Blessed are our seniors

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Tuesday, Memorial of St. Joachim and St. Anne, 26 July 2022
Sirach 44:1, 10-15   ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'>   Matthew 13:36-43
From forbes.com, 2019.
God our Father,
thank you very much in
giving us your Son Jesus Christ
not only to save and redeem us
but among so many other things,
in his becoming human, he had
also brought back the value of old
age, of the seniors among us like
Simeon and Anna who received him
during his presentation at the temple
and most of all, his very human experience
of having grandparents in St. Joachim
and St. Anne we honor today. 
Forgive us Father in refusing
to see old age as the final stage of
human maturity and a sign of your
blessing because we are so concerned
only with human usefulness and 
productivity (St. JP2, Letter to the 
Elderly, October 1999).
These are the weeds the enemy
had planted in today's parable that
prevent us from seeing the grace
and blessings of old age that gives us
a correct perspective on life that is a 
preparation for eternity, the harvest time.
Let us get close with our elderlies,
Lord Jesus, thanking them, praising them
for their many virtues especially their
wisdom of the heart that enables us 
to also consider our own "twilight":

The line separating life and death runs through our communities and moves inexorably nearer to each one of us. If life is a pilgrimage towards our heavenly home, then old age is the most natural time to look towards the threshold of eternity.

St. John Paul II, Letter to the Elderly, 01 October 1999, #14
More than the indulgences
offered by Pope Francis for those
visiting the old people on this feast 
of St. Joachim and St. Anne, grant us
the grace of honoring our grandparents
by welcoming them,
helping them, and
making good use of their qualities.
Amen.

Grey areas in the “Gray Man”

Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 25 July 2022
Image from Pinterest.

It has been a long time since I have truly enjoyed a movie in Netflix that seems to me not only in big trouble with its decreasing number of subscribers but mostly to lack of any good offering lately. Not even their documentaries are exceptional anymore. In fact, I have been trying to finish out of charity and old time’s sake since May the new season of “Stranger Things” that has become so strangely uninteresting even with its music selection.

Yesterday was a very exhausting Sunday with so many patients to visit and anoint in our hospital that after a much delayed lunch, I tried treating myself with a good dose of action with its new release “The Gray Man”.

But, I was totally wrong.

Photo from imdb.com.

It has a great stellar cast led by Ryan Gosling but sad to say, sayang (what a waste in Filipino).

It started great but quickly became so boring. It is like being misled into a new roller coaster in town but it turned out it is just a caterpillar ride that you just tell your self, “what the heck… let us just try to enjoy the stupid ride.” Again, because it is sayang.

Action movies are meant to excite us but “The Gray Man” has a lot of grey areas that are not only confusing but actually distracting and detracting from whatever plot it has which is the usual story of some CIA big shots out to terminate a morally upright agent (Gosling) who had uncovered their dark and evil operations worldwide.

And the main culprit is perhaps is its long duration of two hours, bringing you to different cities around the world that it looked like a travel show. Hence, the problem with its pacing wherein when actions begin exploding, they would abruptly stop and shift somewhere else with new twists. As I have told you, it is like taking a caterpillar ride which you thought was a roller-coaster.

Worst of all, the ending was not good enough to even motivate viewers to make wild guesses on what could have possibly happened to the bad guys. Of course, it left so much room for a sequel but after seeing this initial installment based on Mark Greaney’s novel, it is doubtful if anyone would really care to wait for its sequel.

The microchip everybody wanted to have was simply pulverized — and, oh! how crudely and primitively it was done by the evil CIA official who prides himself in the movie as a graduate of Harvard that you now begin to suspect anyone can easily brag being an alumnus of any Ivy League school or even Oxford like our own president without any bearings at all of a genius or an erudite.

There are, however, two saving factors in “The Gray Man”.

First is the parting line by the Tamil assassin who surrendered the microchip embedded in a pendant to the agent helping Gosling because the CIA bosses were “not honorable people” partly because they hurt women. There are some notable scenes women are highly extolled and for that, the movie is exceptional for me. One of the few instances in Hollywood where women are explicitly mentioned as persons to be respected and cared for.

Secondly, I think Gosling could be another Bruce Willis with his physique and acting abilities if given with better handlers next time.

Go see for yourself… at least, I have warned you.

Photo from deadline.com.

We are “earthen vessels” handled with care by Jesus

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Monday, Feast of St. James the Greater, Apostle, 25 July 2022
2 Corinthians 4:7-15   ><)))*> + ><)))*> + ><)))*>   Matthew 20:20-28
Photo by author, 2018.
Praise and glory to you,
Lord Jesus Christ for your
saint and apostle, James the
Greater!
His martyrdom and holiness
are testaments to your
gentleness, Lord, 
for we are all earthen vessels
keeping you, proclaiming you
to all nations.

Brothers and sisters: We hold this treasure in earthen vessels that the surpassing power may be of God and not from us. We are afflicted in every way, but not constrained; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body.

2 Corinthians 4:7-10
Despite his weaknesses
in having a big ego as seen
in many instances like when he 
his brother John told you to send 
fire to a Samaritan village that have
refused you to pass through and
making a request through their mother
to be seated at your right later when
you have established your kingdom,
you never dismissed James as a 
hopeless case; instead, full of love and
mercy, kindness and patience, you
"handled him with so much care" by 
bringing him along during your transfiguration
and agony in the garden; you let him
experienced your gentleness and humility
that after you have gone back in heaven,
he became the first bishop of Jerusalem
and because of that, the first among 
your Apostles to die like you, 
for you and your flock.
Dearest Jesus,
please be patient with me,
with my pride and arrogance;
let me realize that I am nothing
but like an earthen vessel, a claypot
so privileged not because of my own
merit but due to your own choosing
to be a vessel of your love and mercy.
Thank you, Jesus,
for taking care of me, 
for handling me with care
the way you did with James
the Greater and all the others saints
who were all like us - sinful and weak
but so loved and blessed by the Father
in you.  Amen.

Praying like Jesus, to become like Jesus

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C, 24 July 2022
Genesis 18:20-32 ><}}}*> Colossians 2:12-14 ><}}}*> Luke 11:1-13
Photo by author, “Our Father” Church, the Holy Land, May 2019.

Jesus today wraps up the three consecutive Sundays of his “to do” instructions every disciple must do to inherit eternal life while on his way to Jerusalem. The other week he taught us through the parable of the good Samaritan that “what we must do to inherit eternal life” is to be a neighbor to everyone especially those in need; last Sunday while visiting the sisters Martha and Mary, Jesus clarified there is “need of only one thing” for every disciple which is to listen to his Word.

Simply put, Jesus tells this Sunday that a disciple must always pray to gain eternal life. It is a deepening of his lesson last week to Martha and Mary of listening and meditating on his words, of praying following a request by one of his disciples to teach them to pray.

Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples.” He said to them, “When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come…”

Luke 11:1-2
Photo by Dr. Mai B. Dela Peña, MD, Germany, 2018.

Of the four evangelists, Luke is the one who presents Jesus always at prayer. In fact, Luke shows us how prayer precedes every major event in the life of Jesus like when he asked his disciples who they think he is when Simon answered “you are the Messiah”(Lk.9:18). Moreover, there were some events that were actually prayer moments of Christ like his transfiguration witnessed by Peter, James, and John.

This is very essential in fully appreciating our gospel today on the teaching of Jesus of the “Our Father” in Luke’s gospel. Matthew has a longer version of Jesus teaching the “Our Father” during his sermon on the mount where he taught it in the context of a catechesis of avoiding using repetitious words like the hypocrites (Mt.6:5ff).

In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus taught the “Our Father” for us to know what to pray while in Luke’s gospel, it is how to pray as requested by his disciple upon seeing him in prayer.

Notice how Luke punctuated this whole journey of Jesus to Jerusalem with “prayer stops” like this Sunday without even telling us his exact location in order to invite us to enter into His very heart and person whenever we would pray.

For Luke, prayer is entering the very person of our Lord Jesus Christ, of being one in him, with him and through him. To be able to do his works, we have to be like him first of all in order to become like him, that is, one with the Father.

In teaching us to pray “Our Father”, Luke presents to us how Jesus did not just give us a prayer to recite but also the chance and opportunity to share in his inner attitude and disposition to imitate the Father.

Photo by author, garden at the “Our Father” Church, the Holy Land, 2019.

The Our Father is rightly called the Lord’s prayer because more than being the very prayer of Jesus Christ, it is his disposition of communion and inner attitude, of unity and obedience to the Father that he wants us all to emulate. More than the letters of the Our Father uttered by our lips, Jesus wants our hearts to be involved in his self totally, in his life, in his Passion, Death, and Resurrection.

When we meditate on each line of the Lord’s prayer, when we claim it and own it as our prayer too, that is when we are formed into Christ’s being. Thus, on this third consecutive Sunday, we are taught not only with a specific prayer called the Lord’s Prayer but of prayer itself as our foundation in life so that we may become like Jesus Christ.

See how right at the very start when we address God as “Father” we discover the basic truth of prayer which is communing or communion with God, of submission to him. Next is our being linked together with God and with others because as Father, God is not a distant stranger detached from us but very personal, relating like our own dad.

Photo by author, wailing wall of Jerusalem, 2017.

In teaching us the Our Father, we find there is more to what’s in our hearts and soul than in our mouth. Like Jesus, we get rooted in God as our Father that the more we experience peace within which is the only valuable every disciple must have because our names are written in heaven (14th Sunday, July 03). The more we open ourselves to God our Father, the more we open ourselves to others as neighbors that we become good Samaritans. And the more we love God, the more we also pray like what Jesus told Martha last Sunday.

Here we find the essential function of prayer: it is not to change the mind of God nor change situations but to change our very person. Calamities will keep on happening, we all get old and sick and die. Prayers do not prevent these from happening but prepare us to accept and live with them.

This is the meaning of the story of Abraham “bargaining” with God for Sodom after their meal at Mamre last week. The point of the story is not that Abraham or prayers could change God’s mind but the fact that for as long as there are a few good men who pray and try their best to avoid and shun evil, there is always redemption.

Recall that this scene comes immediately after the meal at Mamre where God announced to Abraham the birth of his son in the following year, the beginning of the fulfillment of God’s promise to him to be the father of all nations that would reach its highest point in the coming of Jesus Christ. But, if we continue to read on this scene in Genesis, we find that God eventually destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah because there was not one good man or woman left in those cities. And that is the point of the story: redemption comes from God if we also do our part by becoming better persons. When we have a prayer life, we become aware of the evils in us and around us – then we change! As we have mentioned earlier, prayers do not change situations but change persons.

Photo by author, Holy Family Chapel, Sacred Heart Spirituality Center, Novaliches, QC, 2017.

It is very difficult to be good and holy, being the face of mercy of God to people who have done evil especially to us. But when we do things in the name of Jesus, praying without ceasing, we are able to achieve so many things beyond our wildest dreams!

The late Mother Angelica who founded EWTN without any knowledge nor money in broadcasting said that “unless you are willing to do the ridiculous, God will not do the miraculous.”

The power of prayer is not really on what we say but on how we say, when we allow “Jesus to take over us in our baptism when He raised us up in life after being dead to sins” (Col. 12:12) as Paul explained today in the second reading.

When we pray like Jesus, surrendering everything to the Father, then we become like him – so complete, never wanting anything except to do his will with joy and dedication. Amen.

Have a blessed week ahead!

Losing one’s head in prayer. Photo by Ms. JJ Jimeno of GMA7 News at UP Diliman, QC, May 2019.

Santa Maria Magdalena, kaagapay sa kadiliman sa buhay

Lawiswis ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Ika-22 ng Hulyo, 2022
Larawan ng fresco sa Simbahan ni San Francisco sa Assisi, “Noli Me Tangere” na ipininta ni Giotto de Bondone noong ika-13 siglo. Mula sa commons.wikimedia.org.
Ngayong palaging makulimlim 
ating panahon, ulan ay bumubuhos
katulad ng unos at kadilimang
bumabalot sa buhay ng karamihan,
kay gandang paglimi-limihan
at dasalan tagpo sa libingan ni Jesus
nang ito'y puntahan ng mga kababaihan
sa pangunguna ni Maria Magdalena
noong Siya ay muling nabuhay.

Madilim-dilim pa nang araw ng Linggo, naparoon na si Maria Magdalena sa libingan. Naratnan niyang naalis na batong panakip sa pinto ng libingan. Si Maria’y nakatayong umiiyak sa labas ng libingan; yumuko siya at tumingin sa loob. May nakita siyang dalawang anghel na nakaupo sa pinaglagyan ng ng bangkay ni Jesus, and isa’y sa gawing ulunan at ang isa nama’y sa paanan. Lumingon siya… at nakita niya si Jesus na nakatayo roon, ngunit hindi niya nakilalang si Jesus iyon.

Juan 20:1, 11-12, 14
Larawan mula sa GettyImages/iStockphoto.com.
Maraming pagkakataon
kapag labis ang aming hapis
Panginoon, ika'y hindi namin
nakikilala gayong katabi ka namin pala!
Katulad ni Santa Maria Magdalena marahil
ay mugto aming mga mata sa pagtangis
at dalamhati sa pagpanaw ng mahal
namin sa buhay o dili kaya habang 
nagbabantay sa naghihingalong mahal sa buhay.
Hindi ka rin namin makilala, Panginoon
katulad ni Santa Maria Magdalena
sa tuwina kami'y nagbabata ng hirap
at sakit dahil mahigpit aming kapit,
pilit ibinabalik nagbabaka-sakaling
mapanatili mga nagisnang gawi,
pakikipag-ugnayan sa pumanaw naming
mahal o sa nag-aagaw buhay na tiyak
kami'y iiwanan nang lubusan.

Tinanong siya ni Jesus, “Bakit ka umiiyak? Sino ang hinahanap mo?” Akala ni Maria’y siya ang tagapag-alaga ng halamanan, kaya’t sinabi niya, “Ginoo, kung kayo po ang kumuha sa kanya, ituro ninyo sa akin kung saan ninyo dinala at kukunin ko. “Maria!” ani Jesus. Humarap siya at kanyang sinabi, “Raboni!” – ibig sabihi’y “Guro.” “Huwag mo akong hawakan, sapagkat hindi pa ako nakakapunta sa Ama,” wika ni Jesus. “Sa halip, pumunta ka sa aking mga kapatid at sabihin mong aakyat ako sa aking Diyos at inyong Diyos.” Kaya’t si Maria Magdalena’s pumunta sa mga alagad at sinabi, “Nakita ko ang Panginoon!” At tuloy sinabi sa kanila ang bilin ni Jesus.

Juan 20:15-18
Larawan kuha ng may-akda,pagbubukang-liwayway sa Camp John Hay, Baguio City, Nobyembre 2018.
Panginoon, kami ay tulungan
kung maari tawagin din sa pangalan
upang ikaw aming makilala at 
maranasan sa piling namin
kung kami'y nabibigatan at
nadidiliman dahil iyong dahilan
sa pagparito ay upang kami ay samahan
pagaanin mga pasananin at hanguin 
tungo sa bagong buhay kaloob mo sa tanan.
Nawa katulad ni Santa Maria Magdalena
ikaw ay lubusan naming makilala
upang sa amin mabanaagan sinag ng
iyong galak at katuwaan, mga palatandaang
tunay ngang ikaw ay aming nakita,
maihayag sa salita at gawa Iyong mga
habilin huwag matakot sa dilim,
krus ay palaging pasanin,
yakapin kamatayan upang ika'y makapiling.
Santa Maria Magdalena
kay Jesus kami ay ipanalangin
kasamaan tuluyan na naming lisanin
kabutihan pawang aming gawin;
mga pumanaw naming mahal sa buhay
ipanalangin mo rin, Diyos ay sapitin
habang mga naghihingalo sa amin
loob ay palakasin, buhay na sasapitin
walang kahulirip at maliw!  Amen.
Larawan kuha ng may-akda, Jerusalem, 2017.

Light amid darkness: the grace of grieving in Mary Magdalene

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Friday, Feast of St. Mary Magdalene, 22 July 2022
Song of Songs 3:1-4   ><}}}}*> + ><}}}}*> + ><}}}}*>   John 20:1-2. 11-18
Photo from GettyImages/iStockphoto.com
Praise and glory to you,
O Lord Jesus Christ in giving
us today this Feast of St. Mary
Magdalene, the "apostle of the
apostles" who proclaimed to Peter
and company that you have risen
on that Easter morning!
Thank you most especially in 
showing us through St. Mary Magdalene
the grace in that state many of us find
ourselves so often especially these days
of the pandemic - that of grieving.

On the first day of the week, Mary of Magdalene came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark, and saw the stone removed from the tomb. Mary stayed outside the tomb weeping. And as she wept, she bent over into the tomb and saw two angels in white sitting there, one at the head and one at the feet where the Body of Jesus had been. And they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken by Lord, and I don’t know where they laid him.” When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus there, but did not know it was Jesus.

John 20:1, 11-14
Dearest Lord Jesus,
I pray for those weeping, 
for those grieving for the lost
of a beloved wife or husband,
a son or a daughter, a brother or
a sister, a friend or a colleague;
I also pray, Jesus, for those 
who are weeping in silence,
fighting their tears, hiding when
they cry as they attend and care 
for a dying loved one at home or
in the hospital.
Like St. Mary Magdalene, death
from its approach and coming
always has that dark presence in
us; mourning and weeping become
more difficult when nights become
longer we could hardly know morning
is coming or has broken.
And many times in those dark moments
we do not recognize you, Jesus, 
present among us in our weeping,
right in our grieving for our loved ones.
Open our eyes, open our hearts,
enkindle our faith and hopes in you, Lord
in these long, dark hours of our grieving.
You know very well how difficult it is
to let go of a loved one like St. Mary Magdalene
when you have died; like her, we continue
to "cling" and "hold" to our beloved 
in our old ways of relating with them 
in the hope of again hugging them,
touching them, and perhaps telling them 
how we love them and if given a chance,
to say sorry too for our sins and lapses.
“Noli me tangere” (touch me not) fresco in the Lower Basilica of St. Francis Assisi Church in Italy painted by Giotto de Bondone in the 13th century from commons.wikimedia.org.

Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni,” which means Teacher. Jesus said to her, “Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'” Mary of Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” and then reported what he told her.

John 20:16-18
Call us with our name again,
dear Jesus; call us anew with your
reassuring voice of love and kindness,
of mercy and forgiveness no matter
who we really are 
for you are the only one sent by the Father 
to assure us we are accepted despite and
in spite of our sins and weaknesses.
Let us exclaim again "Rabbouni" like
St. Mary Magdalene, filled with joy in
finding you amidst the darkness 
in our lives as we learn to stop "holding"
on to our departed and dying loved ones
as we recall and realize your teaching 
that every death is a sharing in your pasch,
a passing over into eternal life,
of leveling up our ties with them 
in you, Christ Jesus
to the Father and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Photo by author, sunrise at Camp John Hay, Baguio City, November 2018.

Please bother us, Lord

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Thursday in the Sixteenth Week of Ordinary Time, 21 July 2022
Jeremiah 2:1-3, 7-8, 12-13   ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'>   Matthew 13:10-17
Photo by author, Garden of Gethsemane, Israel, 2019.

This word of the Lord came to me: Go cry out this message for Jerusalem to hear! I remember the devotion of your youth, how you loved me as a bride, following me in the desert, in a land unsown. the priests asked not “Where is the Lord?” Those who dealt with the law knew me not: the shepherds rebelled against me. The prophets prophesied by Baal, and went after useless idols.

Jeremiah 2:1-2, 8
Forgive us, O God our Father
for being so complacent,
for not being bothered at all
with how things are now going
on with our lives in relation with
you.
We have lost any sense at all
of you, Father that we do not seem
to care at all!
We have presumed you will 
understand us.
Worst of all, we are not bothered at
all that you know the sins we have been
committing, the evils we have been
harboring within.
Please disturb us, Lord,
when we play gods,
when we insult you of not
knowing what we have been
doing and thinking;
Please disturb us, Lord,
to wonder where are you,
to always seek you
most especially in the most
ordinary things in life like
the parables of Jesus;
Please disturb us, Lord,
when we feel self-sufficient,
when we feel secured,
when we feel we know everything;
Please disturb us, Lord,
because when we are no longer
disturbed on you and your
whereabouts, that is when we 
have gone far astray from you,
when we "indeed hear but not understand,
and look but never see" (Mt.13:14).
Amen.

Prophetic nursing

Homily by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II at the Second Capping and Pinning Ceremony
Our Lady of Fatima University-San Fernando, Pampanga, 20 July 2022
Jeremiah 1:1, 4-10   ><}}}*> + ><}}}*> + ><}}}*>   Matthew 13:1-9
Photo by author, 16 July 2022, Our Lady of Fatima University-Cabanatuan City.

This is my fourth capping and pinning ceremony of our nursing students in five weeks. And now more than ever, I am so convinced that nursing is like the priesthood – a vocation, a call from God to serve his people.

That is why our first reading on the call of the prophet Jeremiah is so perfect for our Second Capping and Pinning Ceremony of the College of Nursing here at our San Fernando Campus. As a vocation, nursing is a call to prophetic witnessing of Christ’s gospel especially in this age when life and dignity of every person is taken for granted.

Photo by author, 16 July 2022, Our Lady of Fatima University, Cabanatuan City.

Maybe there are some of you who are here had no plans of becoming a nurse before but one thing led to another and here you are, about to take the first major step in becoming a nurse. And despite that reality, maybe by this time you have come to love nursing already that you are feeling nervous for this momentous ceremony that was pout on hold for two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Yes, thanks too to COVID-19 for it had made it clearer to you that it was God who really called you to become future nurses!

The word of the Lord came to thus: Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations I appointed you… See, I place my words in your mouth! This day I set you over nations and over kingdoms, to root up and to tear, to destroy and to demolish, to build and to plant.”

Jeremiah 1: 4-5, 9-10

How beautiful it is to hear God telling each one of you today, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you, a NURSE to the nations I appointed you.”

That’s the meaning of your cap.

Photo by author, 10 July 2022 at the RISE Tower, Our Lady of Fatima University, Valenzuela City.

You must have heard that expression we have “to wear different hats” in life – when you are at home, you wear the hat of an Ate or Kuya, when you are in the classroom you wear the hat of a student before your professors and mentors, when you are out with your barkada, you wear a different hat as a friend.

God is giving you another hat – or cap – to wear in life beginning today.

It is something so distinct and special not everyone can wear. Only a selected few are called and chosen to wear that cap our model Florence of Nightingale wore with pride, honor and dignity when she elevated the status of Nursing as we know and so value today.

In the Jewish culture, the wearing of a hat means to recognize somebody higher or above us – and that is God. That is why men and children wear those tiny “skull caps” called zucchetto when they are inside the ruins of the temple of Jerusalem. Our Pope and Bishops also wear that skull cap to signify God is above them whom they must serve and obey.

Photo by author, 10 July 2022 at the RISE Tower, Our Lady of Fatima University, Valenzuela City.

My dear nursing students, to be a nurse is to be a servant of God, a prophet or a “prophetic nurse” who witnesses the gospel of Jesus Christ to our patients, especially to the poor and disadvantaged.

Witnessing the gospel of Christ is to speak and act on the word of God. That is why when you take your pledge of Florence Nightingale later, you invoke the name of God “to pass my life in purity and practice my profession faithfully.”

As you have invited God into your lives today as you take this major step in your formation as future nurses, make God a part of your life everyday. Handle your life with prayer. Moreover, as I would remind our students during Baccalaureate Mass, “study hard, work harder, and pray hardest”.

Be open to God.

I assure you, nursing is a very demanding and difficult profession. You have seen it these past two years of pandemic.

From Facebook, November 2020.

Baka mamaya aayaw kayong bigla katulad ng mga butil nahulog sa daanan na tinuka ng mga ibon. HIndi kayo yayaman, hindi kayo magiging milyunaryo o milyunarya sa nursing. Kung yun ang pakay ninyo, mali napuntahan ninyo. Magpulitiko kayo, baka sakali…

Baka naman ngayon, very enthusiastic kayo with all the glamor and attention you get as nursing students, lalo na kapag naging RN na kayo and you start wearing those scrubs with all the gadgets for monitoring patients na talaga naman pogi points – then after a few months, you get burned out like the seeds that fell on rocky ground with little soil.

Pwede rin naman makita ninyo maraming opportunities sa nursing para yumaman o sumikat o maging notorious gaya ng mga nababalitaan natin lalo na sa abroad but, remember to be credible, to elevate the standards of nursing, to never administer harmful drugs for shameful profits like those seeds that sprouted but choked by thorns.

Be like the rich soil in the parable of the sower, listen and act on the word of God so that you mature and bear fruit as nurses.

St. Augustine said “grace builds on nature”; that means, the grace of God will always be there for you to become a good nurse but you have to dispose yourself properly by cultivating habits and virtues through discipline. One of these is punctuality, being on time. Another is obedience which is actually listening attentively to instructions. Of course, do not forget charity and kindness. And many others so that you reflect the goodness of God.

Photo by author, 10 July 2022 at the RISE Tower, Our Lady of Fatima University, Valenzuela City.

You do not become a good nurse tomorrow or when you graduate or when you pass the board exam nor when you get employed as a nurse.

You become a good nurse today. Now na!

St. Paul said “God’s gift and call are permanent and irrevocable” (Rom. 11:29) – tinawag kayo ng Diyos upang maging mahuhusay na nurse at hindi niya iyon babawiin… ibibigay niya ang lahat para sa inyo kung ibibigay din ninyo ang inyong sarili sa kanya sa paglilingkod sa kapwa. At ang iba pa ay susunod na kalakip ang maraming biyaya, “siksik, liglig at umaapaw” (Lk. 6:38).

God bless you, BS Nursing Students of Our Lady of Fatima-Pampanga.

God bless all nurses of the world, especially our very own, Filipino nurses serving everywhere!

Photo by author, 16 July 2022, Our Lady of Fatima University-Cabanatuan City.

God sends us on a mission

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Wednesday in the Sixteenth Week of Ordinary Time, 20 July 2022
Jeremiah 1:1, 4-10   ><}}}*> + ><}}}*> + ><}}}*>   Matthew 13:1-9
Photo by Dr. Mylene A. Santos, MD, 2021.
"Talaga?
Is it really true, O God?"
These are the words that
came from my heart as I prayed
over your words today through
the prophet Jeremiah:

The word of the Lord came to me thus: “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations I appointed you… See, I place my words in your mouth! This day I set you over nations and over kingdoms, to root up and to tear down, to destroy and to demolish, to build and to plant.”

Jeremiah 1:4-5, 9-10
It is not that I do not believe you,
dear Father, but your words are so
comforting, so encouraging;
how wonderful indeed that I am no
accident, that I have a reason being here
because you have always have a plan
for me, for each one of us.
Thank you for believing in me, Lord;
thank you for sending me to a mission;
make me like a fertile ground, a rich soil
so that your seeds sown in me may grow
and mature and produce fruit;
in the name of Jesus your Son, 
open my ears and my heart to always
listen to your instructions, give me
the courage most especially to be your
prophet like Jeremiah, "comforting the
afflicted and afflicting the comfortable"
by giving witness to your truth and 
justice, mercy and charity at all times.
Amen.