Photo by author, an oasis at the Dead Sea area, May 2017.
Thank you very much, dear God our Father in bringing us closer to you more than ever through your Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
Thank you for “taking away our stony hearts and giving us natural hearts” (Ez.36:26) as you have promised your prophet Ezekiel in the Old Testament.
Thank you for inviting us always into your “wedding banquet”, revealing to us your wonderful plan of being with you in eternity.
Forgive us, too, O merciful Father when despite our new and natural heart in Christ, we refuse to follow your Spirit within us to totally change our ways, when we forget to realize that for every gift from you is our responsibility to nurture and make this bear fruits in our lives.
Like the man who came to the wedding banquet not dressed for the occasion in the parable by Jesus, we always miss the chance of being truly one with you in loving charity when we fail to seek knowledge to serve you in others.
May we keep in our hearts these beautiful teachings by St. Bernard whose memorial we celebrate today that like him, may we nurture your gifts through constant studies and prayers:
There are those who seek knowledge for the sake of knowledge: that is curiosity.
There are those who seek knowledge to be known by others: that is vanity.
There are those who seek knowledge in order to serve: that is LOVE.
St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153)
Lord Jesus, please take away our stony hearts and give us natural hearts that beat with firm faith, fervent hope, and unceasing charity and love. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Wednesday, Memorials of St. John Eudes & St. Ezechiel Moreno, Priests, 19 August 2020
Ezekiel 34:1-11 >><)))*> ||| >><)))*> ||| >><)))*> Matthew 20:1-16
Photo by author, Pulilan, Bulacan, February 2020.
As we go through more difficulties and sufferings during this time of pandemic, your words today dear God speak so well of what we need most – a true shepherd who will care for the lost and injured sheep.
Yes, you have fulfilled, O God, your promise a long time ago to Ezekiel that you yourself will come by sending us your Son Jesus Christ to look after and tend your sheep after the shepherds of Israel have miserably failed in their duties and responsibilities.
Unfortunately, there are still so many shepherds today in government even in Church who continue to pasture themselves!
Woe to the shepherds of Israel who has been pasturing themselves! Should not shepherds, rather, pasture sheep? You have fed off their milk, worn their wool, and slaughtered the fatlings, but the sheep you have not pastured. You did not strengthen the weak nor heal the sick nor bind up the injured. You did not bring back the strayed nor seek the lost, but you lorded it over them harshly and brutally. As I live, says the Lord God, because my sheep have been given over to pillage, and because my sheep have become food for every wild beast, for lack of a shepherd; I swear I am coming against these shepherds.
Ezekiel 34:2-4, 8, 10
Teach us, O Lord, through the examples of two great shepherds of souls whose feast we celebrate today: St. John Eudes who was one of the early pioneers in propagating devotion to your most Sacred Heart and St. Ezechiel Moreno who served for 15 years in the Philippines and later in South America where innumerable cancer cures were attributed to him.
St. John Eudes and St. Ezechiel Moreno showed in their lives of faithful and loving apostolate for the poor that shepherding is always a gift, never to be counted or equated nor even be seen in terms of wages and pay like in the gospel.
Remind us sweet Jesus in the midst of this pandemic when we are called to be good shepherds like you, may we always see your call and mission to us as gifts freely given not as tasks or work to be compensated by material things because you believe in us.
May we always go the extra mile in answering your call, O Lord, which is in itself a tremendous gift we must cherish for we are not even worthy at all to receive. Amen.
Lawiswis ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Ika-18 ng Agosto 2020
Larawan kuha ni G. Jim Marpa, 2018.
Noong aking kabataan
aking natutunan sa mga harutan
naming magpipinsan at magkakaibigan
habang nakapila sa poso na iniigiban
ang baldeng walang lamang
ang siyang pinaka-maingay.
Ngayon sa aking katandaan
higit kong naunawaan yaring katotohanan
habang nagninilay sa gitna ng lockdown
na siya ngang tunay mga taong maiingay
karamihan sanga-sanga kanilang mga dila
pinagsasasabi'y walang katotohanan o kabuluhan.
Hindi nila batid sa pag-iisip nilang makitid
katahimikan ay hindi kawalan kungdi kapunuan
pinakikinggan bawat pintig, dinarama maski ang kalma
tinitimbang ano mang katotohanan at kabuluhan
upang pagkaabalahan, pag-usapan
kung hindi man ay kalimutan at isantabi na lamang.
Larawan kuha ng may-akda, talon sa Taiwan, Enero 2019.
Sa pakikipag-talastasan ng Diyos
masdan lagi itong pinangungnahan ng katahimikan:
sa Matandang Tipan matatagpuan
bago likhain ng Diyos ang sanlibutan,
walang ano man kungdi dilim at katahimikan
saka lamang Siya nagsalita upang lahat ay malikha;
doon sa Bagong Tipan ganito rin ang napagnilayan
ni San Juan bago si Hesus ay isinilang:
aniya, sa pasimula naroon na ang Salita
kasama ng Salita ang Diyos
sa Kanya nalikha ang lahat
at naging tao ang Salita
tinawag na Kristo
humango sa makasalanang tao.
Hindi natin kailanman mauunawaan
mga salita ng Diyos na makapangyarihan
kung hindi tayo handang manahimik
upang sa Kanya ay makinig;
noong si Hesus ay isinilang
tatlumpung taon ang binilang
bago Siya napakinggan
pagkaraang binyagan sa Jordan
maliban nang Siya ay matagpuan
sa templo nakikipagtalastasan
noong Kanyang kamusmusan;
gayun pa man sa Kanyang pangangaral
madalas Siya ay manahimik at magdasal
kaya lahat namamangha sa kanyang salita pati gawa.
Saanman mayroong katahimikan
pagtitiwala tiyak matatagpuan;
at kung saan man walang katahimikan
bukod sa maingay, walang kaayusan.
Magandang pagkakataon ngayong lockdown
pagsikapan, huwag katakautan ang katahimikan
dahil dito nalalantad, nakakatagpo ang katotohanan
na palagi nating tinatakasan, iniiwasan
kung kaya ang kalayaan hindi nating makamtan;
sa katahimikan lahat pinakikinggan -
sariling kalooban, kapwa at Diyos maging kalikasan
tungo sa pagmamahalan, kaisahan, at kaganapan ng buhay.
Larawan kuha ni Bb. Ria De Vera, bukang liwayway sa aming parokya, Abril 2020.
The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Tuesday, Week XX, Year II in Ordinary Time, 18 August 2020
Ezekiel 28:1-10 <*(((><< || + || >><)))*> Matthew 19:23-30
Photo by author, Petra in Jordan, May 2019.
Then Peter said to Jesus in reply, “We have given up everything and followed you. What will there be for us?” Jesus said to them, “Amen, I say to you that you who have followed me… And everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for the sake of my name will receive a hundred times more, and will inherit eternal life.”
Matthew 19:27-28, 29
“We have given up everything and followed you, Lord. What will there be for us?”
Oh! how often we tell this to you, Lord Jesus, as if we have given so much for the sake of your kingdom.
Sometimes, it is not really a question we ask but a reminder to you of our “goodness” and “benevolence” with others, of how good we have been when in fact whatever we give and share are all from you.
Forgive us, O Lord, when most specially in the midst of pains and sufferings, we ask you “What will there be for us?” in order to remind you of our rewards, or entitlement as if you forget them or that there is such a thing at all with you.
Photo by author, 2019.
We are sorry Lord in counting the costs and most of all, in demanding so many in return.
“What will there be for us?” is often the question we ask when we doubt your generosity and fidelity to your promises to us.
Like Ezekiel in the first reading, remind us O Lord to keep in mind not to be “haughty of heart”, that “we are not god despite our many achievements brought about by our intelligence or beauty” (Ezekiel 28:1-7).
Dearest Jesus, you have given us with so much and we have given so little; teach us to give more of ourselves, more of our time, more of our treasures, and most of all, more of you to others. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Monday, Week XX, Year II in Ordinary Time, 17 August 2020
Ezekiel 24:15-23 >><)))*> || + || <*(((><< Matthew 19:16-22
Photo by author, sunrise at Camp John Hay, Baguio City, 2017.
The young man said to him (Jesus), “All of these I have observed. What do I still lack?” Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” When the young man heard this statement, he went away sad, for he had many possessions.
Matthew 19:20-22
The young man’s question to you, Jesus, still echoes in me: “What do I still lack?” A question that reverberates in me on many occasions for different reasons. So many times, Lord, I felt the answer lies on something that my hands can simply grab or hold to take and be not lacking anymore.
What do I still lack? A question I automatically ask because I have always felt I have the answers, I can always work for it and have whatever I lack.
When tragedy and failures strike, I ask the same question, what do I still lack? What have I missed? What went wrong?
It is a question I have always felt as a problem needing solutions, of something missing that must be filled to be no more lacking.
But today, Lord, I felt the emptiness of the young man too.
It is not just lacking of something but more of a longing for you. It is an emptiness of the heart and soul that nothing can ever fill because “What do I lack” is not a problem to be solved but a situation, a condition to be with you always, Lord.
That is why, sometimes, you have to “take away the delight of our eyes” (Ez.24:16), Lord, so we may see what we lack ––YOU!Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music by Fr. Nick F. Lalog II, 16 August 2020
Our parish on a lazy afternoon before the pandemic in January 2020. Photo by Mr. Angelo Carpio.
Our Sunday gospel today is so touching at how great is the love of Jesus Christ for us who knows no boundaries when he “withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon” to heal the daughter of a Canaanite woman “tormented by a demon” (Mt.15:21, 28).
Two Sundays ago we heard how Jesus fed more than 5000 people who have followed him to a deserted place from just five loaves of bread and two pieces of fish; last week, he walked on water to rescue his disciples in a boat caught in a violent storm at the middle of the lake at night.
Very clear in all his actions is the immense love of Jesus Christ for everyone, doing everything in love and for love.
And that is why we have Rock n’ Roll’s dynamic duo, Daryl Hall and John Oates singing their eighth #1 hit released in 2003 “Do It For Love” from their sixteenth studio album of the same title.
I have always considered Hall and Oates as my topmost favorite musicians standing side by side with the equally great tandem of Walter Becker (+) and Donald Fagen of Steely Dan fame.
Smooth and sophisticated with their characteristic Phillysound, Hall and Oates’ Do It for Love tells of how a man would go to great lengths to express his love for his beloved.
I would fly ten thousand miles In the pouring rain Just to see your face
I’d bare my soul to a total stranger Just to say your name And I’m not ashamed Just to love you into every morning
I would change my name And run away I won’t do it for money I won’t do it for pride
I won’t do it to please somebody else If it don’t feel right But I’ll do it for you And at least I’ll try
I don’t need any other reason Than I feel it deep inside I’ll Do It For Love
I have used it so many times in counseling single and married men having problems with their girlfriend and wife; and so far, it seems to have always worked with most of them still together and happily married!
Try it yourself this Sunday… with a lot of prayers and honest-to-goodness soul searching, miracles may still happen!
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Week XX, Cycle A in Ordinary Time, 16 August 2020
Isaiah 56:1, 6-7 >><}}}*> Romans 11:13-15, 29-32 >><}}}*> Matthew 15:21-28
Twilight at our parish by Ms. Ria De Vera, 12 August 2020.
For the third Sunday in a row, Jesus reveals a very wonderful side of him who goes out of his way to meet us and comfort us in the most difficult situations and places we are into. It is something we need so much in these days of Moderate Enhanced Community Quarantine (MECQ) seen right away in the opening of today’s gospel.
At that time, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a Canaanite woman of that district came and called out, “Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is tormented by a demon.” But Jesus did not say a word in answer to her.
Matthew 15:21-23
Jesus goes out of his way to meet everyone
Israel is a very small country but always leaves a big impact on everyone who goes on a pilgrimage there. There is that sense of awe in every sacred site that until now continues to “speak” and evoke among pilgrims the presence and holiness of God and his saints.
Like what we have mentioned last Sunday, the proxemics or the non verbal communication of the places Jesus have visited convey to us deeper meanings than just mere sites. And that is more true during the time of Christ like the setting of this Sunday’s gospel, the region of Tyre and Sidon.
Now part of Lebanon found south of its capital city Beirut that was devastated by powerful explosions two weeks ago, Tyre and Sidon were gentile or pagan cities during the time of Jesus with a considerable Jewish population.
His going there shows us his fidelity to his mission of “searching for the lost sheep of the house of Israel” that partly explains to us why he never bothered to give the slightest hint of recognition to the Canaanite woman who had sought his help for her daughter “tormented by a demon”.
Photo by author, the Holy Land, May 2019.
And despite the lack of any explanation again by St. Matthew on the attitude by Jesus “snubbing” the pagan woman, we can safely assume that Christ surely knew that by going to Tyre and Sidon, gentiles would seek his healing as news of his fame had spread beyond Galilee at that time.
Here we find the great love and concern of Jesus for everyone, specially the rejected and marginalized in the society.
His “withdrawing to the region of Tyre and Sidon” was in itself a revelation of his universal love, a love without borders reaching out to those lost and feeling alone in life, those rejected, those discriminated for their color and beliefs, status and gender, sickness and diseases like AIDS and lately, COVID-19!
Inclusive Jesus, exclusive human
At the beginning of chapter 11 of St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans from which our second reading is taken today, the great Apostle starts by asking “has God rejected his people?” St. Paul emphatically said “no”, explaining at length the plan of God in Jesus Christ to save all peoples not just the Jews, beautifully telling us,
For the gifts and the call of God are (permanent and) irrevocable.
Romans 11:29
St. Paul’s reflections on God being “inclusive” as against our being so “exclusive” in sending us Jesus Christ to bring us all together as one sheds us some light on that extraordinary incident in the region of Tyre and Sidon involving the Canaanite woman.
Again, I invite you my dear reader to reflect on the many layers of meaning found in this episode so special like the feeding of more than five thousand people the other Sunday and Jesus walking on water last week.
First, notice the silence of Jesus. Keep in mind when the Lord is silent, it does not mean he is out or does not care at all to our needs and pleas. When there is silence – specially a deafening one – the problem is never with God but with us people.
And, true enough! See how the disciples asked Jesus to “Send her away, for she keeps calling out after us” (Mt.15:23) — exactly the way we deal sometimes with those begging our help and attention, seeing them as a nuisance to be sent away? What a shame!
From Google.
Now, we go to the climax of this episode with the woman coming to Jesus, “paying him homage” for the healing of her daughter tormented by a demon. It was a scene similar with St. John’s wedding at Cana where the Blessed Mother also approached Jesus with a request when wine ran out during the feast.
In both episodes we find Jesus being a snub – suplado, as we say.
Most of all, in both scenes we find the remarkable faith in Jesus by his Mother at Cana believing he can do something to spare the newly wed couple of embarrassment from running out of wine while this Canaanite woman felt so sure only Jesus can cure her daughter.
See how she addressed Jesus like his disciples with not just “Lord” but also with the title “Son of David” to indicate her faith in him as the Messiah.
And it did not stop there as she engaged Jesus into a dialogue — indicating intimacy and trust, depth and communion that we refer in Filipino as “matalik na ugnayan” or “matalik na usapan”.
Sometimes in life, Jesus seems to have that longing for some “lambing” from us that he tries to be “pakipot” or hard to get in order to be intimate with us. Please take these Filipino traits positively to get what I mean from this unique scene of Jesus and the Canaanite woman in Tyre and Sidon.
Jesus said in reply, “It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.” She said, “Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters.” Then Jesus said to her in reply, “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And the woman’s daughter was healed from that hour.
Matthew 15:26-28
Photo by author, Church of All Nations beside the Garden of Gethsemane in the Holy Land, May 2019.
Brothers and sisters all in one God as Father
St. Matthew recorded this episode not to scandalize and shock us with those words coming from the Lord, referring to the Canaanite woman as one of the “dogs” that was the term used to designate pagans at that time.
For St. Matthew who was writing for Christians of Jewish origins, the episode was a reminder that the people of Israel were indeed the “children” of God to whom the coming Messiah and salvation – like bread or food – were first promised. St. Paul spent a great deal of explaining of this in his letter specially to the Romans .
Rigthly then, theirs was the “food” not right to be thrown to the “dogs” but, that fact does not exclude the “dogs” from partaking later from the leftover food of the children, as if telling Jesus, today we satisfy ourselves with crumbs, tomorrow we shall have bread!
The Canaanite woman clearly knew where to place herself before the Lord, proving to him her deep faith and amazing knowledge of God’s goodness and plans for everyone. For that, she was highly praised by Jesus for her faith. The only other person also praised by Jesus in having a tremendous faith in him was the centurion – another pagan – who begged the Lord for the remote healing of his servant.
Last Sunday afternoon I read the story of how a nurse was driven out of her boarding house after she tested positive for COVID-19 virus. The poor lady had nowhere to go to spend the night after being denied of any assistance by barangay officials, even by her own family in Batangas! Good enough, somebody reported her to the Philippine National Red Cross that sent an ambulance to take care of the nurse who was found crying by herself at the gutter of a street in Pasay City.
What a very sad and tragic reality happening among us these days of the pandemic.
Where is our love and concern for everyone, especially the weak and the sick, those in our own versions of Tyre and Sidon where no one would dare to go except Jesus, perhaps like the dorms and residences of our medical frontliners who are so tired and sick physically, emotionally, and spiritually during this pandemic?
In these past three weeks we have reflected how Jesus lovingly joined us, staying with us in the wilderness, in the storms of the dark sea, even at the pagan territories where nobody would ever want to go.
This Sunday, Jesus is inviting us to break all barriers and borders between us that separate us from each other. Let us animate our community with Christ’s love and mercy for us all amid our many differences so that slowly we fulfill Isaiah’s prophecy in the first reading that someday the house of the Lord shall be called “a house of prayer for all peoples” (Is.56:7). Amen.
A blessed and safe new week to you! And please do not forget to pray ten Hail Mary’s every 12-noon for national healing and end of the pandemic until September 15, 2020.
Photo by author, the Assumption Sabbath Place in Baguio City, 2018.
God our merciful Father, on this Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we start the praying of ten Hail Mary’s daily at noon until the 15th of next month for collective “healing” and the end of COVID-19 pandemic.
Through the Blessed Mother of your Son our Lord Jesus Christ, we pray for firm faith, vibrant hope, and unceasing love for you and for others as we go into the sixth month of our quarantine to help stop the spread of the corona virus.
But it seems, until now, O God, many of us still do not get the full meaning of this quarantine period with most of us pinning our hopes for a magic cure that would come to end these sufferings and resume our previous way of life.
Help us see, O God, the process of quarantine, of purification you want us to go through not as a punishment but as a lesson to learn and remember that will prevent us from all the excesses that have burdened us down lately, preventing us to rise like the Virgin Mary.
On this great feast of Mary’s Assumption into heaven, teach us how we may all rise up to your presence, win over COVID-19 not just with a vaccine or physical remedy and cure to the disease but on how we must change our ways of life, our attitudes and dispositions.
How wonderful, O God, to hear the story anew of Mary and Elizabeth who trusted you so much in the coming of our Savior as they both emerged from their own kind of “quarantine” period in this gospel scene of the Visitation.
May we realize like Elizabeth during this quarantine period that true blessedness is in believing “what was spoken by the Lord would be fulfilled” (Lk.1:45), that we entrust all our hopes in you, O God, not to mere humans who make a lot of promises only to be broken. May we open ourselves like Elizabeth who went into seclusion upon conceiving St. John the Baptist that you always come in the simplest yet wondrous ways of life. Keep within us that sense of wonder and awe, Lord.
“The Assumption of the Virgin” by Italian Renaissance painter Titian completed in 1518 for the main altar of Frari church in Venice. Photo from wikidata.org.
Teach us like Mary to always proclaim your greatness as we rejoice in Jesus our Savior in our very lives of humility and simplicity, obedience and surrender to your will. May our lives be a song of praise to your wondrous deeds, O Lord, like Mary that is centered and focused on you.
Cleanse us of our sins, especially of greed and conceit that have led to this pandemic.
How sad that until now, we still don’t get it.
May this crisis remind us that we are all in a temporary journey here on earth – like in a quarantine – that our final resting place and destination in the end of everything is in you, O God, like Mary whom you gifted with the Assumption of her body and soul into heaven ahead of us all.
Reposting my prayer last year on the Memorial of St. Maximilian Kolbe, a very great saint of our time indeed. God bless everyone!
The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul
Wednesday, Memorial of St. Maximilian Kolbe, 14 August 2019
Deuteronomy 34:1-12 >< )))*> >< )))*> Matthew 18:15-20
From Google.
My dear Lord Jesus,
Is it part of your grand design that this August which the pagans consider as “ghost month” is when we also celebrate the feasts of two great saints martyred at Auschwitz?
At a time when people thought you where absent, Lord, there was St. Benedicta Teresa dela Cruz (Edith Stein) witnessing to your presence in her works and courage when she offered her life to the gas chambers on August 09, 1942.
Today we remember the Polish Catholic priest St. Maximilian Kolbe who also died at Auschwitz a year earlier than her in 1941 when he volunteered to replace a married man who was rounded up for execution following the escape of a prisoner.
“The most resplendent manifestation of God’s glory is the salvation of souls, whom Christ redeemed by shedding his blood. To work for the salvation and sanctification of as many souls as possible, therefore, is the preeminent purpose of the apostolic life.”
From the Letters of Maximilian Mary Kolbe, Office of Readings
Praise and thanksgiving to you our loving Father for a holy saint in our modern time, St. Maximilian Mary Kolbe whose memorial we celebrate today. His offering of his life in place of another prisoner at Auschwitz in 1941 was a fitting cap for his life of dedication in proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ in words and in deeds.
Though there are no more gas chambers unlike during the time of St. Maximilian Mary Kolbe, the killing of so many people in various forms and methods continue to this day — right on our streets, in abortion clinics, in prisons, even in our homes and in social media where we spread toxins of lies that mislead and destroy many lives.
Inspire us like St. Maximilian Mary Kolbe to work for the sanctification of the world by sharing more of your love and kindness, mercy and forgiveness to everyone especially the weak and vulnerable to abuses and worldly influences.
Like this modern saint who lived during the harshest conditions of World War II, may we strive to make you present in the world where despite the ease and comforts of modern life, many of us are still lost and alone, feeling angry, empty, and confused.
Through our lives, may we fill the world with your presence and holiness by reminding people to return to your original plan of harmony and unity in your love as Jesus told the Pharisees in the gospel today:
Jesus said to them, “Because of the hardness of your hearts Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.”
Matthew 19:8
Most of all, to make the world holy anew, grant us courage to stand for what is true and good, to remain standing at the side of your Son’s Cross for indeed, as St. Maximilian Mary Kolbe had taught us in one of his writings, “The deadliest poison of our time is indifference.”Amen.
lordmychef.com 