Tag: Lady of Mt. Carmel

Simplicity of God. And Mary.

Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul, 16 July 2025
Wednesday, Memorial of Our Lady of Mount Carmel
Exodus 3:13-20     ><}}}*> + ><}}}*> + ><}}}*>     Matthew 11:25-27
Photo by author, Sonnenberg Mountain View, Davao del Sur, August 2018.
Today, O Lord
your words bring us 
to the mountain
as we celebrate too
the Memorial of Our Lady of
Mount Carmel; 
in the first reading you 
brought Moses to your
mountain in Horeb to see you in the 
burning bush while the
Memorial of our Blessed Mother
today reminds us of the early monks 
who banded together 
to pray at Mount Carmel.

When the Lord saw him coming over to look at it more closely, God called out to him from the bush, “Moses! Moses!” He answered, “Here I am.” “Come, now! I will send you you to Pharaoh to lead my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and lead the children of Israel out of Egypt?” He answered, “I will be with you; and this shall be your proof that it is I who have sent you: when you bring my people out of ??Egypt, you will worship God on this very mountain” (Exodus 3:4-5, 10-12).

How lovely 
was your conversation, Lord
with Moses,
so similar with our
conversations when we would
readily answer your call
with the declaration
"Here I am" that suddenly
when you hand us our mission,
we balk and question you,
"Who am I that I should go
to Pharaoh?"
Many times
we are like Moses -
while showing humility 
with some fears in our quick response
to your call,
we suddenly doubt ourselves
upon learning the mission you
entrust us with whereas you
simply assure us of your presence,
of being our companion
with your simple statement
"I will be with you."
Such is your simplicity, Lord.
Teach us to be like Mary
your Mother, dear Jesus Christ,
simple and childlike
filled with humility,
always open to God and
his plans; after all, you call us
first of all for a relationship
with you not with a task to be
achieved.
May the Brown Scapular 
given by Mary to St. Simon Stock
be a reminder of our relationship 
with God in Christ with Mary;
always open to his will but most
of all faithful and obedient to his call
of communion and oneness. Amen.

Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Our Lady of Fatima University
Valenzuela City
From traditionallaycarmelites.com

Holding on to God

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Thursday, Memorial of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, 16 July 2020
Isaiah 26:7-9, 11, 16-19 >><)))*> + <*(((><< Matthew 11:28-30
Photo by author, Our Lady of Mt. Carmel of the Holy Family, Guiguinto, Bulacan, 08 December 2019.

Your words today, O God our Father, are very comforting and consoling, so reassuring of your love and mercy for us sinners, giving us new life in you as we celebrate the memorial of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

Like the Israelites living in exile because of their own making when they turned away from you in sins worshiping false gods, we also admit our sinfulness and failures in standing up for what is true and just, in being faithful to you.

Help us to rise again, heavenly Father, breathe into us your life-giving Spirit specially at this time we feel so down and crushed not only by COVID-19 pandemic but by public officials concerned only with their well-being and whims forgetting the people they are supposed to serve.

We conceived and writhed in pain, giving birth to wind. Salvation we have not achieved for the earth, the inhabitants of the world cannot bring it forth. But your dead shall live, their corpses shall rise; awake and sing, you who lie in the dust. For your dew is a dew of light, and the land of shades gives birth.

Isaiah 26:18-19

If there is anything we would want to have these days, it is rest, O Lord.

A lightening of our load and burdens.

But why another yoke, Jesus?

Forgive us Jesus when we feel negative with yoke because they always portray to us images of slavery and oppression. Open our eyes, Lord, as we come closer to you to take your yoke because you not only help us carry our burdens but most of all, your yoke gives us direction in our path back to the Father.

May your Blessed Mother of Mount Carmel help us to hold on to God in this hour of darkness in our lives as individuals and as a nation. Amen.

Photo by author, Our Lady of Mount Carmel of the Holy Family, Guiguinto, Bulacan, November 2019.