Inmost being for connecting, reconnecting

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Tuesday in the Twenty-seventh Week of Ordinary Time, Year II, 08 October 2024
Galatians 2:1-2, 7-14 ><000'> + <'000>< Luke 10:38-42

*Photo by Ms. Ria De Vera at Banff, Canada, August 2024.*

O Lord, you have probed me and you know me, you know when I sit and when I stand; you understand my thoughts from afar. Truly you have formed my inmost being; you knit me in my mother’s womb. I give you thanks that I am fearfully, wonderfully made; wonderful are your works (Psalm 139:1-2, 13-14).

Thank you,
loving God our Father
for this brand new day!
Like the psalmist today,
I am at awe with your creation,
beginning with me
at how you have formed
 my inmost being
that enables me to connect
with You through your wonderful
creation!

In forming my inmost being,
You have made me yours,
enabling me to realize my connection
with You, O God, my Creator
as well as with your entire creation;
and if I am lost or had gone astray,
it is still my inmost being You have formed
in me that enables me to reconnect
with You and myself
and others.

Brothers and sisters: You heard of my former way of life in Judaism, how I persecuted the Church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it… But when he, who from my mother’s womb had set me apart and called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, so that I might proclaim him to the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were Apostles before me: rather, I went into Arabia and then returned to Damascus (Galatians 1:13, 15-17).

How lovely and so true
like St. Paul, 
You have formed our inmost being
so that we may remain connected
or be reconnected with You 
when we are lost
and separated.

Grant us O God
the gift of discipline in 
cultivating a prayer life,
a life centered in You so that 
we remain connected in You
through Jesus Christ like Mary
sitting beside Him at His feet,
listening to His every word;
let us be aware of your precious gift
of our inmost being
by cultivating a prayer life
to make our connections stronger;
You created us, O God
to be connected always
with You,
our self,
and with others;
keep us strong in resisting
temptations to sin,
to separate and be isolated
from You and others
by destroying our connections,
disregarding our inmost being.
Amen.

We are all St. Barnabas!

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Tuesday, Memorial of St. Barnabas, Apostle, 11 June 2024
Acts 11:21-26, 13:1-3 ><]]]]'> + <'[[[[>< Matthew 10:7-13

*Photo by author, Mt. St. Paul, La Trinidad, Benguet, 2016.*

Praise and glory
to You, God our loving Father
for this memorial of St. Barnabas,
one of the first to embrace Christianity
after the Resurrection of your Son
Jesus Christ.

A Levite Jew born in Cyprus,
his original name was Joseph but
upon joining the Apostles in Jerusalem,
he was nicknamed Barnabas 
which means "son of encouragement"
or "son of consolation" whom  
St. Luke described as "a good man,
filled with the Holy Spirit and faith"
(Acts 11:24).

Fill us, dear Jesus 
with the same goodness and faith
of St. Barnabas, truly children of 
encouragement and consolation,
believing in our brothers and
sisters especially those have withdrawn
from the ministry and apostolate 
for various reasons 
including shame and embarrassment 
for past mistakes and sins like St. Paul.

Then he (Barnabas) went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he had found him he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church and taught a large number of people, and it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians.

Fill us with your gift
of peace, Lord Jesus,
to imitate St. Barnabas
who vouched for St. Paul's sincerity
of conversion
as well as in encouraging
and consoling the early Christians
who were persecuted for their
faith in You.

Help us imitate St. Barnabas
in his beautiful disposition of
focusing more on You, Jesus
than in the problems and personalities
we encounter in fulfilling your mission;
most of all,
grant us the humility of St. Barnabas
to reconcile later with St. Paul
 after a serious disagreement
that led to their parting of ways
as companions in their mission.

Make us realize,
Jesus,
that saints like St. Barnabas
do not fall from Heaven
but are people like us who have many
and complicated problems in life;
let us arise from our sins
and mistakes like St. Barnabas
who showed in his life that holiness
is not being sinless but being humble
to admit one's sins and faults,
going through conversion daily
with a willingness to forgive others
to be reconciled anew
in You, Jesus.
Amen.

St. Barnabas,
Pray for us!

*Photo by Ms. Analyn Dela Torre, March 2024.*

Re-con-nect

Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 18 March 2024

Had a very wonderful impromptu get together this Sunday with two former students from our girls’ high school in Malolos. But more than having a blast from 25 years we have known one another because Karen had been my student since her elementary school way back in 1998, it was for me a wonderful reconnection as Kweenie noted on our way home after our long lunch.

Reconnection.

The word remained in my mind last night until today as I began my annual personal retreat just before my 59th birthday on Friday. When Karen brought up the idea of having lunch just to see each other, I felt it was more than a coincidence but part of God’s plan for my retreat, which is essentially, a reconnection of the highest order.

And here are my random thoughts on reconnecting before my vacation with the Lord starts tonight.

*Photo by author, Baguio City, 12 July 2023.*

Connect.
From the Latin words, "con" for "with"
and "nectere" or "to bind",
to connect is to bind together;
to fuse, to make as one.
To unite.
Opposite of being connected 
is to be separated.
To be alone.
To be apart.

*Photo by Dra. Mylene A. Santos, MD, in France, 2022.*

God designed nature to be connected:
animal species gather together
as herds and schools and flocks
everywhere while flowers bloom
facing the sun and other plants
as twigs and vines extend so that they
cover everything while trees though
standing apart reach out to other
trees with their tops always bending
towards another tree.

*Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2023.*

How unfortunate 
that we humans 
who were ironically
the only ones created in God's
"image and likeness"
are the ones who tend to separate
always 
from God and one another -
beginning with one's self;
many times in our many "connections"
when we spread ourselves so much
as being scattered,
we get disconnected with 
self,
others,
and God.

Wherever there is disconnection,
there is also sin when connections 
are severed,
cut-off, and destroyed.

*Photo from en.wikipedia.org, “Creation of Adam” by Michaelangelo at the Sistine Chapel, the Vatican.*

God is the most vital of all
of our connections; He is in fact
THE connection because 
He is our life;
to be separated from Him
means sickness or death,
even damnation as in hell;
that is why Jesus came 
so that we may reconnect
with God, 
with self,
and with others.

*Photo by author in Baras, Rizal, January 2021.*

To be connected,
to reconnect is to be whole
again;
getting connected
happens when there is
acceptance of being separated,
when we are humble enough
to say sorry with those
connections we have
abused or taken for granted,
neglected and rejected;
reconnection happens
when we realize that
everything -
time,
place,
people,
and God
are interconnected
as one
big whole
that no matter how small
we may be in this vast universe,
we matter.
That's when we find
meaning and purpose
and direction;
 not far from that,
we find and experience
fullness
amid the
many brokenness.

Lord Jesus,
keep me connected
with you,
with others,
and with my very self.
Amen.