Healing our wounds

Quiet Storm by Lord My Chef, 31 July 2025

*Photo by author, somewhere in Rizal en route to Infanta, Quezon, March 2023.*

It is widely held that our physical well-being has a direct relationship with our spiritual condition and vice versa. That is why aside from the treatment of physical sickness, there is also a need to address the spiritual well-being of patients for their “healing” which is more wholistic in nature and meaning.

Jesus Christ himself showed this relationship of the physical and the spiritual. The gospels are filled with accounts of Jesus not only treating the sick but also of healing them by first touching them (physical) then telling them how their sins were forgiven or how great was their faith (spiritual).

Here we find that healing involves the total person in body, mind, heart and soul. Healing is not just the restoration of health but transformation of the person. This is the spirit behind hospital ministry. Patients eventually die but may have still experienced healing when properly prepared for death by a priest or pastor or a nun through counseling and administering of the Sacraments of Confession, Viaticum, and Anointing of the Sick.

As I immersed myself in this ministry since 2021 as chaplain of a university with a medical center, I have realized too that it is actually more of what Jesus is doing to me than of what I am doing to our patients and our medical professionals. Indeed, priesthood is a ministry seeking new directions in Jesus Christ that is most true in the hospital ministry when the tables – or beds – are turned on me as patient needing medical and spiritual attention!

Twice I have been rushed to the ER for minor accidents: first in 2023 and second only this Sunday when I slipped in our garage and hurt my left knee. While recovering in my room from this recent injury, I decided to put into writing to share with you some lessons from my two experiences that may hopefully help in the healing process of those who are wounded physically and emotionally.

*Photo by author, Hidden Spring & Resort, Calauan, Laguna, February 2025.*

First thing to do when we are wounded physically and spiritually or emotionally is to have the wounds “cleansed”.

We were having a tug-o-war during our 2023 team-building when the rope snapped and sent me rolling down the ground. I quickly stood up and brushed the dirt and blood on my left arm, declining offers of others to wash and clean my wounds as I insisted to them sanay po ako sa ganito.

But when our university physician approached me on my way to the wash area to check my wounds and asked if I had had anti-tetanus shots before because I would be needing one that afternoon, everything changed. Fear crept in me with all the scary imaginations running through my mind as I asked him why the tetanus shots? The doctor explained that the ground is dirty with harmful bacteria including animal shit that may infect my wounds; hence, the need to first wash my wounds with clean water and soap and get anti-tetanus shots for sure. Oh my God…

Looking back to that experience after this recent fall (when I got another pair of tetanus shots), I realized the same thing is true when our heart and soul are wounded: we need to wash them clean with sincerity and honesty of one’s self. Cleansing our spiritual and emotional wounds require self-confrontation, no ifs nor buts why it happened. It is recalling the incident no matter how painful it may be like in washing our physical wounds with water and soap to clean ourselves of harmful microbes of anger and hatred that might infect us later.

Cleansing our emotional and spiritual wounds is being true to ourselves to face, accept, then embrace the realities why and how it happened. Crying may be good as a catharsis which is literally a cleansing process. Cleansing our spiritual and emotional wounds is suspending any conclusions that may lead to unnecessary self-pity and self-blame of the incident by facing the mirror like when after we have washed our wounds on any part of the body to check and see its extent of damage. It is normal to be sad and even angry because it is painful as it is something hurting from deep inside us. The more we face our wounds, the more we become at home with them.

*Photo by author, Katmon Nature Sanctuary & Beach Resort, Infanta, Quezon, March 2023.*

Next is disinfect the wounds and apply medications to prevent infection. After washing my wounds with soap and water that Sunday, I disinfected these with Cutasept that resulted in more pain as if the antiseptic solution was fiercely battling the germs and microbes trying to infect my left knee.

When our soul is wounded, we do the same procedure after cleansing by facing the realities of pains and hurts with prayer, our spiritual antiseptic. Even doctors prescribe prayers to their patients in critical situation. And here is the interesting part in this process: prayer does not change the situation, it will not remove the wounds even the scars in our memory and soul; but, prayers make us stronger and better after the spiritual and emotional woundings we have had. Most of all, prayer facilitates our healing process because it opens us to Jesus, the only doctor who will heal us completely from both physical and spiritual and emotional wounds.

Part of disinfecting and applying medications to our spiritual and emotional wounds is seeking help from others, finding Jesus our healer from priests and nuns, pastors and counsellors, and persons you look up to for their wisdom and maturity in Christ. Like when we are physically wounded that we go consult doctors, the same thing is needed when we are emotionally and spiritually wounded. Prayers like disinfectants and medicines are not everything; persons give the personal touch of the spiritual disinfection and healing of our brokenness inside. There is no need to let everyone know our spiritual and emotional wounds; simply share your hurts with someone who could help you “treat” your wounds and willing to journey with you in its long process of healing.

Do not broadcast these in social media which would only worsen the situation. That’s rubbing salt on your wounds because not everyone out there cares for you! It will just feed the frenzy of the many “low life” hungry for anything negative to feast upon. Every time I come across selfies of people while at the ER or confined in the hospital, I wonder how sick they really are that they could still hold their cellphone while being treated for an injury. Getting sick physically and emotionally is always an occasion for more prayers and conversion in Christ.

Finally, dress your wounds for protection. I am from Generation X and most of us were never hospitalized nor brought to the ER for any treatment while still a child despite our many mischiefs and misadventures while growing up.

We only had our mother as doctor who treated our wounds with agua oxinada and gamot na pula that was so painful that we need to blow dry our wounds once dabbed with it. Then, mom would leave our wounds open like that, no kuritas and gauze because makukulob ang sugat, magtutubig at magnanana (infection).That is why after that 2023 injury, I did not follow the doctor’s instruction to cover my wounds on my left arm with gauze; I would later learn its value in a painful and embarrassing way a week after when I was called to anoint a patient in our ICU.

On my way there, the elevator door suddenly closed that instinctively I used my left wounded arm to stop it. Anyway, I thought the wounds were already healing and felt no pain at all when hit by the elevator door. When I entered the ICU, the nurses and doctors stared at me and asked what had happened because blood was dripping from my left arm. It was only then I realized the elevator door had scratched my wounds!

What a shame that doctors and nurses attended first to my wounds before letting me anoint the patient; I felt so embarrassed especially when the attending physician explained the need to cover wounds for protection from dirt and other elements as well as accidents like what had happened to me at the elevator.

*Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2025.*

From that experience, I realized that one reason our spiritual and emotional wounds never get healed is because we “expose” them. When a person is wounded in heart or soul, it is not enough we clean and disinfect and treat them. We need to protect them from further pains and hurts from those who have inflicted their emotional wounds. Protecting them is to stop blaming them in causing their inner pains and hurts. Nasaktan na nga, nasisi pa. Ibinaon pa!

Friends and loved ones are the spiritual gauze who cover and protect spiritual wounds from more hurts and pains. They are the Band-aid strips protecting those spiritually and emotionally wounded by being at their side, assuring them with love and support, of still believing them despite their painful experiences. There is no need to engage the guilty offenders into a skirmish. If their wounds were of their own doing, soften the impact by motivating them to be better, to hope for the best, that it is not the end of their lives. And most of all, assure them their life is not defined by their emotional and spiritual wounds.

Protecting those wounded emotionally and spiritually means helping them find anew their true selves and worth as persons who are beloved children of God. Protecting them like gauze is helping them bear the long process of healing.

There is a saying that “time heals” but time can only heal when there is human intervention in the treatment of our emotional wounds aided by prayers and faith in God. Time alone, no matter how long the years are, cannot heal us in itself if we remain exposed to dirt and elements that contribute to “infecting” us further. Or worst, if we remain with the very causes of our wounds.

For those hurting spiritually or emotionally, may Jesus Christ heal you and give you the courage to confront and deal with your inner wounds and pains. Seek God and seek persons too to help you. Amen. May God bless you on your road to recovery and healing! Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Our Lady of Fatima University, Valenzuela City (lordmychef@gmail.com).

Windows to past & to future

Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 24 March 2025

Some people have been asking me how does it feel to be sigisty years old? I really don’t have any complete answer yet except the feeling of sudden shift in my perspectives in life.

Whether it is what experts call as the gestalt shift, I do not know. However, since I have failed in a psychological exam to the major seminary in 1982 that forced me to forget all about the priesthood momentarily (nine years), I have always thought of myself as “crazy” with weird thoughts and ideas, weird perceptions coming from weird images and illusions I see on many things

These manifest in my photography subjects that are often wala lang, as in trip trip lang talaga. Like in my recent annual retreat at the Sacred Heart Novitiate in Novaliches where I have been coming since 2016. Suddenly this year, my focus were so bent on the most ordinary features of this venerable institution that is about 75 years old.

During my stay there last week, the stairs, the windows, and the arches that are even older than me be4came so lovely and interesting. I felt so drawn to them that I had a lot of shots taken upon my arrival.

The Sacred Heart Novitiate is my “happy place” because it is my Bethel where I “dreamt” like Jacob of the stairway to heaven (Gen. 28:10-22). It is also my Peniel or Penuel (Gen. 32:23-32) where like Jacob I also wrestled with God or an angel in deep prayers every year.

In my previous article, I have explained that maybe my focus on the stairs was due to my excitement in awaiting the Netflix documentary on Led Zeppelin whose most famous song is called Stairway to Heaven.

Today, I share with you some photos I have taken with my weird perceptions of the Sacred Heart Novitiate’s windows that suddenly evoked a lot of ideas in me as a sigisty year old man so loved by God.

Being a new senior sixty cent only last Saturday, I felt the joy of being able to look at a very long past of both beautiful and sad even painful memories that have made me who I am today.

Despite the hurts and scars from the many battles in life, I am still glad and thankful for the gift of six decades.

Being a sigisty year old man is like looking out the window, marveling at how fast times have flown that many times, some scenes in my life are like some spots outside that look so near that are actually so far and distant.

I felt my getting old started the time I kept saying “40 years ago ba iyon” when commenting on an event or a song or a movie. Parang kailan lang pero matagal na pala!

Like in life itself, you can choose your focus when looking outside the window: you may include the window itself in the vista like a frame or totally disregard its existence and simply look at the world outside or the past itself. You may also focus on the sceneries you prefer, more of the lovely ones and less of the unsightly.

On the other hand, I have strongly felt too as I turned sigisty years old how my remaining days on earth are numbered. Looking back to the past seems an endless horizon while looking into the future is very definite. You can see already the end of the line, so to speak s you get that feeling my days are numbered. That is the moment when the eternal spring within tells you that at the end of that tunnel or wall is eternity. But, before that, you know the end is near.

The word “window” came from the Old Norse vindauga, from vind or “wind” that was pronounced as the English “wind” and auga for eye that phonetically sounded as “ow” that literally meant “wind-eye” that became the Old English word wind-ow or “window” as we know and use it today.

Hence, window became the term for an opening in any building like home that allows air and light to pass through. Most of all, it is an opening for people inside to see the world outside while giving those outside a glimpse of what’s inside.

How lovely is that interplay happening in every window that opens a person’s vista outside and inside. It is how one looks on windows that makes the great difference that eventually forms our perspectives in life.

About three decades ago, Bill Gates launched his company Microsoft’s operating system called Windows that greatly revolutionized our lives with computers becoming easily accessible for everyone. Unlike its funny looking predecessor called dost, Windows was aptly called as one had to simply click a box like literally opening a window to explore its many programs.

Windows – the real ones like in buildings – still present us with such great possibilities when we look outside or into them.

But of course, that still greatly depends on that one great window God had gifted us – our eyes that have both sight and vision.

Jesus told his disciples, “The lamp of the body is the eye. If your eye is sound, your whole body will be filled with light; but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be in darkness. And if the light in you is darkness, how great will the darkness be” (Matthew 6:22-23).

How unfortunate that many times, we prefer to limit the use of our eyes to just sights that limit our perspectives on what are simply obvious and visible.

Only a few called as visionaries dare to use their eyes to have vision, that is, to see and look beyond what’s visible and before us, whether from the window or into the window.

If we can have our eyes synced together with both sight and vision, then we shall see much more in this life that we become grateful with our past while at the same time filled with joyful expectations of the fast approaching beyond of this world as we age. Amen.

*All photos taken by the author using the iPhone 16 Pro Max at the Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, March 17-22, 2025.

First temptation: doing vs. being

40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
First Sunday in Lent, Cycle C, 09 March 2025
Deuteronomy 26:4-10  +  Romans 10:8-13  +  Luke 4:1-13

On this first Sunday in Lent, we find our Lord Jesus Christ led into the desert by the Holy Spirit after his baptism at Jordan for forty days to pray and later tempted by the devil. It is exactly the picture of our daily life wherein the closer we come to God, the more we strive to be good and holy, the more we are intensely tempted by the devil.

Indeed, life is a daily Lent of spiritual battles with the devil and as we enter the first Sunday of this 40-day journey, Jesus reminds us we too can overcome this temptations if we remain in God by taking into heart his words that give life.

Of course, Jesus was tempted by the devil not just thrice but many times until his crucifixion; however, turn your attention my dear friend to the first and third temptations that are very similar:

The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” Jesus answered him, “It is written, One does not live by bread alone” ….. Then he led him to Jerusalem, made him stand on the parapet of the temple, and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written: He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you, and: With their hands they will support you, lest you dash your foot against a stone.” Jesus said to him in reply, “It also says, You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test” (Luke 4:3-4, 9-12).

In this scene that comes right after the baptism of Jesus at Jordan by John the Baptist, Luke wants us to see how the devil would always challenge the identity of Jesus Christ, “If you are the Son of God.”

Recall that after his baptism while praying, the heaven opened with the Holy Spirit descending on him in the form of a dove with a voice declaring “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased” (Lk. 3:22). Everyday the devil tempts us too in that way, always challenging us with the same line, “if you are the Child of God, do this, do that” as if our identity is on doing than being.

In our baptism, we have become the beloved children of God in Christ which is our identity and being that is an inherent gift from God no one can take away which the devil works so hard to destroy. The devil’s devious line of challenging us “if you are the child of God” to prove ourselves by doing certain actions is designed to wear us off and eventually for us to self-destruct for not keeping up with the demands of the world and of others.

Our worth is not found in what we can do; we are worthy because God made us in his own image and likeness, giving us the unique identity as his beloved children in Jesus Christ. Even when we get old and sick in the future, not able to do anything worthwhile for the economy or the family, we remain worthy and valuable in God’s eyes.

*Photo by author, Sakura Farm, Atok, Benguet, 27 December 2024.*

Like Jesus we face intense spiritual battle with the devil daily, tempting us in various ways with desires for wealth and fame, power and pleasures. He tempts us in our personal and professional lives, in our relationships with God and with others, even with our very selves with long lists of things to do to prove our worth.

Remember, the devil tempts us not just to sin but ultimately to destroy our lives by separating us from our grounding, our root who is God our Father.

The devil’s dare to Jesus that “If you are the Son of God… turn this stone into bread” is echoed daily in our own temptations when the evil one through people aided by the consumerist culture ask us to prove our worth by doing many things without any regard to the values of life and human person, or the importance of virtues and spirituality.

When the devil repeated the same line of temptation to Jesus “If you are the Son of God… throw yourself down from the parapet of the temple”, the same trick is played on us by the world luring us to forget morals, to disregard traditions that in the process we already deny the value of life and persons by pushing the crazy, modern ideas of relativism and wokism.

How sad in this world today when everyday we are dared to prove our worth in doing not realizing that our worth remains even if we can’t do so much. That is why youth and strength are glorified while sickness, disability and old age are frowned upon these days simply because we can’t do as much, including life in its earliest and weakest stage in the mother’s womb. Our worth as a person is in our being, not doing.

It is so crazy that eventually we have replaced life with lifestyles, while persons are degraded as objects and commodities to be possessed than loved and cherished. In our desire to prove our worth with everything we can do and accomplish, we end up more empty and lost in the process, reduced to nothingness.

Now see the ways of Jesus which is the theme of Lent every year – conversion of sinners, a return to God our Father by trusting his words again as our source of life and being.

When Jesus answered the devil that man does not live by bread alone, the Lord is inviting us to have a more wholistic view on life, on those hidden and not seen, on the mysterious that makes us experience life more not just skin-deep but within no one can snatch nor steal. In a world so amazed with big, spectacular things, the truth remains that the most wonderful things in life are those found within our hearts and lips, those words that build and comfort us as St. Paul tells us in the second reading.

In the third temptation, Jesus thwarted the devil completely when he declared you must not put God to the test. It is a clear reminder for us to keep in mind always that we are the creatures not the creator, telling us all those vain attempts of playing God since time immemorial have gone to nothing.

We can’t just do anything nor everything in this world and in this life. All of the mysteries around us and within us are not meant to be solved but simply accepted and embraced, allowing ourselves to be wrapped in God to find him deep inside us that in itself a vast universe of beauty and majesty.

This is what Moses was telling the people in the wilderness as they prepared to enter the Promised Land. See how the first reading is like a dream sequence, of the many beautiful scenarios that could happen once they entered the Promised Land. Moses was telling his people and us today to be ready with God’s many surprises if we abide in him and trust him. No need to test God nor play God because we are all covered in God’s grace!

This first Sunday, Jesus invites us back to the wilderness of our lives to be still, to rest in God, to trust his words as we experience and appreciate our giftedness in him even if we can no longer move and do things because more than anything else in this world, each of us is precious in God’s sight and presence. Amen. Have a blessed week! Keep yourself hydrated this summer.

*Photo by Dra. Mylene A. Santos, MD, somewhere in Palawan, 2023.*

Advent is freedom from enemies

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Simbang Gabi-9 Homily, 24 December 2024
2 Samuel 7:1-5, 8-12, 14, 16     <*((((><  +  ><))))*>     Luke 1:67-79

Finally! This may be the word and expression today, the 24^th of December. Finally, a lot of you would be bragging about having completed the nine-day novena to Christmas. Finally, it would be Christmas day. And finally, we could sleep longer.

But then, finally what?

When Zechariah’s tongue was loosened after naming his son John in fulfillment of the angel’s instruction to him, it was not the word “finally” that came from his mouth but “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel!”(Lk.1:68). After being mute for nine months, Zechariah’s silence became praise with gratitude and wonder giving him the voice to speak again.

Zechariah his father, filled with the Holy Spirit, prophesied, saying: “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, for he has come to his people and set them free. He has raised up for us a mighty Savior, born of the house of his servant David. Through his prophets he promised of old that he would save us from our enemies, from the hand of all who hate us, He promised to show mercy to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant. This was the oath he swore to our father Abraham: to set us free from the hand of enemies, free to worship him without fear (Luke 1:67-74).

*Photo by author, birthplace of St. John the Baptist underneath the church dedicated to him in Judah.*

We have reflected last Thursday that Advent and Christmas is a journey that begin in the church, in the celebration of the Mass as Luke opened his Christmas story with the annunciation of John’s birth to Zechariah during their Yom Kippur at the Jerusalem Temple.

Luke’s artistry and mastery in weaving stories brought us right into every scene leading into Christmas – from Jerusalem to Nazareth then to the hill country of Judah in the home of Zechariah until John’s birth where our scene remains today. Tonight and tomorrow, he will be leading us along with Matthew and John to Bethlehem for the birth of the Lord.

But this journeys Luke recounted to us were not only about places but most of all an inner journey into our hearts. As we all know, the destination does not really matter but the journey, the trip. It is most true with our Simbang Gabi too – it is not about completing the nine-day novena that matters most but what have we become!

After tonight and tomorrow’s Masses, our churches would be empty again, only to be filled up on Ash Wednesday, and then Palm Sunday and Holy Thursday. How tragic that on Easter which is “the Mother of all feasts in the Church”, people are miserably absent because they are out in the beach and resort enjoying summer. In fact, more people come to Christmas (Pasko ng Pagsilang) than with Easter (Pasko ng Pagkabuhay) when it is actually the very foundation of our faith.

*With our students after Simbang Tanghali last year at the Medicine Lobby of Our Lady of Fatima University, Valenzuela City.*

So, what have we become after these nine days of waking up early or staying up late at night, praying, listening and reflecting on the word of God, sharing our material blessings in the collections and gift-giving if we stop going to Mass the whole coming new year?

American Trappist monk Thomas Merton wrote that seeking God is not like searching for a “thing” or a lost object because God is more than an intellectual pursuit or a contemplative illumination of the mind. Merton explained that God reveals Himself to us in our hearts through our communion and fellowships in the Church.

We come to church to celebrate the Mass and pray with the whole community to express our communion with one another in Jesus Christ. It is in this communal aspect of prayer we become holy, when we are transformed and as Zechariah prophesied, we are “set free” by Jesus Christ who is the main focus of his Benedictus.

Who are those enemies Zechariah mentioned twice in his Benedictus? Who are those enemies we have to be set free for God and free to love?

*Photo by author, Church of St. John the Baptist, Israel, May 2019.*

Again, look at this minute detail Luke used in composing Zechariah’s Benedictus when he spoke twice of the word “enemies”: first of “saving us from our enemies, from the hand of all who hate us” (Lk.1:71) and then, the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham “to set us free from the hand of enemies, free to worship him without fear” (Lk.1:74).

Surely, those “enemies” were not just the Romans and other pagans around Israel at that time nor the Pharisees and scribes, the priests and Sadducees of the temple who had hands in Christ’s death for they are now gone. The gospel accounts were written in the past but remain true and relevant at all time in history, especially now more than ever in our own time.

Are we the “enemies” within who think only of our selves even in our religious and spirituality, manipulating God, controlling God?

A friend asked me last week if their priest was right in saying that the Simbang Gabi is the most effective means to obtain special favors from God. I emphatically told her “no”, adding that their priest’s claim is misleading. We cannot dictate God. God blesses everyone, including sinners who do not even go to Mass. We do not need to multiply our prayers as Jesus warned us because God know’s very well our needs before we pray. Then, why pray at all?

We pray and most especially celebrate the Mass especially on Sundays to know what God wants from us because we love God. Period. And that love for God must flow in our loving service and kindness with others. If gaining favors is the main reason we go to Mass or even pray, then, we are the “enemies” who prevent ourselves to freely worship God!

Mr. Paterno Esmaquel of Rappler rightly said it in his Sunday column:

“We are a society obsessed with achievement and success, command and control… Even we who try to complete the Simbang Gabi can plead guilty. During the Simbang Gabi, for example, we are tempted to focus on achieving all the nine days and succeeding for another year. By fulfilling this tradition, we can then ask God (or “command” God, like a genie) to grant our wishes. We can therefore wield greater control over life that is otherwise unpredictable (https://www.rappler.com/voices/thought-leaders/the-wide-shot-missed-simbang-gabi-found-christmas-grace/).

And who are feeding all these misleading and erroneous thoughts on the people? We your priests and bishops!

How sad as we have mentioned last week when many priests have totally lost any sense at all of the sacred in the celebration of the Mass. Some of them not only come unprepared for the celebration without any homily, even so untidy and shabbily dressed and worst of all, make fun of almost everything and everyone that the Mass has become a cheap variety show. Online Masses continue not for evangelization for “shameful profits” in the Sacrament through “likes” and “followers” that some priests are now more concerned in finding ways to be trending and viral instead of how to effectively evangelize the people with our good liturgical celebrations flowing into our witnessing of life.

Yes, we priests and bishops are the enemies right here in the church when we align more with the rich and powerful, when we have no qualms asking/receiving gifts and favors from politicians and still, would want to collect more money and donations from people with our endless envelops that have totally alienated the poor from the church. The poor are the ones who suffer most, paying for the corruption of the politicians who help the clergy in their projects for the poor. Poor Jesus Christ!

Perhaps, on this last day of our novena to Christmas, let us all force ourselves – especially us priests and bishops – to go into silence to identify, to weed out those enemies within and outside us that prevent us from welcoming Jesus Christ in our hearts.

Let us pray to God that He may set us free from these enemies within us, around us so we can be like John the Baptist who will “go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give his people knowledge of salvation.” Amen. See you tonight or tomorrow, Christmas in the Holy Mass!

*Photo by author, Dumaguete City Cathedral, November 2024.*

Advent is unveiling of veils of death and selfishness

Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Wednesday in the First Week of Advent, 04 December 2024
Isaiah 25:6-10 ><}}}}*> + ><}}}}*> + ><}}}}*> Matthew 15:29-37

*Photo by author, Pulong Sampalok, DRT, Bulacan, 22 November 2024.*

Praise and glory to You,
God our loving Father
for this gift of Advent Season:
thank you in bringing us 
to this brand new day 
of salvation, of freedom,
of new life in Jesus;
most of all,
thank you for ending death
in Christ's advent.

On this mountain he will destroy he will destroy the veil that veils all peoples, the web that is woven over all nations; he will destroy death forever. The Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces… (Isaiah 25:7-8).

Come to us this Advent,
dear Jesus and take away
all kinds of veils of selfishness
that cover and make us 
unloving,
unkind, unmerciful,
unhappy...
set us free, Jesus,
free to love and serve
especially the sick and hungry;
set us free, Jesus, 
this Advent to open our hearts
to bring out those treasures
You have filled us with like
goodwill and care for others
like the disciples in today's gospel.
Amen.

*Photo courtesy of Our Lady of Fatima Tribune, 27 November 2024.*

Are we deluded?

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Wednesday in the Thirty-Second Week of Ordinary Time, Year II, 13 November 2024
Titus 3:1-7 ><))))*> + ><))))*> + ><))))*> Luke 17:11-19

*Photo by author, 20 August 2024, St. Scholastica Retreat House, Tagaytay City.*

“For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, deluded, slaves to various desires and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful ourselves and hating one another” (Titus 3:3).

What a beautiful reminder by St. Paul
to his co-worker in the Lord, Titus,
and to us in this modern age;
Oh, how often are we all
foolish, disobedient,
and deluded, too?

That word struck me today,
Lord: deluded
which is to suffer from delusion
which is to believe in something
not true!
And that's the great tragedy
in these days of modern communications
when information is easily
accessible,
when facts can be quickly
verified if true or not
but,
why do we remain deluded
that St. Paul rightly noted,
we are "hateful ourselves,
hating one another"?

Proof?
Our being ungrateful.
Our refusal to express
gratitude like the nine lepers
cleansed of leprosy by Jesus;
only one, a Samaritan
returned to Jesus and thanked
Him for the healing:
forgive us Jesus
when so often in life it is
easier for us to believe in things
not true at all than to accept
and embrace simple truths
in life like
that we are loved,
that we are good,
that You believe in us;
clear us of our built-in
biases against ourselves
that delude us
and blur our vision of others;
teach us to be more appreciative
of simple joys
and pleasures in life.

Thank you much, Jesus!
Amen.

Time Out of Mind

Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 04 November 2024

*Photo by author, Nagsasa Cove, San Antonio, Zambales, 19 October2024.*

Lately I have noticed my getting delayed of turning calendars in my room. Normally, I would be late for only a day or two but since June, it has sometimes taken even weeks. Worst was September when it was already about to end when I noticed my calendars stuck in August!

There are three calendars in my room: first is the large type given away by hardware stores located at the back of my entrance door which I could read from my bed with its big fonts; second is an average-sized religious calendar with pictures of saints and dates of their feast I keep in the closet so I would see every morning when I put on my clothes; and the third one is a table calendar on my desk where I work. That’s the only one updated and most used but the other two bigger ones, I fear are slowly becoming obsolete to me like the alarm clock (because I always wake up ahead of its alarm).

*Photo by Leeloo The First on Pexels.com*

As I age, calendars along with watches seem to be irrelevant with me.

Personally, it is ironic because I have long kept a sort of relationship with calendars, keeping them along with some planners since college in the 1980’s. I don’t know why. Basta – I love looking at old calendars, giving me that sense of joy within when I literally look back in time, recalling the reminders and important events I have jotted on them decades ago.

But now, sadly as I recall this major change in me, I feel to have lost that “lovin’ feeling” I used to have with calendars that have been replaced, of all things, by medicines.

You read it right. I now reckon time, especially the months not with calendars anymore but with maintenance meds I take daily – 30 days – to keep my sugar, blood pressure and cholesterol in control as well as my prostrate to remain “gentle”. Once a week, usually on a Monday morning, I fill my medicine dispenser with all the meds I will be taking from Sunday to Saturday.

*Photo by RDNE Stock project on Pexels.com*

It always funny when I do this weekly ritual like playing sungka: there are times I wonder with some irritation why my meds are getting fewer. That is when I realize the month is almost over and I have to buy again another 30 pieces of my meds for the next 30 days. And that is how I now count the days of each month…

Whenever I would do this ritual, Mitch Albom’s novel “The Time Keeper” comes to mind, reminding me of the value of time we often take for granted. I cannot recall in which part of the novel where one of the characters realized that “the reason God limits our days is to make each one precious.” Very true. It is said that “it is not time that is passing by but you who are passing by” because we cannot bring back time we have wasted with its opportunities to grow and learn, to live and love, to celebrate and laugh.

Lately I have been thinking if I am just going through a phase as I approach the age of 60 that would be in March next year. Is this part of getting old, of maturing?

Most likely.

How funny, even stupid how we have kept ourselves busy all our lives, complaining about time when time has always been on our side.

Maybe one of the reasons why elder people mellow as they age is that we are no longer so concerned with time as something separate from us, divided into parts we try to gather and hold because the truth is, time is the reality itself, we are a being-in-time, not distinct from us nor apart, but always our wholeness. It does not really matter if it is the past or the future but always the here and the now, the present.

Time in its entirety is a cosmic reality within us which we cannot fully grasp yet. Not yet. That’s what we call heaven, which is already here but not yet. And achievable. Let me explain.

It seems to me that at the age of 59, our main task in life is to live fully in each moment. Though I would admit I am afraid of dying, death is something we must befriend. Coming to terms with life is coming to terms with death, and vice versa. When that happens, then, we have arrived truly in life. That’s heaven, Just in time. This we experience so well when we truly love as this anonymous saying tells us:

Time is fast for those who rush;
Time is slow for those who wait;
Time is not for those who love.

“Time is not for those who love” is what the Greeks refer to in their other word for time called kairos or “fullness of time”. It is the time of the Lord, when we are one with God in Jesus Christ. It is that moment when everything falls into its right places which I believe is what Paulo Coelho referred to in one of his novels “when the whole universe conspires in your favor.”

The other word for time by the Greeks is kronos from which the word chronology came from to refer to the the succession and measurement of time in seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and years; kairos is the fullness of time. Again, from Albom’s “The Time Keeper”, there is this line that says, “If you you are measuring life, you are not living it.” Same thing holds true with time; if we keep on measuring it, we shall never have it nor enjoy it.

Maybe you have chanced upon our blogs here of our great weekend three weeks ago in Nagsasa Cove, San Antonio, Zambales (https://lordmychef.com/2024/10/25/friday-im-in-love-part-2/ and https://lordmychef.com/2024/10/29/friday-im-in-love-part-3/). Until now, the weekend bonding and fun we have there has remained so fresh and refreshing for me.

While there in Nagsasa Cove, one of the songs that kept playing at the back of my mind was Steely Dan’s Time Out Of Mind from their 1980 album Gaucho. Despite the critics’ insistence of its strong links with heroin use which I have never tried, it is one of my top favorite songs by the Steely Dan gods, Donald Fagen and the late Walter Becker. Oh how I imagined them telling me this…

Son you better be ready for love
On this glory day
This is your chance to believe
What I've got to say
Keep your eyes on the sky
Put a dollar in the kitty
Don't the moon look pretty

Our world has become so complicated like Facebook. It is all palabas, a show. No meaning nor substance at all because we have been trying to capture and keep time instead of allowing it to capture us, envelop us so we can move more freely with it within to discover more of the outside. No stress, no pressures. No calendars too!

Just time out of mind. Thank you for bearing with me.

From YouTube.com.

Exaggerating the truth, exaggerating self, part 2

Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 23 July 2024

*Photo from sunstar.com.ph of that viral incident between a Cebu personality addressed as a “Sir” by a waiter in a mall last Sunday.*

It is a classic case of “brouhaha” in the real sense, especially if we consider our Tagalog word buruha or bruha: a waiter was told to stand for more than an hour to be “lectured” on gender sensitivity by a Cebu personality belonging to the LGBTQ community after being addressed as a “Sir”.

Well, at least, the issue had been settled amicably with an apology by the celebrity after a deluge of negative reactions from netizens. Likewise, we can now sigh with some relief that there are no plans among the LGBTQ community to imitate their sistah from the Queen City of Cebu, proof that there are more sane and kind LGBTQ who have better things to do than make a big fuss about themselves or the rainbow. Imagine if every LGBTQ will lecture everyone of us just on how to address them in Metro Manila alone, life would be disrupted and paralyzed, worst than what we went through during the lockdowns during COVID-19!

But kidding aside, what makes that incident disturbingly sad is how it had shown again the sad plight of the poor in our country. Bawal maging mahirap, maging dukha sa Pilipinas. So sad. Even in the church it is very true. We do not have to look far to see how this is so true among us. Kawawa palagi ang mga maliliit.

How do we treat our house helpers and drivers, delivery personnel, janitors and janitresses, even professionals doing not so glamorous tasks like nurses. And security guards, of course. (Kudos to our alma mater, the Faculty of Arts and Letters of UST who had their security personnel joined the march of their recent graduates!)

The very sight of a waiter standing in front of a customer immediately caught my attention while scrolling my Facebook, asking myself, “what happened?” Gut feelings told me something was very wrong and surely, the guy must have been so disadvantaged.

For addressing that celebrity customer as “sir”, the waiter had to endure the humiliation of standing before him like in a trial. Even if it was just between the two of them. Even if he did not scream or yell at the waiter. What’s the big deal? Iyon lang?

His ego, his femininity more valuable than the very person of the waiter? It is the new pandemic among us spreading these last 20 years. The malady of entitlement, of never making the mortal sin to address some people as Doctor or Attorney or even Father. We have lost touched with our humanity, our being a human being, a person, a tao first of all.

Good thing there was a good soul around that mall who came to the waiter’s rescue.

What we have here is a classic case of “exaggeration of truth, exaggeration of self” – a phrase I have found years ago in one of the many writings of Pope Benedict XVI. It was my parting shot to our graduates of Senior High School last July 05, 2024 during our Baccalaureate Mass.

Many times in this age of so many platforms of communications, we tend to exaggerate the truths, of clamoring for so many things like inclusiveness everywhere when in the process, they have actually become so exclusive! Many times, people exaggerate the truth presenting themselves as disadvantaged and victimized when in fact it is far from reality. Many people are advancing so many things these days when in fact they are actually promoting themselves. Many are exaggerating the truths when they are actually exaggerating themselves (https://lordmychef.com/2024/07/10/exaggerating-truth-exaggerating-self/)

The tragedy of our time characterized by affluence and upward mobility so splattered across social media daily, is how so many among us who have lost touch with our humanity. Everything has become a show – a palabas we say in Filipino. We forget that inside – the loob – as more essential.

And what is inside each one of us?

Our dignity as image and likeness of God or pagkatao that is best seen and expressed in our being small, being little like the children, the very core of Jesus Christ’s teaching.

Look outside even in the countryside now invaded by those giant tarpaulins – why have we become like those tarpaulins, thinking and feeling we are larger than others?

Truth in Greek is aletheia that literally means an opening, of not being concealed like the blooming of a flower.

Simply be yourself. And don’t forget everyone as they are.

God bless everyone!

*Photo by Dra. Mai B. Dela Pena, MD at Deir Al-Mukhraqa Carmelite Monastery in Isarel, 2014.*

Firm faith, firm self

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Tuesday, Memorial of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, 16 July 2024
Isaiah 7:1-9 <*((((>< M+ ><))))*> Matthew 11:20-24

*Photo by author, Holy Family Monastery of Our Lady of Carmel, Guiguinto, Bulacan 2019.*

Thank You, dear God our Father
to your reminder today through
your prophet,
"Unless your faith is firm
you shall not be firm!"
(Isaiah 7:9).

So many times I forget this truth
 as I try to do everything
 to make myself strong physically,
 mentally and emotionally;
  so many times I forget
 that everything is fleeting in this world
 especially my body, including my enemies;
  many times I forget
 that the path to real strength
 of my person is in having
 a firm faith in You
 because only You remain.

Everything passes in this world;
 nations and peoples,
 cities and states rise
 and fall but, not You, O Lord!
  You never stop speaking
 your words of wisdom
 into the silence of my heart,
 calling me to trust in You,
 to have faith in You
 as You find ways in saving me
 from my many problems and miseries.
  Give me the grace to repent
 and to harden not my heart
 when I hear Your voice
 in Christ Jesus with Mary
our Lady of Carmel.
Amen.

“Bring me”…

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Monday, Memorial of St. Bonaventure, Doctor of the Church, 15 July 2024
Isaiah 1:10-17 <*((((>< + ><))))*> Matthew 10:34-11:1

*Photo from The Valenzuela Times, 02 July 2024.*

On this blessed Monday,
your word "bring" invites me
to examine what I bring:

“Trample my courts no more! Bring no more worthless offerings; your incense is loathsome to me” (Isaiah 1:13).

Jesus said to his Apostles: “Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword” (Matthew 10:34).

Teach me, O Lord,
to bring your peace and justice,
to bring your truth and light
so that I may bring that
much-needed balance
we are searching in life.

Like St. Bonaventure,
help me to bring myself before
You, dear God in prayers,
to immerse myself in your words
in the scriptures
so that I may bring together
the ideal and practical,
the spiritual and material.

Many times, O Lord,
we bring our very selves,
it is our ego and pride
we love to bring everywhere
for everyone to see,
forgetting that
we must first bring
You back into our hearts,
bring You back into our minds,
bring You back into our lives
so that we can finally
bring out the best
worship of You.
Amen.