Category: Music/Spirituality

“Time After Time” cover by Tuck & Patti (1988)

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music, 15 September 2019
Photo by Vincenzo Malagoli on Pexels.com

Our gospel this Sunday of the parable of the prodigal son speaks so well of what we may describe as the “wildness and wideness” of God’s love and mercy for each one of us, especially the lost and rejected. It is a love that goes “time after time”….

Lying in my bed I hear the clock tick
And think of you
Caught up in circles
Confusion is nothing new
Flashback, warm nights
Almost left behind
Suitcase of memories
Time after
Sometimes you picture me
I’m walking too far ahead
You’re calling to me, I can’t hear
What you’ve said
Then you say, go slow
I fall behind
The second hand unwinds
If you’re lost, you can look and you will find me
Time after time
If you fall, I will catch you, I will be waiting
Time after time

Written and originally performed by Cyndi Lauper, “Time After Time” is her second single she co-wrote with Rob Hyman that was released in January 24, 1984. It was an instant hit and earned very positive reviews for Lauper.

It is a story of unconditional love despite its being over.

The lover promises to continue loving her beloved despite their separation.

It is a kind of love that is so divine like the merciful father in the parable of the prodigal son. A love so true as it recognises the other person as a “somebody”, a part of the lover. A love that persists time after time because we remain a family despite our separation of distance or even of feelings.

We have chosen the 1988 cover by the jazz duo of husband and wife Tuck and Patti because of its more solemn rendition. The guitar and voice ensemble of the duo for me is one of the music world’s great treasure we are so thankful not only in delighting our senses but most of all in making us experience some of the most beautiful songs of our time.

Enjoy!

“Stand by Me” by Ben E. King (1961)

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music, 08 September 2019
Photo by Ms. Jo Villafuerte at Atok, Benguet, 01 September 2019

Our gospel today is so personal.

Sometimes, we have to be unreasonable — and be personal — when the only explanation and justification we can have for continuing to love and forgive, to care and accept people is “because of Jesus Christ”.

“If any one comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.”

Luke 14:26

There are times in our lives when we are so down and everything is so dark when all we need is the warmth of a loving heart and a loving face of another person. No ifs, no buts but just because of you.

This is the reason Jesus is very clear today with his words, “hate” one’s self as well as those closest to us to stress that when things get worst, our only reason is him alone. We love, we forgive, we care despite all the pains and hurts because of our communion in Jesus Christ.

Jesus is the only one who would really stand us, offering himself up on the Cross for you and for me.

That is why for this Sunday we have chosen Beng E. King’s 1961 hit “Stand By Me” that was rereleased in 1986 as theme of a movie with the same title.

The song speaks of the undying love and fidelity of a man to the woman he loves. It is partly the same story of the friendship of those for boys in the said movie.

King’s music has been covered by so many other artists over the years for its reflective music and poetry that evoke deep personal love that transcends reason and conventions. No wonder, it was sang at the wedding last year of Prince Harry and American Meghan Merkle, a true-to-life love story that seems can only happen in Hollywood.

But that is the beauty of the song and Christ’s gospel: everything can happen when we are willing to give up everything including our very selves in the name of love for another person.

A blessed Sunday to you!

“True Colors” cover by Phil Collins (1998)

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music, 01 September 2019
Showa Kinen National Park, Japan. Photo by Dra. Mai Dela Pena, 2016.

“For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Luke 14:11

Our gospel this Sunday is very timely as our headlines lately with the case of a transgender insisting on using the female toilet. Immediately, politicians jumped into the controversy for the media mileage without really reflecting more on its nature.

And the sad part of it all is perfectly hit again by our gospel today: when people choose places of honour, the more the disadvantaged members of the society are pushed to the margins.

“Rather, when you hold a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

Luke 14:13-14

It is for this reason we have chosen Cyndi Lauper’s 1986 hit “True Colors” written by Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly. The song was covered by Phil Collins in 1998 with a more jazzy beat which I prefer than the original.

Since its release, True Colors has become the unofficial music of the gay community especially with its message of showing one’s true colors.

But here we find the beauty of music that is always an expression of love, of what is good and true. True Colors speak so well of the gospel today which is about building our relationships with God and with others that starts with self-acceptance.

Jesus assures us that we all have “assigned seats” here on earth and in heaven; we simply have to accept who we really are for that is when we grow, when his grace and mercy work. True Colors is not about insisting on gays’ rights or the use of female toilets. It is about the gospel truth of accepting who we really are.

When Jesus said those who exalt themselves shall be humbled and those who humble themselves shall be exalted means be who you are and be your best self. If you are a father or a mother, be the best father or mother. If you are a priest, be the holiest priest. If you are a docotor, be the best doctor. If you are a husband or a wife, a brother or a sister, be your best self. If you are a male, be man enough to be your true self. If you are a female, be the loveliest woman.

In the end, everything and each one of us will be falling into our right places. No need to alter our bodies and everything just to insist who we really are.

And when we have become our true selves and better selves, that is when we are able to give ourselves to others in loving service.

See, when we choose other seats than those assigned to us and become an “epal” like most politicians, that is when we lost touch with those really in need among us. That is when we forget about humility which is being truthful to our very selves. It is only in being truthful to our selves can we truly be free to love and serve others to start building on our true relationships as brothers and sisters in Christ.

Instead of going to anybody for our concerns and problems, it is always best to come to Jesus always. And that starts right in our hearts first where we find our true colors, our true value as persons so loved by God inspite and despite of everything.

A blessed and lovely week to everyone!

“You’ll Never Get to Heaven” by Dionne Warwick (1964)

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music, 25 August 2019
Jungfrau Peak, the Swiss Alps. Photo by Fr. Gerry Pascual (Diocese of Iba, Zambales), August 2019.

Our Sunday music today is still about heaven as Jesus Christ concludes his four-week series of “shock preaching” about being ready for the end or death. From The Smiths’ groundbreaking alternative rock “Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now”, we offer you this Sunday Dionne Warwick’s classic soul and pop “You’ll Never Get to Heaven (If You Break My Heart)”.

Composed by Burt Bacharach with lyrics by Hal David, the song was released in 1964 as the second single from Warwick’s third studio album. It was an international hit that has also been covered by many artists since then.

Its melody and beat are very light, even divine that are very uplifting especially on this rainy day. Most of all, its lyrics are simply honest and true: getting into heaven is trying our very best not to break anyone’s heart especially our loved ones’!

Mother told me always to follow the golden rule
And she said it’s really a sin to be mean and cruel
So, remember, if you’re untrue
Angels up in heaven are looking at you
You’ll never get to heaven if you break my heart
So be very careful not to make us part
You won’t get to heaven if you break my heart

“You’ll Never Get To Heaven (If You Break My Heart)” is a feel good music by Warwick who has accompanied our generation for over 50 years reminding us about the more essential things in life like friends, love, relationships, and God. Unlike the Lord’s “shock preaching” wrapped in mystery, the song is straightforward that can instantly soothe our souls whenever we feel so down especially when the people we love are the ones who hurt us.

It can be very disappointing but amazingly, it is during those dark moments of our lives when Jesus comes to strengthen us and inspire us to keep on loving despite our imperfections.

I’ve been hearin’ rumors about how you play around.
Though I don’t believe what I hear, still it gets me down.
If you ever should say good-bye
I’d feel so awful, the angels would cry.

A blessed Sunday to everyone!

“Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now” by The Smiths (1984)

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music, 18 August 2019
Sacred Heart Spirituality Center, Novaliches, QC, June 2016.

We go alternative rock today as our gospel continues with its “shock preaching” for the third consecutive Sunday.

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 baptised, and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished! Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.”

Luke 12:49-51

And so, what is the good news in these pronouncements by the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ?

Interestingly like our intriguing gospel today is our featured music “Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now” by The Smiths released as a single in May 1984. And like the gospel today, we might ask, what is so good with this song that has become an anthem for our generation when heaven knows I’m miserable now?

Like our shocking and controversial gospel that sounds so negative on the surface, Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now is a good news in itself worth sharing with others.

It is a very defining song of the time that is why it is listed as one of “Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll”. Its music has remained fresh and crisp, a melody that is definitively rock with a hint of lullaby perfectly given justice by the so British accent and voice of Morissey.

From Google.

And most of all, deep in all those icings, is the perfect cake: the lyrics that is intelligently straightforward and witty laced with deep meanings only a person who truly loves can identify with.

Although its title was inspired by Sandie Shaw’s 1969 single “Heaven Knows I’m Missing Him Now”, Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now is a tribute to those who choose to be good, who choose to stand with what is true and beautiful even to the point of being deserted by others like Jesus Christ, the prophets, the saints, as well as Lucy and Snoopy!

From Google.

It is definitely an intelligent music that has remained relevant up to this time making it truly a good news.

In this age when reason is being disregarded with emphasis given more on popularity, on what is trending and viral, on what has the most “likes” and who has the most “followers”, The Smiths’ Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now shows us how it can sometimes be dangerous being right, being true, being just.

The next time you feel hurt and aching inside, when you feel going through pains for being true and good among those people so ugly inside and outside, who are fake and untrue, pray and fix your sights on Jesus Christ on the Cross because “Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now”.

And, never lose your wit and humor!

What she asked of me at the end of the day
Caligula would have blushed
“Oh, you’ve been in the house too long” she said
And I naturally fled
In my life
Why do I smile
At people who I’d much rather kick in the eye?

Here’s a rockin’ and rollin’ Sunday to all!

Remember, always remember.

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Saturday, Week XIX, Year I, 17 August 2019

Joshua 24:14-29 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Matthew 19:13-15

Photo by Eric Smart on Pexels.com

Thank you very much, dear God, for this weekend rest.

And as we rest from work or studies, let us also pray for the gift of remembering.

Like in the first reading when Joshua asked the Israelites to always remember the many wondrous things you have done to them so they may remain faithful to you, make us remember too that there is no other God except you who personally relates with us, blessing us with everything that we need even without our asking.

You have created us to always remember but we are also “beings of forgetfulness” who always forget everything and everyone, especially you and those dearest to us. We are easily distracted with so many other things and people that we always forget those who are truly good to us.

When life becomes nice and easy for us, when we have everything we need, that is when we forget. And sadly, when we forget, when we do not remember, that is when we also break away, we go apart.

Because, to “remember” literally means to make a member or part again, “re” + “member”.

When we remember you, O God, we affirm your presence in us and among us.

When we remember our loved ones, whether away or gone forever, we make them a part again of our lives here and now, the present moment. The same thing is true with events in the past, whether good or bad.

Thank you so much O God for this gift of remembering!

Make us like the children in today’s gospel who came to you, wanting to be one with you, wanting to be your member and part too! Amen.

A blessed Saturday to everyone!

“Livin’ It Up” by Bill LaBounty (1982)

Lord My Chef Sunday Music, 11 August 2019
Baguio Pines, January 2018.

I turned 50 in 2015.

People told me that is the “age of enlightenment”.

And I believe so.

After living half a century, I have realised so many things in life that I had Bill LaBounty’s 1982 hit as my theme song, “Livin’ It Up.”

Like the gospel today when Jesus tells us to “gird your loins” or be on guard because death could come so sudden, LaBounty’s “Livin’ It Up” is the perfect Sunday music.

Girding up one’s loins, being on guard means living it up… taking a new persona when we learn to let go of our past to accept and appreciate every present moment, believing deep inside our hearts of more better and more meaningful things to come in our lives.

Girding up on’e loins, being on guard means living it up as matured men and women disposed to more things that are more profound and meaningful than mere existence because we are so aware of our mortality, of our coming to something more lasting that is eternal.

I finally got my life together
Scraped my heart up off the floor
My attitude is so much better
And I hardly ever cry the way I did before
I’ve been livin’ it up
Having my self in time
Livin’ it up
Right from the women to the wine
Livin’ out all those fantasies I never did get to
Those Crazy things I never got to do
I got my self a new persona
Took the service off my phone
These days I live the way I wanna
And I’d do just fine as long as I’m not left alone

Enjoy life in Christ Jesus, our only fulfillment.

“Dust in the Wind” by Kansas (1978)

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music, 04 August 2019
Petra, Jordan, 30 April 2019.

We were in Grade Six when the American progressive rock band Kansas released “Dust In the Wind” in 1978. Immediately upon hearing it on radio with its signature guitar plucking, everybody was talking about its spiritual meaning, especially its music that sounded so mystical.

According to its composer and band guitarist Kerry Livgren, the song was inspired by a line from the Book of Ecclesiastes which we have heard proclaimed in today’s Sunday Mass with some references also from Genesis 3:19 “…for dust thou art, and unto dust thou shall return.”

I have seen all things that are done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a chase after wind.

Ecclesiastes 1:14

Like the author of the Ecclesiastes who called himself Qoheleth, Dust in the Wind is no “kill joy” but a beautiful and timely reminder to us all that indeed, we are all dust in the wind, that we must seek things that truly last even after death.

And that is God alone.

What I like most in Dust in the Wind is its haunting melody that elicits a kind of fear that does not make you cower or tremble. It is a positive kind of fear that according to experts motivates man to further his knowledge and abilities. Like this fear of death that has enabled man to achieve so many breakthroughs in medicine and the sciences to cure and prevent many diseases that have greatly improved our quality of life. It was also the fear of death, of going hungry that enabled many explorers to discover many new lands and territories that now push advanced nations to explore the universe for future human colonies.

Sometimes in life, we have to be shocked and shaken because fear can be a good motivator for us to strive for the best. But more than a motivator, the fear of death can also be a path to holiness and communion in God as the Book of Ecclesiastes shows us: the more we realize our nothingness like dust in the wind, that everything is vanity, the more we also desire and hold on to God who is the only One permanent and absolutely good after death.

The French author and film director Georges Bernanos (Diary of a Country Priest) wrote in one of his novels that,

In a sense, you see, Fear is the daughter of God, redeemed on the night of Good Friday. It is not pretty to see— of course not!— sometimes mocked, sometimes cursed, renounced by everyone… And yet, do not deceive yourself: it is at the bedside of each agony, it intercedes for man.

Joy (La Joie)

May this music by Kansas remind us that only Jesus Christ can fulfill us. Not money or wealth, power or fame for “one’s life does not consist of possessions” (Lk. 12:15). May it also remind us of Christ’s parable of the rich man who died after storing treasures for himself, forgetting to be rich in what matters to God (cf. Lk.12:21).

Happy listening and blessed Sunday to you!

“Look What You’ve Done to Me” by Boz Scaggs (1980)

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music, 28 July 2019

I always tell people that prayer does not necessarily change situations like preventing a calamity from happening like typhoons and earthquakes. Prayer primarily changes people, of how we cope and respond to bad things happening to us and to others. Prayer is more of becoming like Jesus Christ, loving and compassionate, merciful and forgiving. Prayer is the expression of our love that is why it is always transformative.

That is essentially the meaning of our Sunday music today by the great Boz Scaggs, “Look What You’ve Done to Me” from the 1980 movie Urban Cowboy starring John Travolta and Debra Winger. Never saw that movie but I have always been a follower of Scaggs since 1976 when I was only in grade four and hopelessly in love with a classmate singing his poignant ballad We’re All Alone.

In this 1980 hit he had reportedly written hurriedly with David Foster, we also find the right attitude in praying taught by Jesus in the Our Father which is primarily to lose one’s self with God or with one’s beloved. That is exactly what Scaggs is saying in “Look What You’ve Done to Me” – of how love had formed and transformed him into a better person despite all the pains and sufferings.

Hope you enjoy our music today.

And yes, do not forget to pray for it is our expression of our love to God who makes us better persons by being more loving like him.

“A House Is Not A Home” by Dionne Warwick (1964)

Lord My Chef Sunday Music, 21 July 2019
Old experiment from my room while assigned at the Fatima Shrine in Valenzuela City, June 2010-2011.

Our Sunday gospel today speaks about true hospitality that leads to an encounter of Jesus Christ in our home and family.

Burt Bacharach’s “A House Is Not A Home” composed in 1964 for a movie of the same title easily came as our choice for this Sunday’s music.

Problem was choosing which of the many versions to feature in our blog today.

Though the different versions do matter a lot with slight variations in the lyrics, we decided in favor of the original recording by Ms. Dionne Warwick in 1964 that was the B-side of her top 40 single “You’ll Never Get To Heaven (If You Break My Heart)”.

Despite her excellent voice (a favorite of Bacharach), Warwick’s “A House Is Not A Home” did not fare well in the US charts. However, since its release in 1964 it has become a classic for its lovely tune and truthful lyrics.

A chair is still a chair, even when there’s no one sittin’ there
But a chair is not a house and a house is not a home
When there’s no one there to hold you tight
And no one there you can kiss goodnight….
A room is a still a room, even when there’s nothin’ there but gloom
But a room is not a house and a house is not a home
When the two of us are far apart
And one of us has a broken heart

Hospitality is from the Latin hospes that means to welcome. From this root came also the word hospital.

The story of Martha and Mary reminds us of the need to first welcome our family members so Jesus could dwell in our home. And this calls for love and respect for one another, for kindness and care.

How sad that right in our own family we could feel unwelcomed, or even hostaged which is from another Latin word hostis that means enemy.

This Sunday, experience Jesus and his good news of salvation in your family by breaking those barriers that prevent you from welcoming one another.

Have a “home sweet home” in Christ Jesus with a lot of love and kindness to one another in the family. God bless everyone!