Thinking Like Jesus

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Thursday, 21 February 2019, Week VI, Year I

Genesis 9:1-13///Mark 8:27-33

My dearest God and Father, today you remind me of the beautiful story of Noah, of how you had promised through him never again to destroy earth.

What a joy always to my eyes to see your rainbow, its beautiful colors without any definitive origin nor end, reminding me of how you have given us more than a promise but a covenant.

When I was a child, I always heard that at the end of every rainbow is a pot of gold that would make anyone who would find it very wealthy. As I matured, I realized O God that the pot of gold of your rainbow is your Son Jesus Christ our Lord: whoever finds Him becomes wealthy indeed!

Like the song of the psalmist today, “From heaven the Lord looks down on the earth”, Jesus became your rainbow, your new covenant who stretched His arms on the Cross to save us.

Give me the grace O God to think like Jesus as the Christ who willed to suffer and die for us in accordance with your Holy Will.

Give me the grace O God to think like Jesus as the Christ so that my life and those around me are enriched in your love and mercy. Amen. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan.

Patient Like Jesus

A street performer at the Tamsui Fisherman’s Wharf in Taiwan must have tried and failed so many times before getting his permit from Taipei officials to perform in public. Photo by the author taken last January 29, 2019

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Wednesday, 20 February 2019, Week VI, Year I

Genesis 8:6-13, 20-22///Mark 8:22-26

Lord Jesus Christ, yesterday you taught me of your great love and mercy through your fidelity and patience in my being too slow in understanding your signs of presence.

Thank you very much, Lord, for bearing with my mindlessness.

But today, I praise and thank you twice, even thrice, in giving me the grace of being patient like you in my persevering to keep on trying and hoping for your love and mercy, healing and grace.

Like that blind man in Bethsaida you have healed gradually, you have taught me how things are not that clear right away at your coming. Sometimes, everything seems to be so blurred when “I see people looking like trees and walking” (Mk.8:24).

Like Noah in the first reading after the rains and the floods, it takes time before plants sprout and bloom again. So many times, I just have to be like Noah, always waiting, always trying until the floods have subsided.

Let me offer you a sacrifice of praise today O Lord through my kindness and patience with others just like you. Amen. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan.

The Patience and Fidelity of God

DSCF1271 — *Buds starting to grow on one of the many Cherry blossoms of Taiwan’s Yangming National Park near Taipei. Photo by the author, 28 January 2019.*

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Tuesday, 19 February 2019, Week VI, Year I

Genesis 6:5-8;7:1-5, 10///Mark 8:14-21

Thank you very much Lord Jesus Christ for your patience and fidelity in bearing with my mindlessness and lack of understanding in reading your signs in my life.

So many times, despite your many blessings and very presence in my life, I still don’t get it like your disciples that I can feel as so real, O Lord, your seeming desperation, asking me, “Do you still not understand?” (Mk.8:21)

There are times Lord that my mind wanders far into other concerns like the material “bread” being offered by the world that I easily forget the wondrous signs of far more important things you have been showing me like love and mercy, kindness and compassion.

Cleanse my heart, dear Jesus, especially when all I desire are evil like the people during the time of Noah. Let me be on guard against the leaven and understanding of the world that is fleeting and temporary. Amen. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan.

Of Sighs, Signs, and Sin

Words-may-be-false-Quotes-by-Thomas-Shadwell-By-POPOPICS

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Monday, 18 February 2019, Week VI, Year I

Genesis 4:1-15, 25///Mark 8:11-13

Good morning Lord Jesus Christ! I hope you don’t mind my asking you on this first day of work and studies: why did you sigh in the gospel today?

The Pharisees came forward and began to argue with Jesus, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him. He sighed from the depth of his spirit and said, “Why does this generation seek a sign? Amen, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.” Then he left them, got into the boat again, and went off to the other shore (Mk.8:11-13).

Some people tell me it is not good to sigh; but, they have never explained to me why, and so, I sigh even more! Most often, I sigh when I feel helpless and even hopeless with people and situations; but, surely O Lord, you neither get helpless nor hopeless with us as we keep on asking you for more signs.

Did you sigh, O Lord, because you were so tempted to get down to their level?

Did you sigh, O Lord, so that you would not give in to sin and be like Cain who lost sight of himself and of his brother Abel and eventually of God?

What a beautiful sign of your humanity and divinity as well is your sighing, O Lord, reminding us of our need to always reconnect with the Holy Spirit in the depths of our being especially when temptations for us to sin are so strong that we forget we are our brother’s keeper.

Remind us always O Lord when we sigh that we may think of your many signs of wonder before us, of the many signs of your mercy and love so that we remain rooted in you. Amen. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan.

Listening With Our Hearts

openheart — *Image from Google: Open ears, Open hearts, Open minds.*

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Friday, 15 February 2019, Week V, Year I

Genesis 3:1-8///Mark 7:31-37

Our dearest God and loving Father, thank you very much for this month of February when we celebrate Valentine’s, the day of hearts.

It must had been your Holy Spirit guiding us these days when we prayed the other day that we may look inside our hearts to see you and follow your holy will; yesterday as we celebrated Valentine’s, we prayed for the grace to see with our hearts.

Today we pray for the grace to listen with our hearts so we may not repeat the sin of Adam and Eve when they listened to the voice of the serpent who misled them into believing that the moment they eat the fruit of the tree of in the middle of the garden, “their eyes would be opened and they would be like gods who know what is good and what is evil” (Gen.3:5).

Give us the grace to separate ourselves from the crowd, from all the noise and different voices of the world, to listen with our hearts in silence with Jesus Christ like that deaf man brought to Him in Decapolis.

“Ephphatha!” (Mk.7:34)

Let our ears and our hearts be opened to you O Lord.

Let us be “deaf” sometimes to the cacophony of sounds in the world, competing for our attention, listening intently with our hearts to your tiny voice deep within us, telling us to love freely and truly by avoiding sins and doing only what is good. Amen. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan.

heart-reason

Seeing With Our Hearts

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Thursday, 14 February 2019, Week V, Year I

Genesis 2:18-25///Mark 7:24-30

A blessed day of the hearts to you O God our loving Father!

Everybody is greeting happy Valentine’s in honor of your saint who found ways of bringing together in holy matrimony lovers forbidden by so many circumstances. On the other hand, our liturgy reminds us on this day the holiness of two brothers, St. Cyril and St. Methodius who preached the gospel among the Slavs.

All three saints showed what true love is, a love that is rooted in you expressed in their love for others. This is the love that your Son Jesus Christ had concretely showed us, to make us experience anew that we are all one, brothers and sisters in you our Father despite our different colors and beliefs.

On this day of hearts, remind us O Lord to always see with our hearts so we can be filled with awe and joy in seeing one another like the first man, saying “This one at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh” (Gen.2:23). Give us also the courage of that Syrophoenician woman who came to beg Jesus to heal her daughter possessed by the devil by admitting her being a foreigner and different in race yet the same in stature as a child of God (Mk.7:28).

Like the first man and the Syrophoenician woman who saw with their hearts the other persons and Jesus, then we can destroy the walls that separate us from one another and build bridges of love that bring us together in kindness and respect.

May we always look with our hearts, O Lord Jesus, because it is only with the heart that we can truly see. Amen. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan.

Looking Inside Our Hearts

lookinsideheart — *Photo from Bing.com.*

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Wednesday, 13 February 2019, Week V, Year I

Genesis 2:4-9, 15-17///Mark 7:14-23

O God our loving Father, you know so well how we all desire to be good and holy like you. But so often, we look outside for what would make us pure and clean before you, as well as for what defiles us before you.

Thank for reminding us today how from the very start when you created everything including us, we have always been good within. Even from without, everything is good. We just have to look inside our hearts for what is true and good, false and evil.

How sad that until now, we keep on looking outside, searching for more we can have, for more we can know when clearly we are limited: “You are free to eat from any of the trees of the garden except the tree of knowledge of good and evil. From that tree you shall not eat; the moment you eat from it you are surely doomed to die” (Gen.2:16-17).

Teach us, O Lord Jesus Christ to understand that “Nothing that enters one from the outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile… From within the man, from his heart, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly” (Mk.7:15, 21-22).

May we always look inside our hearts, O Jesus, where you reign supreme when we keep on doing your holy will, avoiding sin. Amen. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan.

Our Joy In Mary As Mother

51705716_417611242320476_2911087373909491712_n — *Our Lady of Lourdes Grotto in France. Photo by my former student at ICSB-Malolos, Architect Philip Santiago during his pilgrimage there last September. Used with permission.*

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Monday, 11 February 2019, Memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes

Isaiah 66:10-14///John 2:1-11

God our loving Father, when your Son Jesus Christ came to save us, He did not only give Himself for us but even gave us His Mother, Mary to be our Mother too. How wonderful that three years before His “hour” on the Cross, Jesus showed us a glimpse of His immense love for us through His mother at the wedding feast of Cana.

His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you” (Jn.2:5).

Most of all, what is most beautiful on this memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes when she appeared there in 1858 to St. Bernadette Soubirous as the Immaculate Conception, we also celebrate today the World Day of the Sick to remind us “to see in our sick brothers and sisters the face of Christ who, by suffering, dying and rising, achieved the salvation of humankind” as per St. John Paul II in his later on May 13, 1992.

Help us O Lord to do whatever you tell us especially for the sick, giving them comfort “like a mother to her son so that their bodies shall fluorish like the grass” (Is.66:13-14). May we be a mother like Mary to everyone, always “concerned” with the good of each one like during that wedding at Cana.

O what a joy indeed for us to have Mary as our Mother too like a spring leading us to Jesus who refreshes us, heals us, and frees us. Amen. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan.

When Listening Is Most Important

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Friday, 08 February 2019, Week IV, Year I

Hebrews 13:1-8///Mark 6:14-29

Today O Lord we thank you for one of the most unique saints of modern time, St. Josephine Bakhita who had taught us the importance of when and how to listen. Her life proved that indeed, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Heb.13:8) for you never abandoned her, always speaking to her on many occasions through the many people and events of her life.

Teach us to emulate St. Josephine Bakhita who chose to listen to your voice within her, in her conscience to do what is good, to desire only your will. Despite the many sufferings she had endured as a child sold to slavery from Africa that she had forgotten her name, she chose to listen to her conscience that had remained pure and clean.

So unlike Herod who loved listening to the preaching of John the Baptist though he would always be perplexed because he refused to accept them. Most of all, Herod preferred to listen to the words of the people around him, especially the daughter of Herodias than listen to his conscience that led to John’s beheading.

O Lord Jesus, so many times I confuse your words with the words of the world. Grant me a clear conscience that I may always pursue your holiness. Amen. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan.

Continuing the Work of Christ

PhilipFatimaSunscreen — *Sunset at the main plaza of Fatima in Portugal by my former student at ICSB Architect Philip Santiago during his pilgrimage there October 2018. Used with permission.*

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Thursday, 07 February 2019, Week IV, Year I

Hebrews 12:18-19, 21-24///Mark 6:7-13

Lord Jesus Christ, thank you in bringing God closer to us, in enabling us to experience of belonging to him as our loving Father unlike in the Exodus when his presence was a fearful spectacle that made even Moses “terrified and trembling” (Heb.12:21).

Thank you Jesus for being our mediator with God whose love and mercy we have experienced in you. Let us not be distracted with so many things of the world like food and clothing, fame and wealth, and other allurements that feed on our ego and blind us from you.

Give us the faith and courage to make God present in this world among the poor, the sick and the sinful. Let us continue your work of bringing joy and salvation, mercy and forgiveness, healing and life. Amen. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan.