Much Ado About Nothing

Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Tuesday, Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time, Year II, 25 August 2026
2 Thessalonians 2:1-3, 14-17 <*((((>< + ><))))*> Matthew 23:23-26

*Photo by author, St. Paul Spiritual & Renewal Center, Bgy. Tanyawak, Alfonso, Cavite, 19 August 2026.*

Glory and praise
to you Lord Jesus Christ
this blessed Tuesday;
indeed, our life is most often
a comedy like that play by
Shakespeare,
"Much Ado About Nothing" -
we spend too much time on so
many trivial things that we forget
the more essential,
debating and quarreling
on words and expressions,
choosing things over persons,
doing and doing without
knowing and being,
ending more lost
and confused
amid the affluence
never experienced before.

Jesus said: Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You pay tithes of mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier things of the law: judgment and mercy and fidelity. But these you should have done, without neglecting the others. Blind guides, who strain out the gnat and swallow the camel!” (Matthew 23:23-24)

We not only forget
the weightier,
essential things in life
but we also refuse to live
in the present moment,
preferring to dwell on the future
like the Thessalonians
wasting too much on worries
and non-existent forgetting
what is before us,
the present that is unfolding,
happening in your very presence;
teach us to simply trust in you,
Jesus like the psalmist,
 to rejoice
and be glad for you,
O Lord is king,
just and merciful,
most of all,
so loving
and far more greater
than all of our worries.

Let us stop all these much
ado about nothing,
Lord,
for only you suffices
in life.
Amen.

Our search for peace

Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Tuesday in Fifth Week of Easter, 20 May 2025
Acts 14:19-28     ><))))*> + ><))))*> + ><))))*>     John 14:27-31

*Photo by author, Cabo da Roca Villas, Pundaquit, San Antonio, Zambales, 14 May 2025.*

Jesus said to his disciples, “Peace be with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid” (John 14:27).

Come, Lord Jesus!
Come and let me search peace
in you,
not in the world that is uncertain
and always dependent,
transactional in nature;
you know it, Lord,
how often like your disciples at the
Last Supper,
I look for peace in the world,
in things and in what people
say and approve
that peace remains elusive;
you know very well too,
Jesus,
my fears and anxieties
that I give into the peace of the
world that is quick and easier;
give me courage,
Jesus, to look for peace
in you here in my heart,
to trust in you,
not afraid to love totally
even to get hurt
because it is the path
to your peace.

Like Paul and Barnabas
after being stoned and rejected
by their fellow Jews,
they never backed out from
preaching your good news, Lord;
instead, so true to your words
at the Last Supper not to let our hearts
troubled or afraid,
they asserted,
"It is necessary for us to undergo
many hardships to enter
the Kingdom of God" (Acts 14:22).

Grant us, O Lord,
the same faith
and courage and
trust in you
in order to finally
find your lasting peace.
Amen.

Praying with “worriers” like me…

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Tuesday in the Twenty-Seventh Week of Ordinary Time, Year I, 10 October 2023
Jonah 4:1-11   Luke 11:1-4

*Photo by author, sunflower farm, La Trinidad, Benguet, 12 July 2023.*

Today I pray dear God
our loving Father for all 
my fellow worriers who are like me,
always anxious of everything,
afraid of chaos and disorder,
afraid of failing,
lacking in complete trust in you.

Like Martha in today’s gospel,
we are anxious snd worried of many things
because we forget that only you, 
O God, 
is the only one needed.

Many times I am like
Jonah your prophet who believes
more in myself, 
judgmental of others 
without realizing that 
whatever mission you send us to
is all your work, using us only
as your mouth to speak, 
hands to care and 
reach out to those weak and sick,
feet to stand 
for what is true,
just and good.

So Jonah made ready and went to Nineveh, according to the Lord’s bidding. Now Nineveh was an enormously large city; it took three days to go through it. Jonah began his journey through the city, and had gone but a single day’s walk announcing, “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed” when the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth. When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in the ashes.
Jonah 3:3-6

When we worry so much,
we hurt others too because 
that is when we underestimate them,
when we put them in a box
with categories removing
every chance to become better
like how Jonah perceived the Ninivites
or Martha with Mary.

How wonderful
that every time this happens,
you surprise us Lord with
the most unexpected happening
like when the Ninevites proclaimed
a fast and put on a sackcloth,
when Jesus praised Mary in
choosing him over everything
and everyone.

Keep us simple
and humble, Jesus,
with a lot of humor 
like Jonah even if your joke
is always on us so that
we may let go 
of life's many
trials and difficulties.
Amen.

A video I have taken using my iPhone during our visit to this sunflower farm in La Trinidad, Benguet last 12 July 2023.

Prayer against panic

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Tuesday, Memorial of St. Rose of Lima, Virgin, 23 August 2022
2 Thessalonians 2:1-3, 14-17 ><]]]'> + ><]]]'> + ><]]]'> Matthew 23:23-26

*Photo by Dr. Mylene A. Santos, MD, near Lamon Bay, Polilio, Quezon, 15 August 2022.*

Praise and glory to you,
God our loving Father!
You know very well what 
our needs are especially
in these busy days when 
many of us are into 
"panic modes":  stress and
anxieties are peaking again
as classes begin with almost 
everyone overwhelmed with
the many tasks to fulfill amid 
all the crowd and traffic,
chaos and noise outside and 
within us like the early Christians
of Thessalonica so bothered with
Christ's Second Coming.

Teach us, dear Father,
to slow down, to trust in you,
and most especially, remove
our focus on little things that
are not essential like the Pharisees
and scribes.

Jesus said, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You pay tithes of mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier things of the law: Judgment and mercy and fidelity. Blind guides, who strain out the gnat and swallow the camel!”
Matthew 23:23, 24

Like St. Paul and 
St. Rose of Lima, through 
our witnessing of faith in you,
through our examples of deep
prayer life and loving service
to others, may we "encourage 
hearts and strengthen them in
every good deed and word"
(2 Thess.2:17).

May we be aware of your 
presence in Jesus Christ in
every here and now, to chill
and relax, not to overstretch 
ourselves trying to cover the 
whole world or even universe!
Let us learn to focus on what
is before us at the present 
moment which is to live out
Christ's gospel, day in and day out,
for the rest will take care of itself.
Amen.