Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Wednesday, Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time, Year I, 30 July 2025 Exodus 34:29-35 <*((((>< + ><))))*> Matthew 13:44-46
Photo by author, sunrise in Laurel, Batangas, February 2025.
God our Father, it has been quite a long time since these rains started and how I miss seeing the sun rising in the morning like your face appearing before me; how I love arising early in the morning to experience the sunrise that I imagine as closest to the experience of Moses conversing with you, Lord, face to face like two friends; in the sunrise I find and experience the paradox of you, of your presence in absence, when you seem "veiled" to me and everyone.
When he finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face. Whenever Moses Moses entered the presence of the Lord to converse with him, he removed the veil until he came out again. On coming out, he would tell the children of Israel all that had been commanded. Then the children of Israel would see that the skin of Moses’ face was radiant; so he would again put the veil over his face until he went in to converse with the Lord (Exodus 34:33-35).
"Nobody sees your face, O Lord, and lives again" because to see your face is our final fulfillment in life; to see your face like Moses and still live is to live "veiled" in your mystery that eyes cannot see but the heart and soul can feel and recognize; you come to us, Lord, "veiled" in many instances like the sunrise when I cannot see your face fully and directly like the sun but the more I look at you, the more I experience you in me, the more I become aware of my own face created in your image and likeness; show me your face, God, not as an image but as a reality inside me so that like Moses, your kindness and love may shine in me always, living authentically, living fully in your loving presence, veiled in the mystery and beauty of your kingdom buried like a treasure in the field or like a pearl of great price I would never trade for anything except you in Jesus. Amen.
Photo by author, sunrise over the Pacific from Katmon Nature Sanctuary & Resort, Infanta, Quezon, March 2023.
40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Fourth Sunday in Lent (Laetare Sunday), 30 March 2025 Joshua 5:9, 10-12 ++ 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 ++ Luke 15:1-3, 11-32
Photo by author, Chapel of Angel of Peace, RISE Tower, Our Lady of Fatima Un iversity, Valenzuela, 28 March 2025.
We enter the fourth Sunday in Lent today with shades of pink to “rejoice” not only because Easter is getting close but most of all for the joy of God’s immense love expressed in His mercy and forgiveness to us sinners.
Known as Laetare Sunday from the Latin entrance antiphon of the Mass calling us to “Rejoice!” as it is hoped that by this time, we feel nearer to God in our Lenten journey, having experienced His Mystery which our gospel presents today courtesy of Luke who invites us to enter the scene of the Parable of the Prodigal Son. Many times we find ourselves wrapped in God’s Mystery with a capital “M” while entangled too in that other mystery of sin with a small “m” as this parable shows us.
Tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to listen to Jesus, but the Pharisees and scribes began to complain, saying, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” So to them Jesus addressed this parable: “A man had two sons…” (Luke 15:1-3, 11).
Jesus came to make God closest to us as our breath. As a Mystery, God is neither a concept nor an idea we have to understand in order to have or grasp to be possessed. It is God Whom we let to possess and wrap us in His Mystery for He is totally transcendent yet so personal with each of us. We do not see Him but we feel and experience Him as all-encompassing like nature around us that can be so breath-taking and awesome yet cannot be totally captured even by cameras. God is like the presence of insects and birds in a forest we delightedly listen to but so difficult to find or see.
Photo by author, Chapel of Angel of Peace, RISE Tower, Our Lady of Fatima Un iversity, Valenzuela, 28 March 2025.
That’s God – all around us, all-encompassing. Unfortunately, we are like the youngest son, proud and feeling independent with the gall and guts to ask God for our share of everything to be on our own when we do not have anything at all.
And off we leave to live a prodigal life or “wasteful extravagance”, slaving ourselves for wealth and fame and power until we hit rock bottom when suddenly we find ourselves empty and lost, sick and even alone. That is when we remember to come “home”, to return to our roots where it all began who is God.
As we sank deep in despair, we find a glimmer of hope within us where God is, where God had never really left us, always awaiting our return right there in our heart. He has always been there though we never recognized Him. Actually, that very moment we realized we are down and out, that was when God immediately ran to meet us.
Now, that mystery with a small “m” called sin we hardly notice.
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 17 March 2025.
See again Luke as master storyteller in this lovely parable he alone has. See how Luke presents in a most subtle manner the mystery of sin not only as a breaking away from God and a violation of laws but a complete refusal to love.
Feel the youngest son in his asking for his share of inheritance from his father and his leaving home was not simply a breaking away but a refusal to love, a refusal to live, a refusal to be with the father.
That happens when we sin.
We do not tell God and our family and friends that we don’t love them but our walking away from them tells that so clearly. However, as we refuse to love when we sin, that is also when we deny the love right in our hearts, that we cannot stop loving because whatever we take after we have left are actually the very love of God and of our family and friends!
There is nothing truly ours in this world and because of God’s Mystery, we never lose His gift of love within us that when things get worst in our lives, it is the same love that gives us the spark to hope and believe again. It was that love that the youngest son missed and realized despite all his dramas as he went home to his loving father just like us too.
On the other hand, the parable presents to us too another pernicious effect of sin as a mystery which is its direct effect to our personality. As a refusal to love, sin has a direct effect to our personality because every time we sin we become a less loving person that is a contradiction of our identity and nature.
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 17 March 2025.
Its worst part happens when we take small sins for granted including the little decisions we make that do not seem to be evil or bad, even without any vice at all; notice how after sometime of repeatedly committing them, our personality is affected, making us a less loving person that eventually breaks out in the open and we freakout like the elder son or those people caught on cam doing all the crazy stuff in public.
He said to this father in reply, “Look, all these years I served you and not once did I disobey your orders; yet you never gave me even a young goat to feast on with my friends. But when your son returns who swallowed up your property with prostitutes, for him you slaughter the fattened calf” (Luke 15:29-30).
How often have we made the excuse para yun lang naman? That a little lying or cheating once won’t really matter, asking ano ba masama doon? (what’s bad/wrong)? as an excuse for things that seem to be not bad or sinful at all.
Recall the first Sunday of Lent, the temptation of Jesus, of how the devil is always in the details, tempting us with that device of increments, of apportioning to little things the big evil things, not showing us the whole picture like fake news peddled by demons.
A sin is always a sin, a refusal to love. Period. Whether we go big time in sins like the youngest son or small time in sins like his elder brother, sin is clearly a refusal to love that greatly affects our personality, our lives and that of others.
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 17 March 2025.
We rejoice today for that great Mystery of God, of His immense love for each of us no matter how bad and how dark our sins are. God’s Mystery is His abounding love and mercy, forgiving our sins the moment we feel sorry for them.
He said to him, “My son, you are here with me always; everything I have is yours. But now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found” (Luke 15:31-32).
As I turned 60 last Saturday, the overwhelming feeling I have had inside me is that deep gratitude to God’s love for me. Everything is grace that all the more I pray, “Lord you have given me with so much but I have given so little; teach me to give more of myself, more of your love, more of you to others.”
This time, I pray it with deeper conviction as I see both with joy and fear the bright horizon ahead with a distant shore beyond. There’s no more time to waste as St. Paul had noted in the second reading, I feel life now more definitive, that God is so undeniably real. Like St. Paul, “we are ambassadors for Christ” with the mission to help people “reconcile to God” especially in this final journey in life. God reminds us today that like during the time of Joshua in the first reading, the Eucharist is our new Passover where we thank God for His abounding love and mercy for us in this life and beyond. Amen.
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 17 March 2025.
40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Wednesday, First Week in Lent, 12 March 2025 Jonah 3:1-10 + + + Luke 11:29-32
Photo by author, Timberland Highlands Resort, San Mateo, Rizal, 08 March 2025.
Fill me, O God, with wonder and awe for you like Jonah! Surprise me always of your goodness among your peoples; help me in my unbelief!
The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: “Set out for the great city of Nineveh, and announce to it the message that I will tell you.” So Jonah made ready and went to Nineveh, according to the Lord’s bidding. Now Nineveh was an enormously large city; it took three days to go through it. Jonah began his journey through the city, and had gone but a single day’s walk announcing, “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed,” when the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth (Jonah 3:1-5).
Loving God our Father, you are so great and awesome, more wide than the great city of Nineveh yet so mysterious that Jonah himself could not believe what he had seen: the people of Nineveh believed in you and repented a mere half day yet when he proclaimed your message to them!
Many times in life, we are like Jonah - very reluctant in following you, in obeying you because your ways are so different, even beyond comprehension yet so real; many times, we feel we know more than you know; most of all, most of the time, we insist our own even to you. Sorry, Lord.
Photo by author, Hidden Valley Springs Resort, Calauan, Laguna, 20 February 2025.
In this Season of Lent, banish our evil thoughts, banish the many reasons and explanations we have to open our minds and our hearts to your mysteries so we may read your many signs of presence and power, love and mercy for us even in this time in the world when it has become more difficult to believe in you due to modern trends, most especially of our own stubbornness; grant us that same disposition you gave Jonah who finally believed and obeyed you in doing your work in the way you want it done. Amen.
Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 10 March 2025
When the devil first tempted Jesus "If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread" the devil tempts us too to forget our being beloved children of God by doing everything and anything for us to be reduced to human doing forgetting we are human being.
And so, Jesus told
the devil, "One does not live
by bread alone",
he tells us too today
even if we cannot do anything
because we are weak and sick,
even if we fail to do something
because we have forgotten or
was so afraid,
we are still loved
for God is greater than
our hearts who cannot be seen
yet so true and so real,
fulfilling not just satisfying
than any bread.
Photo by author, Timberland Highlands Resort, San Mateo, Rizal, 08 March 2025.
When the devil tempted Jesus the third time, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here", the devil tempts us too to totally forget God because, after all, whatever we do, God still loves us; of course, that is true: we are humans loved and cared in our being not in our doing.
And so, Jesus told the devil "You should not put the Lord, your God to the test", he tells us too today for us to stop pushing the limits of morality and decency, and simply let the mysteries of God and of life wrap us because they are greater than us, not problems to be solved nor principles to be understood.
Photo by author, 10 March 2025.
Life is a daily Lent, a journey towards Easter, a return to our first love, - God in Jesus Christ his Son in whom we have been baptized and adopted as his beloved children as our being and identity: so let us simply be our true selves - his beloved since the beginning - loving him totally in our loving service to others.
This Lent let us journey in Jesus in prayer to be one in him; in fasting to create space for him within; in alms-giving to be one with fellow human beings for we are not human doings who cannot do everything who cannot know and explain everything except to wonder more, to love more, to appreciate more, to believe and trust God more.
*Collage are photos of our students last February 09, 2025 spending a Sunday afternoon of love with children with cerebral palsy and family.
**Special thanks to our sister in faith, Nicola who gave us the idea for this poem, the beautiful terms "human being, human doing" from her blog https://eaglesight.blog/2025/03/02/rest-and-replenish/.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Thursday in the Twenty-sixth Week of Ordinary Time, Year II, 03 October 2024 Job 19:21-27 <*((((>< + ><))))*> Luke 10:1-12
Photo by Mr. Jay Javier, 07 September 2024.
God our loving Father:
Grant me the "patience of Job". Like him, everyday I go through many trials and sufferings: some are of my own-making, some can be explained and understood, but most often, many of them are a mystery, beyond explanations, beyond comprehension. Yes, Lord: many times I have so many questions in life that are left unanswered but like Job, I believe You alone knows everything I am going through, especially the pains and hurts, the difficulties and hardships.
But as for me, I know that my Vindicator lives, and that he will at last stand forth upon the dust; Whom I myself shall see: my own eyes, not another’s, shall behold him, And from my flesh I shall see God: my inmost being is consumed with longing (Job 19:25-27).
Thank you for calling me, for sending me into your great harvest; how lovely are your words, "The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master to send out laborers for his harvest" (Matthew 10:2); so many times, we think the solution to our problems are found in things without knowing nor realizing what we need are more people willing to labor with somebody else's pains and hurts, people willing to labor for people so lost in the mysteries of life saddled with many things without clear explanations except to be patient like Job, trusting that in the end, our vindication is in You. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Tuesday, Memorial of St. Hildegard, Virgin & Doctor of Church, 17 September 2024 1 Corinthians 12:12-14, 27-31 <'[[[[>< + ><]]]]'> Luke 7:11-17
Jesus journeyed to a city called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd accompnaied him. As he drew near to the gate of the city, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. When the Lord saw her, he was moved with pity for her and said to her, “Do not weep” (Luke 7:11-13).
Today, O God our Father, you remind us of life's fragility, of life's daily crossings into a gate, a portal of death and life, of weeping and rejoicing, of absence and presence like Jesus drawing near to the gate of the city of Nain; you give us each day a chance to enter each day filled with life and joy, love and mercy of your Son Jesus Christ.
We pray most especially for widows who have lost everything: their husband, their son or daughter, their joy and meaning in life; help them cross each day's gate and portal of their daily Nain; how lovely that Jesus was moved by the widowed mother not by the dead son to be buried; many times we forget the living especially widows without realizing the unique pains and hurts they go through in losing a husband and a child.
Take care, dear Jesus, of the widows and widowers too who often cry alone, suffer in silence for their loss; visit them today with your warmth and joy to comfort them with your loving presence through their family and friends, the Church which is your Body. Through the intercession of the great mystic St. Hildegarde von Bingen, may widows and widowers experience what she had written that "The mystery of God hugs you in its all-encompassing mystery." Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Friday in the Twenty-Second Week of Ordinary Time, Year II, 06 September 2024 1 Corinthians 4:1-5 <*((((>< + ><))))*> Luke 5:33-39
Photo by author, 15 August 2024.
Thank you, our loving Father for another week about to close; thank you dear God for this first Friday in September 2024: despite the rains and the floods and the inconveniences these have brought, thank you for a new beginning today. Let us celebrate this gift of life you have given us by putting on a new attitude, a new disposition, a new outlook in life for you have made everything new in Jesus Christ.
And he also told them a parable. “No one tears a piece from a new cloak to patch an old one. Otherwise, he will tear the new and the piece from it will not match the old cloak. Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled, and the skins will be ruined. Rather, new wine must be pured into fresh wineskins” (Luke 5:36-38).
Make us your trustworthy stewards of your mysteries, Lord; make us truly your servants who shall reveal your many mysteries of life and death, of joy and sufferings, of poverty and wealth, of fruitfulness and fulfillment, of redemption and forgiveness be known in our life of witnessing without any regard for fame nor popularity except that we do your work in Jesus faithfully. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 26 May 2024
Photo by author, San Juan, La Union, 25 July 2023.
Mysteries are like gifts wrapped so beautifully but not meant to be opened to be explained nor understood; rather, we simply have to let ourselves be wrapped by the gift of life’s mysteries to discover its many gifts that can enrich us in the process.
Just like the mystery of God, His being One in Three Persons called the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity which we celebrate this Sunday. Contrary to common beliefs, mysteries can be explained and understood but, not fully.
Yet, why live explaining and understanding everything?
That is why when God revealed Himself to us, He did not come explaining terms and concepts to us humans and instead conducted Himself in a most unique, personal manner. God related to us in a very personal way like another person by letting us experience His loving presence, His kindness and mercy, His justice and salvation, His healing and liberation as Father, Son and Holy Spirit (https://lordmychef.com/2024/05/25/the-gift-of-persons/).
That is why we have chosen for this Sunday’s music the 2016 Is It Any Wonder? by the American contemporary and R&B soul trio of singer Durand Jones, singer/drummer Aaron Frazer and guitarist Blake Rhein who call themselves as Durand Jones & The Indications. I accidentally discovered them along with other young musicians during the 2020 lockdown of COVID-19 pandemic. Their music is so cool coupled with lyrics so thoughtful. And mysterious. Like Is it Any Wonder? that sounds so matured yet so young, reminding us of our first crushes or first love when we got so lost in what to do and say whenever near the girl of our dream.
This road Is gonna take us back now You look so fine I don't know how to act now They say, "My child Don't stroll off easy 'Cause when it's time You gonna hear what she said"
Is it any wonder? Is it any wonder?
If you ever leave me alone I'll be cryin', wishin' you'd come home
When I look in your eyes I see you starin' at me, girl And when it's time I see you holdin' on me, girl
'Cause you You got a hold on me, yeah So, I'm Gonna make you see, yeah Aw, yeah
Is it any wonder? Is it any wonder? Is it any wonder? Is it any wonder?
With its classic tune and laid-back beat of guitar, drums and horns in the KEXP live version we prefer, Is It Any Wonder? speaks so well of life’s many mysteries that wrap us and move us at the same time to greater heights in believing more and loving more. Very often when we meet people, our tendency to welcome them is a result of their conduct with us, like this girl in the song Is It Any Wonder? Is she warm or cold, inviting or reserved and closed?
See how the song speaks so little – but heavily – of his experiences with his crush, leaving everything into wondering and awe, repeatedly singing, Is it any wonder?
To wonder, to be awed like a child is the beginning of love, of discovery of God and of the other person who fills the emptiness and longings within us. That is the gift of person, of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – there is always that mystery we can’t explain right away but we feel disarmed, wondering why we are drawn to God and others because of their conduct, of their kindness, of their offer of relationship. The key is to always wonder and bask into the beauty and gift of the other person, especially of God. Have a relaxing rainy Sunday!
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity-B, 26 May 2024 Deuteronomy 4:32-34, 39-40 ><}}}*> Romans 8:14-17 ><}}}*> Matthew 28:16-20
Photo by author, the Holy Trinity as depicted at the Parish of St. John the Baptist, Calumpit, Bulacan, March 2021.
We are now into the Ordinary Time and for the next two consecutive Sundays we are celebrating three important Solemnities in the next three weeks.
First in these series of Solemnities in Ordinary Time is that of the Most Holy Trinity, the highest truth in our faith which is our belief in One God in three Persons. Contrary to common beliefs, mysteries can be explained and understood, but, not fully well. After all, mysteries are not really meant to be solved but simply be lived and enjoyed like the mystery of the person which is in the heart of the Most Holy Trinity: How can there be three Persons in one God?
Moses said to the people: “Ask now of the days of old, before your time, ever since God created man upon the earth; ask from one end of the sky to the other: Did anything so great ever happen before? Was it ever heard of? Did a people ever hear the voice of God speaking from the midst of fire, as you did, and live? Or did any god venture to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by testings, by signs and wonders, by war, with his strong hand and outstretched arm, and by great terror, all of which the Lord, your God, did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?”
Deuteronomy 4:32-34
Photo by author, sunrise at the Lake of Galilee in Israel, May 2019.
Our first reading this Sunday invites us too to examine ourselves and our lives to see how God has been so personal, so relational with us. As we say in Tagalog, “Sigue nga, paano mo naranasan ang Diyos?”
How did you experience God? Was it not just like the way we experienced other people in our relationships?
Very often when we meet people, our tendency to welcome or accept them were a result of their conduct, of their approach to us. If they are kind and good natured and warm, we are easily disarmed and we feel like knowing them.
That is what Moses was telling his people at that time, including us today: recall how personal was God in dealing with us with all His warmth and love because they indicate relationships and therefore, another person to relate with.
“The Trinity” (1425-27), an icon by Russian artist Andrei Rublev from wikipedia.org.
Remember how the books of the bible were written: the first questions the biblical writers asked were not the origins of the world but those asked by Moses today. After they have experienced the kindness and love of God that they eventually asked and reflected on the origins (genesis) of everything on earth and the universe.
In that experience, they felt a relationship with a Father as source of all life like dads giving life as well as protecting life and giving back life to those who may have lost it. That personal experience of God as a Father so loving and caring moved the biblical writers too to ask and reflect on the presence of evil and sufferings as we find in the Wisdom books like the Psalms and the Book of Job.
There is always the primacy of God’s personal relationship and of His conduct towards us humans that prompt us to “know” Him, to believe Him. Like people dear to us, God first revealed Himself to us in the most personal manner through a succession of events and other people we have met and known. That is why when we say “I believe in God”, we not only express a concept but also a relationship. Most of all, in this relationship is a commitment too to get to know God as a person! Before knowing any details about God or people, we first have relationships no matter how little it may be at the start. Later, we get phone numbers and other contact details with people we meet because we feel “committed” to getting to know them more in the future. In a sense, we believe them that is why we keep in touch with them. The same is true with God.
Photo by author, St. Catherine’s Monastery at the foot of Mt. Sinai in Egypt, May 2019.
The word person means “a conscious relating being”. Whether with God or with others, we experience the person and the relationship unfolding through time. There is always first the experience of a conduct like kindness before questions and details of a person come.
That word “kindness” actually indicates a relationship because its root is kin that means “one of us” or “of same tribe”. When we say “he is so kind to me”, it means he treats me as one of his family or his own. In that kindness and whatever good conduct present, there seems to be an “invisible line” linking us with people we meet. Or with God which the Holy Spirit does.
Of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit is the most elusive in nature and yet, it is the most frequently and concretely in contact with us. It is the principle of unity in the Trinity and among us as we have reflected last Pentecost Sunday. Today, St. Paul explains to us how the Holy Spirit as a Person keeps these relationships among us and with God united and strong, enabling us to cry out “Abba” or “Our Father”. It is the Holy Spirit who gives us the courage to keep our relationships as persons and with God especially at this modern time when some people refuse to recognize God and worst, some are bent in deleting God entirely from life.
That is why in today’s gospel, Jesus instructed His disciples including us today to “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Mt.28:19-20). Persons always presuppose relationships; hence, the need to gather others always like what God did and continues to do in His Church.
It has been three weeks since my mother peacefully passed away. People ask me how am I doing. Truth is, I am not so well. I miss mommy so much. It is true we only realize the value of a person after he/she is gone. And it is most difficult with mothers!
Photo by author, Mt. Sinai in Egypt, May 2019.
Every time I come home, I have that strange feeling, wondering deep inside me of that great mystery, how did it happen that it was my mom – just one person – who had left us but our home has become so empty? Since May 7, that image of mommy’s empty room after her body was taken to the funeral had remained in my mind and as days passed, I have noticed how our home has been so hollowed when there are still my siblings and niece staying in the house?
That is the gift of person. A person fills not only spaces and homes but most of all, fills us. Every person fills another person in the same manner God first fills us with His love through persons dearest to us. That is why we believe in God.
Let us have good relationships with others so they may experience God too in their lives. Let us gather in the Father’s love in Jesus Christ to celebrate the gift of life together in the Holy Spirit through one another. Let us pray:
God our loving Father, thank you for the gift of life, for my gift of person and for the gift of so many persons in my life; dwell in me, Holy Spirit, fill me with your fire and life, animate me with the Son's justice and love so that in myself the mystery of the Blessed Trinity be alive. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Wednesday in the Fifteenth Week of Ordinary Time, Year I, 19 July 2023
Exodus 3:1-6, 9-12 <*{{{{>< + ><}}}}*> Matthew 11:25-27
Photo by author, sunrise at Camp John Hay, 12 July 2023.
Praise and glory to you,
God our loving Father!
You are so "kind and merciful
for you pardon all our sins,
heals all our ills;
you redeem us
from destruction,
and crowns us with
kindness and compassion"
(Psalms 103:3-4).
Therefore, I pray, O God
for each day that I may
always receive and cherish
your gifts, recognize your love
for me despite and in spite
of my sinfulness and weaknesses
like Moses whom you have called
after he had fled Egypt for a crime;
let me have that same sense of wonder
and curiosity in finding you,
in hearing you, in following you;
the whole earth indeed is sacred,
belonging to you, O Lord;
let me take off my shoes,
walk barefooted to feel your presence
and answer your call to send me
to those crying for your help,
for those numb in experiencing
your presence and coming.
Let me be like children
open and trusting to your
revelations found in the simplest
and most ordinary things in life
unlike the learned who overthink,
holding on to their
beliefs and convictions,
without any room for surprises,
seeking certainties, solving
the unsolvable mysteries
in life long revealed
in Jesus Christ your Son
and our Lord.
Amen.
Photo by author, sunrise at Camp John Hay, Baguio City, 12 July 2023.
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