Prelude to leaving into living

Quiet Storm by Fr. Nick F. Lalog II, 31 October 2019

As the penultimate month of the year, November for me is something like Thursday – so relaxed when people seem to slow down in anticipation of the coming end of the year or week. It acts like a cushion to prepare us for the “stress” of December or Friday. Or, a prelude to leaving, then living.

Cold winds from Siberia we call amihan intensify during this month while autumn is about to end in the western hemisphere. The climate contributes greatly to this laid-back feeling in November almost everywhere, maybe except Down Under where I haven’t been to.

Like autumn’s falling leaves, November is marked with three festivals associated with the dead to signal life and eternity.

On its first day, we celebrate All Saints’ Day in recognition of all the departed souls – including our beloved, of course! -now in heaven considered as “saints” aside from those canonized by the Church.

Day after tomorrow, November 2, we celebrate All Souls’ Day to pray for all those departed, especially our loved ones who are still awaiting entrance into heaven in Purgatory.

Then, on November 11, we celebrate St. Martin of Tours’ feast with a “Martinmas” in the old calendar of the Church after which Advent began for the Christmas countdown. Winter also starts in Europe and North America after the Martinmas immortalised in some poems and literature of the 18th and 19th centuries.

Incidentally, St. Martin of Tours (France) used to be a major saint in Europe because he is one of those first saints recognised by the Church as holy people who have died not as martyrs when persecution finally stopped and Christendom started to rise and “flex” her influence.

Today, November 11 is celebrated as “Remembrance Day” in Europe along with the Commonwealth nations of Britain and “Veterans Day” in the United States in honor of those who have died in the line of duty during the First World War that ended at the “eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of the year” in 1918. Red poppies take the centerstage on this day to signify the blood offered by the fallen soldiers in that first world war, something very similar to the Christian thinker Tertullian’s assertion that “the blood of the martyrs are the seeds of the Church.”

So many deaths, but so many lives too!

And that is why we celebrate these feasts, whether in the Church or in our civil society.

This is the tragedy of our time when despite all the technological advances and affluence we now have, the more we have been saddled with fear and pains of death and dying.

Focus is more on death as a solution, as an end.

Or, as an entertainment like the pagans in ancient Rome’s Colesseum and of many benighted Christians today celebrating spooky Halloween that underscores the debunked dark side of death.

Photo by Lorenzo Atienza, Malolos Cathedral, 12 June 2019.

In the Old Testament, death was a curse to man’s sins but with Christ’s Passion, Death, and Resurrection, death has become a blessing because he has made it our passing too into eternal life.

No, there is no gap between this life and life-after. It is a continuum where death is just a prelude to eternity.

November is a wonderful reminder to us all of this truth we seem to have forgotten these days when all we see and even seek is darkness and death.

November is like a door opening us towards the end of the year that leads us to new year. The weather is so lovely, not so cold and not so hot, perfectly reminding of the beauty of life and reality of death that invites us to live fully and authentically.

This long weekend, I strongly recommend you read Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s second encyclical, Spe Salvi that speaks a lot about the beauty of this life and life-after. His reflections are simple yet so profound and so touching like the following.

“Man’s great, true hope which he holds firm in spite of all disappointments can only be God… Life in its true sense is not something we have exclusively in or from ourselves: it is a relationship. And life in its totality is a relationship with him who is the source of life. If we are in relation with him who does not die, who is Life itself and Love itself, then we are in life. Then we “live”.
Spe Salvi, number 27.

One of the beautiful movies I have seen while on vacation in November-December 2005 at the US East Coast was “The Last Samurai” starring Tom Cruise who was asked by the boy Emperor of Japan at the end, “Tell me, how did my samurai die?” Tom Cruise replied, “I shall not tell you how your samurai died but how he lived!”

Live life, share life, enjoy life in God and with others!

Ang paboritong birtud ng Diyos

Lawiswis ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Ika-29 ng Oktubre 2019

Tula na aking hinalaw sa “The Portal of the Mystery of Hope” ng makatang Pranses na si Charles Peguy (pe-gi). Bagamat hindi siya debotong Katoliko, nang maglaon malaki ang naging impluwensiya sa kanya ng Katolisismo hanggang sa siya ay mamatay noong 1914 sa Villeroy, France.

Sa tatlong pangunahing birtud nating taglay
mula sa Kanyang mapagpalang kamay 
sinabi ng Diyos:  "Pag-Asa ang aking pinaka-paborito"
sapagkat ito lamang aniya ang "nakasosorpresa" sa kanya.

Paliwanag ng Diyos, 
hindi siya nasosorpresa sa Pananampalataya
dahil sa kanyang kaningningang taglay
aba'y bulag at manhid lamang ang sa Kanya'y hindi magkamalay!

Hindi rin Siya aniya nasosorpresa sa Pag-ibig 
sapagkat maliban na lamang kung sing-tigas ng bato
ang puso ng tao at hindi pa sila magmamahalan 
sila na aniya pinaka-aba at kaawa-awa sa lahat ng kanyang nilalang.

Ngunit itong Pag-Asa ay kakaiba
Diyos ay laging nasosorpresa
dito nakikita kapangyarihan ng kanyang grasya
para mga tao ay umasa pa kahit wala nang nakikita!

Alalahanin sulat ni Apostol San Pablo 
sa mga taga-Roma:  "ang pag-asa ay hindi pag-asa 
kapag nakikita na ang inaasahan.
Sapagkat sino ang aasa sa nakikita na?"

Kakaiba sa pagiging positibo ang Pag-Asa
dahil nakabatay ito sa mga nakikitang palatandaan
o mga senyales upang mahulaan at matanawan
tinatantiyang kalalabasan ng isang inaasam.

Optimistic ang tao na umaasa gaganda panahon
o iigi sitwasyon batay sa mga indikasyon na kanyang nakikita;
ngunit ang taong umaasa batid niya mas lalala pa
mga bagay at sitwasyon, mas malamang hindi na iigi pa.

Ito ang kaibahan at kaibayuhan
nitong Pag-Asa na kahit talo na 
at wala nang nakikita
kumpiyansa sa Diyos ay di nawawala.

Sa ating panahon ng social media
kung saan ang lahat ay nakikita at ipinakikita,
kitang-kita pa rin ang katotohanang
mga dakilang bagay sa buhay ay mula sa mga hindi nakikita.

Iyan ang nakasosorpresa sa Pag-Asa,
kahit wala ka nang nakikita
kitang-kita  Kita pa rin Panginoon namin
kaya aking hiling ako'y lagi mong sorpresahin!

Hope surprises

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Tuesday, Week XXX, Year I, 29 October 2019

Romans 8:18-25 ><)))> ><)))> ><)))> Luke 13:18-21*

But hope, says God, that is something that surprises me…
And my grace must indeed be an incredible force.
Charles Peguy, “The Portal of the Mystery of Hope”

Whenever I come across the word “hope”, O Lord, I always remember this lovely poem by your faithful writer Charles Peguy (1873-1914) of France.

And I agree with Peguy, hope is your favorite virtue because it always surprises you and everybody else!

Again Jesus said, “To what shall I compare the kingdom of God? It is like the yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of wheat flour until the whole batch of dough is leavened.”
Luke 13:20-21

Hope surprises us, Lord, because it is often so small, almost negligible for some.

And that is how you work, how your wonders perform, Lord.

Hope is not positive thinking because hope is still believing in you even if things do not get any better at all. In fact, things can get worst and that is when hope surprises us!

St. Paul said it so well.

For in hope we were saved. Now hope that sees for itself is not hope. For who hopes for what one sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait with endurance.
Romans 8:24-25

In positive thinking, we hold on to at least something tangible, something we can see and feel clearly like the weather or the stock market.

But in hope, we only have you, Lord, whom we cannot see but can simply feel, believe and rely on that we hope would always remain and be still with us til the end.

In this world when size always matters, when everything has to be bigger and biggest, what remains true is the fact that no matter how big or great is anything, it surely came from a minute, little something.

Like the yeast that has become a wonderful bread or any baker’s creation.

Nobody had seen how it would turn out except that hope in one’s heart and mind that teases us with something big and wonderful and surprising.

Please surprise us today, Lord and let us live differently in you! Amen.

Suffer Like Children

grayscale photography of child in spaghetti strap top — Photo by Kevin Fai on Pexels.com

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Tuesday, 26 February 2019, Week VII, Year I

Sirach 2:1-11///Mark 9:30-37

Dearest Lord Jesus Christ:

Last Wednesday evening I visited to anoint with oil one of your beloved poor patients in the government hospital. She died eventually two days after.

But what remained etched in my memory was the sight of some children crying in pain at the emergency room.

I have always wondered how difficult it must be for children to be sick when they cannot speak of what they feel that they simply cry and hold on to their mother and maybe trust her and the doctors attending.

“Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but the One who sent me” (Mk.9:37).

Give me O Lord that same grace of children to suffer and bear all pains.

Teach me O Lord “to trust God and wait for His mercy, hope in Him and love in Him so my heart may be enlightened” (Sir.2:6-9). Amen.

Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan.

When Everything Seemed Lost

neptuneuranus plutosampaloc — Neptune, Uranus, and Pluto visible to the naked eye at dawn for those willing to go through the darkness of the night. Photo by GMA-7’s Mr. Raffy Tima at Sampaloc Cove in Subic, Zambales, 20 January 2019. Used with permission.

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Monday, 04 February 2019, Week IV, Year I

Hebrews 11:32-40///Mark 5:1-20

Thank you very much Lord God Almighty for this beautiful Monday. So often, we get the blues on Mondays and yet even if our days get bluer, even darker than ever, there is always that glimmer of hope that you give us, O Lord.

Like the author of the Letter to the Hebrews today, we recall not only the heroes of Old Testament but our very own trying moments too when we chose to bear all the pain and hurts and sufferings because we believe in you, we trust in you.

Thank you very much O Lord God Almighty in sending us your son Jesus Christ at the nick of time when everything is out of control, when everything seemed to be dead… as if there is no more way out because it is all over as it seemed to be. It is something very close with that scene at the Gerasenes where “a man had been dwelling among the tombs, and no one could restrain him any longer, even with a chain. In fact, he had frequently been bound with shackles and chains, but the chains had been pulled apart by him and the shackles smashed, and no one was strong enough to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and on the hillsides he was always crying out and bruising himself with stones” (Mk.5:3- 5).

O Lord, you know how many times we have gone through such situations when we felt a no way out, imprisoned and possessed by sin and evil, sickness and disease, so many problems and difficult situations when all we can do is hide in tombs and cry at night!

Teach us today to always wait for that flicker of hope in Christ our light of salvation. Most of all, teach us to value life over sickness and death, persons over possessions, and above everything else, Jesus Christ our Lord and God. Amen. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan.

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

When Despair and Hope Come Together

LordMyChef “T-G-I-F” Quote, 05 October 2018:

“No loss can be mourned without some intuition that we will find new life… That’s how we generally approach the Eucharist. With a strange mixture of despair and hope. As we listen carefully to the deeper voices in our heart we realize that beneath our skepticism and cynicism there is a yearning for love, unity and communion that doesn’t go away even when there remain so many arguments to dismiss it as sentimental childhood memories.”

Henri Nouwen, “With Burning Hearts”, pp. 39-41.

DSCF0808

Photo by Fr. Nick F. Lalog II, Chapel of St. Jerome, Bethlehem, 18 April 2017.