Our search for peace

Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Tuesday in Fifth Week of Easter, 20 May 2025
Acts 14:19-28     ><))))*> + ><))))*> + ><))))*>     John 14:27-31

*Photo by author, Cabo da Roca Villas, Pundaquit, San Antonio, Zambales, 14 May 2025.*

Jesus said to his disciples, “Peace be with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid” (John 14:27).

Come, Lord Jesus!
Come and let me search peace
in you,
not in the world that is uncertain
and always dependent,
transactional in nature;
you know it, Lord,
how often like your disciples at the
Last Supper,
I look for peace in the world,
in things and in what people
say and approve
that peace remains elusive;
you know very well too,
Jesus,
my fears and anxieties
that I give into the peace of the
world that is quick and easier;
give me courage,
Jesus, to look for peace
in you here in my heart,
to trust in you,
not afraid to love totally
even to get hurt
because it is the path
to your peace.

Like Paul and Barnabas
after being stoned and rejected
by their fellow Jews,
they never backed out from
preaching your good news, Lord;
instead, so true to your words
at the Last Supper not to let our hearts
troubled or afraid,
they asserted,
"It is necessary for us to undergo
many hardships to enter
the Kingdom of God" (Acts 14:22).

Grant us, O Lord,
the same faith
and courage and
trust in you
in order to finally
find your lasting peace.
Amen.

Stop & Go. In God, with God.

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Thursday in the Seventeenth Week of Ordinary Time, Year I, 03 August 2023
Exodus 40:16-21, 34-38 ><}}}}*> + ><}}}}*> + ><}}}}*> Matthew 13:47-53

*Photo by author, San Juan, La Union, 24 July 2023.*

God our Father,
it is undeniably true
that days are getting 
faster and shorter;
life is quickly passing
without us really realizing;
how crazy we have become
working so hard eight to
ten hours a day, five days
a week only to enjoy life
in less than 24 hours;
we are all in a hurry in a 
rat race that has no winner,
wishing we could be older
too soon only to wish later
how we could be young again.

Help us to center our lives
in you again like when your
people were in the wilderness;
let us be aware and mindful
of your presence in our midst
like your tent:
"Whenever the cloud rose
from the Dwelling,
the children of Israel
would set out on their journey.
But if the cloud did not lift,
they would not go forward;
only when it lifted
did they go forward"
(Exodus 40:36-37).

Let us be discerning,
Lord, in our moves,
in our lives "like the head
of the household who brings
from his storeroom
both the new and the old"
(Matthew 13:52);
lead me, Lord,
and do not let me be
led by the world,
by my desires,
by my ego
and pride.
Amen.

Lent is levelling up in Jesus

40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Tuesday in the Fifth Week of Lent, 28 March 2023
Number 21:4-9   >>> +++ <<<   John 8:21-30

*Photo by author, 22 March 2023, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, Quezon City.*

Dearest God our Father,
help me to level up in Jesus,
let me shift_ my being in Christ
to see things in Your perspectives
unlike the Israelites who complained 
against You and Moses
while in the wilderness
when their "patience (was) worn out
by the journey" (Num. 21:4)
that they failed to see You and
Your blessings pouring upon them.

Let me be like the poor people
in the crowd listening to Jesus
who came to believe in Him 
after saying:

“When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I AM, and that I do nothing on my own, but I say only what the Father taught me. The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, because I always do what is pleasing to him.”
John 8:28-29

How funny and ironic
that the Pharisees could not
understand Jesus when speaking
in literal and figurative senses
because they have boxed Him in their minds,
constricting the very person of Christ
in their own understanding.
Many times, Father,
we are like them.
So true are the words of Jesus
"You belong to what is below,
I belong to what is above.
You belong to this world,
but I do not belong to this world"
(John 8:23).

On many occasions,
loving Jesus,
You have expressed how we
your disciples must be in the world
but never of the world. 
Enable us to level up in You
so that in the same manner
lead others up to you.
Amen.