Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul, 10 October 2025 Friday in the Twenty-Seventh Week of Ordinary Time, Year I Joel 1:13-15; 2:1-2 <*((((>< + ><))))*> Luke 11:15-26
Photo by Mr. Raffy Tima of GMANews in Batanes, 05 October 2018.
Your words today are so powerful, Jesus: the Prophet Joel called it "the Day of the Lord"...
Let all who dwell in the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming; yes, it is near, a day of darkness and of gloom, a day of clouds and somberness! Like dawn spreading over the mountains, a people numerous and mighty! Their like dawn has not been from of old, nor will it be after them, even to the years of distant generations (Joel 2:1-2).
What a moment of blessed desolation, Lord: tangible darkness everywhere that comes from within, that feeling of being afraid because you are calling me to return to you, O Lord; it is a blessed desolation because despite the darkness and emptiness, you are here within me, Lord when your darkness is light, your emptiness is fullness; it is blessed desolation for in the stillness and silence of losing everything, you are present, Lord, within me in every crisis, in every turmoil extending your hand to make me experience your power - "the finger of God" that make realize all good things come only from you and nothing bad could ever come from you as some in the crowd accused Jesus.
Let your day,
O Lord, come!
It is not enough that
we do not sin
but we must always
be filled with your Spirit,
always in your state of grace
so that there is no space for
evil to return and occupy us;
let us not be complacent
with your presence
and friendship, Jesus:
renew us daily in you
so we revere you daily,
ever ready
to follow you.
Amen.
Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Our Lady of Fatima University
Valenzuela City
(lordmychef@gmail.com)
Photo by Mr. Raffy Tima of GMANews, 27 October 2018.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Tuesday in the Fourth Week of Ordinary Time, Year II, 30 January 2024 2 Samuel 18:9-10, 14, 24-25, 30-19:3 ><}}}}*> + <*{{{{>< Mark 5:21-43
Photo by author, 19 January 2024, Our Lady of Fatima University-Sta. Rosa, Laguna Campus.
Today, O God, I join the psalmist in his prayer to you: "Incline your ear, O Lord; answer me, for I am afflicted and poor. Have mercy on me, O Lord, for to you I call all the day. Gladden the soul of your servant, for to you, O Lord, I lift up my soul" (Psalm 86:1, 3-4).
Gladden our hearts, gladden our souls, Father in Jesus Christ your Son; many mothers are now grieving over their lost sons or daughters to sickness and accidents; like David in the first reading, it does not matter what kind of a son or a daughter one's children may have been; their death is always a terrible loss, a most unfair and unkind one when parents should have gone first ahead of children.
You alone, Lord Jesus Christ, can comfort and gladden our souls amid our many griefs and miseries; you alone, Jesus, can stop our internal bleeding for the many pains and hurts within us we silently endure like that woman in today's gospel afflicted with hemorrhages for 12 years; raise us up, Jesus, from the pits of our agonies and slow deaths, bring back to life those losing zest of living because of betrayals and infidelities, those in countless despair of failures and frustrations.
Dear Jesus, we pray for those who hide all their pains and sufferings as they forge on daily in life, keeping the faith in you as they try to make ends meet and most especially struggling to fulfill their promises of life and brighter future for their loved ones gladly awaiting their coming home. Amen.
Photo by Dra. Mylene A. Santos, MD, an orange-bellied flowerpecker (Dicaeum trigonostigma) somewhere in the Visayas, December 2023.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Tuesday in the Sixteenth Week of Ordinary Time, 19 July 2022
Micah 7:14-15, 18-20 ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> Matthew 12:46-50
Photo by author, Mt. Nebo in Jordan overlooking Israel, 2019.
Lord God our Father,
show us your mercy and love
especially at this time we feel
so alone and desolate like your
people who have just returned
to Israel from exile.
Shepherd your people with your staff, the flock of your inheritance, that dwells apart in a wood land in the midst of Carmel. Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old; as in the days when you came from the land of Egypt, show us wonderful signs.
Micah 7:14-15
It has been raining again,
Father, with the skies so dark
and gloomy just like the lives
of many among us; we pray for
the sick especially those with rare
diseases and undergoing constant
procedures like chemotherapy and
dialysis as well as those so poor
who cannot afford treatment; we
pray for those living in flooded areas
and for those with leaking roofs
when rains are pouring; likewise, we
pray dear God for those feeling
lost and desolate, for those who
could not find aim and directions in
life for various reasons; we pray for
those grieving for losing a loved one.
In times like this of desolation,
when the well runs dry within us
when we feel you are so far and
not interested with us, let us be
faithful in our prayers to you; let us
hold on more to you, God, for who is
there like you, who removes guilt
and pardons sins, who does not
persist in anger but delights in
clemency (Micah 7:18-19)?
Let me hold on to you, O God,
when desolation comes; there are
times we seem to be far from you
like the mother and brothers of Jesus
in today's gospel who wished
to see him outside; let me keep in mind
that our ties with Jesus are based only
in doing your will, Father. And so,
in these dark days of storms in life,
let me strive to still do your will,
O God, to be more loving and
caring especially to those with less
in life, for those hurting inside.
Amen.
Isaiah 11:1-10 ><}}}*> Romans 15:4-9 ><}}}*> Matthew 3:1-12
Cathedral Basilica Minore of the Immaculate Conception, Malolos City, Advent 2019.
Advent is a season we are invited to look forward, to dream of the ideal, of the best things we wish we all have in this destructive world we live in.
It is the time for healing our wounds and brokenness as we look forward to the fulfillment of God’s promise of lasting peace brought by Jesus Christ’s coming more than 2000 years ago.
On that day, a shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse, and from his roots a bud shall blossom. The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him… Not by appearance shall he judge, nor by hearsay shall he decide, but he shall judge the poor with justice, and decide aright for the land’s afflicted… Justice shall be the band around his waist, and faithfulness a belt upon his hips. Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; the calf and young lion shall browse together, with a little child to guide them. The cow and the bear shall be neighbors, together their young shall rest; the lion shall eat hay like ox. The baby shall play by the cobra’s den, and the child lay his hand on the adder’s lair. There shall be no harm or ruin on my holy mountain; for the earth shall be filled with knowledge of the Lord, as water covers the sea.
Isaiah 11:1-2, 3, 4, 5-9
“Peaceable Kingdom”, a painting based on Is.11:1-10 by American Edward Hicks, a Quaker pastor (1780-1849).
Jesus is coming again to heal our destructive world
Last November 28 we celebrated Red Wednesday to remember the more than 300 million Christians worldwide persecuted in various forms because of their faith in Jesus Christ. Many of them were tortured and/or murdered while others were denied of work, housing and liberty for carrying the cross and confessing their faith and love for Jesus Christ.
According to some reports, about 80% of wars and conflicts in the world today are due to religion. How tragic – and scandalous – that religion is tearing us apart than bringing us together as peoples believing in a God who is loving and merciful!
But despite all these destructions going on, Isaiah’s prophecy challenges us to keep our hopes alive for a better future, to look forward for the coming again of Jesus Christ, “the shoot that shall sprout from the stump of Jesse” to heal our destructive world.
Advent assures us that it is never too late for the Lord to make peace and justice spring forth in our dying world like a stump of tree.
Isaiah’s vision is an imagery of God’s test of faith to us all to make it Jesus Christ’s peace a reality in this fragmented world, calling us into conversion so that we shall be “filled with knowledge of the Lord, as water covers the sea.”
It is a call made louder and clearer by St. John the Baptist at the wilderness that still echoes to our own time today.
Healing our destructive world starts within me
Photo by Mr. Jim Marpa, September 2019.
When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce good fruit as evidence of your repentance… Even now the ax lies at the root of the trees. Therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.
Matthew 3:7-8,10
The season of Advent is not only inviting us to look forward for a new world order where there would be lasting peace and justice, when all our tears would be wiped out, with perfect joy replacing our pains and sufferings. Advent is calling on us to look forward in renewing our relationships with God and with one another by beginning within our own hearts.
And make no mistake that St. John’s preaching and call were not only meant for the Pharisees and Sadducees of his time but also to us all Christians of today to “produce good fruit of our repentance” because being sorry for our sins is just the first step to conversion.
Whenever there is true repentance in our hearts, there must also be a change in our very selves, in our living. And only then can we expect of a better and more beautiful world coming like Isaiah’s vision because from true repentance comes justice and mercy.
St. John was very clear: it is Jesus Christ who is coming whom we shall await and prepare to meet right in our hearts. He is coming not to destroy the world – and us – but to restore everything into life anew.
Skies over the desert of Sinai in Egypt, May 2019.
Meeting Christ in the desert
Sometimes we get discouraged by some people and many situations that throw us off-balanced, tempting us to abandon all our efforts to be healed of our wounds and brokenness, in striving to become better persons.
Like St. John the Baptist, we have our own desert of desolation and bareness that purifies us further in preparing the way of the Lord, in meeting the Lord to be healed.
It is in our own desert of desolation and bareness where we are healed as we learn to be empty of ourselves like St. John in order to conquer first our selfish desires with silence and prayer, not with activities as we are all bent in doing these days.
In our world saturated in media with cacophony of voices telling us to do everything to be rich and popular and famous, the more we become empty and lost, broken and wounded.
“St. John the Baptist Preaching in the Wilderness” by German painter Anton Raphael Mengs (1728-1779). From Google.
Like St. John the Baptist, we have to break free from the trappings of the world by retreating into our own desert right inside our hearts in order to listen more to the voice of the coming Christ we must proclaim fearlessly in words and in deeds.
St. Paul assures us that all that scripture foretold in the past has been fulfilled in Jesus Christ who is coming again at the end of time. Despite the many destructions in this world, despite the many setbacks we have in life, may we imitate St. John the Baptist in awaiting Christ in our own desert for he is most faithful in his promise and presence. Amen.
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