The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Tuesday, First Week in Ordinary Time, Year II, 14 January 2025 Hebrews 2:5-12 <'[[[[>< + ><]]]]'> Mark 1:21-28
Photo by author, Sakura Park, Atok, Benguet, 27 December 2024.
"Jesus came to Capernaum with his followers, and on the sabbath he entered the synagogue and taught. The people were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority... All were amazed and asked one another, 'What is this? A new teaching with authority'" (Mark 1:21-22, 27).
When does a teaching sound new? When the teaching makes an impact on me. But how?
I have been wondering, Jesus, of being there with you in the synagogue that sabbath; what was so new with your teaching?
It was and still is the authority, and your authority comes not from your power nor position, Lord Jesus: your authority is so felt because you are one with us, you have always been with us.
What's new with your teaching, Jesus, is the authority that inversely makes us free, liberates us from fears and false presuppositions, never oppressive nor subjugating. A teaching is new when there is authority that does not impose but rather liberates others because it is the Truth (John 8:32) - Jesus himself who claimed "A am the way the truth and the life" (John 14:6).
More than words and power, teaching and authority are felt and become liberating in the real sense, ever new, so fresh that it is not subjugating because in the final analysis it is the person who loves and cares, wiling to sacrifice and suffer for another. Exactly like Jesus. This new year, O Lord, make me new a teaching so true as a person so loving and caring like you. Amen.
Photo by authoir, Northern Blossom, Atok, Benguet, 27 December 2025.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Friday After the Epiphany, 10 January 2025 1 John 5:5-13 ><))))*> + ><))))*> + ><))))*> Luke 5:12-16
Photo by author, Atok, Benguet, 27 December 2025.
(Hello my dear friends and relatives, especially followers: still, a blessed Merry Christmas to you all! I have gone to an extended vacation for much needed rest and recreation; haven’t been writing at all to truly enjoy the rare cold weather and new sites I have been to. See you soon and God bless you always!)
How fast time flies, Lord Jesus! It is again the new year and soon, January will be over; as I look back to 2024, You were always there with me, for me, as You never left me, Lord; like in our gospel today, many times You made ways to meet me head on, dear Jesus; how lovely to remember and to keep in mind and heart how You, dear Jesus, would echo my prayers, my silent wishes and desires.
It happened there was a man full of leprosy in one of the towns where Jesus was; and when he saw Jesus, he fell prostrate, pleaded to him, and said, “Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean.” Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him, and said, “I do will it. Be made clean.” And the leprosy left him immediately (Luke 5:12-13).
Many times, I meet You Jesus when I am most dirty, most embarrassing, most shameful, when I am like a leper - sick and lost, rejected by everyone, dejected in myself; still, You were there with your outstretched arms, touching me, embracing me.
Most of all, echoing my very words, my silent wishes, my cries.
When You echo my words, my thoughts and my feelings that many times I am afraid to speak out loudly, I feel so free and liberated from my own leprosy; when You echo my words, You assure me You always listen; when You echo my words, You answer my prayers, dear Jesus.
And so, I pray today Jesus that in my very self I may echo Your loving presence to those most in need, to those forgotten and taken for granted. Amen.
Photo by author, Northern Blossom Farm, Atok, Benguet, 27 December 2024.
The Lord Is My Chef Christmas Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Our Christmas Homily, 25 December 2024 Isaiah 52:7-10 ><}}}}*> Hebrews 1:1-6 ><}}}}*> John 1:1-18
From LDS_Believer on X, 23 December 2016.
A blessed merry Christmas to you and your loved ones! On this most joyous season of the year that is also the most commercialized, let us reflect about gift-giving.
During Christmas, I hear a lot of people complaining of finding it difficult in giving gifts, in finding the most suitable gift to give to their family and friends. It is the other way around for me as I find it more difficult in receiving gifts than giving.
Don’t get me wrong. I have no claims to whatsoever except that I have always preferred to be a giver than a receiver. In fact, it is my favorite “love language”. Maybe it is part of my upbringing being the eldest in the family. My father taught me the value of hard work to be independent, never to rely on others unless necessary while my mother instilled in me the importance of sacrifice and contentment as she would say, “magtiis kung ano lang mayroon at hindi lahat ng kaya ay bibilhin.”
Friends know me so well of not opening gifts immediately that so often, food given to me end up expired. That is why I always ask people if their gift is food that needs to be consumed immediately like cakes, chocolates and ice cream!
Recently I gifted a religious priest with vestments for his silver anniversary of ordination three weeks ago. Just before the Simbang Gabi started as I shopped for my Christmas vestment, I messaged him for his chasuble size (the vestment we put on top of our alb). It turned out he goes too to the same shop and told me how he had always loved one of those Roman albs made there, a surplice alb with black lining. Since he had celebrated his silver anniversary as priest, I bought one of the alb too with the chasuble delivered to him via courier that day. That afternoon, Father almost shouted in joy in his messages, thanking me for the gifts of a chasuble and a Roman alb, asking, “akala ko yung alb lang bakit may chasuble pa, Father?” I simply told him “because you are a good priest; just pray for me and don’t mention it in your posts.”
During the Simbang Gabi last week while checking on my Facebook, I saw his posts wearing my gifts in his Misa de Gallo. It looked so good on him, the nice off-white chasuble with a V-shaped design on the chest with a classic cross underneath it the surplice alb with black lining he liked. He looked so holy. And I felt so good at myself having made a brother priest so happy.
At that moment, I felt the deep sense of joy of Christmas whatever it meant, as if Jesus were touching me, speaking to me in His most genteel voice an important lesson about gifts.
Through that priest, Jesus answered my prayer at the start of the Simbang Gabi, “how can I truly share you, Lord, this Christmas?”
Through that priest, I felt Jesus speaking into my heart that for me to be able to truly share Him this Christmas, I must first receive Him. We can only be a true giver when we are a sincere and humble receiver first.
I must confess that aside from my upbringing, it is largely pride that is the reason I prefer giving than receiving. As a giver, there is that sense of pride, of having the upper-hand with power and control especially when some gifts I have received are not of my size or I already have like books. It is easier to give especially when we have so much of things without really feeling deep inside the love and freedom why we give. Very often we give to show we don’t need others because we have.
Being a receiver requires humility in the first place, that we are incomplete and dependent on others. When we are able to receive, our giving becomes meaningful because when we receive gifts, we first receive the giver, the gift of every person we must always warmly receive with joy. As I relished my joy in seeing that priest appreciating my gifts – and me – I felt God patting my shoulder, as if telling me, that is how He feels when we receive and appreciate His Christmas gift, the child Jesus on the manger, asking us to receive Him, to love Him, to take care of Him.
He came to what was his own, but his own people did not accept him (John 1:11).
Photo by author, Christmas 2022.
This Christmas, let us first realize that we are first of all receivers of God’s gift in Jesus Christ. Let us receive Him so we can share and give Him as we pray:
A most blessed happy birthday to You, Lord Jesus Christ! You are our most precious, the most important gift we have received from the Father.
Forgive me when I refuse to receive and accept You among the people who love and care for me, for the people you send me to love and care too.
Forgive me when I refuse to receive and accept You among those who have hurt and offended me that until now I have not truly forgiven, having grudges against them.
Forgive me when I refuse to receive and accept You in my own giftedness, always doubting my goodness, my talents that I cannot be bold enough in sharing You because I might fail, I might err, I might not measure up to others' standards.
Grant me the grace this Christmas, Lord Jesus, to be small and fragile like You as an infant, so vulnerable, trustingly accepting even the unfavorable situations where I am so that I can share and give You truly to those who are willing to welcome You like me. Amen.
The Adoration of the Shepherds”, a painting of the Nativity scene by Italian artist Giorgione before his death at a very young age of 30 in 1510. From wikipediacommons.org.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Simbang Gabi-6 Homily, 21 December 2024 Zephaniah 3:14-18 ><}}}*> + ><}}}*> + ><}}}*> Luke 1:39-45
From Clergy Coaching Network, posted on Facebook 13 December 2023.
Advent and Christmas are a story of love of God’s love for us all that “He gave us His only Son.” No wonder, it is on this blessed Season when we share gifts, and most of all, our gift of self to others.
My youngest sister Bing works as an area manager of a Jollibee franchise in Bulacan. A few years ago before Christmas during our family conversations over dinner, she told us of a story shared by the Jollibee manager at NLEX. According to her story, two nuns entered their store there with some Dumagats with their driver. Right away, the store manager noticed how the two nuns were busy “calculating” the meal they have to take until settling for the cheapest, a rice meal of shanghai rolls. Obviously, the religious sisters have limited budget which did not escape the intuition of the lady manager who offered to treat them to a ChickenJoy meal for free. But the nuns felt shy and refused the manager’s offer, asking her not to be bothered at all until another woman with two kids in tow interrupted them, giving them ChickenJoy buckets with extra rice enough for the religious sisters and their companions! The woman refused to be identified and simply said that she too had noticed the nuns trying to budget their limited money that she ordered right away the food. For her part, the kind manager treated them instead for desserts to complete their meal.
That’s when my sister said “talagang Pasko na nga” (it’s really Christmas).
Yesterday in our reflection on the annunciation of the birth of Christ, we said of the need for us to enter in a dialogue with others to let Christmas happen. Dialogue is not just about improving relationships with others by thinking through issues and problems but more of a way of being with others, of being present with others to experience and feel their situations, exactly what Jesus did in being human like us in everything except sin.
At the annunciation of the Lord’s birth, Mary dialogued with Gabriel unlike Zechariah who was eventually silenced in order to be open to God. True dialogue as an incarnation like Jesus with God and with others can only happen when we are convinced of God’s love for us. Mary went in haste to visit Elizabeth because she felt God’s love in her that she wanted to share it with her cousin right away.
Mary set out in those days and travelled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth(Luke 1:39).
Photo by author, Church of the Visitation, the Holy Land, May 2017.
Try imagining that scene of Mary’s Visitation of Elizabeth. What did you feel? Did you feel some sense of tenderness, of being loved, of being touched by God?
While praying over this scene as I recalled my second pilgrimage to the Holy Land when we went to the Church of Visitation, I remembered my early years in the ministry when I always felt ashamed accepting invitations for dinners because I could not bring a gift.
Maybe part of our upbringing, I have always felt inadequate coming to another home bringing nothing. That is why I keep cards and stampitas in my desk along with some chocolates so that when I visit families, I could bring a little something for them.
It was only in 2011 after being assigned to a parish of my own when I was able to let go of this feeling of inadequacy after a parishioner told me how they deeply appreciated priests visiting them at home, sharing in their meal because they felt so blessed. That is why most of us priests are fat – we always get invited to meals and gatherings that sometimes I wonder if people really love me when they “force” me to eat more of their cholesterol-laden food and sugary desserts they serve!
It was during these home visitations especially of the sick and for simple meals I felt “rootedness” or oneness with people, of being “a member of each family yet belonging to none” as the famous French Dominican Fr. Lacordaire said a hundred years ago about priesthood. The more I visit families, bidden or unbidden, the more I feel the joy of my priesthood because of the family and community that I belong to. That is when I realized too that celibacy is lived in a community both of priests and laity.
For 26 years in schools and the parish and now the hospital, the more I felt Jesus present in me as a priest as I live among brother priests and lay people. Tenderness and intimacy take on a new dimension that is spiritual in nature because I don’t just touch people but am also being touched by them. Every time they thank me, I also thank them for blessing me with their warm welcome. It is like Mary and Elizabeth during the Visitation blessed abundantly by God and still sharing that same blessing with each other.
Photo by author, bronze statues of Mary and Elizabeth at the patio of the Church of Visitation, May 2017.
That is the meaning and significance of the Visitation: inasmuch as Christ comes to us individually, He behooves us to share Him also with others to form a community.
Mary visited Elizabeth not merely to help her out in her pregnancy nor to confirm what Gabriel had told her but simply because she was so convinced of God’s love that she wanted to share it with her cousin.
Mary visited Elizabeth because she felt touched by God in the Annunciation and wanted so much her cousin to be touched also by the Lord! And indeed when Luke wrote that “When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said, ‘Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb'” (Lk.1:41-42).
Faith in Christ leads to love that moves us to bond with one another to form Christ’s body, a community of believers, a community of beloved, a community of lovers.
After receiving Jesus, like Mary, we have to move to the Visitation and share Him with others. To be able to do this, we must first be convinced that God loves us so much like what the Prophet Zephaniah said in the first reading and what Elizabeth told Mary in the Visitation, “Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled” (Lk.1:45).
There’s a saying, “If you have love in your heart, you have been blessed by God; if you have been loved, you have been touched by God.”
Let God touch somebody today with your visitation… believe and feel the love of Jesus! Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Tuesday in the Second Week of Advent, 10 December 2024 Isaiah 40:25-31 <*((((>< + ><))))*> Matthew 11:28-30
Photo by author, Advent 2019 in my previous parish.
Thank you, Lord Jesus for the gift of this Season of Advent, a time for new beginnings in God, a chance for me to prepare your way, O Lord, right here in my heart; I can hear your voice saying "Cry out!" but like Isaiah, I said, "what shall I cry out?" (Isaiah 40:6)
You speak of comforting your people, O Lord, but, how shall I comfort your people when I am afraid of difficulties in life?
How shall I comfort your people, O Lord, when I refuse to make time to visit the sick, listen to the cries of the poor, and stay with those at the margins?
How can I find your lost sheep, Jesus when I am also lost, grappling for which is true and just, finding no one to guide me too at how every valley shall be filled with love or every mountain and hill of pride be made low?
Fill me with your tenderness, loving God our Father in Jesus Christ; empty me of my pride and fill me with your humility, justice and love to seek out others who are lost, to comfort those who are weak, to guide those disappointed and disillusioned in not finding you Jesus in their home or school, in their church, among their family and friends, and among our fellow disciples. Amen.
Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Wednesday in the First Week of Advent, 04 December 2024 Isaiah 25:6-10 ><}}}}*> + ><}}}}*> + ><}}}}*> Matthew 15:29-37
Photo by author, Pulong Sampalok, DRT, Bulacan, 22 November 2024.
Praise and glory to You, God our loving Father for this gift of Advent Season: thank you in bringing us to this brand new day of salvation, of freedom, of new life in Jesus; most of all, thank you for ending death in Christ's advent.
On this mountain he will destroy he will destroy the veil that veils all peoples, the web that is woven over all nations; he will destroy death forever. The Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces… (Isaiah 25:7-8).
Come to us this Advent, dear Jesus and take away all kinds of veils of selfishness that cover and make us unloving, unkind, unmerciful, unhappy... set us free, Jesus, free to love and serve especially the sick and hungry; set us free, Jesus, this Advent to open our hearts to bring out those treasures You have filled us with like goodwill and care for others like the disciples in today's gospel. Amen.
Photo courtesy of Our Lady of Fatima Tribune, 27 November 2024.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Tuesday in the Thirty-fourth Week of Ordinary Time, Year II, 26 November 2024 Revelation 14:14-19 <*((((>< + ><))))*> Luke 21:5-11
Photo by author, San Antonio, Zambales, 19 October 2024
It happens so often, Lord Jesus Christ - just as when we are enjoying something like a vacation, exactly at that moment too when it ends or, at least, its coming end is felt and realized?
While some people were speaking about how the temple was adorned with costly stones and votive offerings, Jesus said, “All that you see here – the days will come when there will not be left a stone upon another stone that will not be thrown down.” Then they asked him, Teacher, when will this happen? And what sign will there be when all these things are about to happen?” (Luke 21:5-7)
What a paradox, a mystery so beautiful that inspires us to live more fully than sulk with life's sure endings like what your words tell us today:
I, John, looked and there was a white cloud, and sitting on the cloud one who looked like a son of man, with a gold crown on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand (Revelation 14:14).
Endings are beginnings, Lord; everything and everyone shall end in order to begin anew; despite the destruction, endings happen to build up new beginnings, to signal another start.
Teach us, dear Jesus, to be ready always, to prepare for our endings by living fully, celebrating life in your love that banishes all fears like death and endings. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Friday in the Thirty-Second Week of Ordinary Time, Year II, 15 November 2024 Memorial of St. Albert the Great, Bishop & Doctor of the Church 2 John 4-9 <*{{{{>< +++ ><}}}}*> Luke 17:26-37
Photo by author, 20 August 2024, St. Scholastica Retreat House, Tagaytay City.
Another short letter for our first reading today, Jesus but filled with wonder and power that impacts our daily life: help us to keep your love Lord! The words of your beloved disciple are strikingly so true to us these days:
Anyone who is so “progressive” as not to remain in the teaching of the Christ does not have God; whoever remains in the teaching has the Father and the Son (2 John 9).
Forgive us, dear Jesus, with our so many excuses and alibis along with our endless arguments for the sake of being modern and progressive to be excused from your only law and command which is to love; let us love always for to love is live in your presence; without love, there is disorder and sin, and fear; with love, there is true freedom to be who we truly are as children of the Father.
Therefore, open our eyes that we may consider the wonders of your laws, O Lord (Psalm 119:18). Amen.
Photo by author, Cathedral of St. Catherine of Alexandria, Dumaguete City, Negros Or., 07 November 2024.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Wednesday in the Thirty-Second Week of Ordinary Time, Year II, 13 November 2024 Titus 3:1-7 ><))))*> + ><))))*> + ><))))*> Luke 17:11-19
Photo by author, 20 August 2024, St. Scholastica Retreat House, Tagaytay City.
“For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, deluded, slaves to various desires and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful ourselves and hating one another” (Titus 3:3).
What a beautiful reminder by St. Paul to his co-worker in the Lord, Titus, and to us in this modern age; Oh, how often are we all foolish, disobedient, and deluded, too?
That word struck me today, Lord: deluded which is to suffer from delusion which is to believe in something not true! And that's the great tragedy in these days of modern communications when information is easily accessible, when facts can be quickly verified if true or not but, why do we remain deluded that St. Paul rightly noted, we are "hateful ourselves, hating one another"?
Proof? Our being ungrateful. Our refusal to express gratitude like the nine lepers cleansed of leprosy by Jesus; only one, a Samaritan returned to Jesus and thanked Him for the healing: forgive us Jesus when so often in life it is easier for us to believe in things not true at all than to accept and embrace simple truths in life like that we are loved, that we are good, that You believe in us; clear us of our built-in biases against ourselves that delude us and blur our vision of others; teach us to be more appreciative of simple joys and pleasures in life.
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B, 10 November 2024 1 Kings 17:10-16 ><}}}}*> Hebrews 9:24-28 ><}}}}*> Mark 12:38-44
Our Sunday readings are so lovely, so picturesque where you find in both first reading and gospel the character of a poor widow standing side by side with great men of faith in God as the main focus, the Prophet Elijah and Christ Jesus, respectively.
In the first reading, we find humorously the Prophet Elijah asking for water, then some bread from a widow gathering sticks outside her home in Zarephath.
Elijah said to her, “Do not be afraid… For the Lord, the God of Israel, says, ‘The jar of flour shall not go empty, nor the jug of oil run dry, until the day when the Lord sends rain upon the earth.'” She left and did as Elijah had said. She was able to eat for a year, and he and her son as well; The jar of flour did not go empty, nor the jug of oil run dry, as the Lord had foretold through Elijah (1 Kings 17:13, 14-16).
Elijah had fled Israel after proclaiming a drought because the people turned away from God to worship baals or false gods brought by the wife of King Ahab, Queen Jezebel. God then directed Elijah to Zarephath outside the city of Sidon to hide where the king was the father of his archenemy, Queen Jezebel!
Imagine Elijah hiding in the most hostile place of all with a pagan widow who worshipped baal so denounced by him. But, here is a marvelous story of faith of Elijah who trusted God completely in obeying Him to move to the pagan region ruled by his enemies. Similar was the faith of the pagan widow who surprisingly believed Elijah and God’s power that she did not mind putting her life and her son’s at risk in harboring their enemy. Their admirable faith both remind us how God accomplishes His great acts of mercy and love when we surrender ourselves totally to Him.
Photo by author, Wailing Wall of Jerusalem, May 2019.
Nine hundred years later after Elijah, we had Jesus in Jerusalem like the prophet in a very hostile place and situation too – in the Temple that was the very domain of His enemies. This was the Holy Week after Jesus had entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday leading to Good Friday.
And like Elijah who approached a widow worshipper of baal, Jesus dared to sit at the temple area after harshly castigating the scribes there:
He sat down opposite the treasury and observed how the crowd put money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. A poor widow also came and put in two small coins worth a few cents. Calling his disciples to himself, he said to them, “Amen, I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the other contributors to the treasury. For they have all contributed from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, all her livelihood” (Mark 12:41-44).
Jesus sat down opposite the treasury and observed how the crowd put money into the treasury.
Throughout this week, that scene of Jesus seated at the Temple had so absorbed me. What was Mark trying to tell us in reporting this? Jesus seated at the temple opposite the treasury observing the crowd is something else.
See the genius of Mark in weaving this Sunday’s gospel scene: right after castigating the corrupt leaders of Israel who were affiliated with the temple, Mark segued into this poor widow dropping some coins into the treasury box. In ancient Israel, the poor like the widows were not required to give those contributions. In a stroke of genius, Mark tells us something is wrong in this scene which Jesus rightly attacked because that widow was one of those widows whose house was devoured by the scribes!
“The Widow’s Mite” painting by French painter James Tissot, from brooklynmuseum.org.
And Mark never intended the story only for the Christians of his time but also for us as we have continued in the Church that malpractice by priests and scribes of Jerusalem. Woe to us priests and bishops who go around in “long robes and accept greetings, seats of honor” and worst of all, “devour houses of widows”, forgetting the poor, preferring always to be with the rich and powerful that social media attest.
Like Zarephath and the Jerusalem Temple, there is Jesus sitting in the middle of our Church under attack on all fronts and within in order to be closer with us especially the widows and the poor who are victims of an unjust society and systems perpetrated by same men and women supposed to be servants of God, or, at least men and women of God.
Photo by author, July 2024.
That image of Jesus seated at the Temple opposite the treasury was in fact a reminder of His being the victim too of injustice in the temple like the poor widow, of His Crucifixion on Good Friday. In fact, the 30 pieces of silver the priests have paid Judas Iscariot to betray Jesus must have come from that treasury.
In the midst of the hostilities and hurts, the divisions and abuses of power by priests and lay alike, in the Jerusalem Temple then and now in our Church, there has always been Jesus sitting among us, observing our offerings after first offering Himself for us all as our perfect High Priest (second reading) who finally freed us from these injustices and inhumanity of the past.
That is why I love this scene so much.
More than tithing, Jesus tells us this Sunday that like that generous heart of the poor widow, despite her plight, she continued to give because she believed, she hoped, most of all, she loved God. She need not give but still insisted because the treasury was for the upkeep of the temple, the very house of God, therefore, for God Himself.
There are times I hurt deep inside for the pains of the many scandals some priests and bishops have caused the Church but I choose to remain, even to sit in this Church or be a victim like Jesus amid all these because I love Jesus. Yes, amid all these sorrows, there is one “first” I see above all, Jesus Christ. This is concretization of last Sunday’s “which is the first of the commandments” – God who is love above all!
Jesus is telling us this Sunday through the poor widow that it is recognizing God in us and in one another that matters, and that is why we give at all.
Photo by author, 2022.
If we love God, if we find God in us and in others, when we find Jesus seated among us, then we realize we are the Church, we are the Temple we love. The moment we realize this, the more we feel at home “sitting with Jesus in the temple”, then we start giving totally because we love as well as know for a fact that whatever we give is actually what we receive from God in Jesus.
Why give so little? Give all, give everything because you never have anything to begin with! Everything is from God. That is why it is in giving that we truly receive. In every Mass, we do not give anything except our mere presence that is not even complete and yet, we get abundant blessings, primarily Jesus Christ whom we receive wholly, Body and Blood.
In every Mass we celebrate, we sit with Jesus in the midst of this inhospitable world we live in, even right in the church we love and hate sometimes. We do not give up. We persevere because we believe, we trust, we hope. Most of all, we love like Elijah and Jesus and believe like the poor widows of Zarephath and Jerusalem Temple. Amen. Have a blessed week ahead!
lordmychef.com 