Allowing God to Work In Us

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe-Prayer

Wednesday, 07 November 2018, Week XXXI, Year II

Philippians 2:12-18//Luke 14:25-33

Bless me, O Lord, when sometimes I feel tired in trying to follow you. When I feel tired not really of the cross I have to carry but of living “in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation.” (Phil.2:14)

How can some people follow what is wrong, believe in what is false, rejoice in what is offensive and disrespectful, and still project themselves as better and truthful? Where have all our values gone like honor and dignity?

I am not complaining, Lord. I just feel so sad at how things are going on.

Give me the grace to keep on following you, to do your work by holding on to your word of life without grumbling or questioning so that I may shine like a light in the world covered with darkness (Phil.2:13-15). AMEN. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan 3022.

*Images from Google.

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Magtanong Kay Hesus, Sagot Niya’y Nasa Krus

Lawiswis ng Salita//P. Nicanor F. Lalog II//Ika-06 ng Nobyembre 2018

Madalas ako ay nagtatanong

Kay Hesus na ating Panginoon

Mga sari-saring bagay

Kadalasa’y sumasagitsit sa aking pagninilay.

At sa tuwing ako’y may katanungan

Naroon akong lagi sa paanan ng krus Niyang banal

Kung saan din aking natagpuan itong katotohanan

Na sa bawat katanungan kay Hesus,

Sagot Niya’y naroon din sa Kanyang Krus!

Halika, inyong subukan inyong katanungan

Upang masakyan aking pakahulugan:

Hesus, ako ba ay iyong mahal?

Tingnan Kanyang sugatang katawan, huwag nang mag-alinlangan.

Hesus, bakit ako’y laging nahihirapan?

Pagmasdan kanyang pinasan, ika’y magagaanan.

Hesus, ika’y nasaan sa aking kagipitan?

Bago pa man itong aking pinagdaraanan, naroon na Siyang unang nasaktan!

Laging pakatandaan, ano man ang ating katanungan

Sagot matatagpuan sa sugatang Niyang katawan

Na Kanyang inalay bilang katubusan sa ating mga kasalanan

Na siyang pinagmulan nitong marami nating katanungan.

*Salamat sa larawan kuha ng dati kong mag-aaral sa ICSB, Arch. Philip Santiago noong Setyembre 27, 2018 sa Simbahan ng San Giovanni Rotondo, Italya kung saan naglingkod si San Padre Pio. Isa ito sa mga mosaic doon nagsasaad ng malalim niyang debosyon sa nakapakong si Kristo gaya ni San Francisco ng Assisi. Kapwa sila biniyayaan ni Hesus ng stigmata, mga sugat tulad ng tinamo Niya noon sa krus.

A Prayer For Those Who Love Like Christ

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe-Prayer

Tuesday, 06 November 2018, Week XXXI, Year II

Philippians 2:5-11//Luke 14:15-24

Lord Jesus Christ, I praise and thank you today for your gift of kenosis, your self-emptying love for us all that even “though you were in the form of God, you did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, you emptied yourself, coming to us as a human, humbling yourself in obedience to death on a cross.” (Phil.2:6-8)

Today Lord Jesus, I pray for all the men and women, including the children from all walks of life who imitate you in their own little ways of self-emptying to express their deep love and concern for others. First among them are the rescuers and relatives coming to Natonin, Mountain Province.

When I first saw the story of how Raffy Tima and his team, along with the rescue workers and relatives of residents walked more than seven hours to the site buried by the landslide, I was moved by their great sacrifice and love to go there when it is already empty of life. Theirs was also a kenosis, an emptying of themselves of so many things to communicate your love for people wiped out by the landslide.

Every day Lord, there are also countless people who dare to walk despite the dangers and discomforts so we can all have a good morning like those who delivered various goods and services during the night, those who have to cut short their sleep and leave their families so we can have fresh vegetables and meat and fish, newspapers to read and newscasts to watch and listen, doctors and nurses to monitor our loved ones in the hospitals, and so many others who do many things that can never be compensated by any amount of money.

I pray most specially Lord Jesus for those closest to us, our family and loved ones, including our helpers who never get tired of patiently walking up to us, emptying themselves even of their dignity and honor, sacrificing everything just to take care of us, to tend our wounds and sickness, to listen to our woes and endless complaints, bearing all our insensitivities.

Bless them, Lord Jesus, in their kenosis or self-emptying to fill many of us empty of respect and dignity within. Bless them Jesus that they may always heed your call to come to your banquet of loving service for others by setting aside their own comforts and concerns like in your parable today. AMEN. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan 3022.

*Photo by Mr. Raffy Tima of GMA-7 News, early Sunday morning at Natonin, 04 November 2018. Used with permission.

A Prayer To Make Our Joy Complete

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe-Prayer

Monday, 05 November 2018, Week XXXI, Year II

Philippians 2:1-4//Luke 14:12-14

Heavenly Father, today I join St. Paul in the first reading in praying that our joy may be complete “by being of the same mind, with the same love, united in heart, thinking one thing.” Help me to “do nothing out of selfishness or vainglory; rather, humbly regard others as more important than me, as I look out not for my own interests but also for others.” (Phil. 2:2-4)

Most of the time, we cannot share with the “complete joy” your Son Jesus Christ promised us when He said He is the true vine and we are His branches (Jn. 15:11) because we keep on separating from Him. Worst of all, like in His parable today, we have created divisions among us when we chose to associate only with those who look like us, think like us, expecting like us for rewards, of being repaid for any good things we do unto them (Lk. 14:12).

Let me be the one to make that first move of completing our joy, and your joy too, O God, by reaching out in love to those in the margins like the poor and suffering, the sick and the dying, and those we see as different from us in so many other things whom we take for granted.

Let me bring joy to even just one of them, to let them feel we are one, hoping they can have a brighter Monday today. If I can brighten just one person today, then both of us would be completely joyful! The more joys are completed among persons, the world becomes brighter. And that is when our joy, your joy become truly complete for that is when we live as one in Jesus Christ. AMEN. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan 3022.

*Photo by Dra. Mai B. Dela Pena, Tokyo, Japan 2018. Used with permission.

“(They Long to Be) Close to You” by Gwen Guthrie (1986)

LordMyChef Sunday Music//Week XXXI-B//04 November 2018

Asking Jesus

Been thinking of a song about questions but this piece popularized by the Carpenters in 1970 composed by Burt Bacharach and Hal David kept on playing in my mind with the opening lines “Why do birds suddenly appear, Every time you are near? Just like me, they long to be close to you.” Well, the song is about getting closer to a beloved, exactly the meaning of the question asked by the scribe to Jesus in our gospel this Sunday, “Which is the first of all the commandments?” (Mk.12:28). We can easily identify with that scribe with his honest question because it is more than the most important commandment to follow but about God Himself! It is a deep longing and desire to rise above, to be closer to God, to find God amidst all the many laws and requirements being asked of us most of the time, just like the song (They Long To Be)Close To You.

For our LordMyChef Sunday Music today, we have chosen the more jazzy cover by the late Gwen Guthrie released about this time in 1986. Enjoy the beat, feel the music, and keep asking questions, keep searching. We may not have all the answers right away but we have a loving and merciful God who knows all the answers to our questions, who listens and answers them always in His own time.

Photo by the author at Malagos Bird Sanctuary, Davao City, August 2018.

Asking Jesus

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe, Week XXXI-B, 04 November 2018

Deuteronomy 6:2-6///Hebrews 7:23-28///Mark 12:28-34

We have seen these past two weeks Jesus in His journey back to Jerusalem asking us – through James and John, and the blind Bartimaeus – the quintessential question, “What do you want me to do for you?” But this Sunday, we find a reversal of roles when, One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him, “Which is the first of all the commandments?” (Mk.12:28)

What question would you ask Jesus if given that chance?

Jesus had finally reached Jerusalem, frequenting the Temple area which He had cleansed upon His arrival on Palm Sunday. Mark tells us the building up of antagonism against Him by His enemies asking Him with many questions. First were the chief priests, scribes and elders who asked about His authority in cleansing the Temple and then the Pharisees who teamed up with the Herodians to ensnare Him with the question about the paying of taxes to the emperor. Last to test Jesus were the Sadducees who asked about the resurrection by presenting to Him the case of a woman who had married seven brothers after dying one after the other. Mark tells us how Jesus satisfactorily answered all their questions that people were so amazed with Him. It was at this time when a scribe who had heard them disputing and saw how well Jesus had answered them came forward with the question we also ask up to this time, “Which is the first of all the commandments?”

Like that man who asked Jesus what must he do to inherit eternal life (Mk.10:17), we can also identify with this scribe whose question is without guile. Like him, we find ourselves in many occasions asking the same question due to confusions from the so many things to be followed and fulfilled to be a good person and enter heaven. We know deep in our hearts like him how humans have stretched God’s commandments that have now exceeded more than ten that many could not even recite in order. Like this scribe, we have seen how faith and religion have ceased to be a way of life but more of casuistry, of obeying and keeping rules that made God look like a cop watching over us, ready to apprehend us for any violations instead of being a loving Father living with us. Like that scribe, deep in us is a longing for something higher, of something really akin with God than with our present situation when everything seems to be relative and on ground level.

We are known by the questions we ask, not by the answers we give that are often wrong or far from truth and reality. Asking the right question leads us to the right answer and solution to our problems. Even if we cannot find any ready answer to our questions but for as long as we are asking the right ones, we find clues for their answers as we move on with our lives. Here in our gospel today we find how our questions reveal who we really are, indicating our focus and distractions in life. In preparation for His coming pasch in Jerusalem, Jesus would reveal to us today and next Sunday the more essential things with God regarding our obedience to His laws and our attitude on giving. So, let us reflect on the reply of Jesus to the question of the scribe which is based on the “Shema Israel” prayer that every pious Jew must know by heart: “The first is this: ‘Hear O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your soul, and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mk.12:29-31)

Shema Israel is a verbatim quote from Deuteronomy 6:4-5. It is a prayer that evolved from the Jews’ experience and reflection of the Ten Commandments as a love involving their relationship with God and with others. More than a list of laws to be followed, the Decalogue became the sign of God’s covenant with Israel, a relationship to be kept with God at its center whose face is found among everyone as brothers and sisters. Hence, when the scribe asked Jesus which is the first of all the commandments, it was a desire to find God Himself. And when Jesus saw how the scribe had understood His answer, He told him “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” (Mk.12:34)

Observe that child-like attitude of the scribe with his question. He was looking up to Jesus, looking for God in Him. When we ask Jesus any question, that is the only attitude required of us. Recall the different questions asked to Jesus in the daily readings last month like those concerning inheritance or how many would be saved (Lk.12:13, 23), or if His teachings are meant for us or for everyone (Lk.12:41). See how Jesus ignored the questions because they were the least of His concerns. Instead, He proceeded with His teachings to emphasize the importance of storing riches in heaven, passing through the narrow gate and being a wise and faithful steward. When a teacher of the law asked Jesus who is my neighbor, the Lord replied with the parable of the Good Samaritan so that he would realize in himself that we are all neighbors who must show love and concern for one another. When Pilate asked Jesus during His trial, the Lord clarified his questions so as to remind him that He is more than of this world. And speaking of the fourth gospel, it is only John who had recorded Jesus repeatedly saying His being lifted up in glory, that is, His crucifixion when He would draw everyone to Himself (Jn.12: 32). Here we find my dear readers how that every time we ask Jesus a question, the answer would always be found on His Cross because we can only look upward to Christ crucified. It is only on the Cross can we be led to higher things like God Himself! Ask Jesus any question like:

Do you love me, Lord?

Why all the sufferings in the world?

Where are we going?

Try asking Jesus like a child, like that scribe and most likely, when we see His pains and sufferings on His outstretched arms and folded legs, head crowned with thorns with expressive eyes and lips filled with love, we find His answers on the Cross. This is why Jesus is “able to save e to save those who approach God through Him (Heb.7:24-26)” because He is our High Priest who literally hanged high up on the Cross for us. May you be blessed to find God in your questions to Jesus! AMEN. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ni San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan 3022. Email: lordmychef@gmail.com

*Photo by Richard Val Candelaria. Used with permission.

Our Little Stories Make God’s Great Story

LordMyChef “TGIF” Quote, 02 November 2018:

“The word of the Eucharist makes us part of the great story of our salvation. Our little stories are lifted up into God’s great story and there given their unique place. The word lifts us up and makes us see that our daily, ordinary lives, are in fact, sacred lives that play a necessary role in the fulfillment of God’s promise.” (Henri Nouwen, “With Burning Hearts”, page 59.)

*Photo by Dra. Mai B. Dela Pena, Mount Carmel Monastery, Haifa, Israel, 2016. Used with permission.

Praying for Our Beloved Departed

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe-Prayer

Friday, 02 November 2018, Commemoration of All Souls

2 Maccabees 12:43-46//Romans 5:5-11//John 6:37-40

On this second day of November, O God, before praying for the souls of our dearly departed ones, let me praise and thank you for the gift of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI whose reflections on hope led us to the beauty of eternal life with you. For my prayer today, I have borrowed his reflection and teaching on Purgatory found in “Spe Salvi” (47-48):

Lord Jesus Christ, you are the fire which burns and saves us as our Judge and Savior. In the Purgatory, it is still that encounter with your love that our faithful departed are purified so they may enter heaven.

You have showed us how our lives are involved with one another, linked together through innumerable interactions. You have taught us and shown us while here on earth that no one lives alone, no one sins alone, and no one is saved alone. Indeed, no man is an island.

The lives of other people continually spill over mine, in what I think, say, do, and achieve. And conversely, my life spills over into that of others, for better and for worse.

Let me continue, O Lord, to pray for the poor souls in Purgatory even if my prayer can only play a small part in their purification. Let my prayer express my interconnectedness with God our Father and with one another, here on earth and in the hereafter. It is never too late to touch the heart of another, nor is it in vain. Let me continue praying for the departed, O Lord, like Judas had instructed his army in the second book of Maccabees for our hope is essentially also a hope for others too.

Remind me always that I shall never limit myself to asking how I shall be saved but also what can I do that others may be saved too so that in praying for all the souls in Purgatory, then I have done my utmost for my own personal salvation as well. AMEN. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan 3022. *All images from Google.

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Holiness is Living the Beatitudes

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe-Prayer

Thursday, 01 November 2018, Solemnity of All Saints

Revelation 7:2-4, 9-14//1John 3:1-3//Matthew 5:1-12

O loving and merciful Father in heaven, on this glorious solemnity of all the saints, I pray to you borrowing the third encyclical of your servant Pope Francis, Gaudete et Exsultate (#63-94) issued last March 19 of this year to remind us of your call to holiness. Therefore, I implore you to:

Help me, O God to become holy by being poor of heart for Jesus said “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” (Mt.5:3) Let me take a deep look into my heart to see where I truly find security in life. Forgive me when I cling more to wealth that ensures nothing and leaves no room to love you and others that make me miss the most important things in life.

Help me to mourn with others, O God, for indeed, “Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.” (Mt.5:4) This is easier said than done for the world tells exactly the opposite that entertainment, pleasure, diversion, and escape make for the good life. Let me see things as they truly are so I may sympathize with those in pain and in sorrow, only to be comforted by your Son Jesus Christ.

Help me, O God to become holy by being meek (Mt.5:5). I know this is very difficult because it is the reign of pride and vanity in my heart that makes me think I have the right to dominate others. Give me the grace to trust in you more, not to be upset and impatient with others that leave me drained and weary always. Let me surrender everything to you, my only Lord and Master.

Help me, O God to hunger and thirst for righteousness (Mt.5:6) so that I may be holy by being filled with you. Hunger and thirst are intense experiences because they both involve basic needs and our instinct for survival. Let me be intense in working for your justice by being faithful to your words even if it is very attractive to join the train of winners through corruption. Let me be faithful to you even if I will not see in my lifetime the fruits of my fighting for justice.

Help me, O God, to be merciful (Mt.5:7) like you which is reproducing in our lives some small measure of your perfection which gives and forgives superabundantly. Teach me to be giving and forgiving like you.

Help me, O God, to have a clean heart (Mt.5:8) so that I may see you more clearly and follow you more clearly in love. Give me the grace to keep my heart free of all that tarnishes love.

Help me, O God, to be a peacemaker and truly become your child (Mt.5:9). When I think of this beatitude, I see the many endless situations of war in our world and yet, too often, I must admit that I am also the cause of some conflicts or at least of misunderstanding around me! Teach me how to sow peace all around me as I try to embrace even those who are a bit odd, troublesome or difficult, demanding, different, beaten down by life or simply uninterested. It is really hard work on my part, O God, demanding creativity, serenity, sensitivity and skill.

Living out the Beatitudes by your Son Jesus Christ is accepting the daily path of the Gospel, even though it may cause me problems, most especially persecution. But whatever weariness and pain I may experience in living the commandment of love and following the way of justice, the cross remains the source of my growth and sanctification. That is why “blessed are those persecuted for righteousness’ sake for there is the kingdom of heaven.”(Mt.5:10) No holiness can ever happen without pain and suffering for the path to heaven is always through the way of the Cross of Christ. AMEN. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan 3022. *Photos from Google.

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Our Hallowed Hiddenness

Quiet Storm by LordMyChef, 31 October 2018:

Whether you choose to celebrate today’s Halloween in its truest, Christian sense that is sacred or in the more popular pagan manner that is scary, today’s feast that literally means All Hallowed (Holy) Eve reminds us of things that are not seen, always hidden. Hiddenness is a sacred presence where each one of us is all by one’s self focused on God who is the root of our being and existence no matter how one may call Him. In one of his writings which I could no longer recall despite the help of Google, St. John Paull II explained that God created man first to be alone with Him. And that is how it has always been even if people get married for eventually in the end, we die alone with God.

This gift of hiddenness within each one of us is manifested in our desire to once in a while be still, to go to the mountains or anywhere for a retreat or introspection, for “me” time to rediscover and “find” one’s self anew. Hiddenness is the passageway to the great gifts of silence and stillness that everyone needs to maintain balance in this highly competitive world filled with so much noise where everybody is talking, even cars, ATM’s, and elevators. How funny that we complain of not having enough time for ourselves but we never cease to stop talking and listening. And not only that: we have allowed everything about us not only heard but even seen on cameras. First came the Sony Walkman almost 40 years ago that became the ancestor of every gadget that have invaded our hiddenness; now, we have camera everywhere, shooting and recording everything that nothing is hidden anymore in us and from us. We have stripped ourselves of the innate mystery of being human, of the beauty and gift of personhood that some have tried to reveal using the camera but failed because we are beyond seeing and appreciation.

While it is true that cameras are essential in keeping our surroundings safe and secured that it is referred to as “big brother”, again we find here another case of abusing technology to the detriment of our humanity. As I have told you here last week (Respect In Digital Age), we need to put technology at its right place, particularly the camera that robs us of that essential thing we call respect. But the greatest threat and danger posed on us by the camera is how we have allowed it to invade our hiddenness with almost everybody wanting to be on camera without realizing it often backfires, sometimes painfully.

The camera is a projector, trying to show in a bigger picture deeper realities notably the plain truth. Here lies our quiet storm when we are so eager to project everything and everyone including our very selves on the camera when we do not realize nor examine what we are really showing. The great paradox is that the camera does not lie that always seem to show what is negative than what is positive in us. Keep in mind the TV is called “idiot box”because those inside the television presuppose everybody watching them is an idiot when in fact, they are more idiots. Watching television – news or entertainment – can reveal who are superficial and those with substance. Sometimes TV can be deceiving that we take some people and things appearing on the screen as good and credible without us realizing these are “presentations” that are manipulated to produce a desired effect called the hypodermic theory. This explains the popularity of YouTube as people prefer “raw footages” that show people and events “as it happened.” Even movie directors are adapting to this style to show action “as it is” to give the film a more realistic feel that contribute to the blurring of lines between reality and virtual reality.

We need to regain our hallowed hiddenness if we wish to grow and mature truly as persons – emotionally, psychologically and spiritually. With the camera always around us even in the church, sad to say, everybody and everything has become so ordinary and cheap. Even God has to keep His hiddenness simply because that is how He had created everything. See the beautiful speech of God before Job that can transport you to the sublime beauty of nature and creation. The beloved apostle also tells us of the hiddenness of Jesus Christ who “In the beginning was the word.” (Jn.1:1) All four evangelists likewise have no records of the “hidden years” of Jesus before the age of 30 except for Matthew and Luke who gave us little glimpses of the birth and childhood of the Lord. These are all meant to teach us of the value of hiddenness, of being rooted always in our being and with God. Appearances in life are very fleeting and for more impact, we have to spend more time in hiddenness as revealed to us by Christ, the saints, artists and other great men and women of the world who came to be known and popular only after upon death. So many times we have also experienced in the funeral of our relatives and friends that we discover their hidden goodness and kindness from stories of those condoling with us.

This November 1 and 2 as we remember all those who have left us in this world, let us keep its sacred origins: All Saints Day for those souls already in heaven and All Souls’ Day for those who have departed but still being purified or staying at the purgatory. Both dates invite us to hide also in some prayer, remembering God and our loved ones whom we shall surely follow someday without any camera at all. Like them in hiddenness from us, let us be focused more on God than on self and things that pass. Here is the late Fr. Henri Nouwen on hiddenness:

“In our society we are inclined to avoid hiddenness. We want to be seen and acknowledged. We want to be useful to others and influence the course of events. But as we become visible and popular, we quickly grow dependent on people and their responses and easily lose touch with God, the true source of our being. Hiddenness is the place of purification. In hiddenness we find our true selves.”

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*Photo by Mr. Raffy Tima of GMA-7 News, sunset on a flight to Dubai, October 2018. Used with permission. Bible verse from Google.