The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Monday, Week II in Ordinary Time, Year I, 20 January 2025 Hebrews 5:1-10 <*((((>< + ><))))*> Mark 2:18-22
Photo by author, sunrise at St. Paul Spirituality Center, Pico, La Trinidad, Benguet, 06 January 2025.
Praise and glory to you, God our loving Father! Thank you for this wonderful Monday as we pray for one another, especially to those still baffled with life's many mysteries, its many paradoxes beginning to appear anew as we dive into Ordinary Time.
Teach us to take into heart Jesus Christ's teaching today:
“Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the skins are ruined. Rather, new wine is poured into fresh wineskins” (Mark 2:22).
Help us change our attitudes in life, Jesus: make us realize that like your life, our life is always a mixture of joy and sufferings; most of all, make us experience in your coming into our human reality as our Eternal High Priest, you have brought newness and significance in storage and taste of wine that symbolizes life itself, as you put a new vigor of spirit in celebrating life.
Photo by author, sunset in Atok, Benguet, 27 December 2024.
“Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered; and when he was made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him…” (Hebrews 5:8-9).
How lovely and wonderful to realize how your true humanity, dear Jesus, actually makes you more than less an effective Priest to truly "bridge" us with the Father and one another; like you Jesus, we pray the Father to take away our pains but in your example on the Cross, we learn how God is actually found in pain!
Change our attitudes to be like you, Jesus who came to join us in our many sufferings to show us that in our dealing with our own pain and the pain of others, that is when we grow in strength and maturity, in love and compassion that eventually lead us to deeper and true joy in you our Lord.
Help us embrace this paradox of life, Jesus, that a life devoid of the challenge of pain is an incomplete life; and when we are puzzled by the many sufferings in us and around us, let us gaze into your Cross to reflect, "Why did God not spare you his own Son?" Amen.
Photo by author, St. Paul Spirituality Center, Pico, La Trinidad, Benguet, 04 January 2025.
Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 13 December 2024
Photo by author, Camp John Hay, Baguio City, December 2018.
Thanks to social media – finally, the beauty and splendor of our faith is once again made known widely especially during this lovely season of Advent. Two beautiful posts from Facebook recently caught my attention that prompted me to share this blog.
First is from the wife of my former student in Bulacan whose wedding I officiated during the COVID pandemic in early 2022. This had actually shaped my prayers and reflections this week. She wrote:
From Facebook, 10 December 2024.
Last Sunday I mentioned in my homily how during Advent the days are shorter and nights are longer, starting earlier than usual. How true indeed that the darkest nights are the longest nights, especially during Christmas. And that’s one of the beautiful reasons Jesus was born on December 25 which is the darkest night of the year.
“Kung kailan magpapasko…” is one expression we dread to hear ourselves or dear ones saying at this time of the year. “Kung kailan magpapasko at saka magkakasakit… mawawalan ng trabaho…” or “mababasted o maghihiwalay.” Worst, “kung kailan magpapasko at saka mayroong mamamatay.”
This Advent, Jesus reminds us how in the cold, dark nights are others He is searching too to remind them that He actually came for them. Jesus wants us to be the “inn keeper” to bring Him to the poor and suffering, the sick and the children, those who have failed and are so disappointed in life, those deep into sins, feeling lost and alone in this merry season.
Dare yourself to be open to Jesus this Advent when He suddenly comes to you to bring Him to someone who needs cheering and reassurance Christ is coming again, Christ had come, and Christ comes.
Simply be aware how blessed you are and Jesus will tell you, will direct you to whom you must pray for or even visit.
Many times, we try doing something good to be blessed but the truth is, we have been tremendously blessed that is why we are able to do something good. God can never be outdone in generosity. Remember that before we can bless anyone, we are first blessed. That is why we have to keep on blessing others by being kind and caring always to anyone because we have been so blessed.
This I noticed since my first year in the priesthood – God would always lead me to some sick people to visit and anoint with oil, hear confessions and receive the Viaticum. That’s every Christmas which I have adopted as a personal tradition, a panata (pledge). That is why when I was assigned as a chaplain at the Fatima University Medical Center in Valenzuela, I felt God affirming my Christmas panata with the sick as He leads me to new directions in my ministry. The other year, I visited my kababata in Bocaue Christmas evening to hear his confessions and anoint him as he reached the terminal stage of his renal disease. A few days after new year, I was back to celebrate Mass at his funeral. So glad to have visited him and brought him Jesus.
With my classmate and friend Bernie, 12 December 2024.
Yesterday I visited a classmate and friend from college, Bernie. We last saw each other before our graduation from UST in 1986 after the EDSA People Power Revolution. We reconnected in 2019 when our seminarian now priest Fr. RA was assigned in his parish in Aritao, Vizcaya where Bernie is an active member and supporter.
Two years ago he asked me for prayers after being diagnosed with cancer and yesterday, he suddenly called me during breakfast to say he has been declared cancer-free by his doctors. As a thanksgiving, he is attending a healing Mass at the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy in Marilao, Bulacan with his parish priest. And they were staying in a private retreat house in Baliuag, Bulacan owned by my friends too! In fact, I held my 50th birthday party there that despite my toxic schedule yesterday, I hurriedly visited Bernie.
As I drove home amid a horrendous traffic at the Nlex, I felt like Joseph with Mary journeying to Bethlehem to bring the Son of God, Jesus Christ into the world. I hope that I just did that to my classmate and friend yesterday.
Photo by author, 28 November 2022, RISE Tower, Our Lady of Fatima University, Valenzuela City.
During these four weeks before Christmas, say a prayer for anyone you know or may have heard to be going through difficulties lately like not feeling merry and bright, suffering mentally, grieving for loved ones, struggling financially, going through some family problems, suffering physically, dealing with severe blows like failures and disappointments in life, and a host of other trials and tribulations others may be going through this month alone.
Pray also for those caring for the sick and suffering. Many times, we are so focused with their patients, forgetting the very crucial roles caregivers do for the sick and impaired or challenged. Remembering them, giving them a little gift or a card or spending precious moments with them can be their merriest Christmas! Many of them rarely go on breaks, especially on Christmas. They need Jesus so badly whom they rarely experience especially when the people they care for are very demanding.
Anyone who visits the sick, cares for those in pain and sufferings, consoles those grieving or simply be present with those going through financial or psychological difficulties is like Joseph and Mary going to Bethlehem to give birth to Jesus, to make Jesus present. The Lord needs us to bring Him closer to those silently crying, silently in pain. Think of the immense blessings that have been poured out to us beforehand and soon, be surprised for more blessings too.
Let me share with you this beautiful prayer shared to me recently too by another friend, a well-respected and multi-awarded photojournalist:
Let’s not forget. Christmas is Jesus Christ. Not money nor things nor food. It is only Jesus, always Jesus dwelling in us. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Friday, Memorial of St. Francis of Assisi, 04 October 2024 Job 38:1, 12-21; 40:3-5 <*{{{{>< + ><}}}}*> Luke 10:13-16
Photo by Fr. Bien Miguel, Diocese of Antipolo, 25 September 2024.
This is actually a rejoinder to our prayer earlier published today on the Memorial of St. Francis of Assisi. And how I love the first reading today, of God’s “speech” to Job’s lamentations that remind us all of the wonder and majesty of creation St. Francis of Assisi highly regarded in his life and teachings.
The Lord addressed Job out of the storm and said: “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 depths 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 38:1, 12-13, 16-18).
How interesting too these words written about 2700 years ago in the Middle East are echoed in our own time in theme song of the Disney movie Pocahontas, “The Color of the Wind”:
Have you ever heard the wolf cry to the blue corn moon Or asked the grinning bobcat why he grinned? Can you sing with all the voices of the mountain? Can you paint with all the colors of the wind? Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2024.
Like Job, who was a fictional character, Pocahontas went through a lot of great sufferings beyond explanations which is the aim of the authors of the Book of Job – to reflect on the mystery of human sufferings and misery amid a loving God.
It is easy to understand our sufferings in life when we are the ones who have caused them like making wrong choices and decisions or simply not exerting enough efforts to our endeavors or projects.
The most painful sufferings that are really bothersome are those we feel “undeserved” at all like getting a rare cancer and disease, being offended by someone close to us despite our being good to them, or like Pocahontas who was then living in peace and quiet until the English colonizers came to America who kidnapped and gang raped her.
I have never seen that Disney movie Pocahontas that is loosely based on the life of a native American Indian woman Pocahontas whose actual name was Matoaka; she was the daughter of the Chief of the Powhatan tribe in Chesapeake, Virginia during the early 1600’s.
According to historians, there was really no romance at all between Pocahontas and the British colonizer Captain John Smith as portrayed in the Disney movie. After getting pregnant from that gangrape, Pocahontas was forced to marry the English explorer John Rolfe as a condition for her release that only made her life filled with great sufferings and humiliations until her death.
Though a work of fiction but a fruit of prayerful reflections about life’s realities unlike the Disney movie Pocahontas, Job suffered severely when he lost his children, properties and livestock in a single day. Worst of all, he was stricken with a rare disease and left to the care of a “nagging” wife and three friends who wanted him to curse God or admit his guilt for a sin for which God was punishing him.
But Job’s conscience was clear, remaining faithful to God throughout all his sufferings. His complaints and cries were actually a voicing out of his inner pains to God, an expression of his trust in Him, “But as for me, I know that my Vindicator lives, and that he will at last stand forth upon the dust… And from my flesh I shall see God; my inmost being is consumed with longing” (Job 19:25, 27).
Job like us today was not seeking any answer nor explanation at all for his sufferings; he cries to God like us because we believe only God can save us. We do not cry or air our pains to someone we do not trust or believe in; the same is true why we cry and complain to God!
God’s response to Job’s laments remind us today of the need for us to see the whole picture we are into in this vast universe, of how everyone and everything is interconnected in God through His own Son Jesus Christ.
Notice how the author structured the speech of God of seeming opposites in life: commanding the morning and being shown the dawn in verse 12; sources of the sea and depths of the abyss in verse 16; and, gates of death and gates of darkness in verse 17. Jewish thought at that time was so structured that they saw everything distinctly different like morning and dawn, sea and abyss, death and darkness. That explains why they were so strict with the letters of the law that they eventually forgot the primacy of the human person which Jesus tried to emphasized to them in His teachings and healings. Jesus came to show us how everything and everyone in this whole creation is linked together, interrelated in God through Him.
This He did when He died on the Cross.
Photo by Fr. Gerry Pascual of the fresco at the Assisi Basilica, Italy, 2019.
It is sad that St. Francis of Assisi is often “romanticized” by many nature lovers even by some “new agers” for his love for nature and animals. More than sentimental reasons, St. Francis’ love and concern for nature and animals were all the result of his deep love and devotion to Jesus Christ crucified found daily in the celebration of the Holy Eucharist.
St. Francis realized and experienced the interconnectedness of everything and everyone in his own sufferings and pains in life he humbly embraced and accepted as we see in that verse we pray at every Station of the Cross he had composed:
V. We adore You, O Lord Jesus Christ, and we bless you. R. Because by Your holy Cross, You have redeemed the world.
For his love for the Cross and his own sufferings, Jesus blessed St. Francis with the stigmata, His five wounds at His crucifixion.
Photo by Fr. Gerry Pascual, Sculpture of the young St. Francis in Assisi, Italy, 2019.
After receiving those wounds, St. Francis was blinded as he went through severe sufferings after going through well-intentioned surgeries that went so bad. He was in his 40’s at that time and despite his great sufferings, it was during that period when he produced so many great writings we all cherish until now, notably the Canticle of the Sun where we find his famous expressions “brother sun, sister moon, and cousin death” – the very same things God expressed to Job in that speech out of the storm in our first reading today that is echoed by Disney’s Pocahontas in the theme “The Color of the Wind”.
But unlike that Disney movie that sugarcoats life’s realities of sufferings and pains, both Job and St. Francis of Assisi remind us today that the more we embrace our pains and sufferings in life like them, the more we see life’s wholeness, our oneness in God and the rest of His creations when seen in the light of the Cross of Jesus Christ.
When we see this oneness and interconnectedness in life, that is when we actually grow and mature, become fruitful as we find fulfillment in life despite the difficulties and pains we go through. Have a blessed weekend everyone! Happy feast day too to our Franciscan brothers and sisters!
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Thursday in the Twenty-sixth Week of Ordinary Time, Year II, 03 October 2024 Job 19:21-27 <*((((>< + ><))))*> Luke 10:1-12
Photo by Mr. Jay Javier, 07 September 2024.
God our loving Father:
Grant me the "patience of Job". Like him, everyday I go through many trials and sufferings: some are of my own-making, some can be explained and understood, but most often, many of them are a mystery, beyond explanations, beyond comprehension. Yes, Lord: many times I have so many questions in life that are left unanswered but like Job, I believe You alone knows everything I am going through, especially the pains and hurts, the difficulties and hardships.
But as for me, I know that my Vindicator lives, and that he will at last stand forth upon the dust; Whom I myself shall see: my own eyes, not another’s, shall behold him, And from my flesh I shall see God: my inmost being is consumed with longing (Job 19:25-27).
Thank you for calling me, for sending me into your great harvest; how lovely are your words, "The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master to send out laborers for his harvest" (Matthew 10:2); so many times, we think the solution to our problems are found in things without knowing nor realizing what we need are more people willing to labor with somebody else's pains and hurts, people willing to labor for people so lost in the mysteries of life saddled with many things without clear explanations except to be patient like Job, trusting that in the end, our vindication is in You. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Saturday, Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, 14 September 2024 Numbers 21:4-9 ><}}}}*> Philippians 2:6-11 ><}}}}*> John 3:13-17
Photo by author in my previous parish, 2017.
Today we celebrate a most unique Feast, the Exaltation of the Cross.
It is so unique because first of all, the cross is perhaps the most unique thing on earth made up of two pieces of wood that are so ordinary yet so deeply extraordinary in meaning, a sign of God’s immense love for us humans through Jesus Christ’s Passion and Death.
From being the sign of the most inhuman punishment in history, the Cross is now the very sign of how God “so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that he who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life” (Jn.3:16). It encapsulates the whole mystery of Jesus Christ, of how this all-powerful God beyond the ordinary became weak like us in everything except sin so that we too may be like Him, divine and more than ordinary. In His suffering and death on the Cross, Jesus made the lowly wood so ordinary to be so exalted to become His sign of love and mercy, power and majesty.
Photo by author, Jerusalem, May 2017.
Hence, in the Cross is the power of God’s love to transform us to better persons.
In the Cross is God’s power to lead us closer to Him with its vertical beam and to others with its horizontal beam.
In the Cross is the power of good if we choose to embrace it with Christ Jesus as our Lord and Master.
The Cross is most unique of all signs in the world because underneath its ordinariness, that is where we see God’s glory and majesty. It was underneath the Cross of darkness and gloom on Good Friday that humanity began to see light and hope in life’s many absurdities. Most of all, it was underneath that Cross of suffering and death of Jesus Christ that we feel and experience the assurance of the Resurrection.
How?
Through our own pains and sufferings that are most uniquely ours too!
With their patience worn out by the journey, the people complained against God and Moses, “Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in this desert, where there is no food or water? We are disgusted with this wretched food!” In punishment the Lord sent among the people saraph serpents, which bit the people so that many of them died (Numbers 21:4-6).
Photo by author, Dominican Hills, Baguio City, January 2018.
You must have heard that old story of a man who came to Jesus to return the cross given for him to carry; he asked Jesus to have it replaced with a lighter one. Jesus then led the man to a huge room with all kinds of crosses for him to choose which he prefers as the best one for him so that he would stop complaining.
After closely examining the specs of so many crosses, the man finally decided to pick one he deemed as perfect for him after considering its weight and other dimensions, only to find out from Jesus Himself that it was the same cross he had actually returned for exchange!
Many times in life we are like those people in the first reading, never ending in their complaints to God, even challenging Him, accusing Him of forsaking us, of being unfair when life becomes difficult and unbearable. There are times we feel being on the distaff side of life always like a flat tire, never on top. We cry foul to God especially with all our hurts and pains inflicted by others, asking Him where was He when most needed?
Photo by author in Jordan near the Israeli border where Moses put up the bronze serpent as instructed by God to heal those bitten by the snakes after they have complained of their conditions in the wilderness, May 2019.
While it is true life is indeed difficult, the cross reminds us of the fact that the pains and hurts we have are uniquely ours too, something we have to accept and most of all, own.
There are pains that are so deep and won’t go away that have in fact affected us dismally in our lives already. Instead of self-blaming and self-pity, we just have to ask for God’s grace to accept and own them like Jesus Christ. We just have to “bring it home” – that imagery of the Cross planted on the Calvary – into our very selves, in our being as something so true and real. And uniquely ours.
Stop thinking of others’ pains and hurts. We are not all the same. If ever we have similar experiences, the hues and shades even gravity and circumstances are not same because each pain and hurt, like the cross, is uniquely ours. Like every person, every cross is unique because it is also a gift, a mystery, and life. We have to “befriend” our pains and hurts, our own cross instead of resist it. It is in “befriending” our pains and hurts, our cross in life that we grow and mature, becoming more free to love and to be joyful because that is when the cross triumphs over its disgrace and shame in us and with others. That is when our pains and hurts, when our crosses begin to reveal to us the many beautiful truths of Easter awaiting us.
The Cross of Christ triumphed because Jesus carried it wholeheartedly, allowing those two pieces of wood to reveal not only to Him who knew everything beforehand its meaning but most of all to everyone of us the deeper truths the Cross signifies as St. Paul eloquently expressed in our second reading.
The Cross of Christ atop the church of our Lady of Lourdes in France. Photo by my former student Philip Santiago during his pilgrimage, September 2018.
One thing I realized after my mother died in May is the fact that while there are so many pains and sufferings in this world, my own pain and suffering in losing her are most difficult to bear; hence, something I must carry because it is uniquely mine.
But, one thing so unique I noticed is that the more I see my cross following my mother’s death, the more I saw also the cross of others. The Cross of Jesus triumphed truly in me when I embraced and owned my cross, when I befriended my pains and hurts that eventually led me to recognize and see, to feel more and experience too the crosses of others.
When we become conscious of each one’s unique cross, slowly we are able to reveal to them the meaning of their personal crosses too because we become more sympathetic, more open, more silent to listen more, love more, care more and be more present with those in their own unique cross. No wonder, I find conversing more engaging with others who also grieve because we can see each other’s unique crosses!
Jesus calls us to imitate Him that by embracing and owning our cross, we too may lead others to finding the meaning of their own cross and thus experience Easter soon. Let us pray:
Give us the grace, O God, to always embrace the Cross like your Son Jesus Christ where we can all be empty of ourselves to be filled with your Holy Spirit to make your love visible in us. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Friday in the Twenty-first Week of Ordinary Time, Year II, 30 August 2024 1 Corinthians 1:17-25 <*((((>< + ><))))*> Matthew 25:1-13
Photo by author, Chapel of angel of Peace, Our Lady of Fatima University, Valenzuela City.
For Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are called, Jews and Greeks alike, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength (1 Corinthians 1:22-25).
One of the most enduring and endearing words by the great St. Paul, O Lord this final Friday of August.
In a milieu when even the Church is threatened by interest groups and ideologies running down to the many parishes sowing distractions and divisions, let us find our unity anew in the crucified Jesus Christ; let us be like the five wise virgins who brought extra oil in waiting the groom's coming, accepting the situation of darkness and bringing along extra oil of faith, hope, and love in Christ; make us humble, O Lord, that whatever we have achieved and gained are all by your grace, O God; let us not be complacent like the five foolish virgins; let us choose whatever is difficult like Christ crucified allowing each of us to change for the best in God; let us choose whatever is painful like Christ crucified allowing us to empathize more; let us choose always Christ crucified because the Cross is a plus sign, an addition than a subtraction in this life through eternity. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Thursday, Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 15 August 2024 Revelation 11:19;12:1-6, 10 ><}}}}*> 1 Corinthians 15:20-27 ><}}}}*> Luke 1:39-56
Photo from shutterstock.com
Glory and praise, God Almighty Father in sending us Jesus our Savior who gave us His Mother the Blessed Virgin Mary, the very first fruit as St. Paul said of Christ's wondrous work of salvation due her oneness in Him.
Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth (Luke 1:39-40).
Right after the Annunciation to Mary, her path to her Assumption began when she "set out and travelled to the hill country in haste" to share Christ in her with Elizabeth; what a beautiful imagery of the same path to the Calvary, another hill outside Jerusalem to be with Christ her Son.
Bless us with the same grace You gave Mary your Mother, Lord Jesus, to follow your path to every hill in this life, to be one with those especially who are in pain and suffering; let us trust in You fully in faith, hope and love that the sufferings we may endure in setting out to travel to the hills of this life is the very path of our assumption in You; let us realize that despite the many comforts and ease of technology today, it is not what life really is, that we all have to go through your Passion, Death, and Resurrection. Like Mary, may we believe your words, Jesus, will be fulfilled. Amen.
“The Assumption of the Virgin” by Italian Renaissance painter Titian completed in 1518 for the main altar of Frari church in Venice. Photo from en.wikipedia.org.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Friday in the Tenth Week of Ordinary Time, Year II, 14 June 2024 1 Kings 19:9, 11-16 <*((((>< + ><))))*> Matthew 5:27-32
Photo by Mr. Vigie Ongleo, Sagada, Mt. Province, 2014.
O God, dear Father, how I have loved so much ever since today's story of Elijah fleeing from death at the hands of Jezebel's army; so many times I have felt like Elijah, so tired, fed up fighting, hoping for death when the going gets tough and rough; and so many times too, You have never forsaken me, Father like Elijah, asking me many times that question, "Why are you here?" (1 Kings 19:9, 13).
Very often, I get confused, Father,
if I am that zealous for You
like Elijah or just me so insistent
with what I believe,
with what I know,
with what I hold so dear
in You and for You;
many times I do not know
if I am still doing your will
especially when it is so difficult,
so uncomfortable and,
yes, I have asked You many times
why not just make me
an ordinary man,
instead of being your prophet....
Photo by Mr. Vigie Ongleo, Sagada, Mt. Province, 2014.
But your question remains, Lord, that I rarely face nor answer squarely: "Why are you here?"
You know me so well, Lord: like Simon Peter in Capernaum after your discourse on the bread of life, my favorite response to You is "Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God" (John 6:68-69).
But most of all, I am here because like the psalmist, "I long to see your face, O Lord" (Psalm 27:7-8); and for me to see your face means to love more until it hurts me; to see your face, Lord, is to be still and silent amid the noise of this world for you are always there in our midst among the weak and voiceless, among those in the margins and underneath the heaps of scraps and garbage; to see your face, O Lord, is to remember always it is your work, not mine that I must accomplish.
Why am I here, Lord? Because You told me so. Thank you so much in bringing me here this far, no matter what for as long I feel getting closer with You. In that case, I shall always be here for You! Amen.
Photo by Mr. Vigie Ongleo, Sagada, Mt. Province, 2014.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Monday in Tenth Week of Ordinary Time, Year II, 10 June 2024 1 Kings 17:1-6 <*((((>< + ><))))*> Matthew 5:1-12
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2024.
Your words today, O Lord, seem to be so apart, unconnected, even disconsonant to some respect: in the first reading, You declared a drought as punishment against Israel who turned their backs from You, worshipping Baal; in the gospel, Jesus preached His Sermon on the mount, declaring as "blessed" are those who are poor, the meek, the hungry and thirsty, the persecuted and insulted - conditions and situations directly contrary to the ways of the world, so uncomfortable and difficult.
Every time we are facing trials and difficulties in life, we consider it as a drought, a time when You, O God, seem to be so far from us when in fact, it is us who have gone astray and away from You!
Let us see, dear Jesus, your blessings in every drought, in every hardship, in every poverty, and persecutions we go through; let us realize the blessedness of these moments of drought and trials and difficulties when we can examine what's in our hearts, who's in our hearts.
Many times we unconsciously drift apart from You, O Lord, when we are carried away by our modern baals and gods that separate us from You and one another; help us find our way back to You, rejoicing always in times of drought to seek You and follow You. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Thursday, Feast of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Eternal High Priest, 23 May 2024 Hebrews 10:11-18 <*{{{{>< + <*{{{{>< + ><}}}}*> + ><}}}}*> Mark 14:22-25
Praise and glory to You, Lord Jesus Christ for reminding us this Thursday after the Pentecost of Your call for us to be like You, our Eternal High Priest, in gentleness and mercy, kindness and love; and the good news is all these are already in us when we were baptized to share in Your priesthood the Father had promised to Jeremiah fulfilled in You:
The holy Spirit also testifiesd to us, for after saying: “This is the covenant I will establish with them after those days, says the Lord: ‘I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them upon their minds,'” he also says: “Their sins and their evildoing I will remember no more.” Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer offering for sin.
Hebrews 10:15-18
Two Sundays ago, we celebrated Your Ascension that is more relational in nature than spatial, the leveling up of our relationships with You and with one another that is affirmed today by this feast of You, Jesus our Eternal High Priest and Mediator when You established the New Covenant on that Last Supper:
As they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank of it. And he said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.”
Mark 14:22-24
Photo by author, Chapel of St. Francis Xavier, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2024.
These words, dear Jesus You fulfilled on the Cross the following Good Friday; in Your self-offering on the Cross, You fulfilled the temple worship by putting an end to those bloody sacrifices, rites and rituals of the Old that were empty due to the sins and weaknesses of the priests and people; in Your dying on the Cross as fulfillment of Your words at the Last Supper as our Eternal High Priest and Mediator, You have consecrated us as Your holy people; this perfect offering is what we celebrate, what we remember, what we make present daily in the Holy Eucharist; help us, therefore, dear Jesus, to be faithful and true to You by being more loving with one another as we face the Father in the Sacrifice of the Mass in You, through You and with You Jesus by sharing in Your Priesthood, help us laity and priests alike to be true in our witnessing, in our loving sacrifices for each other.
Every priest stands daily at his ministry, offering frequently those same sacrifices that can never take away sins. But this one offered one sacrifice for sins, and took his seat forever at the right hand of God. For by one offering he has made perfect those who are being consecrated.
Hebrews 10:11-12, 14
Photo by author, 2023.
Forgive us, Your priests and bishops, dearest Jesus whom You have called to act in "persona Christi" but have become more like the priests of the Old Testament so concerned with our name and position, power and wealth; forgive us, Lord Jesus, when we Your priests and bishops look and move like matinee idols or think and speak like managers than pastors of souls; forgive us, O Lord, when we Your priests and bishops have no more time to kneel daily be with You in prayers because we prefer to socialize and party with the rich and powerful that we miserably fail in finding You among the poor and the suffering.
Transform us priests and bishops to be more like You Jesus Christ, our Eternal Priest and Mediator in thinking, in speaking, in doing, in living, most especially in loving.
Let us not forget that You saved mankind by suffering and dying on the Cross, not with with programs and activities because Your glory can only be found on the Cross where death is conquered and led to life and light. Amen.
lordmychef.com 