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.

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Christmas is Reclaiming Our Being Children

Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 28 December 2018

Christmas is always regarded as for children, of being like children. What a joy to always remember that God the Almighty chose to become human like us – who likes to always pretend being like Him and powerful – that the path to true greatness and power is in becoming small like an infant, being like a child. The late Cardinal Hans Urs von Balthasar claims in his last book shortly before he died in 1988 that the central mystery of Christianity is our “transformation from world-wise, self-sufficient ‘adults’ into abiding children of the Father of Jesus by the grace of the Holy Spirit. All else in the Gospel, from the Incarnation of the Lord to His hidden and public lives, His miracles and preaching, His Passion, Death and Resurrection has been for this, of becoming like a child” (Unless You Become Like This Child, Ignatius Press, 1991).

This probably explains why we adults as we mature and age, we mellow: we realize that we cannot simply control everything. That it is always best to act than to react in almost every situation in life. The gospel tells us today how King Herod reacted furiously after realizing the Magis have tricked him that he ordered the murder of every male child in Bethlehem below the age of two for fears of the “newborn king of Israel.” Herod lived in constant fears of being deposed in power that he also had three of his sons as well as some of his ten wives killed after suspecting them of trying to overthrow him. It is crazy but very true! We may not be like Herod with the way we react and deal with our many fears but have the same effects: death of friendships, death of love, death of everything, the end of life and adventure.

Fear is not totally negative; it has its good effects that have actually led mankind to every great progress in life like the discovery of new lands and territories, new medicines, new inventions and other things. Fear becomes a liability when it prevents us to trust more like little children. Kids and young people are often “positively” fearless because they trust so much that nobody would hurt them or that nobody would forsake them. As we age, our fears increase because our trust decreases: we fear so many things because we are afraid of losing the little we have, we are afraid of getting hurt, we are afraid of starting all over again. That’s the irony of life: we start fearing almost nothing that we grow so fast but as we age, we begin to fear everything that we stop growing and stop living. Christmas is a beautiful reminder to be children again like God the Son Jesus Christ who entrusted Himself to us, to care Him, to love Him, to protect Him, to keep Him. Let us reclaim that childhood again by casting away our fears so we can truly love faithfully and freely!

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Christmas: A Decision To Choose Jesus, Our Highest Good

The Lord Is My Chef Christmas Recipe 2018

My dearest readers,

A blessed Christmas to you all! Thank you very much in joining me in this journey with our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you very much for following and “liking” my blogs. It is my hope that somehow you have seen a glimpse of God’s majesty and kindness in my reflections. On this joyous day of Christmas, join me in simply praying to our Lord Jesus born on this day. Join me in reflecting some important things I have learned about Christmas.

These past nine days in our reflections, I have tried asking Jesus about any message for me and for you, my readers and my parishioners. As His birthday approached, I told Him some thoughts within me about Christmas although I am very sure those were not really mine but His also. That is prayer: conversing with God who has always been speaking to us. We simply respond to Him. And here is our prayer this Christmas…

A blessed happy birthday to you, Lord Jesus Christ! Thank you for the gift of the Holy Spirit in enabling me to start this prayer like Zechariah, giving praise and glory to you for “coming to us to save us and set us free” (Lk.1:68). As I prayed over the gospels for the three Masses of your birthday, there were some things that came to my mind that I wish to offer to you. Most likely, these must have actually come also from you.

First lesson I have realized this Christmas: there is always somebody trying to be a king or an emperor among us, even within us. There is always somebody wishing to unseat you, even claiming to be the Messiah or the Christ. That has always been the setting of your coming, Lord: “In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole world should be enrolled. This was the first enrollment, when Quirinius was governor of Syria. So all went to be enrolled, each to his own town” (Lk.2:1-3). Among those who followed that order were your parents who were poor with no choice but obey the Roman emperor who believed in himself to be a god, the savior of the world. Until now, Lord, there are people who act like emperors by coming out with all kinds of plans and dreams of grandeur, lording it over their people with many programs that benefit the poor and the needy but in reality are just feeding on their bloated egos and twisted minds. They are everywhere, not only in government but sadly even in the church when some priests and volunteers destroy the unity of the parish or the clergy with their liturgies and plans so everyone would come for you Jesus but actually for them. More sadly are these people found also in many families like the perfect father who feels he had never made any mistake in life or the manipulative mother who is convinced she knows everything; the monster brother or sister who always feels as sacrificing the most when in fact the one grabbing everything even the slightest attention. They are the “pa-bida” always feeling as the “vida” when in fact are the “contravida”, sowing divisions and animosities everywhere.

Give us the grace of humility, to always recognize you as the great and almighty God who chose to be born like a child to show us that the greatest power in the universe lies in being small like a child and not in being big. Remind us always that each of us is an inn keeper who must always make room for you in our hearts. Remind us always that we are your own, that you always come to us but sadly, many of us refuse to accept you as your beloved disciple John said, “He came to what was his own , but his own people did not accept him” (Jn.1:11). St. Luke noted that it was the first enrollment when you were born 2000 years ago, meaning, there were still others that subsequently followed that until now continues to this day with the many people claiming to be you the Messiah, acting like emperors. As we celebrate your birth today, keep us grateful to your coming and most of all for staying with us since then, give us the grace of Joseph and Mary to brave the long and dark journey to bring you forth in this world, truly the Son of God, the Savior of the world.

Second lesson you have taught me this Christmas Lord Jesus is the opposite of the first: there would always be those taken for granted, those ignored and rejected who are like the stone rejected by the builders who become the cornerstone of the building as you used to say in your preaching. Of course that is clearly you, Lord Jesus! But we thank you for making us share in your greatness. How brilliant is the wit and humor of St. Luke who said that all went to be enrolled only to reveal later in his narration that not entirely everyone. There were those unmindful of the census going on since the officials also did not care at all about them too like the shepherds who were among the poorest of the poor of that time. And the funny twist is that they got the best seats on your birth! Now there were shepherds in that region living in the fields and keeping the night watch over their flock. The angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were struck with great fear. The angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For today in the city of David a savior has been born for you who is Messiah and Lord.” And suddenly, there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests” (Lk.2:8-11,13-14).

What a beautiful story, Lord! Your birth echoes the song of your Mother Mary, her Magnificat where she proclaimed “He has shown the strength of his arm, and has scattered the proud in their conceit. He has cast down the mighty from their thrones and has lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent away empty” (Lk.1:51-53). Many people still don’t get it, Lord. First with you: in crucifying you on the Cross, you have changed entirely the course of human history. You who have been so ridiculed and put to shame with all the false accusations until now is the only person with the most influence in the world. The Church you have established has also gone through so many destabilization plots within and outside but still here, despite our many sins and weaknesses, and yes, amid our hypocrisies. And many of us today celebrating your birthday have just gone through so much beatings this year but now thankful before you because you have never forsaken us. And those fake gods and emperors? Trying to amuse themselves with more lies as they suffer being totally alone and empty within.

Lord Jesus Christ, it has been raining since two days ago and more rains are expected this week. Some, including me, feel your birthday today seems sad and gloomy. But as I prayed over the stories of St. Luke about the harsh conditions when you were born, I have learned that is what Christmas Day is for – a beacon of light to guide us in the many mountains and valleys, cliffs and ravines we travel in this journey of life. There would always be people who would make life difficult for us, conditions everywhere that are unfavorable to us but on this day of your birth, you are asking us to stand by you, to make that conscious decision to trust you that good things and better days are ahead of us. Christmas is about making that conscious decision to always have you, Lord Jesus Christ as our highest good in life. As our patron saint said, “From your fullness O Lord, we have all received , grace in place of grace” (Jn.1:16). AMEN. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan.

Photos from Google.

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Christ Comes in Silence

The Lord Is My Chef Simbang Gabi Recipe-4

19 December 2018

Judges 13:2-7, 24-25///Luke 1:5-25

Going to funeral wakes can sometimes be humorous especially when people ask me all kinds of questions that sometimes I wonder if I look like the Google page. One of the FAQ’s I always get is what is the most difficult part in the life of us priests? Many would always burst into laughter when I tell them that it is when our back gets itchy and we have no one to scratch it, telling them about the saying “ang hapdi matitiis pero ang kati ay hindi” (pains are bearable but not itch). This is very true that is why I keep three back scratchers made of wooden carved arm with a hand from Baguio in my room, one in the TV area, the second at my study desk and another at my bedside. But lately I have found another big problem of living alone as a priest when I never knew I had no voice until I celebrate the Mass in the morning! And how would I know that I do not have voice when I have nobody to talk to in my room or rectory when I wake up early morning except God who is always in silence? Sometimes it could be embarrassing and even funny but overall, it is no big deal with me. In fact, being silently alone in my parish is the most wonderful blessing I cherish so much in my priesthood.

But going back to our voice, it is one of our most valued possessions as priests or even of anyone. No wonder, the word “voice” itself connotes power in our language usage for to lose one’s voice is also to lose power and ability to lead. Without the voice, anyone’s ability to communicate is drastically impaired as you could no longer communicate effectively to express your thoughts and your feelings, you could no longer give advice and counsel to others on many things or teach anyone. In short, to lose one’s voice means never to be heard again. Today in our gospel we heard the first story by Luke about Christmas, the annunciation of the birth of John the Baptizer to his father Zechariah while he was serving as a priest at the Jerusalem Temple during its most important feast. An angel appeared to him to announce how God have heard his prayer and of his wife Elizabeth for a child but instead of being filled with joy with the good news from heaven, Zechariah doubted God.

Then Zechariah said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.” And the angel said to him in reply, “I am Gabriel, who stands before God. I was sent to speak to you and to announce to you this good news. But now you will be speechless and unable to talk until the day these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled at their proper time.” (Lk.1:18-20)

One of the rare commodities in the world today is perhaps silence. Everybody is talking, even cars and elevators and other machines. When we examine the bible and even our lives, we see that every communication by God is always preceded by silence. Before God created everything, Genesis tells us that there was silence first. The beloved disciple John opens his gospel by saying “In the beginning was the word” to show everything with God was in silence. Jesus Himself was born in the silence of the night at Bethlehem while the gospel accounts tell us nothing much about His childhood except when He was lost and found three days later at the Temple of Jerusalem. After that finding at the Temple, what we have are the hidden years of Christ when nothing is heard about Him or from Him for 30 years. And during His brief ministry of about three years, Jesus used to withdraw to the mountains or wilderness to pray in silence. Such is the importance of silence not only for our spiritual growth and maturity in Christ but according to experts, also for our total well being as persons.

In starting his Christmas story with Zechariah being forced by the angel to go into silence, Luke is teaching us the essential value of silence in preparing for Christmas. Luke described Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth coming from families of priests who must be used to speaking, to giving talks, explaining things to many people. It seems that with his advanced age, Zechariah must be of a significant stature among his peers. But now, he had been forced into silence by God so that he may have more time to examine things going on inside and in his life, more time for reflection and even for renewal. His wife Elizabeth appears to be more properly disposed in receiving the good news about the birth of John with her attitude of silence when she went into seclusion for five months saying, “So has the Lord done for me at a time when he has seen fit to take away my disgrace before others” (Lk.1:24-25). Similarly like her in the Old Testament was the wife of Manoah who remained silent when a man of God told her she would bear a son to be called Samson, “I did not ask him where he came from” (Jgs.3: 6).

Advent is the presence of God but sometimes when we are overburdened with so many things like anxieties and problems in life, frustrations and disappointments, sickness and death in the family, we become unaware of His divine presence even if we continue to pray and do our religious duties and devotions. Too often we lack the conscious awareness of God in our lives that we take Him for granted, considering Him more as a given than a presence and a reality. Like Zechariah who happens to be a priest who must be more attuned and rooted in God, we hardly notice His coming or even doubt Him and His powers. God is never put off by our questions but what “irritates” Him is when we question Him, when we doubt Him, when we ask about His character. That is a lack of faith in Him, a lack of trust, and lack of personal relationship and constant dialogue with Him like what St. Joseph had in our reflections yesterday. Remember, St. Joseph is the most silent person in the Bible.

Like the stories of pregnancies we have been hearing these past days, Advent is a call for us to moments of “gestational silence” that is deeper than losing one’s voice or being quiet. Gestational silence, or pregnant silence if you wish which is what gestation is all about, is withdrawing into ourselves not to escape but to finally face and listen more intently to the rumblings and sounds within us and around us, to listen more intently to God who is our only true voice in life. Like Zechariah in the gospel today, we could be so tired already of doing everything, banging our heads on the wall to solve everything, to answer everything. Let us force ourselves in these remaining days before Christmas to go into gestational silence to open ourselves to God speaking to us anew with His other other possibilities and new perspectives for us. After all, it is only God who is our only true voice in this life in Christ. AMEN. Fr.NicanorF.LalogII,Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, .Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan.

*Photo by Dra. Mai B. Dela Pena, sunset in Athens, Greece, 2016. Used with permission.

Advent is Walking and Dancing with God

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The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe-Prayer

Friday, 14 December 2018, Advent Week 2

Isaiah 48:17-19///Matthew 11:16-19

Thank you once again, loving Father, for the gift of another great saint for today who was a great mystic who guided us in so many ways of knowing you, seeing you clearly, and following you closely. What I like most with St. John of the Cross is your gift for him to perfectly blend poetry and prayer to express your highest truths: “El alma que anda en amor, ni cansa ni se cansa.” So beautiful! “The soul that walks in love, neither tires nor is tired.”

Let us walk in the love of your Son Jesus Christ to learn to follow “the way we should go” (Is. 48:17) so that like in today’s responsorial psalm, “we may have the light of life always.”

Most of all, as we learn to walk your path O Lord, let us rise to join your dance as you complained in today’s gospel, “We played the flute for you, but you did not dance” (Mt.11:17). Let us leave the sides to get in the middle of the floor and of the road, to walk and dance with you, celebrating life with your GUIDANCE, that is, God, U and I, DANCE for life. AMEN.Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II,Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria,Bulacan 3022.

Photos from Google. I have included the poster of one of my all time favorite movies that expresses my prayer today.

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Advent is God’s Tender Moment with Us

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe-Prayer

Thursday, 13 December 2018, Advent Week 2

Isaiah 41:13-20///Matthew 11:11-15

O my sweet loving Father in heaven…! Your words today through the Prophet Isaiah made me sing one of my favorite love songs by Billy Joel, “Leave a Tender Moment Alone”:

Even though I’m in love
Sometimes I get so afraid
I’ll say something so wrong
Just to have something to say

I know the moment isn’t right
To tell the girl a comical line
To keep the conversation light
I guess I’m just frightened out of my mind

But if that’s how I feel
Then it’s the best feeling I’ve even known
It’s undeniably real

Leave a tender moment alone

Of course, O sweet Lord my God! I did get it: you are trying to be extra sweet even so charming when you said “Fear not, I will help you. Fear not, O worm Jacob, O maggot Israel; I will help you, says the Lord; your redeemer is the Holy One of Israel” (Is.41:14). Yes, I get it when you called me a worm and a maggot, I do not feel insulted. You have actually tickled my bones, loving Father as you try to make some“lambing” as we say in Bulacan for you are oozing with so much TLC (tender loving care) for me. Like Billy Joel, you seem to say something so wrong just to have something to say because you love so much. And most of all, because you are asking me for some tender moment alone.

How true then are the words of your Son Jesus Christ that “among those born of women there has been none greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the Kingdom of heaven is greater than he” (Mt.11:11) for we have seen you, and heard you loving Father in Him. Above all, for we have been redeemed in Him!

Let me experience your intense presence by letting go of everything within me in deep prayer and silence, in giving you those “tender moments alone” to experience your person with conviction. 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, violets, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan, 12 December 2018.

Advent is the Comfort of God

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe-Prayer

Tuesday, 11 December 2018, Advent Week 2

Isaiah 40:1-11///Matthew 18:12-14

I can strongly feel your words today, God our loving Father: “Comfort, give comfort to my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her service is at an end, her guilt is expiated; indeed, she has received from the hand of the Lord double for all her sins.” (Is.40:1-2)

If there is one thing I long for today, Lord, one thing I strongly desire from you is comfort. I am so tired and exhausted. Nobody seem to care at all for your ways or for what is good except for what is self-serving. Deafening and maddening are the cacophony of so many voices shouting for what should be, insisting on everyone’s own idea of what is good that at the moment it is better to be silent in your presence.

Strengthen me, Almighty God, for that is what comfort is, “cum fortis” – with strength. Give me comfort to carry on, to strive, to be patient, to bear all pains in silence so that in due time as you shall will, I may rise to strike in your perfect time my enemies who try to divide your flock.

Like your Son our Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ, give me determination to seek the lost and the tenderness to carry them back on my shoulders to your fold. AMEN.Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II,Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria,Bulacan 3022.

*Photo by Jim Marpa, 2018. Used with permission.

LMC

Advent Is Time to Wake Up, to Rise and Walk in Christ

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe-Prayer

Monday, 10 December 2018, Advent Week 2

Isaiah 35:1-10///Luke 5:17-26

As morning breaks on this first working day of the second week of Advent, I echo O Lord Jesus the joyful words of the people of your time,“We have seen incredible things today.” (Lk.5:26)

It is so incredible Lord that in this season of Advent as I try to befriend my inner self in the spirit of prayer and silence, as I try to accept all of me, my worth and unworthiness, the more you are amazingly loving and kind to me. I feel both like the paralyzed and those men in the gospel today who broke the roof of the house where you were staying so they could lower before you their sick friend. And the first words that came from you were not about healing but forgiveness! Most of all, you have forgiven the sick man after you have seen the faith of the friends who have taken apart the roof of your house. What a way of creating a room for you, Lord Jesus!

Teach me to be daring like them in creating a space for you by taking apart the many sins and pretensions I use to cover myself. Help me to take apart the various insecurities where I hide myself that prevent me from meeting you, from welcoming you into my life. So many times, Jesus, you know how I just sleepwalk in my being a Christian when I think I am radically living as your disciple when in fact I am just dreaming, just sleeping.

Teach me to abandon myself to you Lord, to relinquish all false securities that the world offers me. Most of all, let me abandon those thoughts I have about you that are not so you at all, those ideas I have about God like the scribes and Pharisees who have usurped upon themselves the standards of what is holy and not, of what is right or wrong. Let me start living in your pasch, unafraid of being vulnerable and weak so I can rise and walk again, freed from sins and infirmities. AMEN.Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II,Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria,Bulacan 3022.

*Photo by Jim Marpa, 2018. Used with permission.

LMC

Advent Is Creating A Room for God In My Life

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The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe

Advent-2, Year C, 09 December 2018

Baruch 5:1-9//Philippians 1;4-6, 8-11//Luke 3:1-6

I must confess that I am also guilty of getting into the so-called “Christmas rush” that is totally empty of Jesus Christ. No, I am not a “shopaholic” but this early I am already so stressed out with my toxic schedules of activities for the coming Christmas. And that is when God in His amazing ways intervened by totally cutting me off from the “loop” to redirect me to the spirit of Advent that calls us to create a room for Christ’s coming. It started two weeks ago when our internet connection became erratic which we thought was just normal in our country so notorious for its dismal internet services. But when I could no longer connect with the internet for my work last Tuesday and Wednesday for my talks, classes and blogs, we called a technician to fix the bugs, only to be told that the problem is my nine year-old Sony Vaio that needs to be upgraded or totally replaced. My first reaction was to replace the technician but it was the first time I really felt to be out of the web that can be alienating and even debilitating. That was when I realized to pray more, to fast from social media and modern communications, hoping to find Jesus Christ anew in my additional periods of prayer and silence. It was also at that time when my Ninong and Ninang came from the US to celebrate their golden wedding anniversary at the church where they got married with me as the priest-presider. After the reception, they asked me to go with them to their hotel where they surprised me with a Christmas gift, a new laptop computer! See how God works in amazing ways if we give Him a room in our lives; my plan was to get a new computer next year but here is God sending me one from heaven right on my lap in the most perfect time.

“In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysania was tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the desert. John went throughout the whole region of the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins (Lk.3:1-3).”

Every time, every moment is a perfect time for God to come but, do we have a room for Him in our lives? Luke presents us today the setting of the first coming of Jesus Christ more than 2000 years ago. Times may have changed but the situation and feelings remain the same to this day when God comes to us right in the midst of our present situation, whether in our personal lives or in our political world or religious set up. There is always that voice in the wilderness calling us to repent and prepare His way, His coming. In the first Sunday of Advent last week, we reflected how this season of preparation is the presence of God which we can truly experience when we dare to open ourselves to Him in prayer and silence. On this Second Sunday of Advent, our readings deepen this reflection of finding the presence of God by having a room or space for Him in our hearts and in our lives.

According to the late American Neal A. Maxwell who was an Elder of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints, “Each of us is an innkeeper who decides if there is room for Jesus.” What a beautiful insight that is very true! We need to create a space and room in ourselves – more than just merely opening – to welcome Jesus Christ’s intense presence in our lives these days! With all hyperrevolution now happening in our midst due to modern means of communications that have greatly affected our lives, the more we need to experience Christ’s intense presence so that we are not only informed and formed but most of all transformed like during the time of John the Baptizer. Every year, the second and third Sundays of Advent are always about the preaching of John the Baptist which is essentially about the coming of Jesus Christ.

The key here is the intense presence of Jesus Christ not only in us but also in the world. The detailed reportorial by Luke of the setting of Christ’s coming over 2000 years ago suggests the integration of salvation history with secular history of all peoples. Christ has come and Christ will come again though Christ had never left us but remains with us in the present. We have just celebrated the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception that reminds us of God’s presence amid man’s absence. We become absent to God when we sin like Adam who hid from God after eating the forbidden fruit. We fail to meet and experience God in His power and grace when we are absent to Him as we prefer to spend more time with things of the world than of heaven. We become absent from God when we refuse to abandon our sinful ways or when we have stopped to hope for any change and salvation coming from God with whom nothing is impossible. This Sunday, let us intensify the presence of God by creating a room, creating a space in our hearts and in our lives where Jesus may dwell and reign to direct our lives like John the Baptizer who went to desert to fast and create a space in himself and in his life for Christ. It is impossible to meet God when we are so filled with things of the world and of ourselves. God has many plans for us in Jesus that He sent Him to us but He cannot do anything if we do not let Him into our lives. St. Paul tells us in the second reading that he is “confident” or sure that God will fulfill his promise that every man and woman shall see “the salvation of God” (Lk. 3:6). Let us continue to dare on this second Sunday of Advent to open ourselves to God by creating a room for Him in our hearts and in our lives and allow Him to take possession of us like what Baruch prophesied in the first reading when Jerusalem would eventually be liberated from its conquerors. Look back to your past and see how the Lord has done great things for you; trust Him, hope in Him always for He has come, He shall come and He is come. AMEN. Fr.Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, .Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan

*Photo by Jim Marpa, St. James the Greater Parish, Solsona, Ilocos Norte, 17 July 2018. Used with permission.

LMC

Presence of God, Absence of Man

murilloImmCon

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe-Prayer

Saturday, 08 December 2018

Solemnity of Immaculate Conception

Genesis 3:9-15, 20//Ephesians 1:3-6, 11-12//Luke 1:26-38

God our Father, on this most joyous Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, I join St. Paul in praying, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens.” (Eph. 1:3)

Praise and thanksgiving to you our Father in heaven who has always been present among us, never leaving our side and in fact went out to seek us since the fall of Adam: After the man, Adam, had eaten of the tree, the Lord God called to the man and asked him, “Where are you?” (Gen.3:9)

Since that day, we have always been hiding from you, running away from you that the gap had widen so much that you have to send us your Son Jesus Christ to be born like us, become like us except in sin so we may be one with you again.

Yes, O God, we have always been absent from you when you are always present with us and in us though we always refuse to recognize you. In your infinite wisdom and in all eternity, you chose Mary to be immaculately conceived so she may be the worthy vessel of your Son Jesus Christ.

Give us the same grace of Mary to be always present in you, present for you and your will. Give us the courage to say “be it done unto me according to your word” (Lk.1:38) so that we may become your presence too. Give us that emptiness of Mary, of always having a room in our hearts for the Holy Spirit to come upon us and overshadow us with your power to become your presence in this world now so empty of values and meaning, so full of pride and sin and hatred.

Dwell upon us O Lord and fill us with your grace. AMEN.Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II,Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria,Bulacan 3022.