“My Ever ChangingMoods” (1984) by the Style Council

Lord My Chef Sunday Music by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 13 April 2025

*Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 17 March 2025.*

Today we begin the Holy Week with the celebration of Palm Sunday in the Lord’s Passion.

See how since the entry of Jesus to Jerusalem more than 2000 years ago, nothing much have really changed among us – we are still the same fickle-minded people who would sing “Hosanna in the highest” and later shout “crucify him! crucify him!”.

Everybody wants to become better, each one wishing for so many things without really realizing the good things we are hoping for are all right in front us if we could just open our eyes or listen more or perhaps have a change of heart to realize everyday is a Palm Sunday too for us when God comes right into us to fulfill us.

However, many times whether in our wishful thinking or future-looking and planning, it is highly probable that what we long for is already present to us.

As we begin the Holy Week with the celebration of Palm Sunday in the Lord’s Passion, we are reminded by the liturgy with its long readings how so often in life, we just need to see with different eyes, hear with different ears, expect with different hearts to find fulfillment, peace and joy.

The sad truth is that many times, we really do not know what we want and most of all, we also do not know what we are doing because we are so far from Jesus Christ. https://lordmychef.com/2025/04/12/when-we-do-not-know-what-we-are-doing/

The night before I wrote my homily yesterday, I was posting some reels in my Instagram account when one of the music I used was the Style Council’s 1984 hit “My Ever Changing Moods”. Composed by the group founder Paul Weller who shot to fame in the 1970’s as lead singer and guitarist of the British rock band The Jam, “My Ever Changing Moods” is the Style Council’s fifth single.

Aside from Weller’s superb vocals, “My Ever Changing Moods” is so remarkable in what shall we describe as “subtle intensity” – ang tindi ng dating as we say. Despite the message conveyed by its title, the song is heavy in meanings that can stir one’s soul with its light and easy poetry yet so penetrating. That is why we right away felt its direct link with Palm Sunday.

Daylight turns to moonlight and I'm at my best
Praising the way it all works, and gazing upon the rest, yeah
The cool before the warm, the calm after the storm
The cool before the warm, the calm after the storm

I wish to stay forever, letting this be my food
Oh, but I'm caught up in a whirlwind
And my ever changing moods, yeah

Many times in life, we forget that reality of how everything is like the weather that shifts and changes in a rhythmic pattern, “Daylight turns to moonlight…the cool before the warm, the calm after the storm.” The key is openness to these changes happening in us and around us.

Though Weller and critics claim of the song’s political undertones, we see something deeper, something spiritual that we find it so appropriate in this time as we enter the holiest days of the year. Notice these final four stanzas how they convey love and order, something so similar to Jesus Christ’s first words when crucified more than 2000 years ago, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do” (Lk.23:24).

Teardrops turn to children who've never had the time
To commit the sins they pay for through another's evil mind
The love after the hate, the love we leave too late
The love after the hate, the love we leave too late

I wish we'd wake up one day, an' everyone feel moved
Oh, but we're caught up in the dailies
And an ever changing mood, yeah

Evil turns to statues and masses form a line
But I know which way I'd run to, if the choice was mine
The past is knowledge, the present our mistake
And the future we always leave too late

I wish we'd come to our senses and see there is no truth
In those who promote the confusion
For this ever changing mood, yeah

What do we really know at all that we continue to crucify Jesus today, nailing him on the cross with our many sins as we pretend and assume to know so many things in life?

To know in the Jewish mind is to have a relationship, an activity more of the heart than of the mind. To know is to love, to care. Therefore, when Jesus prayed to the Father to forgive them for they know not what they do is to forgive them because they refuse to love which is what sin is all about. And that is what we still do not know until now – to love, to care for one another that we keep on crucifying Jesus Christ.

Until now, we pretend to know a lot that some nations resort to wars while some blind followers insist on what they know as right while evading the truth with their fake news being spread to cover crimes and atrocities. Until now we pretend to know what we are doing that everyday everywhere is a road rage happening often costing lives senselessly because many insist on their rights. And the confusions and quarrels and deaths continue because we do not know what we are doing. Like Paul Weller, we pray to Jesus that we’d come to our senses and see there is no truth// In those who promote the confusion// For this ever changing mood, yeah.

For this piece, we chose the slow version on piano of Style Council’s “My Ever Changing Moods” to be more attuned with Palm Sunday; you may check their original music video which is equally excellent.

From YouTube.com

Lent is water

40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Tuesday, Fourth Week in Lent, 01 April 2025
Ezekiel 47:1-9, 12     + + +     John 5:1-16

Thank you dear Jesus
for the Lenten reminder of
our Baptism,
of the sign of water
in our faith
and in our lives;
Lent is water
that cleanses us,
refreshes us,
hydrates us to keep us
moving in your mission.

But what I like most,
dear Jesus is your healing
of the man seated at the pool
of Bethesda for 38 years -
like him, Jesus, I have been waiting
for healing,
for blessing,
for your coming!
Now you have come,
still many among us refuse 
to welcome you
nor accept you;
instead, they question your
healing on a sabbath
with others still shouting
for freedom for Barabbas.

How sad,
dear Jesus that until now
there are people who rejoice
with death and evil and sin;
cleanse those who rejoice
in all forms of killing
especially of the innocent
and young, of the poor
and disadvantaged;
cleanse us all in your waters,
Jesus so that like in the vision 
of Ezekiel, we may bloom too
as a nation close to God,
upholding life and justice
always.
Amen.

*Photo by author, Hidden Valley Spring Resort, Laguna, 20 February 2025.*

Windows to past & to future

Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 24 March 2025

Some people have been asking me how does it feel to be sigisty years old? I really don’t have any complete answer yet except the feeling of sudden shift in my perspectives in life.

Whether it is what experts call as the gestalt shift, I do not know. However, since I have failed in a psychological exam to the major seminary in 1982 that forced me to forget all about the priesthood momentarily (nine years), I have always thought of myself as “crazy” with weird thoughts and ideas, weird perceptions coming from weird images and illusions I see on many things

These manifest in my photography subjects that are often wala lang, as in trip trip lang talaga. Like in my recent annual retreat at the Sacred Heart Novitiate in Novaliches where I have been coming since 2016. Suddenly this year, my focus were so bent on the most ordinary features of this venerable institution that is about 75 years old.

During my stay there last week, the stairs, the windows, and the arches that are even older than me be4came so lovely and interesting. I felt so drawn to them that I had a lot of shots taken upon my arrival.

The Sacred Heart Novitiate is my “happy place” because it is my Bethel where I “dreamt” like Jacob of the stairway to heaven (Gen. 28:10-22). It is also my Peniel or Penuel (Gen. 32:23-32) where like Jacob I also wrestled with God or an angel in deep prayers every year.

In my previous article, I have explained that maybe my focus on the stairs was due to my excitement in awaiting the Netflix documentary on Led Zeppelin whose most famous song is called Stairway to Heaven.

Today, I share with you some photos I have taken with my weird perceptions of the Sacred Heart Novitiate’s windows that suddenly evoked a lot of ideas in me as a sigisty year old man so loved by God.

Being a new senior sixty cent only last Saturday, I felt the joy of being able to look at a very long past of both beautiful and sad even painful memories that have made me who I am today.

Despite the hurts and scars from the many battles in life, I am still glad and thankful for the gift of six decades.

Being a sigisty year old man is like looking out the window, marveling at how fast times have flown that many times, some scenes in my life are like some spots outside that look so near that are actually so far and distant.

I felt my getting old started the time I kept saying “40 years ago ba iyon” when commenting on an event or a song or a movie. Parang kailan lang pero matagal na pala!

Like in life itself, you can choose your focus when looking outside the window: you may include the window itself in the vista like a frame or totally disregard its existence and simply look at the world outside or the past itself. You may also focus on the sceneries you prefer, more of the lovely ones and less of the unsightly.

On the other hand, I have strongly felt too as I turned sigisty years old how my remaining days on earth are numbered. Looking back to the past seems an endless horizon while looking into the future is very definite. You can see already the end of the line, so to speak s you get that feeling my days are numbered. That is the moment when the eternal spring within tells you that at the end of that tunnel or wall is eternity. But, before that, you know the end is near.

The word “window” came from the Old Norse vindauga, from vind or “wind” that was pronounced as the English “wind” and auga for eye that phonetically sounded as “ow” that literally meant “wind-eye” that became the Old English word wind-ow or “window” as we know and use it today.

Hence, window became the term for an opening in any building like home that allows air and light to pass through. Most of all, it is an opening for people inside to see the world outside while giving those outside a glimpse of what’s inside.

How lovely is that interplay happening in every window that opens a person’s vista outside and inside. It is how one looks on windows that makes the great difference that eventually forms our perspectives in life.

About three decades ago, Bill Gates launched his company Microsoft’s operating system called Windows that greatly revolutionized our lives with computers becoming easily accessible for everyone. Unlike its funny looking predecessor called dost, Windows was aptly called as one had to simply click a box like literally opening a window to explore its many programs.

Windows – the real ones like in buildings – still present us with such great possibilities when we look outside or into them.

But of course, that still greatly depends on that one great window God had gifted us – our eyes that have both sight and vision.

Jesus told his disciples, “The lamp of the body is the eye. If your eye is sound, your whole body will be filled with light; but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be in darkness. And if the light in you is darkness, how great will the darkness be” (Matthew 6:22-23).

How unfortunate that many times, we prefer to limit the use of our eyes to just sights that limit our perspectives on what are simply obvious and visible.

Only a few called as visionaries dare to use their eyes to have vision, that is, to see and look beyond what’s visible and before us, whether from the window or into the window.

If we can have our eyes synced together with both sight and vision, then we shall see much more in this life that we become grateful with our past while at the same time filled with joyful expectations of the fast approaching beyond of this world as we age. Amen.

*All photos taken by the author using the iPhone 16 Pro Max at the Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, March 17-22, 2025.

Right perspective, clear vision, then mission.

Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 20 March 2025

*Photo by author, Canyon Woods Resort Club, Laurel, Batangas, 15 March 2025.*

“And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” – Paulo Coelho, “The Alchemist”

It is exactly what I am experiencing these days since we had our university management team-building seminar in Batangas last weekend when my realizations there were reinforced in my ongoing annual personal retreat here in Novaliches that started Monday evening.

It is a moment of consolation when suddenly, the whole universe conspires not only to get whatever you want but simply to affirm you being on the right track, giving you the proverbial pat on the shoulder that everything is going fine, everything falling into its right places.

*Photo by author with flash, Canyon Woods Resort Club, Laurel, Batangas, 15 March 2025.*

Pardon me for writing for the third time about perspectives and point-of-view (POV) as I could not contain the joy of the fruits of my prayers.

Another thing is the fact that when I took these photos randomly, there was no plan at all in writing about the subject of perspective. Never thought how these photos would turn out to be pieces of a jigsaw puzzle on perspective and POV.

We have reflected the other day how our perspectives of things and people as well as events contribute to the understanding or breakdown in communication as they reveal our inner thoughts and dispositions. It is not only important at how we narrate a story from whatever POV but most of all, at how open are we in refining our perspectives so that we achieve unity.

(More photos from our team-building in Batangas.)

Lights at the lobby of Canyon Woods taken from below.
Sunset from my room…
sunrise from same room.
Delighful scene of window and moon at night.

During our Holy Hour Tuesday night to cap our first day of prayers, I realized something very close to our subject of perspective while praying over the following gospel passage regarding the Mystery of God:

Jesus told his disciples, “The lamp of the body is the eye. If your eye is sound, your whole body will be filled with light; but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be in darkness. And if the light in you is darkness, how great will the darkness be” (Matthew 6:22-23).

When we have the right perspective in life, we get a clear vision of life too.

That is why in our previous blog we have said we need to refine our perspective like an artist who has to spend and invest time not only in his/her studies but most especially in his/her dealing and interactions with people to come up with an obra maestra.

Living, after all, is an art, of our participation in the grace of God to bring out the best in each of us. St. Paul was very clear about this perspective regarding leadership and community life that both aim to show the giftedness of every member.

Our perspectives are put to the test in moments of darkness like when we are in trials and tribulations, difficulties and crises. It is during darkness in life when people are distinguished from merely having sight or with a vision. According to the American writer Helen Keller, the worst thing that can happen in life is for anyone with sight not to have any vision at all.

Of course, we all know Helen was blind who wrote some of the loveliest poetry of her time.

Many people just have sight that can be easily blurred that eventually affect their perspective. It is more than looking from the inside or from the outside (POV) but of how we see or look at everything and everyone from within us.

A person of vision always sees beyond and therefore achieves more, always more fulfilled and fruitful than those who merely sees things, people and events as they are.

People with the right perspective will always have vision in seeing everything despite many obstacles in life. They remain focused on what they “see” that others could not see at all. With a right perspective and proper vision, that person still sees when “darkness is his only light and hopelessness is his only hope” (T. S. Eliot in Four Quartets).

My spiritual director since 2016, Jesuit Father Danny Gozar asked me during outside prayer periods that I “deliberately appreciate” God’s creation like feeling the gentle breeze, walking barefooted to be caressed by the green grass soaked in morning dew, feel the burning heat of the sun and if it rains – which it did briefly – try to get wet to feel the raindrops.

What struck me most were the many sounds of nature here in Sacred Heart Novitiate due to its mini-forest.

Crows caw the whole day along with the crickets while the ugly gecko fills the whole place with its cries of tu…ko! tu…ko!

Their sounds were so musical to my ears, sounds I have last heard decades ago while growing up in the province but almost totally gone in the city.

What is amusing is how with merely the sounds they make, we can form images of how these creatures look like!

The same thing with God himself.

When we are formed in Jesus Christ’s perspectives in life, everything around us becomes a reminder of God’s presence, of himself with us. We cannot see him but with his gift of vision, we see him. And follow him.

That is why, with proper perspective comes vision. Then, mission!

Lent is silence in the Lord like St. Joseph

40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 19 March 2025
Solemnity of St. Joseph, Husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary
2 Samuel 7:4-5, 12-14, 16 + Romans 4:13, 16-18, 22 + Matthew 1:16, 18-21, 24

God our most loving Father,
thank you for this Solemnity of St. Joseph,
the most chaste husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary
who witnessed to us with his life of faith 
the important aspects of Lent
that have become a rarity these days -
silence and stillness in you.

In this world of 24-7
when everything is "instant",
we have lost the sense and beauty
of silence and stillness in you,
O Lord, making us to drift farther
away from you,
not believing you,
not obeying you
relying more in our powers
and control of everything.

But life is not about doing
and things as your Son Jesus
have shown us:
life is about being and loving,
of persons in whom we find you
and meaning of our lives.

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 and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home…She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home (Matthew 1:19-20, 21, 24).

Teach us, Jesus
to be like St. Joseph
your foster father
to be holy and righteous:
obedient to your laws
but most of all,
faithful and loving to God
through one another.

Teach us, Jesus
to be like St. Joseph
your foster father
to be silent because
silence is the domain of trust:
let us trust you more 
than our selves,
than our gadgets,
than our modern thoughts
and beliefs;
teach us Jesus
to be like St. Joseph
to be still in this time
when everyone is easily
agitated foolishly
by the cacophony of
various shouts and cries
in social media that are mostly
not true.

*Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2024.*

Teach us, Jesus,
that life is a daily Lent,
of being silent and still
in your presence,
in your voice,
in your plans
so that like St. Joseph
your foster father
we may take care of you
found in each one of us
especially the weak
and the poor.
Amen.

Perspectives & stairs: a photo essay

Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 18 March 2025

While I was processing my many realizations and lessons about perspectives and point of view (POV) following our team-building activities over the weekend, the venue’s architecture fascinated me, particularly its solid design of the staircase. I felt they all conveyed to me the very thoughts percolating in me that day of how our perspectives affect our communications, for better or for worst (https://lordmychef.com/2025/03/17/on-the-road-to-my-60th-perspectives-and-pov/).

Where we stand on the staircase is our POV – above on top, at the middle stop or at the bottom part. But how we look at the staircase reveals our perspectives, either we are looking up from or looking down to the floor that can have different impact with others.

The perspectives and views from that experience in Canyon Woods Resort Club in Batangas remained with me until Monday when I arrived at the Sacred Heart Novitiate in Novaliches where I have been going on my personal retreat since 2016.

*Stairs at the new Blessed Peter Faber Hall.*

It was another lesson in perspectives. They were the same stairs that have been there for almost 75 years with some younger at 30 years which I have seen and walked on the past nine years but it was only now that I have recognized their unique beauty.

And lessons.

*Stairs at the main and oldest building at the Sacred Heart Novitiate leading to its chapel at the second floor.*

Things change greatly when we see them from the top and from below. The same sights can evoke fear and dangers, or joy of being challenged to climb the flight of stairs.

*View from top upon exit from the chapel, same stairs, different perspective.*

Perspectives also change especially when we use the modern apps in cameras and phone cameras today like the iPhone 16 I am using lately.

*Access ramp at the Faber Hall directly leading to the modern Chapel of the Holy Family.*

One can change perspectives by simply editing a photo to change its “mood” to soften or strengthen its impact. Or, change its color to the traditional Black & White I have always loved.

B&W photos evoke simplicity and mystery at the same time. They converse with viewers as if inviting you to provide the “colors”. See the “ironing board” or plantsahan under the stairs that remind us of home.

Our focus and point-of-view convey different perspectives of the same objects as seen from different angles. In this shot below of the side stairs to the dorms at the second and third floors of the Blessed Faber Building are very inviting as if leading you to light or enlightenment that is primarily the reason of most people going on recollections and retreats here.

There is the sense of openness, of opening to God too not only with emphasis on the light that falls on each step but also in revealing the back or bottom part of the stairs, there is the perspective of courage to bare what’s inside. Or underneath. A sense of sincerity.

What’s in a stairway? There were the stairs that caught my attention in Batangas because it was my first time to be there at Canyon Woods Resort Club.

But, here again in my “happy place”, my “Bethel” where like Jacob I “wrestle” with God in prayers every year? Why my attention?

Blame it partly to my anticipation for the coming Netflix documentary on Led Zeppelin whose masterpiece Stairway to Heaven had made a tremendous impact on me as a child growing up in the 1970’s.

During that time, I have heard older people saying rock music was of the devil but I wondered why, if Led Zeppelin was diabolic, were they singing something about the heaven like Stairway to Heaven?

*Stairs to the second floor dorm of the Sacred Heart Novitiate, 17 March 2025.*

Later on in Grade 5 and 6 in the late 70’s, I heard our religion teachers that included nuns at St. Paul College-Bocaue spoke about Jacob’s dream of a “stairway to heaven”.

Immediately, I realized rock music isn’t bad at all!

And so, after classes I would come home early enough ahead of my father so that I could listen to DZRJ-AM that played all the classic and modern rock music of that time along with Juan Dela Cruz Band and other Pinoy rakistas.

*A cozy resting place for souls trying to reach heaven at the mezzanine room of a spiritual director, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 17 March 2025.*

Good that I did not listen to some aunts who insisted that I could not become a priest if I followed rock music which did not hinder at all my listening to God about my priestly calling. In 1998, I was ordained priest while still rockin and rollin’ with Led Zep, Steely Dan and other rock bands.

As a priest turning sigisty (60) soon and 27 years in the ministry, my perspective on stairs have evolved: as a priest, my job is to lead others to heaven – whatever song they may be singing. God bless everyone!

On the road to my 60th: perspectives and POV

Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 17 March 2025

*Photo by Alex Dos Santos on Pexels.com*

Exactly a week before a I turn 60 this Saturday, I was told to join our management committee in their team-building seminar in Batangas. As chaplain of the University, I had to lead the prayers and of course celebrate the Mass the following Sunday.

For the second time since I came to our University, our university officials and administrators had me included in the games that capped the talks in the morning. What a big surprise when finally I was able to decode an experience I have always had with students since my ordination in 1998 whenever I would prepare kids for their First Communion. There has always been this one recurring problem whether in a Catholic school, public school or non-sectarian school – the usual confusion of many children on how to make the Sign of the Cross properly.

Kids are first confused with their left and right hands, on which to make the Sign of the Cross; and their second confusion is where to place the finger(s) for each Person of the Trinity. Even if I have explained we use our right hand with the index and middle fingers together in making the Sign of the Cross, the children are confused at the actual execution because when I face them, they always tried imitating me by instinctively raising their left hand to imitate my movement; everything breaks loose when we make the Sign of the Cross, saying “In the name of the Father” with the fingers on the forehead, and “of the Son” with fingers on their navel and the most confusing part, when they say “and of the Holy” placing their fingers on right instead of left shoulder as they saw me … “Spirit” on the left instead of the right shoulder.

But when I stand beside them, when I am with them as we all face the same direction to the front, children easily learn and follow the Sign of the Cross: no problem raising the right hand because we are all side by side with each other. Most of all, easier to follow the “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” because we are all on the same side. They can easily follow and imitate me.

More than the point of view (POV) in praying, kids realize my perspective better on how I see the Blessed Trinity with the Father up in heaven (forehead), the Son born by the Blessed Mother (navel) and the Holy Spirit as our guide (shoulders).

Very often, POV and perspective are used interchangeably but they are actually worlds apart. And that’s where most confusions arise.

A point of view refers to who is telling the story as a first person, second person, or third person. Perspective is deeper than a POV – it is how the speaker sees the world, it is the interplay of the speaker’s inner dynamics based on one’s beliefs and experiences as well as background. Many times, our perspective colors our POV so much that we presume everything is understood like what the youth would claim as, alam na this! when in fact, hindi nga pala!!!

Our perspectives lead us to what we call “curse of knowledge” when we presume everybody knew what we knew or everybody understood what we have understood. I should have known this long ago while working in radio and television when we were taught to never assume the listener or the viewer knows anything. That is why the TV is called an “idiot box” – because viewers are deemed idiots, a perspective not seen by many viewers because those writers are so good in influencing our perspectives!

Back to our games last weekend in Batangas…

In the second to the last activity we had, ten members of each group were blindfolded, with each holding a string attached to a garter band as its center that would be used to “catch” or “hold” a tennis ball from the ground. One member acts as a leader – in our group it was I! – who gave the instructions and commands to either pull or release one’s string to open or close the garter to hold the tennis ball that had to be brought around a cone without dropping it until the group returns to their starting point. Everything depended entirely on the instructions of the leader and we lost the game miserably because my instructions were not clear enough because it was affected by my perspectives: if I told them to move to my right, it was actually the left of others and vice versa!

That’s when I realized that not everyone sees what we see at the same time. Our perspectives, the way we see things are different that when people tell us something from a different perspective like me in that game, I felt so easy to turn to either left or right because I could see everything but not those blindfolded.

It was very much like in teaching grade three students preparing for their First Communion: when I stood beside them, there was no confusion in using the right hand in making the Sign of the Cross unlike when I just merely faced them, instructing them something that looked so different when executed.

Many times I have been complaining why young people these days have to be “spoon-fed” with everything because we older ones presume they know and understand everything like us! They don’t even know what Cortal is!

Our problem these days is not the generation gap which is actually not a problem but a situation we can easily grasp if we widen our perspectives in life and about other people by being one with them, by being open to them like a friend.

“Don’t walk in front of me, I may not follow; Don’t walk behind me, I may not lead; Walk beside me, just be my friend” (Albert Camus).

When we are fixated with our own perspectives, we tend to assume a lot, then fail to consider others’ perspectives even points of view that lead to breakdown in communication, confusions and misunderstanding then failures.

Many times, we may have the same POV with the same situation but widely different in perspectives. It is impossible to explain or even grasp and feel our hugot for our perspective but by being open, being a friend to others can greatly improve our relationships and productivity. By being more focused with a goal, with an ideal, despite our diverse perspectives, we can still move forward and work together. Best examples were the Twelve Apostles of Jesus who were all of different perspectives in life due to their contradicting backgrounds but were able to achieve the impossible in the grace of God.

Perspectives have to be formed and refined. Like architects and other artists in drawing their “perspectives” of a building or any project, they undergo years of intensive studies and practice to produce things of great beauty. But more than what they know, it is mostly what and how they feel being with other people in trying to see their perspectives which they blend with theirs to create their masterpiece like office buildings and homes, a fashion clothes and jewelries, sculptures and poetry.

Beautiful things happen when there is a blending of peoples’ different perspectives. That is why God became human to finally show us in Jesus Christ his perspective of holiness and goodness, of love and mercy that make us truly a human person, his image and likeness. Jesus did that when he suffered and died on the Cross to be one with us in our sins and mortality so that we may be one with him in his holiness and eternity, blending and uniting our perspectives.

Hope you find this perspective enlightening. Have a blessed day.

Lent is being wrapped in the mysteries of God

40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Wednesday, First Week in Lent, 12 March 2025
Jonah 3:1-10     + + +     Luke 11:29-32

*Photo by author, Timberland Highlands Resort, San Mateo, Rizal, 08 March 2025.*

Fill me, O God,
with wonder and awe
for you like Jonah!
Surprise me always
of your goodness among
your peoples;
help me in my unbelief!

The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: “Set out for the great city of Nineveh, and announce to it the message that I will tell you.” So Jonah made ready and went to Nineveh, according to the Lord’s bidding. Now Nineveh was an enormously large city; it took three days to go through it. Jonah began his journey through the city, and had gone but a single day’s walk announcing, “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed,” when the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth (Jonah 3:1-5).

Loving God our Father,
you are so great and awesome,
more wide than the great city
of Nineveh yet so mysterious
that Jonah himself could not 
believe what he had seen:
the people of Nineveh believed 
in you and repented
a mere half day yet 
when he proclaimed
your message to them!

Many times in life,
we are like Jonah -
very reluctant in following
you, in obeying you because
your ways are so different, 
even beyond comprehension
yet so real; many times,
we feel we know more 
than you know; most of all,
most of the time, 
we insist our own
even to you.
Sorry, Lord.

*Photo by author, Hidden Valley Springs Resort, Calauan, Laguna, 20 February 2025.*

In this Season of Lent,
banish our evil thoughts,
banish the many reasons
and explanations we have
to open our minds and our hearts
to your mysteries
so we may read your many
signs of presence and power,
love and mercy
for us even in this time
in the world
when it has become
more difficult to believe in you
due to modern trends,
most especially of our own
stubbornness;
grant us that same disposition
you gave Jonah who finally
believed and obeyed you
in doing your work
in the way you want it done.
Amen.

Plant prayer

40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Tuesday, First Week in Lent, 11 March 2025
Isaiah 55:10-11     + + +     Matthew 6:7-15

How lovely,
dear Jesus that every time
I receive a plant or flower from anyone,
automatically I offer them to you
on my prayer altar;
and here now,
my newest plant "abloom"
with my prayer today!

Thus says the Lord: Just as from the heavens the rain and snow come down and do not return there till they have watered the earth, making it fertile and fruitful, giving seed to him who sows and bread to him who eats, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I send it (Isaiah 55:10-11).

In a few days
I am turning 60 years old
and in a month,
I shall have been a priest for 28 years;
in all those years, Lord,
it is prayer that has sustained me,
that has nourished me,
that has always been my life
even many times I never
knew it;
you have nurtured me in prayers
that at first was like a chore
taught to me by my parents
that later like a rain -
sometimes an outpour,
many times a drizzle,
and most often just a dew
to keep me moist.

Keep me fertile like
the soil, Jesus,
and keep my leaves green
even without flowers
or fruit; 
just keep me soaked
in your words,
gently, subtly and
intimately to quench 
my thirst for you,
for meaning,
for life
that in the end,
I come and open myself
daily to God in your prayer,
saying,
"our Father".
Amen.

Human being, not human doing

Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 10 March 2025

When the devil
first tempted Jesus
"If you are 
the Son of God,
command this stone
to become bread"
the devil tempts us too
to forget our being
beloved children of God
by doing everything
and anything
for us to be reduced to
human doing
forgetting we are 
human being.

And so, Jesus told
the devil, "One does not live
by bread alone",
he tells us too today
even if we cannot do anything
because we are weak and sick,
even if we fail to do something
because we have forgotten or 
was so afraid,
we are still loved
for God is greater than
our hearts who cannot be seen
yet so true and so real,
fulfilling not just satisfying
than any bread.

When the devil tempted 
Jesus the third time,
"If you are the Son of God,
throw yourself down 
from here",
the devil tempts us too
to totally forget God
because, after all,
whatever we do,
God still loves us;
of course, 
that is true: we are humans 
loved and cared 
in our being
not in our doing.

And so, Jesus told
the devil "You should not
put the Lord, your God
to the test",
he tells us too today
for us to stop pushing
the limits of morality
and decency,
and simply let 
the mysteries of God
and of life wrap us because 
they are greater than us,
not problems to be 
solved nor principles
to be understood.

Life is a daily Lent,
a journey towards Easter,
a return to our first love,
 - God
in Jesus Christ his Son
in whom we have been baptized
and adopted
as his beloved children
as our being and identity:
so let us simply be
our true selves -
his beloved
since the beginning -
loving him totally
in our loving service to others.

This Lent
let us journey in Jesus
in prayer to be one in him;
in fasting to create space for him within;
in alms-giving to be one with
fellow human beings
for we are not
human doings
who cannot do everything
who cannot know 
and explain everything
except to wonder more,
to love more,
to appreciate more,
to believe and trust God more.

*Collage are photos of our students last February 09, 2025 spending a Sunday afternoon of love with children with cerebral palsy and family.

**Special thanks to our sister in faith, Nicola who gave us the idea for this poem, the beautiful terms "human being, human doing" from her blog https://eaglesight.blog/2025/03/02/rest-and-replenish/.