Pride of Place

Lord My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul, 26 October 2025
Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C
Sirach 35:12-14, 16-18 ><}}}}*> 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18 ><}}}}*> Luke 18:9-14

*Photo by author, Alberione Center, Araneta Ave., QC, 11 September 2025.*

We got our inspiration anew for this Sunday’s reflection from the blog of Sr. Renee Yann, RSM whom we follow at WordPress (https://lavishmercy.com/2025/10/18/pride-of-place-2/). Her blogs are so wonderfully written with reflections so deep, inspiring and uplifting.

In her recent blog, Sr. Renee tells of their parishioner they fondly called “Mamie” who sat on the same seat in their church they called “Pride of Place” for forty years until her death. And for a good reason. Despite her many trials and sufferings in life, Mamie never failed in helping those in need in their community.

*Photo by author, Carmel of the Holy Family Monastery, Guiguinto, Bulacan, 25 September 2025.*

As told by Sr. Renee’s dad, Mamie had always sat in the same pew through the Depression as she struggled to keep her grocery opened; after the death of her husband in an accident, Mamie never missed their Sunday Masses seated at the same spot – in fact, she was at the same pew on a Sunday Mass when her son was killed at Pearl Harbor. It was actually their community who “proudly awarded” the seat as a “pride of place” to Mamie following her life of Christian witnessing.

“Pride of Place” isn’t always something physical like a pew in church. More often it’s a moral or spiritual position that’s granted to us by others after we pay moral dues. These dues include trustworthiness, sacrifice, contribution, and wisdom…“Pride of Place” doesn’t come automatically with power or position. It comes with respect. Unfortunately, not every parent, boss, teacher, pastor, elder, president, or champion deserves it. It must be earned and kept as a trust. (https://lavishmercy.com/2025/10/18/pride-of-place-2/).

The story reminded me of our own “pride of place” in the church, of people always occupying the same pew or spot during the Mass that they are amazed how we priests get to know them simply with their “seating arrangement” like their coming late or being absent!

But, what struck me most with Sr. Renee’s piece is the spiritual meaning of “pride of place” which refers actually not to where we sit but where we stand. That standing is more than physical but spiritual and moral in nature. Where we stand is about our stance or conviction not only on issues but about our faith and relationship with God expressed in our dealings with others exactly what our gospel tells us this Sunday.

“Two people went to the temple area to pray; one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector. The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself, ‘O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity — greedy, dishonest, adulterous —- or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income.’ But the tax collector stood off at a distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast and prayed, ‘O God, be merciful to me a sinner.’ I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former; for whomever exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 18:10-14).

*Painting by French artist James Tissot, “The Pharisee and the Tax Collector” (1886-1894) from commons.wikimedia.org.*

For the second straight Sunday, we hear another teaching of Jesus about faith expressed in prayers in another parable only Luke has.

Last Sunday we reflected that to persist in prayer is not about wearing God down but of allowing our hearts to clarify our desires until we silently surrender to what God knows is best for us which is salvation or “justification”. See how we find that word again – justified – as the key to this parable at its end when Jesus declared that it was the prayer of the publican that was heard for “he went home justified”.

The object of every prayer is God because prayer is a relationship, not just a ritual. To be filled with God is what holiness is, not being sinless. In fact, holiness is finding our sinfulness before God. And that is the essence of our parable this Sunday.

That is why Jesus directs our attention in the “where” when we pray – not just the location when we pray but our “place” in that relationship with God who is our very foundation. When all we see is our self in prayer like in any relationship, it means it is a monologue, a one-way street. Worst, it is an indication of the absence of God, even of others because the pray-er is so preoccupied with his or her very self!

*Photo by the author at the Wall of Jerusalem, May 2017.*

The Pharisee was clearly not in God even if he were in front of the temple. His very self was very far from God and all he had was his bloated ego. He may be a very pious person but not really good at all for he has no space for God and for others. He is a very closed man without any room for others. Remember, Luke said that “Jesus addressed this parable to those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else” (Lk.18:9).

The tax collector, on the other hand, may be physically far outside the temple but was the one actually nearest to God with his self-acceptance and admission of sins, of his need for God. He was closest to God because he was more open with God and with others by admitting his true self.

Prayer is more than entering a church or a prayer room, or finding our most suitable spot or space to pray. Prayer is being one with God, one in God. Prayer is losing our very self in God. The question now is, “where are we when we pray?

I have always loved this photo by friend from GMANews, Ms. JJ Jimeno who took this while she was praying inside the UP-Diliman Adoration Chapel in May 2019; she aptly captioned it as “losing one’s head in prayer.” True!

First, we become one with God in prayer when we admit our sinfulness, when we confess our sins to him, and own them without any “ifs” and “buts”. God always comes to those who truly open themselves to him by emptying themselves of their sins and inadequacies.

The tax collector was justified in his prayer more than the Pharisee because in confessing his sins, he admitted his need for God. He knew very well his place, so unlike the Pharisee who felt God owes him so much!

Second, we are in God in prayer when we are humble and have the conviction to leave everything behind and go down with God into the lowest point because one is so confident of the efficacy of prayer like what Ben Sirach tells us in the first reading.

The one who serves God willingly is heard; his petition reaches the heaven. The prayer of the lowly pierces the clouds; it does not rest till it reaches its goal (Sirach 35:16-17).

Most often in life, friendships and relationships are kept when we are willing to take the lower stance, not necessarily admitting fault or guilt in any misunderstanding because being lowly indicates the person’s need for the other person and of one’s love to work on that relationship despite its fragility. I tell couples that when they quarrel, the first who must first make the move to greet the other person is not the guilty one but the one with most love and self to give.

Third, we are in God in prayer when there is an offering daily of one’s self to God. It is not enough to be lowly and sorry for our sins in prayer. It has to be sustained because prayer is a discipline like any sport as St. Paul tells us in the second reading, calling us to persevere and endure until the end for Jesus Christ “who shall award us with the crown of righteousness in heaven.”

We are all sinners forgiven and beloved by God. When we find our right place in God in prayer, then we also find him. And meet him. Amen. Have a blessed week ahead into November! Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Our Lady of Fatima University, Valenzuela City (lordmychef@gmail.com)

Slaves of righteousness

Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul, 22 October 2025
Wednesday, Memorial of St. John Paul II, Pope
Romans 6:12-18     <*{{{{><  + ><}}}}*>     Luke 12:39-48

God our loving Father,
thank you for the unique grace
of having lived during the
pontificate of St. John Paul II:
what a tremendous blessing 
from you to grace us with St. John Paul II
as our Pope who had overcome 
so many difficulties and struggles 
in life personally by being orphaned 
at a very young age from his mother 
then from his father and later 
from his only beloved brother, 
not to mention his coming from Poland, 
a country exploited by foreign powers 
and subjected to communism 
for the longest time.

In his entire life, Lord, 
you have always shown 
your loving presence in him 
and destined him to be your sign 
in this most difficult period in history 
when men and women gravely challenged you 
with so many evil and sins, 
including by some priests you have called to serve.

St. John Paul II
showed us in his life
consistent with his teachings
and writings the need for us to be
your slave of righteousness,
a slave of love and goodness,
a slave of Christ:

Do you not know that if you present yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of one you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, although you were once slaves of sin, you have become obedient from the heart to the pattern of teaching to which you were entrusted. Freed from sin, you have becomes slaves of righteousness (Romans 6:16-18).

Let us grow in obedience
to you, Jesus like your great Pope,
St. John Paul II who lived and 
served us with great examples of
his life waging war against 
the many evils of our time, 
standing for what is true and good,
your voice in this wilderness, 
telling us to "be not afraid" to love 
and serve the weakest among us
while awaiting your return like 
in your parable today.
Amen.

Feeling God

Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul, 15 July 2025
Tuesday, Memorial of St. Bonaventure, Bishop & Doctor of the Church
Exodus 2:1-15 ><))))*> + ><))))*> + ><))))*> Matthew 11:20-24

*Photo by Ms. Jo Villafuerte, Atok, Benguet, 03 September 2019.*

Sometimes I wonder
O God how it feels to be
in front of you,
of what to feel when you are
so like us humans - sadly
frustrated, 
exasperated.

Jesus began to reproach the towns where most of his mighty deeds had been done, since they had not repented. “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would long ago have repented in sackcloth and ashes” (Matthew 11:20-21).

Forgive us, dear Jesus
when we are so callous
and numb before you,
not feeling you at all
because we are so absorbed 
in our own pride and foolishness,
justifying our sinful ways
that we hardly feel you,
because we could not feel others
nor ourselves as our bloated egos
numbed our humanity; we have lost our
sense of sinfulness and could no longer
appreciate what is good and beautiful,
right and orderly; we have become like 
those two Hebrews Moses caught fighting
each other that instead of feeling his care
and concern for them,
they felt separated he would kill
them like the Egyptian officer.

How true were the words
of our Saint for today,
the most pure Bonaventure 
who wrote, "If you do not know
your own dignity and condition,
you cannot value anything
at its proper worth."

Help us realize Jesus 
how once mighty cities
like Chorazin, Bethsaida
and Capernaum remains in ruins
to these days, never to have 
recaptured their old glory days
because since your time,
they never saw their dignity
and condition as your beloved
ones; let us not fall into ruins too
because of our unrepentance for
our sins. Amen.

*Photo by author, Capernaum in Israel, May 2017.*

Mystery of God, mystery of sin

40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Fourth Sunday in Lent (Laetare Sunday), 30 March 2025
Joshua 5:9, 10-12 ++ 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 ++ Luke 15:1-3, 11-32

*Photo by author, Chapel of Angel of Peace, RISE Tower, Our Lady of Fatima Un iversity, Valenzuela, 28 March 2025.*

We enter the fourth Sunday in Lent today with shades of pink to “rejoice” not only because Easter is getting close but most of all for the joy of God’s immense love expressed in His mercy and forgiveness to us sinners.

Known as Laetare Sunday from the Latin entrance antiphon of the Mass calling us to “Rejoice!” as it is hoped that by this time, we feel nearer to God in our Lenten journey, having experienced His Mystery which our gospel presents today courtesy of Luke who invites us to enter the scene of the Parable of the Prodigal Son. Many times we find ourselves wrapped in God’s Mystery with a capital “M” while entangled too in that other mystery of sin with a small “m” as this parable shows us.

Tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to listen to Jesus, but the Pharisees and scribes began to complain, saying, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” So to them Jesus addressed this parable: “A man had two sons…” (Luke 15:1-3, 11).

Jesus came to make God closest to us as our breath. As a Mystery, God is neither a concept nor an idea we have to understand in order to have or grasp to be possessed. It is God Whom we let to possess and wrap us in His Mystery for He is totally transcendent yet so personal with each of us. We do not see Him but we feel and experience Him as all-encompassing like nature around us that can be so breath-taking and awesome yet cannot be totally captured even by cameras. God is like the presence of insects and birds in a forest we delightedly listen to but so difficult to find or see.

That’s God – all around us, all-encompassing. Unfortunately, we are like the youngest son, proud and feeling independent with the gall and guts to ask God for our share of everything to be on our own when we do not have anything at all.

And off we leave to live a prodigal life or “wasteful extravagance”, slaving ourselves for wealth and fame and power until we hit rock bottom when suddenly we find ourselves empty and lost, sick and even alone. That is when we remember to come “home”, to return to our roots where it all began who is God.

As we sank deep in despair, we find a glimmer of hope within us where God is, where God had never really left us, always awaiting our return right there in our heart. He has always been there though we never recognized Him. Actually, that very moment we realized we are down and out, that was when God immediately ran to meet us.

Now, that mystery with a small “m” called sin we hardly notice.

*Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 17 March 2025.*

See again Luke as master storyteller in this lovely parable he alone has. See how Luke presents in a most subtle manner the mystery of sin not only as a breaking away from God and a violation of laws but a complete refusal to love.

Feel the youngest son in his asking for his share of inheritance from his father and his leaving home was not simply a breaking away but a refusal to love, a refusal to live, a refusal to be with the father.

That happens when we sin.

We do not tell God and our family and friends that we don’t love them but our walking away from them tells that so clearly. However, as we refuse to love when we sin, that is also when we deny the love right in our hearts, that we cannot stop loving because whatever we take after we have left are actually the very love of God and of our family and friends!

There is nothing truly ours in this world and because of God’s Mystery, we never lose His gift of love within us that when things get worst in our lives, it is the same love that gives us the spark to hope and believe again. It was that love that the youngest son missed and realized despite all his dramas as he went home to his loving father just like us too.

On the other hand, the parable presents to us too another pernicious effect of sin as a mystery which is its direct effect to our personality. As a refusal to love, sin has a direct effect to our personality because every time we sin we become a less loving person that is a contradiction of our identity and nature.

Its worst part happens when we take small sins for granted including the little decisions we make that do not seem to be evil or bad, even without any vice at all; notice how after sometime of repeatedly committing them, our personality is affected, making us a less loving person that eventually breaks out in the open and we freakout like the elder son or those people caught on cam doing all the crazy stuff in public.

He said to this father in reply, “Look, all these years I served you and not once did I disobey your orders; yet you never gave me even a young goat to feast on with my friends. But when your son returns who swallowed up your property with prostitutes, for him you slaughter the fattened calf” (Luke 15:29-30).

How often have we made the excuse para yun lang naman? That a little lying or cheating once won’t really matter, asking ano ba masama doon? (what’s bad/wrong)? as an excuse for things that seem to be not bad or sinful at all.

Recall the first Sunday of Lent, the temptation of Jesus, of how the devil is always in the details, tempting us with that device of increments, of apportioning to little things the big evil things, not showing us the whole picture like fake news peddled by demons.

A sin is always a sin, a refusal to love. Period. Whether we go big time in sins like the youngest son or small time in sins like his elder brother, sin is clearly a refusal to love that greatly affects our personality, our lives and that of others.

We rejoice today for that great Mystery of God, of His immense love for each of us no matter how bad and how dark our sins are. God’s Mystery is His abounding love and mercy, forgiving our sins the moment we feel sorry for them.

He said to him, “My son, you are here with me always; everything I have is yours. But now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found” (Luke 15:31-32).

As I turned 60 last Saturday, the overwhelming feeling I have had inside me is that deep gratitude to God’s love for me. Everything is grace that all the more I pray, “Lord you have given me with so much but I have given so little; teach me to give more of myself, more of your love, more of you to others.”

This time, I pray it with deeper conviction as I see both with joy and fear the bright horizon ahead with a distant shore beyond. There’s no more time to waste as St. Paul had noted in the second reading, I feel life now more definitive, that God is so undeniably real. Like St. Paul, “we are ambassadors for Christ” with the mission to help people “reconcile to God” especially in this final journey in life. God reminds us today that like during the time of Joshua in the first reading, the Eucharist is our new Passover where we thank God for His abounding love and mercy for us in this life and beyond. Amen.

Lent is loving like God

40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Third Week in Lent, Cycle C, 23 March 2025
Exodus 3:1-8, 13-15 + 1 Corinthians 10:1-6, 10-12 + Luke 13:1-9

Thank you very much for all your birthday greetings yesterday, my 60th. Until now my heart overflows in joy from your expressions of love to me that confirmed God loves me so much in the most personal manner. Hence, my firm resolve in these senior years of my life to be able to love like God, to desire always the Cross for the love of our Crucified Lord Jesus Christ.

Yes, it is very ambitious, too idealistic but, that is God’s love for each one of us! Jesus became human like us so we may finally experience God’s immense love for each of us. And that is the invitation of Lent to us – that we go back to God, our very first love. Very often, we experience that very personal love of God for us in the desert of our lives when we are in darkness and emptiness like Moses in today’s first reading.

Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. Leading the flock across the desert, he came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There an angel of the Lord appeared to Moses in fire flaming out of a bush. As he looked on, he was surprised to see that the bush, though on fire, was not consumed (Exodus 13:1-2).

Fire is a very powerful sign not only in the Holy Bible but in every culture for the warmth it generates and the light it illuminates the surrounding. Fire signifies power because of its unique abilities to cleanse, purify and transform materials into something better. It is history’s most significant discovery of all time, facilitating our growth and development as peoples and nations with the advent of cooking that gave us food that delights and nourishes us.

That is the fiery love God has for each one of us we often find when we least expected like Moses in the first reading. Moses ended up in the wilderness tending sheep after fleeing from Egypt when he learned it was widely known that he had murdered an Egyptian maltreating a Hebrew slave.

What a beautiful image here of God’s love so fiery yet not burning us! In the burning bush, God revealed Himself as the omnipresent One always with us we are rarely aware of. There in the burning bush, God also reminded Moses and us today how this whole planet Earth is a sacred ground, His dwelling-place that we keep on desecrating with our sins.

And there lies the great paradox of our lives where God lighting us, straightening our crooked path to help us find our way back to Him, to life and to meaning. God is the fire burning the impurities in us without us knowing in many instances while He prevents us from being consumed like the burning bush. In fact, many times unknown to us, the fires of our failures and disappointments, pains and trials have actually brought out the best in us. Unconsciously to us, we are like the burning bush aflame with God’s fiery love that transforms us into better persons and more committed disciples of Christ.

Some people told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with the blood of their sacrifices. Jesus said to them in reply, “Do you think that because those Galileans suffered in this way they were greater sinners than all the other Galileans? by no means! But I tell, if you do not repent, you will perish as they did! Or those eighteen people who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them – do you think they were more guilty than everyone else who lived in Jerusalem? By no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will perish as they did!” (Luke 13:1-5)

How timely is our gospel today, reminding us to go deeper into our very selves, into those dark places in our hearts to realize too God’s message to us in the light of recent turn of events in the country.

What a mess we are now into that we easily blame on others except us. We have become so divided as a nation that we have refused to find the face of God, choosing to remain in the level of personalism and worst, of politics.

Sin is not just a turning away from God nor a breaking of any law but a complete refusal to love. When there is no love, there is no trust, there is no other person, there is no God. Just one’s self. Sin, therefore, is selfishness, the thinking more of one’s self, not of others.

That was the very sin of the people after the exodus when they refused to love one another, grumbling against Moses and even God most of the time. St. Paul has a grim reminder to each of us this Sunday as he recalled that desert experience of the Israelites when he wrote:

I do no want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea… Yet God was not pleased with most of them, for they were struck down in the desert. These things happened as examples for us, so that we might not desire evil things, as they did. Therefore, whoever thinks he is standing secure should take not to fall (1 Corinthians 10:1, 5-6, 12).

Five years ago I celebrated my birthday on a Sunday, the fifth in Lent just before Palm Sunday. That was very memorable to me because it was the first Sunday during the COVID lockdown when public Masses were prohibited.

That afternoon, I decided to go on a motorized procession of the Blessed Sacrament around my parish with a handful of our parish volunteers using a borrowed F-150 truck of a generous parishioner. Oh how the people knelt while lining up the main highway and inner streets as we passed by with the Blessed Sacrament.

Halfway through our libot, it started to rain but I instructed my companions to still go on even if it there would be a downpour. As we approached the last purok of our parish, I saw a rainbow. And cried as I felt God telling me at that moment like Noah after the floods that He would not forsake us in that time of COVID.

God kept that promise until I left Parokya ni San Juan Ebanghelista in Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan that was the least affected barangay by COVID in the whole town during my term.

Reflecting on that scene of Moses before the burning bush, I remembered that rainbow during my 55th birthday at the start of the COVID pandemic and lockdown. God often comes to us in many disguises, enlightening us to see the present situation we are into especially when it is all dark. It is the time we look inside our hearts to find God and experience His love; if we can’t find God or feel His love, let us be converted. Let us do penance as Jesus told the people in the gospel. Only with a contrite heart that one can truly find love again because being sorry for one’s sin is the beginning of loving.

That is the surest sign of God’s love for us – when everything especially us and our relationships become visibly clear , no matter how slowly it may be, one step at a time. The more we experience the love of God, the more we resolve to love; that is when this life and world become brighter. Let us love like God by returning to Him in His love. Amen. Have a blessed week ahead.

Our shameless nakedness & deafness

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Friday, Memorial of Sts. Cyril (Monk) & Methodius (Bishop), 14 February 2025
Genesis 3:1-8 ><0000'> + ><0000'> + ><0000'> Mark 7:31-37

On this most joyous day
when most hearts has only 
one thing to say,
I pray dear Lord Jesus Christ
that I remain and stay
at your side,
never to hide
because of shame
and sin.

Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked… When they heard the sound of the Lord God moving about in the garden at the breezy time of the day, the man and his wife hid themselves from the Lord god among the trees of the garden (Genesis 3:7, 8).

How times have changed,
Lord, when in the garden at Eden
the man and his wife sinned,
they hid whereas today
no one is ashamed anymore
of their nakedness;
what a shame that today,
we don't hide in shame
instead flaunt our nakedness
for everyone to be convinced
we are clean,
we are right,
we have not sinned.

Heal our deafness,
Jesus;
take us off away from others
to be with yourself
like that deaf mute,
put your fingers into our ears,
pierce our hearts,
touch our souls
for us to see our
indifference to sin 
and evil
and shout your words
"Ephphatha"
that we may be opened
anew to the sad realities
of our nakedness
we ironically use 
to cover
our sins.
Amen.

When Jesus echoes our words

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Friday After the Epiphany, 10 January 2025
1 John 5:5-13     ><))))*> + ><))))*> + ><))))*>     Luke 5:12-16

*Photo by author, Atok, Benguet, 27 December 2025.*

(Hello my dear friends and relatives, especially followers: still, a blessed Merry Christmas to you all! I have gone to an extended vacation for much needed rest and recreation; haven’t been writing at all to truly enjoy the rare cold weather and new sites I have been to. See you soon and God bless you always!)

How fast time flies,
Lord Jesus!
It is again the new year
and soon, January will be over;
as I look back to 2024,
You were always there with me,
for me,
as You never left me, Lord;
like in our gospel today,
many times You made ways
to meet me head on, 
dear Jesus;
how lovely to remember
and to keep in mind
and heart how You,
dear Jesus,
would echo my prayers,
my silent wishes
and desires.

It happened there was a man full of leprosy in one of the towns where Jesus was; and when he saw Jesus, he fell prostrate, pleaded to him, and said, “Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean.” Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him, and said, “I do will it. Be made clean.” And the leprosy left him immediately (Luke 5:12-13).

Many times,
I meet You Jesus
when I am most dirty,
most embarrassing,
most shameful,
when I am like a leper -
sick and lost,
rejected by everyone,
dejected in myself;
still, You were there
with your outstretched arms,
touching me,
embracing me.

Most of all,
echoing my very words,
my silent wishes,
my cries.

When You echo my words,
my thoughts
and my feelings
that many times I am afraid to
speak out loudly,
I feel so free and liberated
from my own leprosy;
when You echo my words,
You assure me You always listen;
when You echo my words,
You answer my prayers,
dear Jesus.

And so,
I pray today Jesus
that in my very self
I may echo
 Your loving presence
to those most in need,
to those forgotten
and taken for granted.
Amen.

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

We are Mary Magdalene

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Monday, Feast of St. Mary Magdalene, 22 July 2024
Song of Songs 3:1-4 <*{{{{>< + ><}}}}*> John 20:1-2, 11-18

*“The Appearance of Christ to Mary Magdalene” painting by Alexander Ivanov (1834-1836) at the Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia from commons.wikimedia.org.*

We rejoice today, Lord Jesus,
for this most wondrous Feast of
your friend St. Mary Magdalene:
in her we find hope and joy
that like her, we who are sinners
are assured of a grace-filled future,
of a trustworthy friend in You,
and abounding love and mercy
also in You.

We are, dear Jesus,
the modern Mary Magdalene:
sinful and worldly,
perhaps so vain with our
outside appearance and bearing
in public, sometimes on the brink
of giving up in life because nobody seem
to care at all for us;
many times like Mary Magdalene,
we walk alone in darkness 
searching for You, Lord Jesus;
many times we wonder too
how we could move the huge 
and heavy stone of past sins,
weaknesses and failures, 
addictions and vices 
that cover us and prevent us
from moving forward, finding You;
many times, O Lord,
we mistake You for somebody else
like Mary Magdalene when she mistook
You to be the gardener at the tomb
because we are so preoccupied
of many things in life. 

But, You assure us today
on this Feast of St. Mary Magdalene
our fears and assumptions are not 
true at all; help us to stop clinging 
to our many past for You are not there,
Jesus; You are always in the here and now,
in the present moment, personally calling us
in our name like Mary!

The Bride says: On my bed at night I sought him whom my heart loves – I sought him but I did not find him. I will rise then and go about the city; in the streets and crossings I will seek him whom my heart loves. I sought him but I did not find him. The watchmen came upon me as they made their rounds of the city. Have you seen him whom my heart loves? I have hardly left them when I found him whom my heart loves (Song of Songs 3:1-4).

Like that lover,
the Bride in the first reading,
we are Mary Magdalene
in search of love and meaning
in this world;
in search of You, Jesus,
our Lord and Savior;
so often, we seek You
in this world, in its loud noise
of too much self bragging
as well as in the midst of the
world's riches and powers;
the more we seek You,
the more elusive You have become
until You came when like Mary Magdalene
we have believed in You,
we have listened to You.
we have become silent
and attentive
to You, Lord Jesus;
thank You for coming,
thank You for finding me,
thank You for calling me
like Mary
to proclaim You are risen
to others who believe in You,
searching You,
waiting for You.
Amen.

Understanding sin

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Tuesday in the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time, Year II, 18 June 2024
1 Kings 21:17-29 <'[[[[><< + ><]]]]'> Matthew 5:43-48

*Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2024.*

God our merciful Father,
grant me the grace today
to understand my sins more
clearly so that I may come to
sorrow for them,
sorrow that leads to love
of your Son Jesus Christ
and not despair;
let me keep in mind
that sin is not just a breaking
of your laws and rules but
simply a refusal to love
You and others around me;
and the worst part of sin
we are not aware of is how
it seriously affects our personality,
our personhood
because whenever we sin
we become a less-loving
person.

So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Matthew 5:48

Being perfect,
being holy like You,
dear Father,
means being filled
by You
which is a process
of daily conversion
when we ask
your forgiveness Father,
to gain a better self-knowledge
of ourselves
to identify our weaknesses
and sinfulness
so that in your grace,
we become a better person
than before.

Let us have within us
that sense of sinfulness
and sense of sin,
Father
so that we
we may grow in your love.
Amen.

Lent is for getting real

40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Friday in the First Week of Lent, 23 February 2024
Ezekiel 18:21-28     <*[[[[>< + + + ><]]]]*>     Matthew 5:20-26

*“Water Lilies” (1916-1919) painting by Frenchman Claude Monet from lopificio.it*

As we come to close
 the first week of Lent today,
your words in our Responsorial Psalm 
are so true, O God because nothing
can be hidden from you,
“If you, O Lord, mark iniquities, 
who can stand?”

Jesus said to his disciples: “Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there at the altar, go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift.”
Matthew 5:23-24

When does a "brother has
anything against us", Lord Jesus?

  The Filipino translation
 “kung may sama ng loob
 sa iyo ang iyong kapatid”
  implies the problem lies 
with the brother, not us; 
but, here you are telling us
 we are the offender, 
 who are obliged, 
even ought to be
 “reconciled with him first
 then offer your gift”
 as we are the guilty one!

Forgive us for acting 
immaturely clean and innocent
 when our feuds and animosities
 with others are due to our pretending
 to be the offended ones
 when in fact, 
we are the offender.

Let us get real with ourselves
 beginning this Lent
 for we can never fool you,
God our Father.

“When someone virtuous turns away from virtue to commit iniquity, and dies, it is because of the iniquity he committed that he must die. But if the wicked, turning from wickedness he has committed, does what is right and just, he shall preserve his life; since he has turned away from all the sins that he committed, he shall surely live, he shall not die.”
Ezekiel 18:26-28

 Thank you dear Father
for being true with us always
that we may also get real
with you and everybody else.
Amen.