On Becoming Children of God

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe

Feast of the Holy Family, 30 December 2018

1 Samuel 1:20-22, 24-28///1 John 3:1-2, 21-24///Luke 2:41-52

Christmas reminds us that Jesus Christ comes through our family in the same manner He came through the husband and wife of Joseph and Mary. It is right and fitting that within the octave or eight days of Christmas we also celebrate this Sunday the Feast of the Holy Family. In this world of broken families, by choice or by circumstances, the gospel reminds us that a family is always made up of a father, mother and child: When his parents saw him, they were astonished, and his mother said to him, “Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety” (Lk.2:48). But more than our human families, Christmas reminds us most of all of our being a family of God with Him as our Father: And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” But they did not understand what he said to them. He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart. And Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and favor before God and man (Lk.2:49-52).

The good news is that we all remain God’s children no matter how old we may be like Nat King Cole singing “to kids from one to ninety-two” which the beloved disciple reminds us in the second reading, “Beloved: See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yes so we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him” (1Jn.3:1). It is becoming disheartening when people claim that Christmas is for kids because of the superficial things about the season like happiness over gifts. We seem to have forgotten that Christmas came because of adults like Joseph and Mary, Zechariah and Elizabeth who remained children of God in being obedient to His holy will which is at the very core of experiencing Christ’s coming not only on Christmas Day when we remain like children. This Sunday we are invited to join Mary and Joseph in searching for the child Jesus whom we have often lost in our busy schedules, responsibilities and careers so we may also rediscover in the process our being children of the Father in heaven.

See the beauty of the response of Jesus to His parents upon finding Him at the temple, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” (Lk.2: 49). Though Jesus Christ is truly human like us in everything except sin, growing up and maturing in all aspects, His divine Sonship has always been clear with Him even as a 12 year-old child. His intimacy with the Father was never lost in His becoming human. His being the Son of the Father in heaven is the very core of His mission that we always hear Him telling us in His preaching about His being one with the Father and most of all, of the need for us to become children to be included in His kingdom. This He reveals to us in three ways through this only episode about His childhood as recorded by St. Luke. First is His complete freedom as a person.

Jesus has always been free from so many conventions and rules even laws that limit humans from being totally free for God as Father. Remember how Joseph His legal father also showed that true holiness is abiding in the Laws of Moses based on love that he decided to leave Mary in silence after learning of her pregnancy. But after hearing the angel’s explanation in a dream, Joseph freely decided on himself based on his love for God, for Mary and for Jesus to take her as his wife. How funny that when we were growing up we kept on demanding for freedom from our parents thinking that being free is being able to do whatever pleases us. Then we realize that true freedom is choosing what is good, what is true. That true freedom leads us to be more loving and faithful. Too often it seems that as the world gives so much emphasis on freedom, the fact remains that the more we try to be free, the more we become unfree, finding ourselves imprisoned and caught up in too much binds and traps that most of us would always go somewhere to be alone, to have “me time” because we are not free deep within as we have forgotten our basic identity as beloved children of God the Father. Jesus was so free that He stayed behind at the Temple because deep within Him he was at home at His Father’s house. And deep within Him He spoke freely of His Father that amazed the experts with Him at the Temple because they were constricted with many concepts and thoughts about God when Jesus was so free to share the love He has inside.

And here lies the beauty of true freedom that leads to amazement and wonder, to being surprised by something bigger, greater, and so beautiful. Poets claim that children are the closest to God and the spiritual realms because they always have the sense of wonder and awe. Even Mary and Joseph must have been amazed at the response of the child Jesus, reminding them of the announcements made to them by the angel before His coming. In this age of Netflix and daily video streaming of everything, we are being robbed of the simple and deep joy of being surprised unlike when we were younger that we have to wait for the next series of the Knight Rider or Dallas or ChiPS. With these modern technologies, the more we have become not free at all as we just follow the flow of networks, tech giants, advertisers and markets. We have been imprisoned by economics and profits along with gimmicks that we miss life in the process. The finding of Jesus at the Temple reminds us that our God is a God of surprises, that when we are truly free for the Father in heaven, there is always awe and amazement with life. We live and do not rush, enjoying time and every present moment in life, unafraid of what would happen next. Then, we become grateful or thankful for everything we have, material and spiritual.

Every Sunday as children of God we gather in the Holy Mass we call Eucharist, the Greek word for thanksgiving. In the first reading we have heard Hannah offering her son Samuel to the temple as her thanksgiving for the gift of a child after God answered her prayers. The gospels teem with so many occasions when Jesus would pray often to praise and thank God His Father, even in public. His life is a thanksgiving in itself that He gave it entirely to the Father for us. Though I am not a beauty pageant expert, I feel that Ms. Catriona Gray’s winning the Miss Universe title was largely because of her childlike traits of being free, amazing, and thankful. Only a child-like attitude like hers can see the silver linings amid the children growing at the slums of Tondo and still be grateful. It is exactly what Jesus had said that“unless you become like children, you shall never inherit the kingdom of heaven” that she was eventually crowned as Miss Universe!

To be a child is to owe one’s existence from another, from God and from parents and elders. When we teach our children to always sayplease and thank you including po and opo, we are actually reminding them of that deep reality within each of us that we are here on earth because we were given as a gift. We are not really teaching them something new but more of awakening in them something inherent that our existence is not of our own, our “I” or self not of our own making that we have to be thankful always to God and with our parents and with others. This is something we adults always forget or even discard and abandon especially when we fill to have achieved so much in life. We all remain children in our whole lives because are always in need of one another especially when we get older and eventually lose our memories and abilities to do things that rightly so, we get into a second childhood. On this Feast of the Holy Family, let us be thankful for the gift of one another, especially of our family. How lovely were those Christmas greetings on Facebook – “from our family to yours” – if each one remains a child of God, freely loving and surprising everyone of the reality of the God among us Jesus Christ, the Emmanuel. AMEN. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan

*Photo above by Jim Marpa. Used with permission. Below from Google.

findingjesus

Our Origin and Mission in Jesus Christ

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The Lord Is My Chef Simbang Gabi Recipe-2

17 December 2018

Genesis 49:2, 8-10///Matthew 1:1-17

Surely today after our Simbang Gabi, all attention would be on the Miss Universe Beauty Pageant with everybody rooting for our bet, memorizing the names and answers of almost every candidate from all over the world. I have never seen any episode of Miss Universe or any beauty pageant in my entire life but from what I have read and heard, our intense interests with beauty contests is our way of coping with the harsh realities in our nation of crooks and corrupt officials that we try to identify with the beautiful and glamorous. As you examine every candidate later on TV, try remembering our reflection on this second Simbang Gabi which is also about names and origins and mission.

Today we begin the second phase of Advent when our liturgy shifts its focus to the first coming of Jesus more than 2000 years ago in Bethlehem. The Church’s official countdown for Christmas Day actually starts today December 17 until the 24^th when all our readings look back to the events leading to Christ’s birth. Every year on this date we hear the beginning of the gospel of Matthew about the genealogy of Jesus Christ where we are presented with names of our Lord’s ancestors that mostly sound funny and even weird. Yesterday we have reflected that the joy of Advent and Christmas is the Person of Jesus Christ found among every person. Today, we deepen this reflection on the Person of Jesus Christ through His genealogy that reveals to us His origin and mission which we also share with Him.

It is interesting to recall that when Jesus faced Pilate during His trial, the Roman governor asked Him “Where are you from?” (cf. Jn.18:38). It was also the same question that all four evangelists tried to answer later in writing their respective gospel account of the Christ. For Matthew and John, it is the most essential question needed to be answered right away that they both opened their gospel accounts by presenting the origins of Jesus Christ. We shall reflect on John’s version about the origins of Jesus on Christmas; today we focus on Matthew’s genealogy which is very Jewish in flavor and context considering his own background and audience made up largely of Jewish converts to Christianity. Right away, Matthew traced the genealogy of Jesus to the two prominent figures of Israel by solemnly declaring at the beginning of his gospel, “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham” (Mt.1:1).

For Matthew, the story of the promise of God begins with Abraham who was called to journey from his homeland to the Promised Land. More than a journey into another land, it was also a journey into the future by Abraham when all nations who would come from him shall come together to be blessed by the Lord. Every Jew is aware of this promise by God to Abraham and Matthew is now reminding them how everything was fulfilled in the birth of Jesus as the Christ. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI explains in “Jesus of Nazareth, the Infancy Narratives”that “From the beginning of the genealogy, then, the focus is already on the end of the Gospel, when the risen Lord says to his disciples: ‘Make disciples of all nations’ (Mt.28:19). In the particular history revealed by the genealogy, this movement toward the whole is present from the beginning; the universality of Jesus’ mission is already contained within his origin” (page 5).

Next to Abraham, Matthew structured much of the history of his genealogy around the figure of David, the greatest king of Israel to whom the promise of eternal kingdom had been given by God. Fully aware of the significance of symbolisms in number among his people, Matthew structured the genealogy of Jesus into three sets of fourteen generations considering that the Hebrew letters of the name David add up to fourteen also: “Thus the total number of generations from Abraham to David is fourteen generations; from David to the Babylonian exile, fourteen generations; from the Babylonian exile to the Christ, fourteen generations” (Mt.1:17). Again, we listen to Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI,“this threefold division by Matthew shows that the genealogy of Jesus is in fact the Gospel of Christ the King wherein we can find the whole history looking onto Him whose throne is to endure forever (ibid., page 6).” Here we find anew the fulfillment in Jesus of God’s promise to Abraham and to David.

The third and surprising element in Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus is the inclusion of five women that is very novel at that time considering it was a male dominated world. See that Matthew traced more of the male line of the Lord’s genealogy; he must be up to something in mentioning the five women as roots also of Jesus: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheeba the wife of Uriah, and then Mary His mother. The first four women were considered sinners and right away we can see how Matthew had indicated in the genealogy the mission of Jesus as Savior of the world when He took upon Himself the sins of the four women including those of the world. It was not chauvinism on the part of Matthew but simply employing a technique prevalent at that time; but, here he also presents to us another reality of aside from being sinners, all four women before Mary were also foreigners or gentiles who were looked down upon by the Jews at that time. Through them, Christ’s mission to the Gentiles is also made manifest in His genealogy, proof that indeed the genealogy of Jesus is the whole Gospel in itself!

But the biggest surprise of Matthew after putting four sinful, gentile women in the genealogy of Jesus is his manner of ending it with another woman though this time a Jewish one, Mary. Note like in a song all throughout the genealogy, we find the pattern of father and son like in “Abraham was the father of Jacob” to indicate human paternity among the ancestors of Jesus. Note how Matthew would devise a twist near the end by telling us “Jacob (was) the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary. Of her was born Jesus who is called the Christ” (Mt.1:16). The evangelist is very clear here with the Divine origin of Jesus Christ who did not come from Joseph or any human father. Right after the genealogy, Matthew would narrate the circumstances surrounding the birth of Jesus Christ, stressing the fact that He was conceived in the womb of Mary by the Holy Spirit. Very clear Matthew has no plans of minimizing the role of Joseph in Christ’s birth; on the contrary, the evangelist extolled Joseph’s role at the genealogy and following story of the Nativity that as the legal father of Jesus, Joseph makes Jesus legally from the Davidic line of succession as fulfillment of the promise to David by God. Such is the mystery of the person of Jesus Christ that although His origins can be traced to humans, beginning with Abraham and David, He also came from above with God truly His Father which we profess in faith that He is true God and true Man. In Jesus Christ through Mary, “human existence starts afresh so that we can now claim that our true genealogy is in our faith in Jesus who gives us our origin and mission from God (ibid.).”

One of my spiritual fathers who has a tremendous impact in my life was the late American Jesuit Fr. Arthur Shea. He was my spiritual director during our Ignatian 30-day retreat in Cebu more than 20 years ago. His favorite expression was “man is a mystery.” Indeed, every person is a mystery for we never know exactly everything about him or her, someone we must always respect because no matter what, he or she is a child of God above us. The genealogy of Jesus Christ challenges us today to rise and hold on to that honor of being a beloved child of God that despite our sinful past, many weaknesses and failures, we can always start afresh like Mary putting an end to the cycle of sins and evil. The genealogy of Jesus Christ reminds us that life is more about direction than destination. Like Abraham, we are all wayfarers treading the path of Jesus who is the way, the truth and life with no clear indications of places to go except of directions to the future to be like Him. Like David, God would always find a way to change our courses in life so we can follow His direction despite our grave sins. Let us pray with Mary that we may let God set the direction of our lives so that we may bring Christ back into this world that has veered away from Him.AMEN.Fr.NicanorF.LalogII,Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, .Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan.

*Photo is another painting on acrylic (48×96) by Bulakenyo artist Aris Bagtas called “Luklukan ng Karunungan” (Seat of Wisdom) displayed at the second floor of the Library of the Immaculate Conception Major Seminary at Guiguinto, Bulacan. A lively and beautiful rendition by Aris of Mary teaching her Son Jesus Christ while at the background is Joseph looking at them. Used with permission.

Prayer of Presentation of Self to the Lord

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe-Prayer

Wednesday, 21 November 2018, Memorial of the Presentation of the BVM

Revelation 4:1-11///Luke 19:11-28

Lord Jesus Christ, the skies are hazy today. There’s a typhoon down south of our country. The readings for today are so beautiful and yet we also celebrate the memorial of the presentation of your Mother to the temple. So many things are in my heart, in my mind.

Thank you Lord for accepting me into your family of disciples (Mt. 12:46-50). Thank you Jesus in calling me like John the Beloved to see of the things to come, to see the four winged creatures symbolizing the evangelists (Rev. 4:1ff).

It is always good to serve before you, to help others in need, to touch others with your love and kindness, mercy and forgiveness. These past two days, I have prayed for more love, life and conviction from you to follow you more closely.

As we celebrate today the memorial of the presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, I pray for the grace to wholly offer myself anew to you. I am a sinner. Like the people gathered before you during your time, I sometimes refuse to believe in you, to accept you. Like that servant in your parable today, I have kept the gospel in myself, I have not used it wisely and have not prospered so well to bear fruits in me and in others.

Cleanse me, Jesus, my Lord and my God. You are the Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Like your Mary your mother and our mother too, cleanse me and give me the grace of docility, of humility, and fidelity to be like her, the “daughter of Zion” prophesized by Zechariah so that you may dwell in me and your kingdom come in me. AMEN. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan 3022.

*Photo from Google.

LMC

Prayer to be filled with Life Anew

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe-Prayer

Tuesday, 20 November 2018, Week XXXIII, Year II

Revelation 3:1-6, 14-22///Luke 19:1-10

Lord Jesus Christ, today I feel like your beloved disciple John, receiving your revelations not about the end of time but about my real self.

Like the people of Sardis, so often I have that “reputation of being alive but actually dead (Rev.3:1).” Yes, there are times I merely accomplish things for you but deeply lacking with life and vitality, zest and enthusiasm. On the surface, like what St. Paul had noted in one of his letters, I act like busy body but really doing nothing. If yesterday I lacked love in the things I do, most likely I also lack life. When there is love, there is always life.

Like the people of Sardis, I would always hide on the sides refusing to walk on the main street because I do not have the drive to be with you on the way. Like Zachaeus, I climb trees to hide from others though too eager to see you, to look at you, to listen to you.

Give me the grace to be filled with life anew, with warmth and energy, to make a stand for the gospel, to stand for what is true and just. Forgive me in my lifelessness that made me lukewarm in the process like the people of Laodicea who were neither hot nor cold (Rev. 3:16). Do not spit me out of your mouth, Lord. Like Zachaeus, give me the grace to turn away from sins and evil, to make a stand for justice and truth.

Let your salvation come today Lord in many families divided! Like what you did in entering upon the home of Zachaeus, smash the walls dividing many family members from one another like indifference and coldness. Fill them with more love and life, kindness and warmth, goodwill and concern for one another. I pray for all family members who have stopped talking with each other, those with festering bitterness and suspicions deep inside, those who continue to hurt each other in words or in deeds, in silence and indifference. Rekindle the warmth of their kinship, of their being one flesh, one blood, one root, one family. AMEN. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan 3022.

Photo by the author, Manor House, Camp John Hay, Baguio City, November 2017.

LMC

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.

spesalvi

Narrow Gate, Hallowed Parents and Children

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe-Prayer

Wednesday, 31 October 2018, Week XXX, Year II

Ephesians 6:1-9///Luke 13:22-30

Dearest God our loving Father: it is the last day of the month of October, the eve of the feast of All Saints – the Hallowed or Holy Ones now with you there in heaven. How sad that people today, especially from those so-called advanced countries have wrongly chosen to honor what is evil and abominable, to celebrate death and damnation. How sad that there are still so many benighted souls among us who would rather believe with witches and monsters than with a loving and merciful God like you we have experienced with our departed relatives and friends?

How wonderful are the words of St. Paul today reminding us of your fourth command to “honor your father and your mother”, your only commandment with a promise of blessing at old age. How wonderful of St. Paul to remind us also of our relationships with one another, to always revere each other, to “hallow” one another for we only have one Master in you our God.

Give us the grace to see more clearly your path which is a “narrow gate” of holiness (Lk. 13:24) where everyone is welcomed with their good works, enjoying your sacred presence than the scary darkness of evil now glorified in our midst in various forms.

Give us the true sense of Halloween, of having a hallowed, holy evening and eve for all our loved ones who have gone ahead of us into heaven we have all loved and revered while here on earth until now as we hope them to be in your presence as saints. AMEN. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan 3022.

*Photo by the author, Jerusalem, April 2017.

Deepening Our Family Ties In Christ

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe-Prayer

Tuesday//25September2018//Week XXV//Year II

Proverbs 21:1-6, 10-13///Luke 8:19-21

Dearest God:

Every time we would pray, we always call you “our Father” without really realizing its deeper meaning and implications. Today’s gospel surprised and even shocked us when your Son Jesus Christ claimed “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and act on it.”(Lk.8:21) Thank you in showing to us the deeper realities of our family that we always take for granted.

It is always easy to know who are our family but so difficult to recognize them deeper and truly with all the love and respect as father and mother, brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus. Give us the grace like Jesus to find our relationships rooted in you so we can have more harmony and peace in the family. Bless us today with your grace to always “do what is right and just”especially in dealing with our family for that is “more acceptable to you than sacrifice.” (Prov.21:3) AMEN. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan 3022.

Photo from Google.

When We Treat Others As Entity Than Family

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe-Prayer

Tuesday, 11 September 2018, Week XXIII, Year II

1 Corinthians 6:1-11///Luke 6:12-19

Merciful Father in heaven, we look up to you today praying for those people who have died in “9/11”.

Until now we still feel the pain of how such a horrific event could happen on the first year of the new millennium. More than 2000 years ago, you have sent us your Son Jesus Christ to bring us together as brothers and sisters, praying that we may all be one – “ut unum sint” (John 17:21).

Unfortunately, we would more often go on our own separate ways, refusing to see one another as a family but instead as an entity. Like the Corinthians during the time of St. Paul, we could not resolve amicably our many issues and differences that end in tragedy. St. Paul noted so well how we have forgotten our being sanctified by the Holy Spirit to abide with justice and respect in spite of our differences.

Give us the grace, O God, to look more on Jesus Christ than with each other like the Apostles. Give us that grace of seeing more of Jesus Christ like the Twelve so that in the process we may see our very selves being called not because we are qualified but out of your immense love for us. Give us the grace to see our worth as a person amid our diversity in color and creed. Amen.Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan 3022. Photo from CBS.News.

Praying For Mothers with St. Monica

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe-Prayer

Monday, 27 August 2018, Memorial of St. Monica

2Thessalonians 1:1-5,11-12///Matthew 23:13-22

God our loving Father, today we pray with St. Monica the mother of St. Augustine for all mothers, those still alive and those whom you have called to join you in heaven. Thank you very much for the gift of mother whom we have always taken for granted! They must truly be your most special creation of all. Mothers came later because you have to bless them with so much to be able to conceive us, carry us, deliver us, nurture us and always care for us. Thank you very much God for the mothers who bear with us even if everyone, including our own father and siblings have given up on us.

Please bless mothers who are sick, those who suffer in pain and anguish alone and in silence. Heal them in their body, heart, mind and soul. Be their strength in their weakness and their company in their loneliness. Enlighten their minds and their hearts especially those mothers who have to work for a living. We pray in a special manner for the single-mothers, by choice or by circumstances.

Through St. Monica, we pray for mothers with problematic husband and children to always have faith in you, to never lose hope their loved ones would still be converted. Give them the grace like St. Monica to “forget the past and push on to the future” (from today’s Office of Readings), that like the Thessalonians, all mothers may keep longing for what is good (1:11).

Likewise, we pray for the mothers who have died. Grant them eternal rest especially those who have persevered while here on earth to lead their children and others closer to you. The mothers who have been true and not hypocrite like those condemned today by Jesus in the gospel, so concerned only with what is external and not important. Reward them with eternal peace and joy through Jesus Christ your Son who lives and reigns with you in the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria,Bulacan 3022 (Photo from Google: St. Monica with her son, St. Augustine.)

You are prayed for these rainy days

MossMalagos

14 August 2018

My dearest relatives and friends:

This is the worst rainy season I think I ever have. And it seems more rains are still coming. What saddens me most is the fact that in the midst of these rains and floods, I know many of you are also battling at the same time other storms in life like sickness or death in the family or among friends.

You are all remembered and prayed for especially when heavy rains are pouring. In 1995, I went through serious trials in life and vocation while in the seminary during the entire rainy season. Every time I would pray in the afternoon, I would always look at the trees and plants outside our seminary chapel. And that was when I realized that it is always after the rains and storms when leaves are greenest.

Here are some photos I have taken from the Malagos Garden Resort in Davao City last Friday, August 11, 2018.

Hope they soothe your hearts. God bless you always!

In Christ Jesus,
fr nick f lalog ll

ButterflyMalagos