… Solo Dios basta! (Let nothing disturb you… only God suffices!)

St. Teresa De Avila

So beautiful to hear and yes, easier said than done.

Can anybody with a serious ailment be not disturbed?

Been asking myself the same questions too. It is difficult not to be disturbed when one is sick. Aside from the costs of treatment are the enormous pains and sufferings one has to go through with the medical procedures and its many effects to the patient, who eventually would die.

It is a reality getting closer to home with me and I must confess, I am disturbed. Worried. And afraid.

Photo by Essow Kedelina on Pexels.com

The other week I visited another sick parishioner named Charlie, a former cook paralysed waist down due to a spine injury. He is only in his early 50’s.

What struck me when I saw him were the ropes tied to his both feet. I could not figure out how he could be restless when he is paralysed that his feet have to be tied?

He explained, “Father, I pity my wife when I have to wake her up every night just to move my legs. So, I improvised these ropes tied to my feet so I can just pull them with my hands in case I have to change positions even at night.”

Oh God! What a great love of a man to his wife!

Charlie loves his wife so much that he does not want her to be disturbed with his ailment and condition.

When there is love, we are not disturbed. And the only true love that can make us undisturbed is the love of Jesus Christ, the only perfect love we can have and find.

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Whenever we think of Christ we should recall the love that led him to bestow on us so many graces and favors, and also the great love God showed in giving us in Christ a pledge of his love; for love calls for love in return. Let us strive to keep this always before our eyes and to rouse ourselves to love him. For if at some time the Lord should grant us the grace of impressing his love on our hearts, all will become easy for us and we shall accomplish great things quickly and without effort.

St. Teresa de Avila

“Love calls for love in return.”

So beautiful words by St. Teresa de Avila.

We can only truly feel that personal love of Jesus if we are also personally in love with him.

We are disturbed with so many things in life when there is not enough love in our hearts, when we have not felt loved enough by others too.

Without love, we would always be disturbed.

I told Lola Milagros this morning to thank God for the gift of tears because they are prayers coming straight from her heart. That God knows very well all her pains and sufferings. Most of all, I told her tears are clear signs of love in her heart.

Later on my way home, Lola Milagros’ daughter was also teary-eyed as she told me she was so glad to see her mother cried. According to her, Lola Milagros is a very tough woman of the “old school” who tried to bear everything and even hide what’s inside her so as not to disturb them. She always wanted them to be assured all’s fine.

Lola Milagros and Charlie do not want to disturb their respective family because they love them. It is love that moves the sick not to disturb others and it is also love that enables us to assure them not to be disturbed.

The challenge therefore is not to reflect on whether to die instantly or slowly but to always love truly!

Sacred Heart Novitiate (Novaliches), 2017.

Human love is always imperfect. Only God can love us perfectly. This he did exactly to us when he sent us Jesus Christ who died on the Cross for us.

To love truly is be personally one in Jesus Christ. When we were still seminarians, Fr. Memeng used to tell us in our class “Priestly Spirituality” that “if we can really cultivate a deep prayer life, we can also experience Jesus Christ in the most personal way.” It is the experience of St. Teresa de Avila and all the other saints.

Nothing can disturb us in this life when our love is borne out of a personal relationship with Jesus in prayer.

Prayer life is more than reciting prayers by following a schedule. Prayer life is a relationship, a communing with God, of being our true selves before him, seeing ourselves as he sees us. And because of this assurance of his love despite our many sins and flaws, that is when we are not disturbed because God loves us no matter what.

When we are not disturbed, then we become silent. Presence is more than enough to share and experience God’s love. St. Paul said “love is not pompous” because true love is always silent, more on deeds than on words.

One thing amusing with death is that it always comes in silence, when we least expect it. Whether we die instantly or slowly, it always happens in silence. And that is also why many are disturbed of dying.

But, if we love patiently our self, others and God, nothing can ever disturb us because when we love, we are already in God. That is when we realize too the wisdom and truth of St. Teresa’s contemporary who claimed that

A soul that walks in love is neither tired nor gets tired.

San Juan dela Cruz
From Google.

Let us love, love, and love until the end onto eternity.

Only God suffices because God is love. Amen.