Lawiswis ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Ika-14 ng Pebrero 2025
Larawan kuha ng may-akda, Tagaytay, 17 Enero 2025.
Pansamantalang titigil sa mga kinikilig pag-inog nitong daigdig sa araw na ito ng mga pusong umiibig; tiyak bibigay din ano mang hinhin at yumi ng sinomang dilag kapag nakatanggap ng bulaklak kanino man magbuhat.
Ngunit ang masaklap tuwing katorse ng Pebrero ang maraming pag-ibig katulad na lamang ng petsang dumaraan, wala nang katapatan at kadalisayan mga magkasintahan pag-ibig dinurumihan isa't isa'y sinasaktan at dinudungisan.
Pagmasdan ating kapanahunan pilit binibigyang katuwiran kasalanan at kasamaan matutunghayan saanman mga larawan ng kataksilan wala nang kahihiyan ipinangangalandakan mga kapalaluan sa gitna ng kapangahasang magmaang-maangan na wala silang kalaswaan.
Alalahanin
at balikan tagpo sa
halamanan
nang magkasala
una nating mga magulang
sila'y nagulantang
sa kanilang kahubaran
nabuksan murang malay
at kaisipan
nang kainin bawal na bunga
ng puno ng kaalaman
ng mabuti at masama;
mabuti pa sila noon
nahiya at nagtago
habang ngayon
namamayagpag
sa yabang at kapalaluan
ang karamihan
kanya-kanyang rason
maraming palusot
puro baluktot
at paninindigan
2day
2morrow
4ever
nakalimutang
pag-ibig
ay panig
sa katotohanan
hindi kasinungalingan;
ang tunay na pag-ibig
hatid ay kaayusan
hindi kaguluhan,
kapayapaan at kapanatagan
hindi takot
at kahihiyan
ang diwa
nitong Valentine's.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II First Friday, Fourth Week in Ordinary Time, 07 February 2025 Hebrews 13:1-8 ><}}}}*> + ><}}}}*> + ><}}}}*> Mark 6:14-29
Photo by Mr. Gelo Carpio Nicolas, January 2020.
Keep me faithful and true to you, Jesus because you are "the same yesterday, today, and forever" (Hebrews 13:8); it is I who forgets all the time, who chooses to turn away from you and be unloving, unkind, unforgiving.
Forgive me, Jesus when you tell me "Let brotherly love continue" (Hebrews 13:1)....
...but many times I can't look or even consider each one a brother or a sister because of our many differences.
"Do not neglect hospitality, for through it some have unknowingly entertained angels" (Hebrews 13:2)...
...I think, more than the angels but on many occasions it was you whom I have turned away, Jesus because I am so suspicious of others who come to me for whatever needs.
"Be mindful of prisoners as if sharing their imprisonment, and of the ill-treated as of yourselves, for you are also in the body" (Hebrews 13:3)...
I'm sorry, Jesus for the many times I have imprisoned others in my narrow mind of many biases and prejudices.
"Let marriage be honored among all and the marriage bed be kept undefiled" (Hebrews (13:4)...
what a shame, Jesus in our age when marriage is no longer honored and just taken for granted with many couples defiling their bed.
"Let your life be free from love of money but be content with what you have" (Hebrews 13:5)...
alas! my dearest Jesus, save us your priests our diocese so in love with money, with the rich and powerful with whom we are so close and identified with, totally neglecting the poor and the suffering among us with our many excuses and alibis, always at their beck and calls.
Yes, Jesus, many times we feel like Herod: bothered only by the gospel, bothered only of your presence among the poor and suffering but so much like Herod, we never bothered ourselves to truly find you and follow you. Amen.
Photo from Wikipedia, mosaic of Jesus with Mary and John the Baptist at the Hagia Sophia in Turkey.
Lawiswis ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Ika-04 ng Pebrero 2025
Larawan kuha ng may-akda, Tagaytay, 17 Enero 2025.
Sampung araw bago sumapit ang Valentine's sa akin ay lumapit isang dalagita nahihiyang nagtanong bagama't ibig niyang mabatid kung "makakahanap po ba ako ng lalaking magmamahal sa akin ng tunay at tapat?"
Ako'y nanahimik, ngumiti at tumingin sa dalagitang nahihiyang nakatungo ang ulo sa kanyang tanong at nang ako'y magsimulang mangusap, mukha niya ay bumusilak sa tuwa sa bagong kaalaman sa pag-ibig na matiyaga niyang sinasaliksik.
Larawan kuha ng may-akda, Atok, Benguet, 27 Disyembre 2024.
Ito ang wika ko sa dalagita: "Ang pag-ibig," ay hindi hinahanap parang gamit nakakamit dahil ang pag-ibig ay kusang dumarating kaya iyong matiyagang hintayin ikaw ang kanyang hahanapin; tangi mong gampanin buksang palagi iyong puso at damdamin dahil itong pag-ibig ay dumarating sa mga tao at pagkakataong hindi inaasahan natin; banayad at mayumi hindi magaspang pag-uugali magugulat ka na lamang ika’y kanyang natagpuan palagi na siyang laman ng puso at isipan."
"Pakaingatan din naman", wika ko sa dalagita "itong pag-ibig ay higit pa sa damdamin na dapat payabungin tulad ng mga pananim, linangin upang lumalim hanggang maging isang pasya na laging pipiliin ano man ang sapitin at hantungan."
Ang pag-ibig ay parating dumarating ngunit kadalasan hindi natin pansin kung minsan tinatanggihan, inaayawan dahil ang ibig ay kumabig; darating at mananatili itong pag-ibig sa simula na ating limutin lahat ng para sa sarili natin.
Larawan kuha ng may-akda, Atok, Benguet, 27 Disyembre 2024.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Thursday, Week II in Ordinary Time, Year I, 23 January 2025 Hebrews 7:25-8:6 <*{{{{>< + ><}}}}*> Mark 3:7-12
Photo by author, St. Paul Spirituality Center, Pico, La Trinidad, Benguet, 06 December 2024.
Let me come to you, Jesus, with confidence and humility to express to you my deepest longings and desires, my deepest needs and cries you know so well but I always deny or too shy to tell you completely.
Though I know very well how your death on the Cross is the single most important event in history for all times and for all peoples, I balk its realities not for lack of faith but due to low self-esteem, lack of self-acceptance that you do love me truly.
The main point of what has been said is this: we have such a high priest, who has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of Majesty in heaven, a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle that the Lord, not man, set up. Now he has obtained so much more excellent a ministry as he is a mediator of a better covenant, enacted on better promises (Hebrews 8:1-2, 6).
Let me follow you, Jesus like the people in the gospel: let me not follow you only to the sea but even to the Cross to be one in you, one with you for you alone is truly one with me everywhere, all the time. Amen.
Photo by author, Mount Olis, Atok, Benguet, 27 December 2024.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Thursday, Memorial of St. Anthony, Abbot, 17 January 2025 Hebrews 4:1-5, 11 ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> Mark 2:1-12
Photo by author, sunset in Atok, Benguet, 27 January 2025.
God our Father, let us enter into your rest, let us go back to you in Jesus Christ and enter your rest like in Paradise before the Fall; spare us of your wrath like with the Israelites in Meribah and Massah when they challenged and provoked you and thus be prevented from entering your rest, the Promised Land.
Let us be on guard while the promise of entering into his rest remains, that none of you seem to have failed. For in fact we have received the Good News just as our ancestors did. But the word that they heard did not profit them, for they were not united in faith with those who listened. Therefore, let us strive to enter into that rest, so that no one may fall after the same example of disobedience (Hebrews 4:1-2, 11).
With Christ's coming, you have opened anew heaven to us, enabling us to enter your rest like what happened in the opening of the roof above him to lower a paralytic; in Jesus, that rest you have after creating everything in Genesis has become a reality with his gift of forgiveness and reconciliation to everyone as experienced by the paralytic in today's gospel; O dearest Lord Jesus, help me to rise again by picking up the pieces of my life made whole in you again filled with your breath, filled with your life, soundly at rest in your love and mercy. Amen.
Photo by author, sunset in Atok, Benguet, 27 January 2025.
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.
