The Spirit of Prayer

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Thursday//11October2018//Week XXVII, Year II

Galatians 3:1-5///Luke 11:5-13

Fifty six years ago today, your Holy Spirit O Lord breathed fresh air into our Holy Mother Church with the first session of the Second Vatican Council convened by Pope St. John XXIII whose memorial we also celebrate today.

A man of great wisdom and wit with great love for the poor, St. John XXIII came to be known as the “good Pope” because the faithful saw in him your goodness, O God. Even if his pontificate lasted only five years as he was already advanced in age when he became a Pope, St. John XXIII accomplished so much in his words and actions because he was evidently sustained with a profound spirit of prayer.

Like St. Paul, he called on the entire Church to go back again to the Gospel Himself – Jesus Christ so we can be more responsive to the modern time. But 56 years after the start of Vatican II, we have become “stupid” like the Galatians who, “after beginning with the Spirit, are now ending with the flesh?” (Gal.3:3)

Help us O Lord, through the prayers and inspiration of Pope St. John XXIII to always go back to the spirit of prayer, to persist in asking for you, in seeking you, and knocking at your door so we could enter into your heart and be closer to you so you would take over us. That is the true power of prayer: it is not with what we say but how we say like in today’s parable. AMEN. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan 3022. E-mail to lordmychef@gmail.com.

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Photos from Google.

Praying With Courage Like Jesus

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Wednesday//10October2018//Week XXVII, Year II

Galatians 2:1-2, 7-14///Luke 11:1-4

What a wonderful grace for your apostles to have witnessed you prayed, O Lord! It must have been a great sight to behold, seeing you deep in prayer that they asked you to teach them how to pray.

How sad, though, that we have taken for granted the only prayer you have taught us to pray, the Our Father. It has become so ordinary, even mechanical for us. Sometimes, we really do not pray your prayer but merely recite it, lacking courage and vibrancy to inspire others to pray.

Give us courage, O Lord, a lot of courage to pray your prayer with more conviction by making “God’s kingdom come and His will be done” as we pray it. Give us courage to pray it not only begging for forgiveness to our sins but most of all to forgive those who have sinned against us.

Like St. Paul in the first reading, give us the courage to boldly profess to everyone, even to our peers, the truth of your gospel. Make us truthful in praying the “Our Father” so that when others see and hear us, they may ask us too to teach them to pray like the Twelve. AMEN. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan 3022. Send e-mail to < lordmychef@gmail.com>.

Photo by Fr. Nick F. Lalog II, the Church of the Our Father, Holy Land Pilgrimage, 19 April 2017.

Resting and Remaining in the Lord

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Tuesday//09October2018//Week XXVII, Year II

Galatians 1:13-24///Luke 10:38-42

Your words today O Lord are so comforting, inviting me to rest in you, to stay in you like a child peacefully asleep on a parent’s lap or tummy. Today O Lord I just wish to be comforted by your loving presence as I try to examine my past and present life.

“O Lord, you have probed me and you know me… Truly you have formed my inmost being; you knit me in my mother’s womb.” (Ps.139:1,13)

Like St. Paul, give me the grace to realize deep within me how you have personally called me for this mission in life that began “from my mother’s womb when you set me apart and called me.”(Gal.1:15)

Teach me to be like St. Paul that before going to anyone or anywhere, I must first seek you within me, right inside my own wilderness, my own “Arabia” in a retreat to reconnect with you before “consulting flesh and blood.” (Gal.1:16-17)

So often, I am like Martha who is so “anxious and worried about so many things” (Lk.10:41), forgetting that to truly welcome you like Mary is to sit at your feet, listen to you as you speak for it is the only one thing needed in life that St. Padre Pio had also taught us in this modern time to simply “pray, hope and don’t worry.” AMEN. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan 3022.

Photo from Google.

Pleasing People or Pleasing God?

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Monday//08October2018//Week XXVII, Year II

Galatians 1:6-12///Luke 10:25-37

Lord, this Monday I feel like St. Paul, wondering at why many people would rather believe and accept fake people who are so good at putting up a show just to please them. Sometimes it can be so sad and even frustrating when most people would prefer clowns with all their gimmicks and antics than apostles and workers who are truthful and faithful to your Words.

“Am I now currying favor with human beings or God? Or am I seeking to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a slave of Christ.” (Gal.1:10)

Like in the parable of the Good Samaritan, how sad that many people with authority and responsibilities are more concerned with the superficialities of their positions than the task of making you felt and known by those at the side of the road.

Teach us, O Lord, to please you more than to please others by getting down from our high seats of power and pride like the good Samaritan so we may uplift those badly beaten down the road and forsaken. Teach us, O Lord, to be more acceptable before you than with others by our willingness to stand for what is true and good, by standing firm at the foot of your cross always. AMEN.Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan 3022.

Photo from Google.

Knowing Too Much, Understanding Too Little

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Friday//05October2018//Week XXVI, Year II

Job 38:1, 12-21; 40:3-5///Luke 10:13-16

It is the first Friday of the month, the end our work week O God. Some of us are rejoicing for the weekend, others are thankful for the many blessings of the past week but many are still complaining. Sometimes we are like Job: we complain a lot in life because we claim to know so much yet understand so little.

“Have you ever in your lifetime commanded the morning and shown the dawn its place for taking hold of the ends of the earth, till the wicked are shaken from its surface? Have you entered into the sources of the sea, or walked about in the depth of the abyss? Have the gates of death been shown to you, or have you seen the gates of darkness? Have you comprehended the breadth of the earth? Tell me, if you know all…” (Job 38:12,16-18)

O God, deflate our bloated egos when we feel to know all yet understand nothing in this life, when we complain and whine more than simply work and try our best, when we become cynical and pessimistic because things do not happen according to our plans.

Most especially, take away our feeling of entitlement and open our eyes to the many blessings you have showered upon us that only a few have seen because we are like the people of Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum who disregarded the coming and the miracles by Jesus Christ. AMEN. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan 3022.

Photo by Mr. Raffy Tima of GMA-7 News, Batanes, 17 September 2018. Used with permission.

Prayer to become like St. Francis of Assisi

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Thursday//04October2018//Week XXVI, Year II

Job 19:21-27///Luke 10:1-12

What a blessed first week of October, O God, when we celebrate so many great saints like Francis of Assisi today!

We rejoice O God for your gift of St. Francis who taught us to be an instrument of your peace. We rejoice for St. Francis who taught us 600 years ahead of his time the oneness of your creation, the value of nature and environment. We rejoice most especially for St. Francis who witnessed for us simplicity of life based entirely on trust in you.

This, O Lord, is what we ask from you: the grace of complete trust in you like St. Francis and Job in the first reading that no matter what befalls us in this world, may we always trust in you alone, our Vindicator whom our “inmost being is consumed with longing.” (Job 19:25) May we go like the seventy-two other disciples of your Son Jesus Christ into the world with nothing except YOU. AMEN. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan 3022.

Photo from Google, http://www.sistermoongraphics.com/blog/2017/10/4/feast-of-st-francis-of-assisi

A Prayer to Revere God

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Wednesday//03October2018//Week XXVI, Year II

Job 9:1-12, 14-16///Luke 9:57-62

God our almighty Father, each day when I begin my day with you, I always wrestle with the same issue: like Job, my illusions about you overshadow your mystery.

Job answered his friends and said: “I know well that it is so, but how can a man be justified before God? Should one wish to contend with him, he could not answer him once in a thousand times… If I appealed to him and he answered my call, I could not believe that he would hearken to my words.” (Job 9:1-3,16)

Give me the grace, O God, to listen to you as YOU ARE NOT AS I WANT YOU TO BE.

So many times my illusions about you prevent me from truly listening from what you are saying to me. Teach me how to revere you, of allowing myself to be wrapped in your mystery so that I may recognize deep within me who you really are and what you really are as my Maker and not as I have “created” in my mind and imagination.

So many times my illusions about you prevent me from properly responding from what you want from me that I end up doing my own will, not yours. Like those people wishing to follow Jesus in today’s gospel, I have illusions of discipleship. Teach me how to revere you by making me set aside my illusions of working for you, instead of doing your work by recognizing you deep within me as my Lord and Master. AMEN. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan 3022.

*Photo by Mr. Raffy Tima of GMA-7 News, Batanes, 17 September 2018. Used with permission.

True Greatness Comes From Being Little and Small

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Tuesday//02October2018//Memorial of the Guardian Angels

Exodus 23:20-23///Matthew 18:1-5, 10

Dearest God our Father, today you give us this special memorial of the Guardian Angels to remind us anew that the way to true greatness is in our becoming like little children. How we as children long ago loved praying, delighting in the rhythm of “Angel of God my guardian dear, to whom His love commits me here; Ever this day be at my side to light and guard, to rule and guide. Amen.”

Back then when we were so young, we trusted you so much, God that we tried hard to be good boys and girls so as not to sadden our guardian angels when we sin. But as we grew up, feeling matured enough, we have disregarded you and our guardian angels because we have come to believe more, rely more, and trust more on ourselves. We felt so independent and so strong, not needing any guidance from you or from angels you send us. We thought that to be the greatest, we must be “free” from you and your holy will by asserting our “adulthood”.

But, experience has taught us that real growth and maturity that lead to true greatness can only happen “unless we turn and become like little children.” (Mt.18:2) What a paradox, O God, that the highest maturity possible for us all is in becoming like little children for that is when we also allow your angels in heaven to always look upon your face to direct our words and actions to your holy will. AMEN. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan 3022.

*Photo from Google: “Christ Among Children” by German Expressionist Emil Nolde painted in 1910 now at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. See https://hamonlibraryblog.org/2015/01/15/emil-nolde-christ-among-the-children/

On Being Small and Little

baby holding human finger — Photo by Wayne Evans on Pexels.com

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe-Prayer

Monday//01October2018//Week XXVI//Year II

Job 1:6-22///Luke 9:46-50

We praise and thank you Lord for this brand new month of October! Indeed a new beginning for us as we come closer to closing another year of many blessings from you though we must also confess that after eight months, we still have not matured that much before you.

We are still so preoccupied with petty things, always disturbed on who is the greatest, who is the most powerful, who has the most.

Teach us to emulate the modern saint and Doctor of the Church, St. Therese of the Child Jesus. Teach us to live with her “little way” of loving and serving God in others by giving our very best. Teach us to trust you more, to realize like Job that “naked we came forth from our mother’s womb, and naked shall we go back again. You O Lord gave, and you O Lord has taken away. Blessed is your name!”(Job 1:21) AMEN. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan 3022.

Prayer To Always Profess Who Jesus Is

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Friday//28September2018//Week XXV//Year II

Ecclesiastes 3:1-11///Luke 9:18-22

Today we remember and celebrate, O God, San Lorenzo Ruiz and his Dominican companions martyred in Nagasaki. Most of all, we recall the strange circumstances behind his wonderful story, of how in your mercy and grace San Lorenzo Ruiz ended up victorious and glorious as the first Filipino saint when he shed blood for his great faith in you, O God. Truly, “There is an appointed time for everything, and a time for every affair under the heavens.” (Eccl.3:1)

Bless us, O God, like San Lorenzo Ruiz to recognize every time, every moment of our lives as an occasion to answer the question of Jesus, “who do you say that I am?” (Lk.9:20). Give us the courage to cooperate with your grace always present in us like with St. Peter and with all the other saints to profess who Jesus Christ is.

You, O God, “has made everything appropriate to its time, and has put the timeless into their hearts, without man’s ever discovering, from beginning to end, the work which God has done.”(Eccl.3:11) Let us seize always every appropriate time you have made for us to be faithful to you in Jesus Christ like San Lorenzo Ruiz who professed to his executioners that “if I had a thousand lives, I would gladly offer them all to God.” AMEN. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan 3022.

Photo from Google.