Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Thursday, Twenty-Seventh Week in Ordinary Time, Year II, 08 October 2026 Galatians 3:1-5 ><))))*> + ><))))*> + ><))))*> Luke 11:5-13
Photo by Mr. Raffy Tima, GMA News, Batanes, October 2018.
Your words today, O Lord through St. Paul speak directly to us in this time too:
O stupid Galatians! Who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus was publicly portrayed as crucified? (Galatians 3:1)
O how we your people hate to hear those words these days because they are hurtfully true - it is plain stupidity on our part to abandon all your teachings to adopt all these strange ideas about life that overstretch our rights without any regard to what is true and good; to insist that only matter matters without accepting the fact that the most profound realities in life are those felt than seen; and, to believe more in ourselves than in you, Lord Jesus Christ.
We have been so bewitched, enthralled, and amazed by new ideas and beliefs that are clearly self-serving and untrue, "budol" or fake in every sense, totally forgetting how you have never left nor abandon us all these years through thick and thin, doing only what is best and good for us only to follow the fascinating special effects of those trash peddled in social media, fabricated by AI.
Awaken us, dear Jesus to the realities of your loving presence in us, in our lives, to follow our hearts where we find peace and joy despite pains and sacrifices than follow our flesh and whims of pleasures and convenience so temporary, ephemeral, most of all superficial; ignite our hearts to seek and follow you in a life of prayer that changes primarily us, not the situations. Amen.
Photo by a friend at Seabrook, Washington, 06 September 2026.
Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 06 October 2026
While preparing my homily yesterday for the second day of the novena in honor of the 109th apparition of the Blessed Virgin in Fatima, Portugal, I came across this interesting piece of information in my Facebook feeds about the two American space probes, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 having “left” our solar system and now the farthest man-made objects from planet Earth.
According to NASA, Voyager 1 had covered about 25.6 billion kilometers as of August 2026 since its launch September 5, 1977 – that’s 49 years and two months ago!
Its travel speed is expected to slow down due to some intergalactic forces which would take time for me to understand and explain; nonetheless, NASA engineers say it would continue sending data from deep space to planet Earth until 2036.
From NASA.gov.
Meanwhile, also found this report yesterday that scientists have detected for the first time a radio signal from an “exoplanet” – a planet outside our Solar System; however, it is not from an intelligent life or some alien but from “a colossal magnetic field”.
These are very interesting bits of information from space science that show us how far we have advanced technologically. You could just imagine where our latest technologies would bring us! Fact is, all these techs and gadgets we now enjoy were science fiction to us when we were growing up like phones capable of sending videos anywhere, anytime.
From Facebook, 05 October 2026.
What I like most in these developments is that great wonder of how vast is this universe indeed – so unimaginable. The more they prove to us the existence of an all-knowing, all-powerful God. Here we find science actually corroborating the truth that the Bible has been telling us of who made the heavens above us.
And the good news is, in this vast universe, our God is not only omniscient and omnipotent but most of all, all-loving God who chose to love and care for us earthlings in this tiny planet called Earth.
In an apparent conspiracy by the universe in my favor as I prepared my homily yesterday for the Fatima novena, my laptop suddenly alerted me after lunch of a new article on space travel but this time from a spiritual writer I follow at WordPress.com called The Devotional Guy by Rainer Bantau!
As I read Rainer’s thoughts on the relationships of faith and science fiction, what caught my attention was this part of his blog, of how would you explain Christianity to an alien?
What happens when someone encounters Christianity who has absolutely no Christian context?
Imagine trying to explain the Gospel to someone who looks at you and says:
“Wait. You believe the Creator of the universe became one of His creatures?”
Suddenly, Christianity sounds pretty astonishing again. We’ve heard the story so many times that we forget how completely outrageous and beautiful it actually is.
When humanity rebels against the God who created it, God doesn’t walk away. Instead, He enters our world.
Love takes on flesh as grace meets us in our mess. Just as death appears to win, Jesus walks out of the grave.
Photo by a friend at Seabrook, Washington, 06 September 2026.
Let us read anew these words by The Devotional Guy: “When humanity rebels against the God who created it, God doesn’t walk away. Instead, He enters our world. Love takes on flesh as grace meets us in our mess. Just as death appears to win, Jesus walks out of the grave. That’s not small. It’s cosmic.”
So lovely! But, sadly too, considering the great amounts of money and time and talents humans have spent sending people and objects into space to detect life forms outside our planet, we still ask the same question of the scribe to Jesus, “who is my neighbor?”
There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test Jesus and said, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “What is written in the law? How do you read it?” He said in reply, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” He replied to him, “You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.” But because he wished to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied, “A man fell victim to robbers as he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho” (Luke 10:25-30).
How sad that while we are awed by the vastness of the universe that envelop us whether at night or at daytime, here we are separated by an equally great space often with those supposed to be closest to us like family and friends and colleagues at home or anywhere.
Photo by Mr. Chester Ocampo, 2019.
As a chaplain giving recollections and talks to our students, I have seen many young people today are over thinkers but not critical thinkers.
I remind them that critical thinking is about comprehension and analysis of data and information gathered.
Over thinking is different. It is a vice when we worry a lot – over think – because we lack trust with others and with ourselves. And ultimately with God!
The scholar of the law was overthinking when he asked “who is my neighbor?” because for them at that time, their neighbors were just their fellow Jews. Until now we think the same way, putting people into categories like ice cream with the old rich and famous as “all-time favorites”, the popular as “flavor of the month” and the ordinary folks as “dirty ice cream” cheaply sold in carts.
Over thinking happens when we forget to feel more the other person, when we feel different from them instead of being same kin from which the word kind came from. A kind person is one who treats you as one of his kin, and kind.
From forbes.com, 2019.
St. Therese of the Child Jesus whose feast we celebrated recently wrote in her journal more than a hundred years ago, “I have understood that true greatness is found not in the name but in the soul.”
If we look more into our heart, into our soul, we find Jesus, we find our true self, and we find everyone our neighbor to be loved and respected, cared and understood.
Twenty years ago there was a popular TV series called The X-Files of two good looking detectives handling cases of paranormal of paranormal nature like aliens and other out-of-this-world things. Its famous line says “The truth is out there.”
Nope. The truth is not out there. It is right here inside our heart, always longing for the ultimate truth that leads to eternal life, beyond this vast universe.
That truth is a person, our Savior Jesus Christ dwelling in our hearts, leading us back to heaven by first being a neighbor to everyone. After all, greater than the stars we marvel above us, we are a universe in ourselves, a vast network of interrelated galaxies of immense beauty so closely within our reach. Amen.
Photo by author, St. Michael Retreat House, Antipolo city, 21 July 2026.
Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Tuesday, Twenty-Seventh Week in Ordinary Time, Year II Memorial of St. Bruno, Priest, 06 October 2026 Galatians 1:13-24 ><}}}}*> + ><}}}}*> + ><}}}}*> Luke 10:38-42
Photo by Ms. Kei Abad in Kyoto, Japan, October 2025.
Welcome, Lord Jesus.
Welcome and thank you, Jesus, for coming to us, for visiting us even if we are always "out" so busy with our many tasks we feel so important even when you come to visit us; forgive us Jesus when we are like Martha welcoming you into our home, into ourselves but so occupied with ourselves too.
Teach us to be like Mary, Martha's sister, truly hospitable to you welcoming you by sitting at your feet - that is, getting down to pray to truly meet you, to truly experience you, to truly listen to you.
Like Mary, may we learn to get down to your feet, Jesus, by setting aside my plans and agenda to give way to your plans for me; most of all, may we learn to get down too like Mary to truly welcome and relate others we meet whom you use to come to us.
Like St. Paul in the first reading when he narrated how you found him and eventually he searched and followed you first before eventually turning to the apostles and first disciples; that is true hospitality - welcoming you first in our lives in prayers, in silence like St. Bruno and his followers the Carthusians who sought to "seek God assiduously, to find God promptly, and to possess God fully." Amen.
As we have been saying since we started this blog in June 2018, we have always wished to show how God continues to speak to us in this modern time through secular music by linking our Sunday gospel with every genre like rock and jazz, punk and disco, R&B and even OPM (Original Pilipino Music).
And there have been many instances in the music scene when artists were actually inspired by the Sacred Scriptures in their composition like Seeger we have featured last week.
This Sunday, we go back to year 1976 with The Isley Brothers’ Harvest for the World whose title was a complete take from Matthew’s gospel.
In an interview published six years ago in The Guardian by Dave Simpson, composer Ernie Isley said he had just bought a new 12-string acoustic guitar and was trying it out in their basement in New Jersey in 1976 when words simply flowed that became the song’s first stanza:
All babies together, everyone a seed Half of us are satisfied, half of us in need Love's bountiful in us, tarnished by our greed When will there be a harvest for the world
Ernie was still playing the song in his new guitar when his brother Marvin who played bass came to their basement with their brother-in-law and keyboardist Chris Jasper; they were so impressed with Ernie’s music and later they were joined by their other brothers O’Kelly Jr., Rudolph and Ronald who all contributed lyrics and additional musical arrangements to finally complete Harvest for the World.
According to Ernie, they were largely inspired by the news they have witnessed at that time, from the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy to the growing protest movements following Nixon’s resignation in 1974 due to the Watergate Scandal and the end of Vietnam War in 1975 with the Fall of Saigon.
For the title, they remembered Matthew’s gospel scene of Jesus telling his disciples upon seeing the vast crowd that have followed them, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest” (Mt. 9:37-38).
They first released the song as a single in May 1976 and later became the title track of their album Harvest for the World that same year that reaped a lot of harvest for The Isley Brothers, peaking the top ten songs in the Billboard and UK charts that year. It became one of the most memorable music of that era that continues to be covered until now by new artists, including our very own Gary V.
For our part, we have chosen Harvest for the World because of its close links with today’s gospel on the parable of the wicked tenants who have refused to give the owner’s share of the harvest of grapes in his vineyard (https://lordmychef.com/2026/10/03/chosen-to-be-fruitful/).
Both the song and the gospel speak of too much greed among us, not realizing we are indeed the Lord’s vineyard.
Our very life itself is actually not ours to possess and own completely in total disregard of others and of God.
The same is true with our beloved planet Earth: it is the Lord’s vineyard and no one, whether individuals or governments can lay total claim for its land and other resources meant by God for everyone. Here we find its lyrics very prophetic and relevant until now:
A nation planted, so concerned with gain As the seasons come and go, greater grows the pain And far too many feelin' the strain When will there be a harvest for the world
We were in elementary school, perhaps in grade five or six when we first heard Harvest for the World; the song is unforgettable for me because I felt so fortunate to have found its lyrics in one of the very few issues of JINGLE magazine I have bought at that time – just four maybe – because it was so expensive. But, the first time I heard it on radio, I instantly loved it for its music so suave and cool; beat is so inviting especially with the claps in the background. A classic indeed of a gone era of great poetry and philosophy in music.
Before listening to this beautiful music that is truly a gospel too in our time, we quote Ernie from that interview six years ago by The Guardian’s Simpson which we find so fitting in closing this piece:
Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Thursday, Twenty-Fifth Week in Ordinary Time, Year II, 24 September 2026 Ecclesiastes 1:2-11 ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> Luke 9:7-9
Photo by Ms. Jo Villafuerte, Atok, Benguet, 01 September 2019.
Your words today,
O Lord our God,
both in the first reading
from Ecclesiastes and
the gospel remind me of
Bob Dylan's 1963 song
"Blowin' in the Wind" -
that all these problems
we are facing like wars
and social inequalities
stem from our failure and
refusal to open our eyes
to see the most obvious
things that are just
blowin' in the wind.
How many roads must a man walk down Before you call him a man? How many seas must a white dove sail Before she sleeps in the sand? Yes, and how many times must the cannonballs fly Before they’re forever banned?
The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind The answer is blowin’ in the wind
Photo by Ms. Jo Villafuerte, Atok, Benguet, 01 September 2019.
Thousands of years
before Bob Dylan came,
there was Qoheleth
telling us,
"Vanity of vanities...
All things are vanity!"
Like the wind,
"Blowing now toward
the south, then toward
the north, the wind turns
again and again,
resuming its rounds"
(Ecclesiastes 1:2, 6).
We simply had to feel what everyone is feeling to be kind, a "kin" to everyone but we are so vain thinking only of our very selves that we can't feel the blowin' of the wind to see you in everyone.
Yes, and how many years must a mountain exist Before it is washed to the sea? Yes, and how many years can some people exist Before they’re allowed to be free? Yes, and how many times can a man turn his head And pretend that he just doesn’t see?
The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind The answer is blowin’ in the wind
Photo by author, Mt. St. Paul Spiritual Center, La Trinidad, Benguet, 07 January 2025.
Two thousand years ago
your Son our Savior
Jesus came to reveal
you to us, Father,
suffering, dying and rising
from the dead but still,
many refused to recognize him,
preferring to be like Herod Antipas
who ordered John the Baptist killed
but when he heard about the Christ,
"And he kept trying to see him"
(Luke 9:9) when he eventually met
and spoke with briefly but never "saw"
at all.
And that is vanity,
O Lord:
when we keep on searching,
wanting to see someone,
something so obviously present
among; open our eyes,
our hearts,
let us not be vain
in order to see what is obvious
we are so oblivious
in finding you on the face
of everyone we meet
no matter what his/her color
and belief and background in life.
Open our very selves to find
you Lord on everyone's face,
to hear the cries and pleas
of those suffering and
disadvantaged, the weakest
like the sick and dying,
the youngest and oldest.
Amen.
Yes, and how many times must a man look up Before he can see the sky? Yes, and how many ears must one man have Before he can hear people cry? Yes, and how many deaths will it take ’til he knows That too many people have died?
The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind The answer is blowin’ in the wind
Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Wednesday, Twenty-Fourth Week in Ordinary Time, 16 September 2026 Memorial of Sts. Cornelius, Pope, and Cyprian, Bishop, Martyrs 1 Corinthians 12:31-13:13 <*((((>< + ><))))*> Luke 7:31-35
Photo by a friend in Seabrook, Washington, 06 September 2026.
Love never fails. In other translations, love never ends.
How lovely, Lord Jesus; and so challenging because many times I think of at least an end to "loving" like when Peter asked you last Sunday "how many times must I forgive my brother who sins to me... is it seven times?"
When you said it is "seventy times seven" - that is clearly what love that never fails.
As I pray to you, I realized every age, every generation in history always thinks itself as the worst, almost hopeless like during this time in our lives not only in the world but in our own country: everything is chaos and disordered, injustice and corruption are the norms followed ironically in this predominantly Christian nation where money not only talks but even shouts.
But, here we are still Jesus: alive and kicking, fighting and surviving, eagerly awaiting our new dawn of salvation in you, Jesus; grant me patience and perseverance to keep loving especially when it seems to be no longer feasible and even not doable; like Sts. Cornelius and Cyprian during their time, it was not persecution per se that was the problem but divisions among early Christians especially in the refusal of some in forgiving and readmitting apostates to to the faith; dear Jesus, teach us to be flexible, more loving than legalistic like your former Pope St. Cornelius and his friend St. Cyprian the bishop who both insisted those who denied their faith while facing persecution may be forgiven and be readmitted; it was clearly choosing to be more loving than to be legalistic.
Teach me, Jesus, to learn to read the signs of the times and most specially your divine will in dealing with the many complicated issues we now face in our being Christians. May in everything we let love prevail for wherever there is love, you are always there, Lord because that is when we have communion and oneness in you. Amen.
Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Monday, Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, 14 September 2026 Numbers 21:4-9 ><}}}}*> Philippians2:6-11 ><}}}}*> John 3:13-17
Photo by author, Basilica of Our Lady of Manaoag, Pangasinan, 09 January 2026.
Today’s celebration of the Feast of theExaltation of the Cross started in the fourth century with the miraculous discovery of the True Cross by Helena, mother of the Emperor Constantine, on 14 September 326, while she was on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Being the queen Mother, she ordered through her son the emperor the building of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre that was dedicated nine years later with a portion of the True Cross placed inside it on September 13, 335. The following day, the Cross was brought outside of the church to be venerated by the clergy and the faithful.
In the year 627, during the reign of the Emperor Heraclius I of Constantinople, the Persians conquered the city of Jerusalem and removed a major part of the Cross from its sanctuary. The emperor then launched a campaign to recover the True Cross which he regarded as the new Ark of the Covenant for the new People of God.
Before embarking into war, Emperor Heraclius went to church wearing black as a sign of penance, then prostrated himself before the altar and begged God for courage. His prayer was granted as he won the war and recovered the Cross from the Persians. He brought the Cross back to Jerusalem in 641 amid great celebrations by carrying it on his shoulders. Upon reaching the gate leading to Calvary, the emperor could not go forward! Heraclius and his retinue were astonished and could not understand what had happened until the Patriarch Zachary of Jerusalem told him, “Take care, O Emperor! In truth, the imperial clothing you are wearing does not sufficiently resemble the poor and humiliated condition of Jesus carrying His cross.”
Upon hearing those words, the emperor removed his shoes and bejewelled robes, put on a poor man’s clothing and was eventually able to proceed to Calvary and replaced the Cross inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre where a number of miracles happened during the occasion: a dead man returned to life, four paralytics were cured, ten lepers were healed, 15 blind men were given their sight, with several possessed people exorcised and many sick people totally healed!
Photo by author, inside the upper chapel of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre where the site of Crucifixion is believed to be located, May 2017.
Very notable in this story were the words of the Patriarch of Jerusalem to Emperor Heraclius: it was only after he had taken off his royal clothings and put on those of the poor was he able to carry the Cross into Jerusalem.
It is the same thing that is asked of us today: it is so easy to display the cross inside our homes and cars, or wear it as a jewelry or even as a tattoo on our skin and mean nothing at all unless we have the cross inside our hearts, our very being. More than the many signs of the cross and imaginary drawing of its lines we draw on our chest is the need for us to empty ourselves of our pride and sins so that we can be filled by Jesus Christ.
Photo by author, Chapel of St. Francis Xavier, Sacred Heart Novitiate, QC, March 2024.
Brothers and sisters: Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2:6-8).
Called kenosis in Greek, self-emptying is the way of the Cross of Christ. It is choosing love and mercy than self-centeredness and self-righteousness; sacrifice than satisfaction; fairness and justice than greed and possession; bearing all the pains and perseverance than complaining and whining about difficulties and trials in life like the Israelites in the wilderness (first reading); and, thinking more of others than of one’s self.
The recent COVID-19 pandemic had taught something very beautiful and amazing about the positivity of being negative, when negative was actually positive – healthy and COVID free! Remember how during those days when we would always wish we would yield negative results in our swab tests for COVID?
When we look at the sign of the cross (+), it is a positive sign, a plus sign. Though the cross calls us to let go, to be detached and dispossessed, it is actually an invitation to have more of God, of life and fulfillment!
For us to rise, to go up, we must first go down that is contrary to the ways of this time of affluence when everything is practically easily available even fame and wealth. Today’s feast reminds us that like the Cross of Christ, life is more of letting go and of giving than of having like God who “so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that he who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life” (Jn.3:16). St. Francis of Assisi said it perfectly why the Cross is an exaltation, a triumph:
For it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen. Have blessed week ahead!
Photo by author, St. Paul Spiritual & Renewal Center, Alfonso, Cavite, 19 August 2026.
Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Wednesday, Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time, Year II Memorial of St. Peter Claver, SJ, Priest, 09 September 2026 1 Corinthians 7:25-31 <*((((>< + ><))))*> Luke 6:20-26
Photo by a friend from Swan Island Dahlia Farm, Canby, Oregon, 29 August 2026.
The rains have not stopped, the sun remains hidden and dark clouds continue not only above us but even in our lives these days; many are so hard pressed in life - displaced from homes due to floods, some could not work and earn with barely nothing to keep them warm and fed while others are depressed, fearful, uncertain of what is next:
I pray for them all, Jesus; speak to them directly like today in the gospel; let them hear, move them and stir their hearts to life and animation, to realize they are loved and cared for, to never lose hope in this life, to let go of their past sins and mistakes, to simply not worry and trust you by being grateful for your many blessings.
“Blessed are you who are poor, for the Kingdom of god is yours. Blessed are you who are now hungry, for you will be satistifed. Blessed are you who are now weeping, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude and insult you, and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of Man” (Luke 6:20-22).
You are speaking directly to each one of us, Jesus; may those going through difficulties these days hear and feel your blessings, Jesus; it is hard and so difficult to listen and accept being called blessed according to your gospel, Jesus because many of us are going through it!
May your beatitudes comfort us, dear Jesus, find consolation in you like your Jesuit Saint Peter Claver who offered his life to those enslaved in Colombia, choosing to live among those despised than among those comfortable; help me find blessedness Jesus in solidarity with those suffering, for those in the margins, for those forgotten for those suffering in silence. Amen.
Photo by a friend from Swan Island Dahlia Farm, Canby, Oregon, 29 August 2026.
Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Tuesday, Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time, Year II Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 08 September 2026 Romans 8:28-30 ><}}}}*> + ><}}}}*> + ><}}}}*> Matthew 1:18-23
Photo by author, St. Paul Spiritual & Renewal Center, Bgy. Tanyawak, Alfonso, Cavite, 19 August 2026.
It is the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary but your words, O Lord Jesus, spoke more about St. Joseph your foster father.
Now this is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about. When his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found with child through the Holy Spirit. Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man, yet unwilling to expose her to shame, decided to divorce her quietly. Such was his intention when, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream…. (Matthew 1:18-20).
Thank you, dear Jesus for being like us, for coming like us in all of our human vulnerabilities: birth is always a grace from the Father lest we forget; in your coming to us, Jesus, you have showed how Mary and Joseph faced not only their toughest tests but most of all their vulnerabilities they gladly embraced that you finally came among us!
Mary humbly submitted to being your Mother, entrusting everything to God who sent an angel to explain everything to Joseph so Christmas would happen; how amazing that Mary's pregnancy was revealed to Joseph while he was asleep, when he was most vulnerable, without full control; Mary on the other hand submitted her full control to God when your birth was announced - what a beautiful lesson for us to remember on her birthday on the need for us to embrace our vulnerabilities because as St. Paul assured us, "We know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28).
O blessed Mother Mary, pray for us to be more trusting in your Son Jesus, submitting ourselves wholly to his will by embracing our vulnerabilities, becoming fully human and blessed to share Christ like you and Joseph. Amen.
Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Tuesday, Twenty-Third Week in Ordinary Time, Year II Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 08 September 2026 Micah 5:1-4 ><]]]]*> + ><]]]]*> + ><]]]]*> Matthew 1:18-23
“The Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary”, a 1305 painting by Renaissance artist Giotto in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, Italy. The two babies depicted are both the Virgin Mary: below is Mary upon birth wrapped in swaddling cloth and washed by attendants and then above being handed to St. Anne her mother. Photo from en.wikipedia.org.
Feasts of saints are often based on the date of their death when they enter eternal life; sometimes it may also be the date when their remains were transferred for proper burial.
There are only three birthdays we celebrate in our liturgy, two are of the highest order as a Solemnity, our Lord Jesus Christ on December 25 and his precursor St. John the Baptist on June 24; the third is that of the Blessed Virgin Mary which is a rank lower as a Feast, falling on this date, eighth of September which is nine months after her Immaculate Conception.
In this age of social media when every platform has its unique way of alerting everyone of someone’s birthday so that nobody can no longer hide to celebrate silently one’s birthday, the Blessed Mother’s nativity offers us a beautiful opportunity to reflect on the significance of a birthday always seen in relation with Jesus Christ’s birth and coming. St. John Paul II perfectly expressed this in his 1995 Encyclical Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life), declaring that “Every birthday is a small Christmas because with the birth of every person comes Jesus Christ” (sorry I can’t recall the citation).
What makes that so true with every birthday beginning with the Blessed Virgin Mary is God’s great mystery of becoming small, of being “insignificant” in the birth of his Son Jesus Christ which we find even in his birthplace prophesied by Micah:
“You, Bethlehem-Ephrathah too small to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel; whose origin is from of old, from ancient times” (Micah 5:1).
Photo by Ar. Philip Santiago, Angels’ Field Chapel in Bethlehem, October 2025.
And if we go further, this true greatness of Jesus Christ in being small is found also in his Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary who came from the obscure town of Nazareth, the only place in the New Testament never mentioned in the Old Testament.
Recall how Nathanael or Bartholomew the Apostle belittled the Lord’s hometown after being told by Philip that they have found the Messiah from Nazareth, saying, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” (Jn.1:46) because Nazareth was totally unknown during that time.
And so was Mary!
That is why it is so disappointing and sad when many Catholics unfortunately led by some priests have the misimpression of portraying Mary as a “beauty queen” with flawless skin and Western features when she is clearly Middle Eastern woman. Worst of all is the pomp and pageantries we have in the recent fads of processions and coronations in many dioceses and parishes.
Photo by author, St. Paul Spiritual & Renewal Center, Bgy. Tanyawak, Alfonso, Cavite, 19 August 2026.
How sad we have missed the Blessed Virgin Mary as the model disciple of Jesus was the first to embody his teaching of being small like little children with her simplicity and humility so very well expressed in her 20th century apparitions in Fatima, Portugal and Banneux, Belgium.
Enough with the extravagant sometimes imeldific celebrations of Marian feasts and events that have become egregious display of wealth and power.
Being simple and small like Mary, both as a child and as an adult, enable us to see again the value of life and of every person.
Aside from the lack of any account on the birth of Mary, we heard proclaimed today the birth of Jesus to teach us that truth expressed by St. John Paul II that in every person Jesus actually comes. The more simple and true we are like Mary and Joseph, the more Jesus is seen and experienced in us!
That is why when we greet somebody a “happy birthday”, what we really mean telling him/her is “I love you, I thank you for making me who I am today.” Through one’s simplicity and littleness in Christ, we are transformed into better persons because we are able to have glimpse of God’s love and kindness.
The true joy of celebrating a birthday is not found in the externalities of gifts and parties and guests with all the fun that come along but in the silent, prayerful reflection of our life’s beginning and direction into eternal life. See how there are still people who only celebrate Mass on two occasions each year – on their birthday and on Christmas, a clear recognition of our origin and direction in Christ in life.
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, March 2023.
In the birth of Jesus Christ, we are reminded by every birthday that life is precious because it is so fragile – any infant and every person can be easily hurt and harmed, be sick and eventually die.
Like Mary and Joseph, the little Child born in Bethlehem asks us, even begs us to take care of him found in everyone among us.
Let us be more loving and kind, understanding and caring, even merciful and forgiving with one another especially in this time of calamities.
Such is the wisdom of God in making life small and fragile so that we may care and value it because there lies also its greatness. The best birthday greeting we can express to the Blessed Mother Mary today is to start being small and simple like her to share Jesus with everyone. Not with those many cakes we buy and “offer” – tayo rin naman kakain!Amen.
