The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Wednesday, Feast of St. Mary Magdalene, 22 July 2020
2 Corinthians 5:14-17 >><}}}*> >><}}}*> >><}}}*> John 20:1-2, 11-18
Painting by Giotto of the Risen Lord Jesus Christ appearing to St. Mary Magdalene from commons.wikimedia.org.
Dearest Lord Jesus Christ:
Today as I prayed on the feast of your beloved Saint Mary Magdalene, my sights were focused on your beautiful exchange of names on that Easter morning at your tomb.
It is so lovely and so deep, and very personal for all of us whom you love so much despite our many sins like St. Mary Magdalene.
When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus there, but did not know it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” She thought it was the gardener and said to him, “Sir, if you carried him away, tell me where you laid him, and I will take him.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni,” which means Teacher.
John 20:14-16
You called her by her name, “Mary” and she called you by your title “Rabbouni” – what a beautiful scene of two people loving each other so deeply, so truly! You – humbly and lovingly accepting the sinner, and she – submitting herself to you as disciple.
You have expelled seven demons from her, you have known her so well even her darkest secrets and sins, and despite all these knowledge, Lord Jesus, the more you have loved her that you called her by the sweetest word she could ever hear in her life, “Mary”.
The same with us, sweet Jesus: every day you call us by our names, each one of us as a person, an individual, a somebody not just a someone. You love us so much in spite and despite of everything. We are not just a number or a statistic to you but a person with whom you relate personally.
From Google.
Help us to realize this specially when darkness surrounds us, when self-doubts and mistrust abound in us without realizing your deep trust in us, in our ability to rise again in you and follow you.
Teach me to trust you more and love you more like St. Mary Magdalene, to give and offer my self to you totally as yours, calling you “Rabbouni” or Teacher and Master.
Let me give up whatever I still keep to myself, whatever I refuse to surrender so that I may enjoy the intimacy you offer me as a friend, a beloved, and a family in the Father.
What a joy indeed to be like St. Mary Magdalene, fully known and fully loved by you, dear Jesus.
May I learn to know and love others too like you so I may proclaim you to them. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe, Solemnity of the Pentecost-A, 31 May 2020
Acts of the Apostles 2:1-11 <*(((>< 1 Corinthians 12:3-7, 12-13 ><)))*> John 20:19-23
Pope Francis praying at an empty St. Peter’s Square 27 March 2020. Photo from cruxnow.com.
As I prayed over the readings this coming Pentecost Sunday, my thoughts kept going back to those powerful images when Pope Francis prayed at an empty St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican last March 27 when COVID-19 was ravaging the whole Italy with so many deaths.
Now more than ever, the Church badly needs the Pentecost – a new Pentecost that will heal and rebirth the world so wounded and altered by the corona pandemic this year 2020.
On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
John 20:19-20
Modern rendition of the Pentecost. From Google.
Holy Spirit, breath of life and cause of unity
The Pentecost is not just an event remembered in the past but a reality that happens daily when the Holy Spirit comes and is received by those attuned with its life and mission which is to bring peace through unity and healing.
Promised by Jesus Christ to his followers as their Advocate and Counsellor, the Holy Spirit descended on them during the feast of Pentecost in Jerusalem when Jews from all parts of the world gathered to remember the 50 days after their Passover in Egypt at the time of Moses.
It was the perfect setting for the Christian Pentecost – this time 50 days after Easter – to celebrate the new unity of mankind in Jesus he established on Holy Thursday evening at his Last Supper. Inasmuch as the Jews went home at that time to be one with their fellow believers in Jerusalem, on that day from the holy city comes forth the new solidarity of peoples in Jesus led by his followers gathered that day in the Upper Room.
Hence, the tradition of considering Pentecost Sunday as the birthday of the Church, too.
Though we have heard two different versions of its coming, what matters most is the Person of the Holy Spirit as the breath of life and the cause of unity among the followers of Christ.
In the first reading, Luke gives us an artistic presentation of the coming of the Holy Spirit showing the unity of the peoples: first of the followers of Jesus and later with the Jews gathered in Jerusalem on that day for their feast of Pentecost. Whereas the apostles were at first presented as timid and lacking in understanding, the Holy Spirit emboldened them on that day to go out and proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. Led by Peter, they were filled with life and wisdom and courage, converting thousands of people on Pentecost day despite their speaking in different languages, exactly the opposite at the Tower of Babel in the Old Testament.
In the gospel, John gives us the theological grounding of Pentecost when we find Jesus appearing to his disciples hiding from the Jews on the evening of Easter at the Upper Room where he breathed on them the Holy Spirit that filled them with joy upon seeing him risen and alive.
The scene was reminiscent of the many stories in the Old Testament of the “breath of God” giving life to the first human beings in the story of creation, the “breathing on” by Elijah on the nostrils of the widow’s dead son back to life (1Kgs.17:21), and the promise of God to Ezekiel to restore to life the many dry bones in their graves in the time to come (Ezek. 37:1-14).
These stories now take on deeper meanings in Jesus Christ its fulfillment. And not only were the disciples breathed on with new life in Christ but also the whole creation was renewed in the coming of the Holy Spirit that we pray, “Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and you shall renew the face of the earth”.
Perennial Pentecost for peace and healing
Pentecost is an event that continues to happen daily especially when we are gathered as the body of believers of Jesus Christ tasked to realize its fulfillment. This coming of the Holy Spirit is not a one-shot deal that happened only in the past in Jerusalem more than 2000 years ago — it is something we as followers of the Risen Lord must always wait and make happen every day so as to continually bring life and renewal to this world especially at this time of the corona pandemic.
In giving us the Holy Spirit, Jesus not only renewed our lives as his disciples united in him but also conferred his own power without restrictions to accomplish our mission.
Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”
John 20:21-23
The Chair of St. Peter at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome with the stained glass of the Holy Spirit above. Photo from dreamstime.com.
At the Vatican inside the great St. Peter’s Basilica is a beautiful stained glass of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove rising above as background to the Chair of St. Peter ( Feast is February 22) at the sanctuary area.
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI described this beautiful work of art:
“It seems to me that a deep analysis of the essence of the Church lies hidden here, is contained here… It unites the Church with creation as a whole. It signifies through the dove of the Holy Spirit that God is the actual source of all light. But it tells us something else: the Church herself is in essence, so to speak, a window, a place of contact between the other-worldly mystery of God and our world, the place where the world is permeable to the radiance of his light… The Church is the place of encounter where God meets us and we find God. It is her task to open up the world closing in on itself, to give it the light without which it would be unlivable.”
Images of Hope, pp.29-31
Here we find part of our mission in collaboration with the Holy Spirit is the the healing of the world that can be achieved only through peace. See how Jesus had to repeat twice his gift of peace to his disciples because it is his greatest gift to us following his Resurrection.
Life thrives and blooms most where there is peace, where there are disciples of the Lord willing to work for it with love and patience.
But the peace from Jesus Christ always has a price that we must be willing to pay to achieve it.
See that after his first greeting of peace, Jesus showed his wounds — he was the first to pay the price for peace with his own life.
Bringing around our Parish the Blessed Sacrament during the lockdown, March-May 2020.
This is the meaning of the many sacrifices and sufferings we all have to go through in this quarantine period expected to continue until 2021: if we want to get out of this pandemic, aside from the need for a vaccine and medication, we all need to change our ways to make sure this will not happen again.
It is always easy to join so many advocacies and rallies calling for every kind of change in the society and the world but nothing had ever happened because whenever we come home, we do not change our own ways of living! Sayang (what a waste) were all the inspiration and energies of the Holy Spirit for our many causes that have not taken roots right in our hearts.
All the apostles of the Lord paid the price of peace with their own lives that led to the healing not only of individuals and families but even of nations and the world.
The second time Jesus offered his gift of peace, he breathed the Holy Spirit on his apostles and commissioned them to forgive all sins.
Peace is the fruit of love according to Vatican II.
As such, peace from the Holy Spirit leads to healing when there is dialogue, prayer and repentance, that lead to justice, love, and forgiveness. Peace and healing need hard work that is why they are fruits. They never come on a silver platter.
On Monday, most of the quarantine levels in the country are downgraded because it is hoped we have somehow controlled the spread of COVID-19.
As we eagerly await more freedom and mobility in this time of pandemic, what have we achieved during these three months of quarantine, said to be the longest in the world?
Have we resolved our family differences? Have we rediscovered our family members, getting more close than ever, more kind, more understanding?
How sad that all we can share as our quarantine stories are all about food and other pursuits we have undertaken forgetting the unity and life of our family and community.
How sad when we in the Church have all been preoccupied with the new communication media but failed at all to make any impact or dent in the lives of our faithful because we have not shared Jesus Christ at all, when all our “live streaming” and vlogs are powered by likes and followers, not by the Holy Spirit.
Pope Francis blessing the people last March 27 in an empty St. Peter’s Square during the height of COVID-19 in Italy that became the new epicenter of pandemic next to China. Photo from Vatican Media Office.
Jesus never takes back his gift of peace, his gift of healing, his gift of the Holy Spirit. He promised to never leave us orphans. Let us not leave the Holy Spirit behind and stop believing in our selves.
That’s the way we have been in the world and even in the Church.
That is why – to a large extent – we have this corona pandemic.
40 Shades of Lent, Friday, Week III, 20 March 2020
Hosea 14:2-10 ><)))*> +++ <*(((>< Mark 12:28-34
Photo by author, Mt. St. Paul, Trinidad, Benguet, 04 February 2020.
Unbelievable.
That’s the only word you spoke to me Lord in my prayers last night and this morning.
Unbelievable.
As the days move on, God our Father, the more I could not believe all these things going on. What have happened with us, Lord?
Bakit kami nagkaganito at paano kami humantong dito, Panginoon?
Your words today, O Lord, are so true. It is you indeed who speaks to us especially in the first reading through the Prophet Hosea. You have spoken so well — we have all sinned.
We have disregarded you and others. We have relied so much in our own powers and abilities. We have insisted on doing things our own ways totally discarding your teachings.
But more unbelievable in this unbelievable situation is your immense love and mercy for us, O God our Father.
Thus says the Lord: Return, O Israel, to the Lord, your God; you have collapsed through your guilt. Take with you words, and return to the Lord… I will heal their defection, says the Lord, I will love them freely; for my wrath is turned away from them. I will be like the dew for Israel: he shall blossom like the lily.
Hosea 14:2-3, 5-6
Lent Week-III 2020 in our Parish.
Help us, Father through your Son Jesus Christ that we may look more inside ourselves these trying times, that we may see you more and as we see you as the most essential, the most important of all, we also see our value as persons.
Let us experience that love you have for us that we ought to share with one another, beginning in our family, in our neighborhood.
How unbelievable that some of us, like that scribe who asked Jesus “which is the first of all commandments”, we keep on categorizing, ranking things and even persons to determine who or what is the most important — the first.
Unbelievable but true, this pandemic is happening because we have forgotten you and we have forgotten others too. We have forgotten YOU are always first, always great. Semper Primus, semper Major!
Teach us to see more of you so that we also see you among one another. Amen.
40 Shades of Lent, Solemnity of St. Joseph, Husband of Mary, 19 March 2020
2 Samuel 7:4-5, 12-14, 16 +++ Romans 4:13, 16-18, 22 +++ Matthew 1:16, 18-21, 24
Photo from zenit.org, “Let Mom Rest” figurine
Praise and thanksgiving to you, O God our loving Father in giving us your Son, Jesus Christ our Savior. In sending him to us, you have asked St. Joseph to be not afraid to be the husband of the Blessed Mother of Jesus, Mary Most Holy.
…the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her.” When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home.
Matthew 1:20-21, 24
We pray today on this Solemnity of St. Joseph that we may also not be afraid in fighting this pandemic COVID-19.
Let us be not afraid to stay home to be with our family again, together and longer.
Photo by author, Chapel of St. Joseph, Nazareth, Israel, May 2017.
Let us be not afraid to talk and converse really as husband and wife, parents and children, brothers and sisters. Help us to be more open and more silent like St. Joseph to hear our family members’ innermost thoughts and feelings again with love and understanding.
Let us be not afraid, O Lord, to seek and work for real peace in our family now disintegrating as we disregard each other, choosing fame and wealth than persons.
Let us be not afraid to reach out also to those living alone like the sick, the elderly, the separated, those abandoned by family and friends or society, those widowed.
Let us be not afraid to share food and money to the needy, time and talent, joy and hope to those living in the margins.
Let us be not afraid to ask for forgiveness, to say again those beautiful words “I am sorry” to those we have hurt in words and in deeds; likewise, let us be not afraid to say also those comforting words “I forgive you” to those who have hurt us in words and in deeds.
Let us not be afraid to show respect anew to our elders. Forgive us, O God, in making disrespect a way of life in our time, in our society, in our government and right in our homes and family as we disregard the dignity of one another.
Let us not be afraid to pray again, to kneel before you, and humbly come to you as repentant sinners, merciful Father.
Let us be not afraid to bring Jesus your Son into this world with your love and kindness, sympathy and empathy so we may be healed of so many brokenness and pains deep within.
Let us not be afraid to be humans again and realize we are not gods, that we cannot control everyone and everything in this world.
Let us be not afraid to be open to you and to others, especially the weak and needy because the truth is, we need you O God and one another.
Please, like St. Joseph, let us not be afraid to wake up to the realities of this life to follow you always in your Son Jesus Christ. Amen.
O blessed St. Joseph, Husband of Mary, pray for us!
Photo by author, site of St. Joseph’s shop in Nazareth beneath a chapel in his honor, May 2017.
Tuesday, Memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes, World Day of the Sick, 11 February 2020
Isaiah 66:10-14 ><)))*> 0 <*(((>< John 2:1-11
Photo of Our Lady of Lourdes in France by Arch. Philip Santiago, September 2018.
Praise and glory to you O God, our loving and merciful Father who has given us a wonderful and most kind mother in the Blessed Virgin Mary through Jesus Christ your Son.
Through Mary, your abundant blessings, O God, have flowed and continue to overflow upon us even with the completion of her mission here on earth as Mother of Jesus.
How true were your words to the Prophet Isaiah that you shall send Israel a mother who shall comfort us, a mother in whom you shall spread prosperity and blessings upon us (Isaiah 66:10-14).
When Mary came into the scene when she was conceived without original sin, through her came our Savior Jesus Christ. From the very start, she worked to be the vessel of your blessings, God.
On the third day there was a wedding in Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding. When the wine ran short, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” His mother said to the servers, “Do whatever he tells you.” Jesus told them, “Fill the jars wit water.”
John 2:1-3, 5, 7
How wonderful to recall and meditate on this first miracle of Jesus of turning water into wine at the wedding feast at Cana through the intercession of his Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary.
How lovely it is that more than 1800 years, another miracle would happen again from you, O God, at a grotto in Lourdes, France involving water through the Blessed Virgin Mary again!
Thank you dearest Jesus for the gift of water, the gift of life in you. Water is the primordial element of life, and water is also one of the primordial symbols of humanity. How amazing that since the miracle at Cana, your life continues to overflow upon us, Lord Jesus Christ, through Mary especially at Lourdes, France.
There are at Lourdes, Mary told the young St. Bernadette to dig on earth where water burst forth a spring, like life coming out of the womb of the earth. Until now, that spring is the origin and beginning of many healings and other miracles among generations of different peoples from all walks of life and nation, including to those who have not been there in Lourdes, France!
The waters of Lourdes remain a symbol of fruitfulness and of healing, of maternity in Mary who cares most to us and the sick next to Jesus our Lord and Savior..
Give us the grace, O God, the gift of purity, of cleanliness in our hearts so that we may become like Mary at Lourdes as a vessel of your healing and compassion especially for the sick of the world. Amen.
Photo of a cross of atop the church of Our Lady of Lourdes in France by Arch. Philip Santiago during his pilgrimage, September 2018.
Monday, Memorial of St. Blaise, Week 4, Year 2, 03 February 2020
2 Samuel 15:13-14, 30; 16:5-13 ><)))*> 0 <*(((>< Mark 5:1-20
From catholicnewsagency.com
Praise and glory to you, O God, our loving Father, for this beautiful first Monday of the cold and breezy month of February.
Today we pray for your mercy and healing, O Lord, as the dangers posed by the novel corona virus in the country become more real with the death yesterday of a patient afflicted with the dreaded virus.
As we celebrate the memorial of your great servant, St. Blaise, we pray most of all for a healing of our minds and hearts infected with so much sins for our lack of charity and concern for one another, especially our leaders in government.
We pray for the cleansing of our hearts that we may think more of others, especially those most weak and vulnerable among us like the poor and elderly.
Drive away the evil spirits within us especially of those who take advantage of the situation.
Most of all, stay with us, Lord Jesus Christ to guide us in proclaiming your good news of salvation like St. Blaise who immersed himself in prayers and charity. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe, Wednesday, Easter Octave, 24 April 2019
Acts 3:1-10///Luke 24:13-35
Road to Emmaus. From Google.
How interesting is Easter becoming, O Lord! Yesterday, Peter’s listeners were “cut to the heart” upon hearing your good news of salvation. Today, as you walked along with two disciples going to Emmaus feeling so sad with your death and news of missing body, you expressed great surprise at their being “slow of heart to believe”.
And he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are! How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them what referred to him in all the Scriptures.
Luke 24:25-27
So many times Lord, we are slow of heart to believe because we refuse to see the bigger picture in life when setbacks and failures can be staging points for greater growth and maturity. We choose to be mediocre and be contented with whatever is before us, refusing to strive and rise.
So many times Lord, we feel like that man crippled from birth at the Beautiful Gate of the temple contented in begging alms without realizing that negative things in our lives can enable us to receive the gift of life.
Like that crippled man from birth at the Beautiful Gate, let us seize every moment of meeting you, having you in our lives. Amen.
Healing of a Lame by Peter and John on a tapestry by Raphael at the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. Photo from Google.
Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 27 December 2018
Christmas is perhaps the toughest celebration we priests always have. More tiring and exhausting than the nine-day novena popularly known as “Simbang Gabi”, Christmas is the most emotionally challenging for us especially at this age of social media. I felt it so strong the other night as I tried catching up with Facebook. As I looked at everyone’s Christmas greeting with joyous photos of their families and friends, I felt some sense of bitterness within. The pain was more intense than all the Sunday evenings after Masses I have had as I sat at my desk with my laptop, literally stuck in my parish until New Year’s Day when I would be done with all my duties to finally visit my own family, especially my sick mother and some friends. How I wished I did not check on my Facebook that night! But then, I also remembered my homily that Christmas is about making a conscious decision to choose Jesus Christ. That there will always be darkness in life, people who would make life difficult for us but despite all these troubles, Christmas reminds us of our power to let God touch our hearts, to always create that room or space within us where Jesus could be born and dwell the whole year through. The late American scholar of the Church of the Latter-Day Saints Neal A. Maxwell said it right that “Each of us is an innkeeper who decides if there is room for Jesus” in our hearts.
Indeed, the best Christmas gift we can ever have is when we open and allow our hearts to be touched by God. Since 2011 when I arrived in this parish of the “beloved disciple”, the Lord has always revealed to me new and wonderful things not only about Christmas but about life itself. After seven years of laboring in love with so many hardships and sacrifices, I still consider it as a failure on my part to unite my parishioners. Majority of them refuse to cut the umbilical cord with the mother parish at the town proper or bayan where they prefer celebrating all the sacraments while others are simply divisive by nature, feeling a sense of superiority over the rest of us that they preferred celebrating Simbang Gabi and Christmas separate from the parish without realizing that the Holy Eucharist is the sacrament of unity. It is the most painful cut, the deepest I have had in my 20 years of priesthood to see some sheep going astray led by a shepherd filled with messianic complex. I have chosen to bear all these in silence, praying for them all as I opened my heart to Jesus to come and comfort me, eventually to heal me.
As I nursed those wounds within, Christmas Eve came when the four choirs of the parish serenaded us with some Christmas carols half an hour before our Midnight Mass. My eyes were in tears as I listened to their angelic voices and most especially when I saw the different choir members mostly from poor families with nothing else to offer the parish but their very selves and beautiful voices. Most moving were the poor children who came wearing simple clothes singing their hearts out for Jesus. I felt so blessed that there are people, even kids who love our parish so much, willing to support me their pastor with their very gift of presence. They never asked for anything during their practices, not even snacks though I tried providing them with some simple refreshments even meals when they practiced until supper time. I have learned from them that when Jesus Christ is preached and shared with the poor, they forget their poverty that they start to share everything they have including their very selves because they have felt that they are blessed and rich.
During our Mass on the eve of the feast of our Patron Saint John the Evangelist last night, our guest celebrant Fr. Efren Basco shared in his homily how God touched his heart last Christmas after Mass at a housing project for the poor where he met a mother who could only afford one new pair of socks for her two sons – that is, one new sock for just one of their two feet! And when Fr. Efren saw the two brothers, they even boasted to him their new socks paired with an old one! Though Christmas is a reality, it is always a choice we have to make for we can only do as much in this world but only God can touch hearts to change the world. Let God touch your hearts to feel His Son Jesus born in your hearts this Christmas and the whole year through. A blessed Christmas and joyous New Year to everyone! (Photos from Google.)
Lately Lord I have felt some intense feelings within me. You seem to be too far, even elusive, yet I feel so drawn to you. Is it love? Am I growing? Am I maturing?
Since Sunday all your words from the first reading to the gospel have all been directed to the end of time, to the fulfillment of everything as you have promised. I know deep in my heart it is easier said than done but that is how I feel – I am looking forward to it. No, I am not ready to die yet, Lord; you know how fearful I am of so many things.
But the more I pray and listen to your words, the more I discover you within me. Like John, I could taste the sweetness of your words in my mouth but once they get down deep within me, they turn sour, they upset my stomach. There are some inner stirrings within that invite me to listen attentively, intently, intensely to you within me.
What they are, at the moment, I do not know, Lord. They are disturbing but at the same time comforting. It is like Luke’s version of your cleansing of the temple that is more sober than the other evangelists’ narration of the same event. It is not so much of your anger but of the stirrings of your words that“all the people were hanging in your words” (Lk.19:48).
Continue to stir me within, O Lord Jesus, let me hang in your words too so I may be cleansed within, washed from my sins, healed of my pains and hurts that you may reign supreme 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 by Mr. Raffy Tima of GMA-7 News, Iceland, October 2018.
“God’s word is full of God’s presence. But the full power of the word lies, not in how we apply it to our lives after we have heard it, but in its transforming power that does its divine work as we listen… it is a word to heal us through, and in, our listening here and now.” (Fr. Henri Nouwen, “With Burning Hearts”, pp. 55, 57)
Photo by Dra. Mai B. Dela Pena, sunset in Athens, Greece 2016. Used with permission.
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