Category: Music/Spirituality

“Every Kinda People” (1978) by Robert Palmer

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music by Fr. Nick F. Lalog II, 13 September 2020
Entering through the narrow door of the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem, the Holy Land, May 2019.

Above is a photo I have taken of some pilgrims entering through the small door of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem last year. I have always loved the story why this entrance door is so small as it leads to a huge and very important church where the site of Jesus Christ’s birth is located.

According to tradition, pilgrims used to bring even their animals inside the church whenever they would come to worship at the site of the Lord’s birth. The priests and monks were so kind that they could not tell them to leave their horses outside to keep the church clean; and so, they built another entrance into the church with a door so small that even pilgrims have to bow in order to get inside.

Eventually, the small door taught everyone especially pilgrims the important lesson that to experience the coming of the Son of God to the world, one must learn to be humble, to bow or get low to get inside the Church of Nativity.

I know Christmas is still four months away but that is one reality we always forget, the we are all brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ. That is the meaning of Christ’s call in today’s gospel to “forgive from one’s heart” son we can forgive without limits because we are all brothers and sisters in God the Father who loves and forgives us all (https://lordmychef.com/2020/09/12/forgiving-from-the-heart-2/).

It is for this reason that we have chosen for our Sunday music “Every Kinda People” by the late English singer-songwriter Robert Palmer. It was his first top 40 hit released in 1978 that was rereleased in 1992 climbing the charts again for its beautiful music and superb lyrics that convey love and respect for every person.

Though the word forgiveness is nowhere to be found in the lyrics, it is implied because after all, the best expression of any love as shown to us by Jesus Christ is also the ability to forgive others and forego any revenge.

There’s no profit in deceit
Honest men know that
Revenge do not taste sweet
Whether yellow, black or white
Each and every man’s the same inside

What really hurts us most that we find it difficult to forgive those who have sinned against us is not only the injustice done to us but our being disrespected as a person who is a family like a spouse or a wife, a brother or a sister, a son or a daughter, a father or a mother, a kin or a friend, a confidant.

Our offenders thought only of themselves and forgot all about us, our love and kindness to them. Our oneness with them.

That is the unkindest cut of all, my brothers and sisters.

Have a blessed Sunday and a week ahead, keep loving and forgiving even if others do not. At least we remind them of that basic reality of every kinda people…

Music video by Robert Palmer performing Every Kinda People. (C) 1978 Universal Island Records Ltd. A Universal Music Company.

“Where Is the Love?” by The Black Eyed Peas (2003)

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music by Fr. Nick F. Lalog II, 06 September 2020
Photo by Dr. Mylene A. Santos, April 2020 at Infanta, Quezon.

The most severe test of our being Christian lies in our being able to love one another specially when it is so difficult to love them, when the one we love like a brother or a sister or a friend sins (https://lordmychef.com/2020/09/05/presence-and-love-of-christ/).

Jesus said to his disciples: “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won over your brother. If he does not listen, take one or two others along with you… If he refuses to listen to them, tell the church. If he refuses to listen even to the church, then treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector… Again, amen, I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything for which they are to pray, it shall be granted them by my heavenly Father. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”

Matthew 18:15-16, 19-20

In our Sunday gospel today, Jesus is asking us to have love as basis of our relationships, whether at home or in the community, in the church or in the society. When there is love, there is Jesus, there is order, there is peace and harmony. Even when there is imperfection and sin, when love prevails, life and its struggles become bearable, even fulfilling. But when there is no love, there is always disorder and chaos and life becomes more difficult.

And that is why we go back to Black Eyed Peas’ 2003 hit “Where Is The Love?” for our Sunday music today which is very timely and relevant in this time of the pandemic.

People killin’ people dyin’
Children hurtin’, I hear them cryin’
Can you practice what you preachin’?
Would you turn the other cheek again?
Mama, mama, mama, tell us what the hell is goin’ on
Can’t we all just get along?
Father, father, father help us
Send some guidance from above
‘Cause people got me, got me
Questioning
(Where’s the love)

Of course, we all know our kababayan apl.de.ap is part of this group and one of the composers of this smash hit that was also the largest selling record of 2003, earning a nomination to the Grammy the following year for Record of the Year and Best Rap/Sung collaboration. From their third album Elephunk, “Where Is the Love?” gave Black Eyed Peas its first commercial success that also put them onto the mainstream music scene. Not mentioned at its single release was the back-up vocals rendered by Justin Timberlake who showed support to the group even though he was from another record label.

Very interesting is the last stanza which I just realized while reflecting on the song relating it to the gospel this Sunday: our problem is not really the corona virus but a disease within us when we refuse to accept and share that love freely given us by God.

I feel the weight of the world on my shoulders
As I’m gettin’ older y’all people gets colder
Most of us only care about money makin’
Selfishness got us followin’ the wrong direction
Wrong information always shown by the media
Negative images is the main criteria
Infecting the young minds faster than bacteria
Kids wanna act like what they see in the cinemas
What happened to the love and the values of humanity?
(Where’s the love)
What happened to the love and the fairness and equality?
(Where’s the love)
Instead of spreading love we’re spreading animosity
(Where’s the love)
Lack of understanding leading us away from unity
(Where’s the love)

Some people have been asking me this early how would Christmas 2020 be?

We need not read the news for we can feel and readily see around us the bleak prospects of this coming Christmas — financially and materially speaking. But I am filled with hope that Christmas 2020 amid the pandemic will most likely be one, if not the most meaningful Christmas we shall ever have because when we have less of the material things, that is also when we have more of the spiritual things in life, more of love, more of kindness, more of the person next to me, and most of all, more of Jesus. All we have to do is honestly answer the question, “where is the love?”

Have a blessed Sunday everyone!

Music video by Black Eyed Peas performing Where Is The Love?. (C) 2003 Interscope Geffen (A&M) Records A Division of UMG Recordings Inc.

“You’re so Vain” (1972) by Carly Simon

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music by Fr. Nick F. Lalog II, 30 August 2020
Photo by STANLEY NGUMA on Pexels.com

Jesus in the gospel today makes his first prediction of his coming pasch or Passion, Death and Resurrection but it was such a terrible “bad news” for Peter that he

… took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him, “God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you.” He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.” 

Matthew 16:22-23

With Jesus, there is no such thing as “good news, bad news” because all is good news with him. The good news/bad news question is really a non-question to disciples of Christ because whatever suffering we go through and embrace in him is a sharing in his very life. The key is to think as God does, not as a human beings do as Jesus told Peter (https://lordmychef.com/2020/08/29/when-good-news-bad-news-do-not-matter-at-all/).

And that means avoiding being so vain.

That is why we have Carly Simon singing to us this Sunday her 1972 classic “You’re so Vain” that have left our generation guessing who was she referring to in this superb music and poetry. (Personally, I think there is something “genetic” about this guessing game on whomever Ms. Simon was referring to: it was a non-issue among us males even when I have gone working in a radio station for six years. It has been the women who have kept on raising the issue on who could be that man so vain Ms. Simon was narrating in her number one song. And even if Ms. Simon had already identified him as Warren Beatty 40 years after, I still do not care because the song is so good, filled with gospel values too.)

How many times in our being so vain have we refused to embrace pain and sufferings in life, preferring noise than silence, and popularity than hiddenness that are some of the ways of God taught us by Jesus Christ?

Oh, you had me several years ago
When I was still quite naive
When you said that we made such a pretty pair
And that you would never leave
But you gave away the things you loved
And one of them was me
I had some dreams, they were clouds in my coffee
Clouds in my coffee, and

You’re so vain
You probably think this song is about you
You’re so vain (you’re so vain)
I’ll bet you think this song is about you
Don’t you?
Don’t you?
Don’t you?

About ten years ago, Al Pacino played the role of Satan in the movie “The Devil’s Advocate” where at the end after tempting the gullible small-town lawyer Keanu Reeves, he proclaimed “vanity… vanity is my most favorite sin.”

This Sunday, Jesus is telling us all is good news with him, no bad news and you can never lose in him. Just come to him with our true self, no matter how sinful and incomplete we are. A blessed week to everyone and happy listening!

Provided to YouTube by Rhino/Elektra

“Really Wanna Know You” (1981) by Gary Wright

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music by Fr. Nick F. Lalog II, 23 August 2020
Photo by author, Gospel book (Evangelare), January 2020.

Jesus is asking us today in the gospel like his disciples at Caesarea Philippi, “who do you say that I am?” (Mt.16:15). As we have mentioned in our Sunday reflection, things we say of another person can come from two perspectives, the “what” and the “how”.

“What” we say of a person usually comes from common knowledge, the basics like name and address that sometimes not so reliable as we have not actually and personally known. But, to say of a person based on “how” we have known him/her is deeper because it comes from our personal relationship with some degree of intimacy (https://lordmychef.com/2020/08/22/it-is-not-what-we-say-who-jesus-is-but-how-we-say-who-he-is/).

To know another person is always to enter into a relationship that leads to a deeper friendship.

That is why for this Sunday we offer you this almost surreal, dream-like 1981 music by Gary Wright, “Really Wanna Know You” that spent 17 weeks on Billboard’s Hot 100, reaching highest spot of #16.

Really Wanna Know You speaks of that spiritual thing we experience when we meet someone who seems so special, creating some sparks in us that leads us to something deeper than mere acquaintance. Notice how the sounds of electronic keyboards with the blending voices create that strange, beautiful, and out-of-ordinary feelings like attraction or simply being drawn to the other person.

I don't mind being lonely
But I do mind if not being loved
Maybe you're feeling the same way too
You're ready to hold some one

I really want to know you
I really want to show you the way I feel
I really want to know you
I really want to show you the way I feel

Something about you is telling me
We're coming from the very same place
It's only just a notion I have
(But) I see it written over your face

I really want to know you
I really want to show you the way I feel
I really want to know you
I really want to show you the way I feel

And the good news is that Jesus feels the same way to us, always the first to reach out to us because he feels something so special with each one of us.

Take that chance and meet Jesus in prayers, in the Scriptures, and in others who love and care for us.

Posted by Fernando Amora on Youtube, 24 Feb. 2012 (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-YLsPP2-Wb7tp4QdBq48MQ)

“Do It for Love” by Hall and Oates (2003)

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music by Fr. Nick F. Lalog II, 16 August 2020
Our parish on a lazy afternoon before the pandemic in January 2020. Photo by Mr. Angelo Carpio.

Our Sunday gospel today is so touching at how great is the love of Jesus Christ for us who knows no boundaries when he “withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon” to heal the daughter of a Canaanite woman “tormented by a demon” (Mt.15:21, 28).

Two Sundays ago we heard how Jesus fed more than 5000 people who have followed him to a deserted place from just five loaves of bread and two pieces of fish; last week, he walked on water to rescue his disciples in a boat caught in a violent storm at the middle of the lake at night.

Very clear in all his actions is the immense love of Jesus Christ for everyone, doing everything in love and for love.

And that is why we have Rock n’ Roll’s dynamic duo, Daryl Hall and John Oates singing their eighth #1 hit released in 2003 “Do It For Love” from their sixteenth studio album of the same title.

I have always considered Hall and Oates as my topmost favorite musicians standing side by side with the equally great tandem of Walter Becker (+) and Donald Fagen of Steely Dan fame.

Smooth and sophisticated with their characteristic Phillysound, Hall and Oates’ Do It for Love tells of how a man would go to great lengths to express his love for his beloved.

I would fly ten thousand miles
In the pouring rain
Just to see your face

I’d bare my soul to a total stranger
Just to say your name
And I’m not ashamed
Just to love you into every morning

I would change my name
And run away
I won’t do it for money
I won’t do it for pride

I won’t do it to please somebody else
If it don’t feel right
But I’ll do it for you
And at least I’ll try

I don’t need any other reason
Than I feel it deep inside
I’ll Do It For Love

I have used it so many times in counseling single and married men having problems with their girlfriend and wife; and so far, it seems to have always worked with most of them still together and happily married!

Try it yourself this Sunday… with a lot of prayers and honest-to-goodness soul searching, miracles may still happen!

Stay safe and have a blessed new week!

From https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSRoN5Sxu5M-jc0JXt3E-xg

Two songs for a rainy Sunday in August 2020

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music by Fr. Nick F. Lalog II, 09 August 2020
Photo by Fr. Gener Garcia, “El camino de santiago de compostela” in Spain, 2019.

Don’t you feel it is like a Good Friday on this gloomy and rainy Sunday in August? Problems and trials continue to come our way this year 2020 that we are like the Apostles together in a boat in the middle of the sea caught in a violent storm at night with Jesus nowhere in sight!

But, we know the rest of the story, of how Jesus rescued the Twelve by walking on water, calmed the storm upon joining them in their boat until they reached the shore.

Sometimes in life, we need to get away from our “comfort zones” and cross to the other side of the lake or sea like in our gospel especially when life becomes so artificial that we need to experience it in its “rawness” from deep within our souls until we desire and meet God anew wherever we may be (https://lordmychef.com/2020/08/08/meeting-jesus/).

And because of the storms that continue to rage in us and among us in this ghost month of August, we offer you with inspiring songs from two lovely female artists that we hope will uplift you and soothe your tired body and soul.

First in our double header is Ms. Pauline Wilson’s 1997 solo version of their 1979 classic “Follow Your Road” when she was the lead singer of their Hawaii-based jazz fusion band called the Seawind.

So enticingly warm, Follow Your Road teems with a lot of Christian teachings that have strongly influenced Ms. Wilson and partners who are also into Gospel music. The song invites us to reflect on our lives in order to find its meaning and direction – exactly what Jesus has been telling us to follow him especially when we are into storms and darkness in our lives.

We are all but travelers living in a foreign land
Just trying to find our way – best as we can
Looking for an answer, trying to find some light
And though we have journeyed far, it’s not quite far enough.
Have you wondered where your road will lead you?
Maybe to a song that needs singing, or a summer rain
Or it might be you’re afraid to go, afraid to go
But you’ve got to follow your road, or you’ll never know
Uploaded by caddxprt, 17 September 2008.

Our second song on this rainy Sunday is from another Gospel singer Ms. Oleta Adams who was nominated to the Grammy Award as Best Female Pop Vocal Performance the following year after releasing “Get Here If You Can” in 1990.

Ms. Adams first caught the world’s attention in 1989 when she was invited by Curt Smith and Roland Orzabal of Tears for Fears to join them as singer and pianist for their 1989 “Seeds of Love” album from which came the hit single “Woman in Chains” with her singing a duet with Orzabal.

Get Here If You Can is a song putting to the test the love and fidelity of the song’s lover.

Faith, like love, is always an encounter, especially with the Lord Jesus Christ.

The experience of Peter sinking in water as he approached Jesus is a lesson in being focused with our love and faith in Christ despite the heavy storms and darkness that come into our lives.

There are hills and mountains between us
Always something to get over
If I had my way, surely you would be closer
I need you closer

Stay safe and have a blessed new week!

Uploaded by Official Oleta Adams, 2004.

“Keep This Love Alive” by Tom Scott (1991)

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music by Fr. Nick F. Lalog II, 02 August 2020
Photo from iStock/StudioAnnika

Our Sunday music for today is specially for all the doctors, nurses, and everyone serving in hospitals since this pandemic began. You are exactly like Jesus Christ in the gospel today who went to a deserted place to rest but upon seeing the crowds who have followed him, “his heart was moved with pity for them, and he cured their sick” (Mt.14:14).

Thank you, dearest doctors and nurses and everyone serving in our hospitals for keeping the love alive, forgetting your selves and loved ones just to answer the call of duty like our Lord who was also so tired preaching with a heart aching for the death of John the Baptist (https://lordmychef.com/2020/08/01/human-situation-divine-response-multiplying-our-blessings/).

And this is the reason we have jazz artist Tom Scott’s 1991 hit “Keeping This Love Alive” as our featured music this Sunday: with the excellent vocals by David Pack, the song tells us how amid so many trials and tests, a man keeps on coming back to the woman he loves so much.

I don't know why my faith gets so low
I'm helpless to control my fears
I turn to you and somehow I know
No matter how far I fall
You will answer my call, 
becauseI keep coming back to you

Heal me one more time
I keep coming back to you
You're the reason why (the reason why)
The reason I (the reason I)
I've got to keep this love alive (alive, alive, alive)
Oh, gotta keep this love alive (alive)

Ultimately, it is the love of Jesus Christ that we have experienced that we keep this love alive – in our family and circle of friends, in our community and nation. It is his love that sustains us, enabling us to believe more and hope more.

Thank you dearest doctors, nurses and everyone serving in our hospitals around the world to care for the sick.

And for keeping this love alive.

Have some break and enjoy the music.

Love and prayers,

fr. nick

Posted by riho2ryo

“You Gotta Be” by Des’ree (1994)

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music by Fr. Nick F. Lalog II, 12 July 2020
Van Gogh’s “The Sower” from Wikimedia Commons.

It is a very lovely Sunday with Jesus Christ continuing to shower us with his good seeds to make us fruitful despite the many setbacks we may have had lately due to the COVID-19 pandemic and sad turn of events.

His parable of the sower proclaimed today in all churches throughout the world reminds us that inasmuch as we have to be a good kind of soil, we need to examine the kind of seeds we have become.

Seeds are so small that we often take for granted, like our very lives and most especially God.

But, Jesus reminds us too of how every seed is the presence of what is to come in the future, of something so big and huge that we can never imagine (https://lordmychef.com/2020/07/11/jesus-is-both-the-sower-and-the-seed-and-so-must-we/).

In a sense, Jesus is telling us today what Des’ree sang in 1994, “You Gotta Be”…..

Listen as your day unfolds
Challenge what the future holds
Try and keep your head up to the sky
Lovers, they may cause you tears
Go ahead release your fears
Stand up and be counted
Don’t be ashamed to cry
You gotta be
You gotta be bad, you gotta be bold
You gotta be wiser, you gotta be hard
You gotta be tough, you gotta be stronger
You gotta be cool, you gotta be calm
You gotta stay together
All I know, all I know, love will save the day

You Gotta Be was first released as a single in 1994 and instantly became a hit worldwide staying on top of almost every chart in the US, Europe and Australia. Music is warmly smooth, at the same time infectious with a sort of hypnotic effect from its sophisticated upbeat set in the cool and soothing voice of Des’ree who also wrote its lyrics.

I have used the song in my classes in our school for girls a decade ago and in many recollections and retreats to young people as it presents to us this great mystery of life packed in a seed that must fall and die to give way to new life and eventually bear fruit.

You gotta hear and feel it to appreciate this wonderful music that sounds like Jesus Christ’s parable of the sower.

I have uploaded the video with lyrics so you can follow and sing. And dance if you wish. Have a blessed day!

Video uploaded by
MyFavMusic123

“Someone Like You” by Van Morrison (1987)

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music by Fr. Nick F. Lalog II, 05 July 2020

At that time Jesus exclaimed: “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for your selves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Matthew 11:28-30

If there is anything we all wish this first Sunday of July 2020, it must be rest from all the worries and burdens in this time of the corona. We all want something that would be lighter in this second half of the heaviest year we have ever had in decades or even a generation.

Being light does not mean being worry-free, no problems nor sufferings. Dr. M. Scott Peck insists in his book Road Less Travelled that “life is difficult” – the sooner we realize and accept this, the better for us (see our homily, https://lordmychef.com/2020/07/04/we-are-disciples-of-a-meek-and-humble-lord/).

Being light is having a companion to share with our burdens and woes in life because having these all by ourselves is so difficult and impossible. Most of the time, our problems need not be solved at all but simply be accepted and shared with someone who loves us, cares for us, and believes in us.

Jesus Christ is that only companion par excellence we can have for he is meek and humble of heart.

Van Morrison’s lovely ballad Someone Like You released in 1987 captures this essential desire among us all to seek and forge many relationships. 

I've been searching a long time
Someone exactly like you
I've been traveling all around the world
Waiting for you to come through

Someone like you makes it all worth while
Someone like you keeps me satisfied
Someone exactly like you

Though the song has become a staple in many weddings and in many romantic movies covered by various artists, Someone Like You sounds more like a spiritual song longing for God through our loved ones for he is always faithful and loving to us despite our many weaknesses and sins.

I've been doin' some soul searching
To find out where you're at
I've been up and down the highway
In all kinds of foreign lands

Someone like you makes it all worth while
Someone like you keeps me satisfied
Someone…

May Van Morrison’s song bring you closer to God through your loved ones as we continue to hurdle the many obstacles and trials ahead in this time of COVID-19.

Have a blessed Sunday and brand new week ahead!

Video uploaded at YouTube by Megan Smith.

“Possession Obsession” by Hall and Oates (1984)

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music by Fr. Nick F. Lalog II, 28 June 2020
Photo by Alex Powell on Pexels.com

One reason I have this blog on trying to link secular music with the Sunday gospel is the firm belief that God continues to speak to us through modern means of communications like music and films. Sometimes I feel that if Jesus were with us today, he might be instructing us priests to “feed my geeks” than “feed my sheep”.…..

For this Sunday we have the dynamic duo of Daryl Hall and John Oates — my most favorite group standing side by side with the late Walker Becker and Donald Fagen of Steely Dan.

Released in 1984 from their “Big Bam Boom” album, Possession Obsession is one of a kind in their long list of superb music with John Oates taking the front seat in this song unlike in their previous hits where it would always be Daryl taking the lead.

I have listened maybe a hundred times to Possession Obsession but it was only yesterday after preparing my Sunday homily that I have tried to internalize its lyrics, including the music video directed by Bob Giraldi who did Michael Jackson’s “Beat It”.

The song perfectly echoes the Sunday teaching today of Jesus Christ who said that

“Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

Matthew 10:39

Possession Obsession echoes Christ’s teaching this Sunday on life’s paradox wherein the more we give, the more we actually receive, that life is not about possession and having but about love, of giving and of sharing with others.

You know there's something you need
Right here and now
To fill the space inside of yourself
Money love or power
When you want to have the number one first run anyone
You're crazy 'til you own them

You ought to know better than that
The more that you buy the less you get back
It's a case of possession obsession
Gimme Gimme

The compulsion to count the percentage of time
Spent between two lovers
Can turn an hour into a crime
And all the good times suffer
Though you know it's only jealousy
You can't help but be
Haunted by your passion

Don't you know it's a matter of fact
The more that you take the less you give back
Just a taste of possession obsession
Brings a case of possession obsession
Gimme Gimme

Watch closely too this music video set inside a cab with John Oates as driver, taking different passengers in all the different forms of “love” understood these days, far from the truth witnessed to us by Jesus Christ.

In fact, it is one of the first music video to present two men holding hands as lovers at the back of John’s cab with one of the men looking like the late David Bowie (?).

At the last sequence of the music video is a beautiful presentation of giving and loving when Hall and Oates were in their usual attires in a cafe, competing in “possessing” the sugar dispenser. Hall prevailed and right before putting sugar into his coffee, he changed his mind and slid the sugar dispenser to Oates at the other end of the bar table.

Nice song, nice music, nice video.

For reflections on this Sunday’s gospel, check my homily https://lordmychef.com/2020/06/27/let-christ-possess-us/

Have a beautiful and blessed Sunday.

From YouTube.com