Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Friday in the Sixth Week of Easter, 30 May 2025 Acts 18:9-18 <*((((>< + ><))))*> John 16:20-23
Photo by author, Cabo da Roca, Pundaquit, San Antonio, Zambales, 14 May 2025.
In a few days you are going to "leave" us, Jesus; this Sunday is your Ascension, your physical departure from us and you described so well our situation:
Jesus said to his disciples: “Amen, amen, I say to you, you will weep and mourn, while the world rejoices; you will grieve, but your grief will become joy. When a woman is in labor, as she is in anguish because her hour has arrived; but when she has given birth to a child, she no longer remembers the pain because of her joy that a child has been born into the world. So you also are now in anguish. But I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you. On that day you will not question me about anything. Amen, amen, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you” (John 16:20-23).
What has been "born" in me in your Rising from the dead? What is that joy like a woman in the pangs of childbirth suddenly becoming a joy so incomparable?
Oh, it is that joy of having you in my heart, Jesus: I have found joy more in my heart than outside of me; your joy is that assurance you are with me always no matter what, as certain as the rising and the setting of the sun, as lovely as the blooming of flowers, soothing like the hush of the wind or the gushing of water in a river or the rush of the waves to the shore.
Keep that joy in my heart, Jesus that no one can take away; a joy in my heart that even if I do not receive the things I ask in prayer, I still believe, I still hope, I still rejoice in you.
Sorry, Jesus, I still question you on anything despite that joy of knowing you, of having you but many times I wonder why all the pains and sufferings with me and those close to me; there are times, Lord that I lose my heart that I could not feel that joy of you when you don't answer my prayers.
But, to still keep on praying even if it not answered at all is already pure joy in you, Jesus!
Like peace, true joy is so difficult and elusive when not found in you, Jesus that we always have to wait for you, feel you, suffer and cry with you and sometimes die in you so that joy shall be born in us again and again and again. Amen.
Photo by author, Cabo da Roca, Pundaquit, San Antonio, Zambales, 14 May 2025.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Monday, Week II in Ordinary Time, Year I, 20 January 2025 Hebrews 5:1-10 <*((((>< + ><))))*> Mark 2:18-22
Photo by author, sunrise at St. Paul Spirituality Center, Pico, La Trinidad, Benguet, 06 January 2025.
Praise and glory to you, God our loving Father! Thank you for this wonderful Monday as we pray for one another, especially to those still baffled with life's many mysteries, its many paradoxes beginning to appear anew as we dive into Ordinary Time.
Teach us to take into heart Jesus Christ's teaching today:
“Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the skins are ruined. Rather, new wine is poured into fresh wineskins” (Mark 2:22).
Help us change our attitudes in life, Jesus: make us realize that like your life, our life is always a mixture of joy and sufferings; most of all, make us experience in your coming into our human reality as our Eternal High Priest, you have brought newness and significance in storage and taste of wine that symbolizes life itself, as you put a new vigor of spirit in celebrating life.
Photo by author, sunset in Atok, Benguet, 27 December 2024.
“Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered; and when he was made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him…” (Hebrews 5:8-9).
How lovely and wonderful to realize how your true humanity, dear Jesus, actually makes you more than less an effective Priest to truly "bridge" us with the Father and one another; like you Jesus, we pray the Father to take away our pains but in your example on the Cross, we learn how God is actually found in pain!
Change our attitudes to be like you, Jesus who came to join us in our many sufferings to show us that in our dealing with our own pain and the pain of others, that is when we grow in strength and maturity, in love and compassion that eventually lead us to deeper and true joy in you our Lord.
Help us embrace this paradox of life, Jesus, that a life devoid of the challenge of pain is an incomplete life; and when we are puzzled by the many sufferings in us and around us, let us gaze into your Cross to reflect, "Why did God not spare you his own Son?" Amen.
Photo by author, St. Paul Spirituality Center, Pico, La Trinidad, Benguet, 04 January 2025.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Wednesday in the Thirty-first Week of Ordinary Time, Year II, 06 November 2024 Philippians 2:12-18 ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> Luke 14:25-33
Photo by author, Fatima Ave., Valenzuela City, 25 July 2024.
Grant me, dear Jesus the serenity and composure of St. Paul: so peaceful, so dignified, so free in the face of death.
Do everything without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine like lights in the world, as you hold on to the word of life… But, even if I am poured out as a libation upon the sacrificial service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with all of you. In the same way you also should rejoice and share your joy with me (Philippians 2:14-16, 17-18).
Many times O Lord the burdens are too heavy and unbearable, with pains and suffering so overwhelming that I really wonder if I would make any difference at all; but, you are always here present in the "nick of time" sending people reminding me of jokes I have long forgotten but still tickle them; or simple lessons I could not recall but they have kept and guided them through life; or music I made them listened to that have lingered in their heads; or books and poems that have opened their horizons.
Teach me, Jesus to renounce everything I have, empty me of my pride, of my self to be filled with you only so that I may truly shine like light in this world so at home and fascinated with neons and klieg lights that mislead them to darkness. Amen.
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 Therese of the Child Jesus, Virgin & Doctor of Church, 01 October 2024 Job 3:1-3, 11-17, 20-23 <*[[[[>< +. ><]]]]*> Luke 9:51-56
Photo by author, 2018.
Thank you, dear God our loving Father for the month of October! Most of all, thank you for sending us Jesus Christ your Son and thus "opened your Kingdom to those who are humble and to little ones" like St. Therese of the Child Jesus whose memorial we celebrate today.
Lead us to follow trustingly in the little way of St. Therese of the Child Jesus especially in bearing patiently filled with hope life's many sufferings like Job.
Job opened his mouth and cursed his day. Job spoke out and said: Why is light given to the toilers, and life to the bitter in spirit? they wait for death and it comes not; they search for it rather than for hidden treasures, Rejoice in it exultingly, and are glad when they reache the grave: Those whose path is hidden from them, and whom God has hemmed in! (Job 3:1-2, 20-23)
Fill us too with true hope, dear Jesus like You, Job and St. Therese, a hope that trusts in God even if things are sure to get worst, even end in death; like You, Jesus, may we resolutely determine to journey to Jerusalem even when we know it could lead to our passion and death; help us live in hope like St. Therese that despite her sickness, she did everything filled with love for the Church missionaries; may our pains in life like St. Therese and Job have both experienced help us understand the pain of others so that we may bring healing compassion to their situation; make us realize that a world totally free of pain can actually become a place of total selfishness and self-indulgence because it is through pains we truly love and hope and become holy and saint. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Saturday, Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, 14 September 2024 Numbers 21:4-9 ><}}}}*> Philippians 2:6-11 ><}}}}*> John 3:13-17
Photo by author in my previous parish, 2017.
Today we celebrate a most unique Feast, the Exaltation of the Cross.
It is so unique because first of all, the cross is perhaps the most unique thing on earth made up of two pieces of wood that are so ordinary yet so deeply extraordinary in meaning, a sign of God’s immense love for us humans through Jesus Christ’s Passion and Death.
From being the sign of the most inhuman punishment in history, the Cross is now the very sign of how God “so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that he who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life” (Jn.3:16). It encapsulates the whole mystery of Jesus Christ, of how this all-powerful God beyond the ordinary became weak like us in everything except sin so that we too may be like Him, divine and more than ordinary. In His suffering and death on the Cross, Jesus made the lowly wood so ordinary to be so exalted to become His sign of love and mercy, power and majesty.
Photo by author, Jerusalem, May 2017.
Hence, in the Cross is the power of God’s love to transform us to better persons.
In the Cross is God’s power to lead us closer to Him with its vertical beam and to others with its horizontal beam.
In the Cross is the power of good if we choose to embrace it with Christ Jesus as our Lord and Master.
The Cross is most unique of all signs in the world because underneath its ordinariness, that is where we see God’s glory and majesty. It was underneath the Cross of darkness and gloom on Good Friday that humanity began to see light and hope in life’s many absurdities. Most of all, it was underneath that Cross of suffering and death of Jesus Christ that we feel and experience the assurance of the Resurrection.
How?
Through our own pains and sufferings that are most uniquely ours too!
With their patience worn out by the journey, the people complained against God and Moses, “Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in this desert, where there is no food or water? We are disgusted with this wretched food!” In punishment the Lord sent among the people saraph serpents, which bit the people so that many of them died (Numbers 21:4-6).
Photo by author, Dominican Hills, Baguio City, January 2018.
You must have heard that old story of a man who came to Jesus to return the cross given for him to carry; he asked Jesus to have it replaced with a lighter one. Jesus then led the man to a huge room with all kinds of crosses for him to choose which he prefers as the best one for him so that he would stop complaining.
After closely examining the specs of so many crosses, the man finally decided to pick one he deemed as perfect for him after considering its weight and other dimensions, only to find out from Jesus Himself that it was the same cross he had actually returned for exchange!
Many times in life we are like those people in the first reading, never ending in their complaints to God, even challenging Him, accusing Him of forsaking us, of being unfair when life becomes difficult and unbearable. There are times we feel being on the distaff side of life always like a flat tire, never on top. We cry foul to God especially with all our hurts and pains inflicted by others, asking Him where was He when most needed?
Photo by author in Jordan near the Israeli border where Moses put up the bronze serpent as instructed by God to heal those bitten by the snakes after they have complained of their conditions in the wilderness, May 2019.
While it is true life is indeed difficult, the cross reminds us of the fact that the pains and hurts we have are uniquely ours too, something we have to accept and most of all, own.
There are pains that are so deep and won’t go away that have in fact affected us dismally in our lives already. Instead of self-blaming and self-pity, we just have to ask for God’s grace to accept and own them like Jesus Christ. We just have to “bring it home” – that imagery of the Cross planted on the Calvary – into our very selves, in our being as something so true and real. And uniquely ours.
Stop thinking of others’ pains and hurts. We are not all the same. If ever we have similar experiences, the hues and shades even gravity and circumstances are not same because each pain and hurt, like the cross, is uniquely ours. Like every person, every cross is unique because it is also a gift, a mystery, and life. We have to “befriend” our pains and hurts, our own cross instead of resist it. It is in “befriending” our pains and hurts, our cross in life that we grow and mature, becoming more free to love and to be joyful because that is when the cross triumphs over its disgrace and shame in us and with others. That is when our pains and hurts, when our crosses begin to reveal to us the many beautiful truths of Easter awaiting us.
The Cross of Christ triumphed because Jesus carried it wholeheartedly, allowing those two pieces of wood to reveal not only to Him who knew everything beforehand its meaning but most of all to everyone of us the deeper truths the Cross signifies as St. Paul eloquently expressed in our second reading.
The Cross of Christ atop the church of our Lady of Lourdes in France. Photo by my former student Philip Santiago during his pilgrimage, September 2018.
One thing I realized after my mother died in May is the fact that while there are so many pains and sufferings in this world, my own pain and suffering in losing her are most difficult to bear; hence, something I must carry because it is uniquely mine.
But, one thing so unique I noticed is that the more I see my cross following my mother’s death, the more I saw also the cross of others. The Cross of Jesus triumphed truly in me when I embraced and owned my cross, when I befriended my pains and hurts that eventually led me to recognize and see, to feel more and experience too the crosses of others.
When we become conscious of each one’s unique cross, slowly we are able to reveal to them the meaning of their personal crosses too because we become more sympathetic, more open, more silent to listen more, love more, care more and be more present with those in their own unique cross. No wonder, I find conversing more engaging with others who also grieve because we can see each other’s unique crosses!
Jesus calls us to imitate Him that by embracing and owning our cross, we too may lead others to finding the meaning of their own cross and thus experience Easter soon. Let us pray:
Give us the grace, O God, to always embrace the Cross like your Son Jesus Christ where we can all be empty of ourselves to be filled with your Holy Spirit to make your love visible in us. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Thursday in the Fifteenth Week of Ordinary Time, Year II, 18 July 2024 Isaiah 26: 7-9, 12, 16-19 <'[[[[>< + ><]]]]'> Matthew 11:28-30
Your words today, O God, are so refreshing that I wish to pray like your Prophet Isaiah: "The way of the just is smooth; the path of the just you make level. My soul yearns for you in the night, yes, my spirit within me keeps vigil for you; For your dew is a dew of light, and the land of shades gives birth" (Isaiah 26:7, 9, 19).
Freshen us, O Lord, from our dirt and exhaustion from sin!
Refresh our thoughts and our feelings, make them crystal clear like the dew in the morning to see your kindness and mercy!
Gladden our hearts, uplift our souls with your presence in Christ Jesus who calls us daily to come to Him and have rest, because His yoke is easy, His burden is light (Matthew 11:28-30).
Let us surrender to You in Jesus Christ for there is no salvation outside from You except in Him; so true are the words of Isaiah: "As a woman about to give birth writhes and cries out in pains, so were we in your presence, O Lord. We conceived and writhed in pain, giving birth to wind; salvation we have not achieved for the earth, the inhabitants of the world cannot bring it forth. But your dead shall live, their corpses shall rise; awake and sing, you who lie in the dust" (Isaiah 11: 17-19).
Teach us to appreciate and value the little things in life we take for granted like the droplets of dew in the morning enough to set our face aglow again of new beginnings; in coming to us, Jesus taught us the value of being small, being little, being silent, being humble when life begins and regenerates always. Let us arise anew in Jesus from our deep sleep in sin through His dew of light, a glimmer of better days ahead. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Good Friday Recipe, 29 March 2024 Isaiah 52:13-53:12 > + < Hebrews 4:14-16;5:7-9 > + < John 18:1-19:42
Photo by author, Chapel of the Holy Family, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, June 2016.
The evangelists tell us that Jesus died on the Cross on a Friday at about 3PM. And they tell us too that our Lord died praying, exactly what most of the Seven Last Words expressed.
But from the gospel we have heard this afternoon written by the beloved disciple, we discover something very beautiful about the death of Jesus, that He was very calm and peaceful in His prayer unto death.
After this, aware that everything was now finished, in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I thirst.” There was a vessel filled with common wine. So they put a sponge soaked in wine on a sprig of hyssop and put it up to his mouth. When Jesus had taken the wine, he said, “It is finished.” And bowing his head, he handed over the spirit.
John 19:28-30
Photo by author, Chapel of the Holy Family, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, June 2016.
When we are deep in suffering, in severe pain like Jesus on the cross, what do we usually pray? Most often, we pray that the terrible ordeal we are going through would finally end, would be finished.
And sometimes, due to desperation, we even pray for death, of how we wish God would finally end our life to be free from all the problems we are going to.
One of the things I keep telling to sick people I visit came from Meryl Streep who acted as mother of Winona Ryder in the 1990’s movie “House of Spirits” when she said, “Do not pray for death because death surely comes.” Sometimes in our desperation, we feel death is the solution to our problems and sufferings. But when Jesus died on the Cross, He made death an offering, a gift of self in love.
Photo by author, Chapel of the Holy Family, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, June 2016.
In the original Greek text, the word used to express Jesus Christ’s final prayer “It is finished” is tetelestai from the root word telos meaning the final end and direction. It is not just an ending but a direction too.
From the very start, Jesus was clear with His mission and how it would be accomplished. He has always been sure of Himself, of who He is. Notice how the beloved disciple repeated many times in his account of the Last Supper how Jesus was “fully aware” of everything that was going to happen to Him that He was actually in control and never left to the whims and powers of His enemies when He went through His Passion and Death.
Last night we heard how Jesus knew everything was coming to end that He washed the feet of His disciples after their supper. Most of all, Jesus was so composed and serene that He even gave bread to His betrayer Judas Iscariot during their meal. In fact in the washing of the feet of His disciples to His agony in the garden, Jesus calmly and courageously faced death that in the end, on the Cross, He had the upper hand that He was able to pray “It is finished” because He was never made under the power of death completely as He would rise again on Easter.
In praying “It is finished,” Jesus consecrated not only Himself but also all humanity to the Father so that we are able to bear and face death squarely like Him. Very notable in this part is how we find only in the fourth gospel how Jesus died by “handing over his spirit to the Father.”
Remember the verb to hand over is the literal meaning of the Greek word used paradidomi or betrayal. But here at the death of Jesus, handing over has no negative connotation but purely positive; Jesus never betrayed or handed anyone over to sufferings. He bore all sufferings and handed these over to the Father. That is true passion in the active sense when we let things happen not because we are helpless and resigned to the situation but we passively take everything in the positive sense because we have that firm faith and deep conviction that being silent, being patient, being persevering will eventually bear fruit for us like the death of Jesus that led to Easter.
Suffering and death thus are not resignation nor mere surrender but submission to the higher power of God to convert darkness into light, sadness into joy, and death into life. There on the Cross Jesus showed that true power is in weakness.
Photo by author, Chapel of the Holy Family, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, June 2016.
After the consecration of the bread and wine into Christ’s Body and Blood in the Mass, we proclaim “Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again.” We call it as “the mystery of our faith” because when we say “Christ has died,” we admit that truly, the Son of God went through all kinds of sufferings in life we all go through like betrayal, rejection, loneliness, sickness, hunger, thirst, and yes, even death. And His sufferings continue as we suffer more in this world marred by evil and sins, making us cry, asking when would these end and be finished.
There lies the mystery of our faith on the Cross that led to Easter: when we look at Jesus Christ on His Cross, we see our own pains and agony as God’s pains and agony too. Jesus joined us in our anguish and death so that we could experience all the more His immense love for us. Without Jesus and His Cross, we would never be able to bear or even face the many deaths we go through daily. May we recognize God’s immense love for us again this afternoon when we venerate the Cross and see it as the merging point of human and Divine suffering. Keep praying with Jesus who has the final say with death in Easter. Amen.
Photo by Ka Ruben, National Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima, Valezuela City, August 2022.
40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Monday in the Fourth Week of Lent, 11 March 2024 Isaiah 65:17-21 ><)))))*> + <*(((((>< John 4:43-54
Photo by author, September 2020.
God our Father, you are so amazing! You never fail to surprise us, never runs out of mysteries that convey deep truths so difficult to dissect and understand but just enough to be experienced and savored to be delighted again and again when remembered and realized like when you said through the Prophet Isaiah:
Thus says the Lord: Lo, I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the things of the past shall not be remembered or come to mind. Instead, there shall always be rejoicing and happiness in what I create; for I create Jerusalem to be a joy and its people to be delight.
Isaiah 65:17-18
Later, John the Beloved in his Book of Revelation linked this idea of new heaven and new earth with the new Jerusalem (Rev. 21:1-2) with both passages speaking of a world free of pain and sickness, no weeping nor wailing with no kids dying before their time and no one living below 100 years old. Wonderful!
Of course, your words are symbolic though we are sure it would literally happen some day; but what we are sure now is how your words have paved the way for the coming of Jesus Christ who bridged the gaps among us; in Jesus Christ, the reality of physics is experienced daily like in that remote healing of a royal official's son in Capernaum.
Our loving Father, we do not expect to live lives without pain, sickness, or tragedy even though we wish that so often; grant us the grace to remain committed to Jesus and his Way of the Cross to experience the peace only he can give for he is always NOW HERE, present in us and among us when so often we are NOWHERE by his side.
Let us remain in you, O Lord, let us stay with you, in you, even if nothing seems to happen because that is when our faith and trust in you are deepened like with that royal official. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Tuesday in the Twenty-Sixth Week of Ordinary Time, Year I, 03 October 2023
Zechariah 8:20-23 <*(((>< + ><)))*> Luke 9:51-56
The old city of Jerusalem with the Golden Dome Mosque seen from the inside of the Church Dominus Flevit (the Lord Cried); photo by author, May 2017.
Today O Dear God
our loving Father,
I pray for those going
through many difficulties
and sufferings in life;
those travelling the road
to Jerusalem,
even inside Jerusalem
already, one with Jesus
without them knowing
carrying their Cross
to the Calvary.
When the days for Jesus being taken up were fulfilled, he resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem.
Luke 9:51
Open our eyes,
open our hearts,
dear Father to recognize
Jesus our companion
to Jerusalem,
in Jerusalem;
help us to be "resolute"
like Christ in going to
Jerusalem to face
Passion and Death
to eventually realize our
Resurrection in him
too!
I pray, dear God,
for those giving up,
have given up to
continue the journey
to Jerusalem: those
who have been living
all these years with
dialysis or chemotherapy,
those with never-ending
rehabilitation due to stroke
and other accidents,
those living daily with
medications and motivations
to fight depression,
to resist suicide;
those nursing so much pains
and hurts within not only
due to physical trauma but
especially emotional and
spiritual traumas;
Lord, I pray also for their
caregivers, their family
and loved ones so
often pushed to the limits
physically, emotionally,
and spiritually; console and
comfort them with the warmth
of the Holy Spirit, strengthen them
and assure them of your love;
tap their shoulders and whisper
to them they are doing well.
I pray dear Father
for those grieving,
those still grappling with
the loss of a loved one;
those suddenly thrown into
emptiness within and without
with the death of a wife or
husband, a mother or a father,
a brother or a sister;
Jesus Christ knew so well the
deep hurt and emptiness every
death creates; accompany them
in the eerie silence and darkness
of suddenly not seeing
nor hearing, not embracing
nor serving a beloved departed.
God,
life is a journey;
thank you in giving us Jesus
our companion; like
the two disciples going
back to Emmaus in
sadness and disappointments,
ignite our hearts anew with
Christ's loving presence,
to go to you, to seek you
right in our hearts,
our little Jerusalem
until we come to you in heaven,
the new Jerusalem.
Amen.
Facade of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre where one finds inside another church enclosing the very site of the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ; photo by author, Jerusalem, May 2017.
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