Anamnesis

Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 21 August 2025

*Photo by author, St. Joseph Chapel, St. Paul Center for Renewal, Alfonso, Cavite, 20 August 2025.*

As we ended our annual clergy retreat today when we remembered in the Mass a saint, Pope Pius X and a hero, Benigno “Ninoy” S. Aquino Jr. , I wish to reflect on the word “remember”, a very lovely word worth remembering always.

From the prefix “RE” that connotes repetition as in again and the root “MEMBER” that means a part, to remember literally is to make someone or something a part again. What and who we remember are those gone and away from us, a history in the past. More than mere recalling of a person, event or thing, remembering is making those absent present.

Though the philosopher Martin Heidegger rightly claimed that we humans are “beings of forgetfulness,” God actually programmed us for remembering: from infancy to childhood, our parents drilled into us to remember our name and address, the names of people around us, of things, and everything as we grew. That is why the expression “kalimutan mo na yun” is the most useless piece of advice anyone can give. It is impossible to forget, whether it is so good or so bad. What we need is to harness the power of remembering, to continue learning from the past whether good or bad because whatever is remembered for all its worth is always the best teacher anyone can have.

Remembering is a power because it is a grace, a gift from God himself. When we remember, we not only time travel to the past but make it present in order to perfect us. The past cannot be changed anymore as insisted by Japanese writer Toshikazu Kawaguchi in his series of novels Before the Coffee Gets Cold.

Remembering changes the person, not the past. It is in remembering the bitter lessons of the past we learn most in life because that is when we experience healing and fulfillment. Hence, remembering is at the very core of George Santayana’s warning that whoever does not learn from history is condemned to repeat it. Remembering enables us to move on in life by finding our ways and ultimately our very selves anew especially when lost and confused.

Of God’s many gifts to us, remembering is the most unique because it is never lost at all. People who refuse to remember are the most difficult to deal with like politicians, crooks and low-lifers. And the more corrupt and evil people are, the more they are forgetful, remembering or knowing nothing at all!

God meant us to keep this gift of remembering to be always reasonable and just, or simply good and sane because it keeps us in touch with reality, making us grow and mature in his love. Actually, it is remembering that continues to operate among us despite our faltering memory or even with those afflicted with Alzheimer’s and dementia because remembering is more than keeping information and details like names of people but most of all of God’s interventions through persons and events in our lives individually and collectively that significantly made us experience joy and gladness so crucial for our growth and maturity, eventually in the achievement of our goals.

On the bulletin board of our sacristy at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in Valenzuela City is a laminated piece of bond paper with the Greek word “anamnesis” written in Greek.

It was personally printed and posted on Holy Thursday 2010 by the former rector and parish priest of the Fatima Shrine Msgr. Bart Santos now the Bishop of Iba, Zambales. I remember that so well because that was the first time I was assigned as an attached priest at the Fatima Shrine in June 2010 to June 2011 under Bishop Bart.

According to Bishop Bart who used to teach Sacred Scriptures in the seminary, he wanted to instill in all their servers of the Mass the value and meaning of the Eucharist as an anamnesis or remembering. I was so glad upon my return in February 2021 at the Fatima Shrine again as an attached priest while working full-time as chaplain at the Our Lady of Fatima University and the Fatima University Medical Center that the sign of Bishop Bart was still there – until now! I just hope the people here realize and still remember that word anamnesis as Bishop Bart had explained to them during the Holy Thursday Mass ten years ago.

When everything seems dark in life with family and friends betraying us, when people we have helped turn against us, denying having known us, try remembering Jesus went through all these first at his Last Supper.

When you feel lost for directions in life, when you are into a burnout, when nothing seems to be working in your favor that you can’t find sparks of inspiration and zeal anymore, remember that first day when you embarked on this journey in life. Remember the people, the places and the things that bring you gladness and joy in pursuing your passion or fulfilling your mission. Most of all, remember when God called you to whatever mission he sent you.

Remembering is a form of stepping back to stop, to create a space and let God work in us as we have reflected last Monday (https://lordmychef.com/2025/08/18/steps-to-god/). This is what we need most in our selves and in our country as a people: the virtue of remembering, of making present the movements of God in our history. Ninoy Aquino did the supreme sacrifice of coming home in August 21, 1983 because he remembered the country he most loved; he remembered his call and mission to serve; he remembered the ideals and mission fought for by our heroes like Jose Rizal and Andres Bonifacio.

It is in remembering we remain anchored to our call and mission in life, both individually and communally. Without remembering, we cannot progress because we lack reference points of what we have covered, of where we are. That is why even the angels at Easter had to remind Mary Magdalene and companions, “He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you while he was still with you in Galilee…” (Lk.24:6). Most of all, let us remember always the words of Jesus at his Ascension so we may keep on pursuing our mission in him, “And remember that I am with you always until the end of time” (Matt. 28:20). May God bless you always!

Scammers & Samaritans: living in the net

Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 15 July 2025

Bless me, for I have sinned: this Father is a “dinosaur” so afraid of modern technology, so hesitant even in upgrading my cellphone and laptop. And most of all, always suspicious of messages in social media.

Generally, I am more inclined to mistrust everything in the net. But, something happened this Monday that I feel like changing this attitude.

I have celebrated Mass of the Holy Spirit in our Cabanatuan City campus before noon when I found multiple “message requests” from some people asking if I know their former boss at NEDA, Mr. Joseph T. Lalog, a first cousin we fondly called Kuya Jojo.

My initial reaction was budol. Scam.

But when I read that he was in the ER of a hospital in EDSA, I prayed and finally hit the number sent to me by a certain Byron to inquire about Kuya Jojo. After a brief introduction, I was told Kuya Jojo had just died after being rushed that morning to the Victor R. Potenciano Medical Center (VRPMC) in EDSA, Mandaluyong City.

Kuya Jojo was allegedly found by a janitress lying on the floor in one of the restrooms of Shangrila Mall morning of July 14, 2025. He was rushed by the mall’s emergency response team to the ER of VRPMC where doctors tried to revive him but later declared as dead around noon that Monday.

The people at the ER checked Kuya Jojo’s contacts in his cellphone and like my initial reaction, his former staff and colleagues at work thought it was also budol until after they have personally called the hospital with some of them going there to verify the report.

That was when Byron and his colleagues at NEDA who were under Kuya Jojo tried reaching out to us by checking his Facebook contact lists of “Lalog” and “Tobias”. And similarly, we all suspected it could be a scam because Kuya Jojo had always been healthy without any vice at all. He was a varsity of the track and field team at De La Salle University where he finished AB Political Science.

What convinced me to set aside my doubts and press that number provided by Byron was his message that my Kuya Jojo would always speak to him about my being a priest. He asked in one of his texts, “kayo po ba si Father Nick pinsan ni Sir Jojo?” With that, I finally felt deep inside this must be true. Not a scam. Or budol.

Mahirap palang maging netizen, mabuhay sa internet.

You know that daily or maybe every second of struggles just to verify and check whether those messages and information in the social media are true or not.

Baka niloloko ka lang? O, ako lang ang OC, takot at duda sa social media?

Ang hirap lalo na sa gitna ng maraming kuwento ng pangloloko at mga budol ng kung sino sino sa social media at internet na kahit kaming mga pari niloloko o ginagamit sa pangbubudol!

At ang pinakamahirap sa lahat – kapag binabanggit na pangalan ng mga taong malapit sa iyo katulad ng pinsan kong buo na si Kuya Jojo. Ang hirap at nakakatakot paniwalaan mga texts na namatay o kung napano na…

That entire stretch of travel from Cabanatuan City to EDSA, I felt being warped between reality and virtual reality, between the net and the real world. What if this is not true? Paano ako?

Aside from those things running in my mind, I was also thinking of my elder relatives. How am I going to break the news? How reliable were those people if they were really the colleagues and staff of my cousin even after I spoke to one of them on phone?

As I thought of my cousin lying on the floor of the CR of the mall, suddenly I remembered last Sunday’s gospel of the good Samaritan. It was like a modern version. My cousin almost dead or already dead on the marble floor of the restroom when a janitress had the courage and mercy to call their emergency response team.

Most of all, of the most kindred souls of Kuya Jojo’s friends and colleagues who never gave up on reaching out to us. They are all the modern good Samaritans who “treated him with mercy” (Lk.10:37).

I arrived 4:30 PM in the hospital where the ER doctor in charge briefed me of Kuya Jojo’s death. Soon Byron arrived and told the doctor my cousin’s medical condition while the funeral service sent by my uncle in Los Baños finally arrived at around 8:00 PM.

At the morgue, I gave the final blessings for Kuya Jojo before being transported to Los Baños where his wake will be held at the Heaven’s Gate Memorial Park in Bgy. Anos. After thanking and blessing Byron and the hospital staff, I booked my ride home as I had earlier sent home our university driver to rest for another trip to our Pampanga campus the following morning.

*Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com*

In less than ten minutes I was on board my Grab ride to Valenzuela City, still wondering what had happened that Monday. As I scrolled on my Facebook and Instagram with its bright light filling my ride, I felt a sense of relief that Jesus is very much present in the internet, in social media. St. Paul wrote it so well more than 2000 years ago that “where sin increased, grace overflowed all the more” (Rom. 5:20).

No matter how bad we see the world including the internet these days with its many sins and evil, God assured me that night that there are still far more good people, good Samaritans than evil ones. We simply have to make the right choice always by choosing Jesus who remains “the way, the truth, and the life” (Jn. 14:6). God bless everyone!

*Thank you to the staff and colleagues of the late Joseph T. Lalog at the NEDA. We do not have yet the details of his wake and interment as his sisters are arriving only this Thursday. On behalf of our clan, thank you and may God bless you more!

Salamuch

A personal note to you, my dear followers, fellow bloggers and everyone at WordPress on the occasion my seventh year of blogging, 06 June 2025

After a funeral Mass in the province yesterday, this greeted me in my notifications yesterday afternoon. Immediately, it brought a smile in me, a sense of inner joy and fullness.

Salamuch is the only word I have for you all.

From the Filipino word “salamat” for thank you and “much” from thank you very much, salamuch is literally “maraming salamat”. Double that to “maraming, maraming salamat” it becomes salamax but I rarely use the term because they remind me of Betamax and its sexual connotations…

I have been reading some blogs by friends via Facebook long before I joined WordPress.

It was purely accidental, like Facebook too. A friend created an account for me here at WordPress seven years ago while we were having a meeting about communications. At first I protested because of my toxic schedules in the parish on top of my teaching load in the seminary and a radio program in our Catholic station. Then I realized this is exactly what I have been teaching to future priests – the need to write and communicate the Gospel in the internet. Since I have been writing my Sunday homilies way back 2003 sending them to some relatives and friends, I started posting them here at WordPress.

I was totally ignorant of everything about blogs… but WordPress is so kind with dinosaurs like me. Most of all, there were so many other bloggers so generous and helpful in sharing me their knowledge about blogging.

That is one great thing about WordPress that I like: it is a community, a family.

I found new friends who helped me grow spiritually. Their diverse views on everything even so different from my own have so enriched me that indeed, reading and writing can take you anywhere around the world, even into the other worlds!

This may sound unusual but, I love WordPress so much because this is where I meet God every day. Not only among the writings by its bloggers but primarily with what WordPress does to me every day: you remind me of the need for me to always pray and whatever I have felt and realized, those are what I wrote and share.

It is funny that as I pounced the keys of my laptop daily and nightly for my posts, it has actually become more of an inner journey than an outer one. Every piece I write is always a journey inside my heart and soul. The same thing happens whenever I read prayers and poems, essays and expositions as well as look at the stunning photos… these have all invited me to look inside me and think what I can share in return.

I have grown because WordPress brought out the gifts I never thought I have.

Salamuch, WordPress in bringing out the good and the best in me always. Indeed, among you I have felt so true Vatican II’s declaration that “Communication is more than the expression of one’s thoughts and feelings. At its most profound level, it is the giving of self in love…” (Communio et Progressio #11). We all read and write here at WordPress simply because we love which is communication in itself. No love, no communication.

Salamuch WordPress for the seven years of love and here’s to more years with you all! God bless!

Friday I’m In Love: DRT

Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 26 November 2024

*Photo by author, Pulong Sampalok, DRT, Bulacan, 23 November 2024.*

Since my mom’s passing in May, I have finally been more resolved in having days off and overnight breaks after some bouts with depression and grief. Last Friday I went to DRT – Doña Remedios Trinidad – the final frontier of Bulacan province where the Sierra Madres link us with Quezon and Rizal provinces.

*The Retirement Home of the Dominican Sisters of St. Joseph at DRT.*

Named after the mother of former First Lady Imelda Romualdez Marcos, DRT was a barrio or barangay of the town of Angat. When Mrs. Marcos separated Valenzuela from Bulacan province in the mid-70’s to create the Greater Manila Area (GMA) that became Metro Manila in the 1980’s, DRT was separated from Angat to become the last and youngest town of Bulacan.

It was actually a homecoming for me after 27 years when I chose to be assigned at Galilee Home, our diocesan rehab for drug dependents before our ordination as deacons in 1997 found at the opposite side of the Dominican Sisters’ House of Prayer where I stayed last weekend.

The Dominican Sisters of St. Joseph were so kind to welcome me to their spiritual center and had promised to join them there every fourth Saturday to celebrate their Mass by staying overnight for my much-needed rest or sabbath.

Indeed, it was a Sabbath to me, a return to Paradise, so close with nature where time seems to stand still or at least goes so slowly.

*Those bamboo fences remind me so much of my childhood days in Bocaue; see how modernity represented by the electric meter competing with the countryside’s laid back atmosphere.*

What I like seeing all the nature around me is when my memory is shuffled to those days as a promdi when like these kids we ruled supreme on the streets, never worried of being run over by vehicles so kind to stop if we were playing.

*Lahat kasali – pati poste! Kids playing Chinese garter.*

As my childhood memory sauntered, I realized it was truly another setting than the city when at 545PM I heard a mother shouting to her children, “kakain na… uwi na!” and the kids obediently went home.

The following morning, as usual, I woke up at 5AM. Prayed and did my warm up exercises and shortly before 6AM, I went off to walk. My destination was the view deck of DRT where a giant statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary stands right after the welcome arch.

*So peaceful… as if the whole world is yours!*

Every time I walk around Valenzuela, I just bring about 200 pesos in my pocket and nothing else – no glasses which I hate so much and likewise, no cellphones. I find these as distractions.

But, that Saturday morning, I brought along my cellphone in order to shoot scenes and of course the sunrise.

Late did I realize on my way back that I should have brought my glasses for better focus especially with the abounding bird species in the area of Pulong Sampalok.

*Oh, they were so many but I failed to catch them in my camera phone because I had no glasses…*

Actually, not related to my not bringing of glasses, I got lost that morning.

Instead of turning right from the Damascus circle, I made a left.

Funny too while walking, I felt something was wrong with my t-shirt – it was baligtad!

Since nobody was around not even houses in the area, I changed my shirt and went happily in my walking.

Barrio folks have always believed that in order to find one’s way in the forest or anywhere, one has to change his/her shirt. Baligtarin ang suot na damit kontra sa tiyanak.

But, despite that act of pagbaligtad of my t-shirt, I still got lost and went onto high steeps that really challenged me so greatly.

Many times I had to stop to catch my breath. Even the cyclists I have met admitted it was a very steep climb while others opted to walk with their bikes.

All in all, I walked 6.69 kilometers without reaching the view deck but, God, I found so many views I never expected that truly refreshed me!

As I got lost walking nowhere, I realized life’s parable – that the most joyful and loveliest things are found in ordinary places like along the sides of the road like these plants and flowers as well as rock formations.

Many times in life, it is actually a grace to go nowhere, to get lost once in a while and simply keep on walking, trusting God for He would always find us a way to Him. Within.

Even met my former student in High School riding with his cousins to visit their lot in the area that Saturday!

What I like most as I have mentioned earlier are the natural fences people have in the countryside like these lovely garden at a store I passed by…

Even dogs seem to be most kind here… not a single dog barked at me despite my getting lost in their area!

Unfortunately, there have been a strong influx of settlers in DRT with presumably big people buying out large tracts of lands for future developments. What an ugly sight to see barbed wires in the mountain area.

And… whoa!

Or, is it the installation of the post that was wrong? Some misplaced priorities that destroy nature.

What kind of road construction is this?

Meanwhile… we are not sure if these are indicative of the climate change at all….

Join me next month in my “Friday I’m In Love” journey to cure my grief as I take you to Dumaguete City. Thank you for the visit! God bless!

I don't care if Monday's blue
Tuesday's grey and Wednesday too
Thursday, I don't care about you
It's Friday, I'm in love
Monday you can fall apart
Tuesday, Wednesday, break my heart
Thursday doesn't even start
It's Friday, I'm in love
(Friday I'm In Love by The Cure)

Knowledge inflates, love builds

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Thursday, Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time, Year II, 12 September 2024
1 Corinthians 8:1-7, 11-13 <'[[[[>< + ><]]]]'> Luke 6:27-38

Brothers and sisters: Knowledge inflates with pride, love builds up. If anyone supposes he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. But if one loves God, one is known by him (1 Corinthians 8:1-2).

O dear Jesus,
how lovely are your words
today through St. Paul;
so timely like during his time
when so many of us today 
have become so proud and
arrogant in knowing so much
that have bloated their egos,
seeing only themselves 
unmindful of others around them,
losing their personal touch,
forgetting their humanity,
miserably failing to love
at all.

Dear Jesus,
remind us anew of that
basic truth that true knowledge
is when we realize we know
so little,
that we must learn more
not only from books 
but most of all from persons;
let us be more loving
so that we can build more
lasting and fulfilling relationships;
let us be more loving
so we can build more trust
and understanding when we
learn to love our enemies;
let us be more loving
so we can build more goodwill
and fellowship by being more
merciful like the Father in heaven;
let us be more loving
so we can build persons
than destroy them by being
non-judgmental of one another;
let us be more loving, Jesus,
so we can build and overflow
with more grace and gifts
as we give more of Jesus Christ.
Amen.

Coming home, going home

Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 10 May 2024

*Photo by Veejay Villafranca/Bloomberg via Getty Images*

My most vivid image of mommy’s love for me is from June 1979 when I bid her goodbye in her sari-sari store on my way to the high school seminary. That was the last time I felt I was a kid, her child, when she hugged me tightly, then held my head and kissed me as she fixed by combed hair, telling me “magpapakabait ka doon, anak.”

She had always been against my entering the seminary, saying I was too young to know about the priesthood. She did all the scare tactics to me: “hindi ka mag-aasawa, isda at tuyo araw-araw ang ulam ninyo, hindi masarap pagkain doon…” She finally allowed me to enter the seminary on second year high school I believe after my dad had silently persuaded her.

It was funny because on my fourth year before graduation, I felt I was not ready yet for the major seminary that was eventually confirmed by the results of my entrance exam (psychological tests actually) to San Carlos Seminary that it was suggested I better leave the seminary.

*My mother Corazon before their wedding in 1964.*

Tama nga si mommy.

It was from then on when we had that kind of not so smooth mother-son relationship. I felt far from her as she would always say something to my plans and decisions. She was not really a contravida but more of an oppositionist. That is why when I felt my vocation anew later in 1988, I never told her about it until I was about to go back to the seminary. That time, there was no more hugging and kissing maybe because I was already an adult, a man bigger and stronger than her.

But what was most memorable for me now that she is gone was the scene every time I would go back the seminary and later to my assignments as a priest.

Whenever I would tell her “mommy, uuwi na po ako”, she would say while smiling, “e nasa bahay ka, paano ka pa uuwi?”

That happened so often that she sounded so corny but still, thank God, I never tired explaining to her, “uuwi sa seminaryo” later to Malolos then to Bagbaguin and now to Fatima. She never failed to banter with me with her dry humor and stroke during those moments of my leaving home. I think she was telling me in those every good bye of ours that my home would always be her, my family. That is why after her body was taken from her room last Tuesday morning, the scene that struck me most on her death was her empty room, vacant big bed.

As I left home pauwi sa Fatima, the morning sunshine were so lovely as it softly brightened mommy’s empty room as she is now “home” in heaven with daddy.

Overall, I feel so joyful and grateful in my mother’s demise. She left so peacefully in her sleep as I have prayed to God daily. The outpouring of love and sympathies and friends are beyond our expectations or imaginations. But, there is that fear, a dread in me about coming home, finding her room empty, telling me she is gone.

Mommy’s room is now empty but our hearts are so full of her love, of her memories, of her gift of self.

During the pandemic, I begged God not to take my mom yet. I told God I was not ready because she was primarily the reason I “go home”. As I reflect on the meaning of that image of her empty room, I realized that it is not about going home but coming home. We go home to the house and place but we come home to persons, to family and friends.

Pag-uwi in Tagalog which is literally coming home. Not going home. Because when we leave, we say uuwi also as we come home to our new home.

We Filipinos express both our kinship and Christian faith in our goodbyes.

Our professor in liturgy Msgr. Andy Valera used to tell us we never say aalis na ako or “I am leaving” because that means we are angry. It is very rude and should never be said when saying goodbye in any Filipino gathering. Instead, we say next to uuwi na ako either tutuloy na ako or mauna na ako. But, how can we make tuloy which is to enter when we are in fact leaving? And why say mauna na ako which means I’ll go ahead when nobody is going with you?

According to Msgr. Andy, our coming home indicates our theology of heaven: we all come home, uwi to heaven our true home that is why when we leave our gatherings we say tutuloy na ako because in the end, we enter heaven. Most of all, we say mauna na ako because nobody knows who is next to die.

What a beautiful lesson I just realized now after mommy had died; even if she’s gone and her empty is room, I will still come home to my sisters and brother, nieces and nephew, relatives and neighbors.

How lovely that despite the pain and emptiness death creates in us here on earth is also the grace of God to fill each others heart with His loving presence and joy as we await our final coming home to Him with our departed loved ones in heaven.

Jesus told his disciples: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be.”
John 14:1-3

The best way to come home to heaven is to come home often to our family and friends not only to dine and celebrate but most of all, to praise and thank God in prayers, especially the Sunday Mass. God bless everyone!

We never get used with death

Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 07 May 2024

*My favorite photo of my mom and dad, so candid, “silang-sila talaga”; now, they are together in heaven.*

Yes. It is true. I just realized today that we never get used to any death because every death is different as the person who dies. And most especially, now I have realized, every death is always a blessing from God.

I was preparing for our 630AM Mass today when my youngest niece called me, crying, and the only word I understood she was saying was “Mamu”, referring to my mother. I then asked my brother priest to take over my Mass as I headed home. In less than half an hour, I was anointing my mom for the final moment, said prayers and blessed her body with Holy Water with my sisters and only brother.

I knew this day was coming, even approaching.

In 2020 during the COVID pandemic, I begged God to keep us all safe, not to take any one from my family, especially Mommy who had a stroke in 2005. June last year she had another stroke but refused to stay in the hospital, begged me not to have her confined, “Father, huwag mo ako ipa-ospital…tama na… ayoko na.” What can I do but obey my mother. Last January, she had permanently been bed-ridden, been sleeping for days, and had refused to eat on several days. But one thing we noticed she had always been bubbling with joy, cracking jokes whenever she would wake up.

*Mommy would always say the day she married my dad was the happiest day of her life.*

Every week, I would visit her, anoint her with Holy Oil and bring her Holy Communion. Since January this year, I have been praying to God to give my mother a peaceful death. I did not ask for her happy death because I felt how happy she has been this past year. Lord, just make it peaceful. No more pain because she had gone through many pain in her life since her childhood as she used to tell me. That is why she insisted on us to all finish our studies because she never had the chance to even reach high school because of that dictum in those years “mag-aasawa lang ang babae…”

And she died peacefully. Definitely, happily early today. My sister said she was supposed to give her medications before 6AM when mommy did not move or even twitch a little. She was still warm, my sister said but unusually still unlike before. That was when they called me.

Like when my dad suddenly died on mommy’s birthday, June 17, 2000, I could not cry hard enough. I feel very sad. But there is that inner joy and peace within me. Especially with my mom’s passing. I thought I would be used to her dying, having prepared for this day, having through dad’s sudden death 24 years ago.

By the way, my homilies since Sunday have always revolved around mommy:

Love in every turn

God bless all women!

What “joins” us?

I never knew mommy would “join” daddy today in heaven.

Iba pa rin pala. God is so good. That’s all I feel at the moment. God is so good. He listens and grants our deepest prayers. All praise to Him. Kindly pray for my mother, Corazon. God bless you too and thank you.

Real power empowers

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B, 04 February 2024
Job 7:1-4, 6-7 ><}}}}*> 1 Corinthians 9:16-19, 22-23 ><}}}}*> Mark 1:29-39

*Photo by The Good Brigade/Digital Vision/Getty Images via cnn.com.*

There’s another “war” happening that had actually started a long time ago but only now recognized by the powerful US Senate in Washington DC when they summoned last week the owners of big tech companies to a hearing on the harmful effects of social media.

It is a war that at first seemed to have been neglected or even unrecognized when parents and experts have long been complaining about the ill effects of social media. Finally, authorities are doing something about it.

*“Great power comes with great responsibilities.”- Spiderman.* *Photo from peakpx.com.*

Though the issues at hand are very contentious because of the many benefits too of social media, the US Senate hearings are a big step in demanding more social responsibilities from tech owners who have become so powerful with their products’ wide reach and influence.

Of course, much responsibilities are also in the hands of parents and users of social media but one thing has always been clear these past 20 years when experts and ordinary folks have been raising the red flag on social media being so impersonal in nature where persons are often considered as objects than subjects to be loved and respected.

Our ability to communicate is a sharing in the power of God, a sharing in his authority meant to foster union among peoples as persons. Despite the efficiency of social media, it cannot and must not replace the human person in every communication. This we have seen last Sunday when people were “astonished” and “amazed” one sabbath as Jesus spoke with authority in their synagogue in Capernaum. From there, Jesus moved into the home of Simon Peter, staying for a while in Capernaum before moving on to other locations to continue his ministry of teaching and healing.

On leaving the synagogue Jesus entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John. Simon’s mother-in-law lay sick with a fever. They immediately told him about her. He approached, grasped her hand, and helped her up. Then the fever left her and she waited on them.
Mark 1:29-31

Photo by author, ruins of the neighborhood around the synagogue of Capernaum where Jesus used to preach; underneath the Church are believed to be the ruins of the home of Simon Peter where Jesus healed his mother-in-law.

It was still the day of sabbath and we could feel the great joy and pride of the four disciples with Jesus that they “immediately told him” about Simon’s mother-in-law who “lay sick with a fever.”

Notice Mark’s detailed report on the healing of Simon’s mother-in-law by Jesus: He approached, grasped her hand, and helped her up. Then the fever left her and she waited on them. In this continuation of a slice in the life of Jesus last Sunday, Mark is presenting us again another important aspect of Christ’s authority and power that is personal which empowers others.

To empower means to raise up a person from one’s lowliness in order to restore his/her well-being. To empower means to make a person whole again as he/she discovers and experiences anew his/her giftedness in God and as a person.

Now, imagine this in the light of the powers of social media made possible by the internet through various devices: Jesus could have healed anybody who was sick within a 100 or 200 meter radius from the synagogue of Capernaum with his great powers being the Son of God. He could have just sent off signals like a router to heal more sick people instead of making them flock to the home of Simon Peter. Even today, perhaps, we could just come to the church, stay in a specific spot like the confessional to get connected to Jesus and voila – get healed!

But, Jesus never did that kind of healing and would never do it. Recall how Jesus would always approach and touch, speak and meet the sick before healing them. When a woman was healed of her hemorrhages after touching his clothes while they were in a crowd, Jesus stopped and searched for her to have a personal relationship. Unlike the internet, Jesus came in order to personally connect with us and connect us with the Father in the most personal manner.

In every healing by Jesus, there is always something deeper than restoration of one’s health which is salvation, a personal encounter with the Christ who leads us to fulfillment as persons. In every healing of body, there is the forgiveness of sins in one’s soul and being. Healing is more wholistic in nature than being being relieved of headache or any discomfort. Many times, our sickness can leave us deformed, disabled and even invalid without any cure at all yet deep inside us we still experience freedom and joy. That is healing because we are assured of being loved and cared for by another person and most of all by Jesus, personally.

So unlike the powers of any human or professional nor even by the social media so much around us that may be indeed so strong and efficient with its great speed but could never uplift us or restore our well-being. For sometime, they can offer us with relief but the deep longings and emptiness within us lingers on. Why? St. Augustine expressed it perfectly when he wrote in his Confessions, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”

This Sunday, Mark is telling us that Jesus comes to us daily right in our hearts where our home is, always “approaching us, grasping our hands, helping us up” from all our burdens and pains, sufferings and miseries. Are we present to meet Jesus? Do we “immediately” tell him our problems like Simon Peter when his mother-in-law had fever?

The only essential and vital connection we must keep and maintain in this life is our personal connection with God in Jesus Christ who exemplified this well at the end of this Sunday’s gospel when “Rising very early before dawn, he left and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed” (Mk. 1:35).

Last Friday we celebrated the Feast of the Presentation where Simeon and Anna showed us too how they remained personally connected with God in their daily prayers and fasting at the temple so that when Joseph and Mary came with the Child Jesus, both were led by the Holy Spirit to meet them. Imagine the crowd at the temple at that time plus Simeon and Anna being both old with the usual woes but were both never distracted in their focus on God and his promise of salvation in Christ before dying.

*Photo by Vigie Ongleo in Virginia, USA, 02 February 2024.*

There will always be suffering in life as the first reading reminds us. Like Job, we go through many setbacks in life, making us wonder all the more at the mystery – and scandal – of human sufferings, of how it could befall us if we have a powerful and loving God. St. Paul meanwhile tells us in the second reading how imperfect our world is when we sometimes have to make sacrifices to keep the unity of our family and community.

Both Job and St. Paul in their sufferings and sacrifices remained connected with God, bore everything in silence to become “all things to all men” (omnia omnibus) by sharing God’s power and authority in their weaknesses even in death that have empowered countless men and women through the ages including us in our own time.

Let us pray:

Lord Jesus Christ,
our true healer of all sickness
in body, heart, mind and soul:
keep us connected in you
especially in moments of trials
and difficulties so that we may
be filled with your personal powers
as we too empower others
when they are weakest.
Amen.

A blessed weekend to everyone!

Choose love. Always.

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Sunday in the Thirtieth Week of Ordinary Time, Cycle A, 29 October 2023
Exodus 22:20-26 ><}}}}*> 1 Thessalonians 1:5-10 ><}}}}*> Matthew 22:34-40

*Photo by Dra. Mai Dela Peña, Mt. Carmel, Israel, 2017.*

The enemies of Jesus continued with their barrage of questions to trick him into saying something that could lead to his arrest and execution. After failing last Sunday, the Pharisees sent today an expert – a “scholar of the law” – to test him anew with the question:

“Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”
Matthew 22:36-40

For the second straight Sunday, Jesus not only responded to his enemies’ malicious questions with brief and brilliant answers but also taught them, including us today, with important lessons on discipleship.

Once again, Jesus is inviting us to have a wholistic view of life centered on God by healing the divisions within our hearts that are reflected in our broken relationships as individuals and family, church and community, and nation. How often do we reveal that same division in our hearts whenever we ask that same question 2000 years ago by the Pharisee, “which of the commandment in the law is the greatest”?

*Photo by author, view from temple of Jerusalem, May 2017.*

After receiving the Ten Commandments from God through Moses at Mount Sinai, the Jews dissected them into 613 instructions with 248 of these as positive laws every individual “should do” and the other 365 as negative laws everyone “should not do”.

Naturally, it was very difficult – if not impossible – for them to remember and observe these 613 precepts to guide them in their daily living so that their rabbis devised ways in which the Law could be prioritized with some categorized as “important” or “heavy” that should be followed more than those considered as “less important” or “lighter” in gravity. For example, laws pertaining to persons like parents are more important than those concerning animals that included about bird’s nest (Dt. 22:6-7)! Problem with this was when they circumvented the Law to give priority to lesser things that disregard the more important ones as Jesus pointed out so often to their religious leaders who have emphasized the sabbath by neglecting the human person like the sick.

*Photo by author, St. Anne’s Church, Jerusalem, Israel, May 2017.*

Another solution they have devised was to establish summary statements of the Law that could help put it all in perspective like “whatever is hateful to you, don’t do it to others”. Again, like in categorizing the Law, putting them into perspectives eventually led to their lost of essence because in our human experience, when many factors are weighed into our daily life, the way we see things are often narrowed and dimmed; then we begin making excuses and alibis to be exempted from our religious instructions. That is why Jesus “leveled up” the people’s perspectives in their views of the Law by telling them to shift their sights to higher level not just its letters but its spirit and source – God himself like the love enemies and the beatitudes.

Here we find the beauty and nobility of Jesus Christ’s answer to the scholar’s question by leading us all into the very essence of the Law which is love who is God too! Eventually on the Cross on Good Friday just like during the sermon on the mount, Jesus would show to everyone he was not only the fulfillment of the Law but the Law himself when he gave himself in love – to God our Father and to us his brothers and sisters. Today he deepens his teaching last Sunday that inasmuch as we have to give to Caesar what is Caesar’s like paying of taxes, then, we have to give our total self, our whole heart to God because that is what is due to God, our Maker and Master. To give our hearts to God is to always choosing to love God and love others as one loves one’s self.

*Photo by author, garden beside St. Anne’s Church in Jerusalem, Israel, May 2017.*

The moment we start categorizing or putting God’s laws into perspectives, into our own points of view, then we deviate from God himself and his plans. When we divide, separate and split the laws of God to find which could best suit us, then it becomes a DIY (do-it-yourself) Christianity where we choose laws applicable to us and disregard the rest we find difficult, calling them as outdated and conservative like divorce, contraceptives, and abortion.

In summarizing the commandments into the law of love, Jesus is inviting us today to welcome him into our hearts to let him alone dwell and reign over us so that when we are confronted with any issue and dilemma or confusion in life, we resolve them in the light of Christ which is always love. Letting Jesus reign in our hearts is choosing to find him in the other person we must respect and love and care.

*Photo by author at Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem, May 2017.*

To choose Jesus and his love is to always choose the human person above material things and even with one’s self. And to choose Jesus and his love is choosing his Cross too because he said there is no greater love than to offer one’s self for another. The true sign that we have really loved is when we love somebody more than ourselves like Jesus!

It is difficult and even insane as St. Paul declared “we are fools for Christ” (1 Cor. 4;10) because anyone who loves like Jesus who loves God with one’s total self and loves others like one’s self is crazy in the world’s point of view and standard. It has always been the way of Christianity ever since, always suspected as a threat to the ways of the world because the ways of Christ and his disciples are opposite the ways of the world as St. Paul explained to the Thessalonians “who received the word in great affliction, with joy in the Holy Spirit” (1 Thes. 1:6).

When I was still a young priest giving Marriage Encounter weekends to couples, I used to ask them this question: when husband and wife have an LQ or “lover’s quarrel”, who should make the first move to say sorry and be reconciled?

Many couples laugh, saying it should be the man first while men claim it must be ladies first. Still others reason out it should be the one who had sinned.

My answer: whoever has more love to give must be the first to make the move to reconcile because whoever has more love should love more!

The more we love, the more we are able to love because love is infinite like God. It is the only thing that will remain in the end because God is love. His laws are his expressions and manifestations of his love expressed in his compassion being a personal God relating with us through men and women around us (first reading). His laws fulfilled as love in the person of Jesus Christ light and guide our path in life often darkened by sin and imperfections. Choose love always and you shall never get lost! Amen. Have a lovely long weekend!

*Photo by author, Pater Noster Church, Jerusalem, the Holy Land, May 2019.*

Twice lost, twice found. In Baguio II.

Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 17 July 2023

*Photo by author, sunrise at Camp John Hay, 12 July 2023.*

If there is one thing I have truly learned and finally got convinced more than ever, never trust “media”: what you see and hear especially in social media are not true at all. I have known it all along having worked there. Have been teaching it too for so long. But sometimes, just because I was with the bagets and younger siblings who all relied with WAZE and Tiktok while listening endlessly to Spotify, sigue na nga, maniwala na nga ako sa media.

*Photo by author, Camp John Hay, 12 July 2023.*

And so, we got lost again on our final day in Baguio City.

But, still thankful for the experience, the fun and new discoveries not only outside but inside ourselves as siblings, as a family.

Went to bed earlier the night before hoping I could sleep longer in the city of pines. Unfortunately, I was already up before 5am, as usual, the following morning.

Sad to say, too, the weather is no longer that cold anymore in Baguio as before. Though the temperature readings indicated 19 degrees, I could hardly feel it except at about 2am.

Walked a kilometer with my only nephew Tommy and his mother, my sister Meg who enjoyed identifying the various plants and flowers with her phone app. She’s the only one among us four who had inherited our mother’s green thumb, a certified plantita as she would prove later in our misadventure.

*Admiring the “naturally” thriving flowers on a street near the Good Shepherd Convent in Baguio, 12 July 2023.*

After a sumptuous breakfast at the Manor House and endless pictorials, we packed our things to check out half an hour before 12 noon for the second most important itinerary of any Baguio vacation: Good Shepherd and Mines View Park shopping for pasalubong!

Traffic was not heavy when we went there, a Tuesday and Wednesday. And Baguio’s new traffic scheme with many “one ways” seem to be working well, even better than before the pandemic period.

We were supposed to visit the Living Gifts Nursery also in La Trinidad town but, WAZE and Google Maps seem to be at a loss where that is located that we ended up at the Bahong Sunflower Garden.

I was already getting impatient after several misses and turns, refreshing Google map over and over when on our third try, we saw signs to a tourism office and the Bahong Sunflower Garden.

That was when we decided to forget the Living Gifts Nursery as we convinced ourselves it had changed its name to Bahong Sunflower Garden after the TikTok reel was uploaded.

Maybe next time, TikTok should also incorporate a GPS app for its featured destination spots for directions. Or, I better stop acting as navigator at all.

*Photo by our youngest niece, Catherine Darla Lalog.*

There’s an entrance fee so minimal, not less than 100-pesos but again, the sights are worth all the efforts. And patience.

*Photo by our birthday celebrator, Bing-Bing.*

Of course, first thing we looked for upon arrival was the “CR” that was “comfortable” enough to make us smile and laugh in enjoying each other with nature made better by its cool, sometimes chilly, breeze.

*Photo by author, still at Bahong Sunflower Garden, 12 July 2023.*

We left Bahong Sunflower Garden after an hour with a lot of fond memories as a family. Shortly before boarding our car, Meg could not contain herself not buying a plant from there. And the more she became insistent after finding out what she wanted cost only 300 pesos which according to her could easily fetch a price of over 3000-pesos in Bulacan.

Despite protests from her kids that there was no more space for her second plant, like my mom, Meg found a way of arranging everything at the back of her Innova with still some space – just in case – like additional pasalubong along the way.

*Photo by author, still at Bahong Sunflower Garden, La Trinidad, Benguet, 12 July 2023.*

How true indeed that once in a while, it is good to get lost in our trips. After all, it is the journey that matters most and not the destination. Most especially, the company you keep. Primary of them is our own family.

Being the eldest in the family, there were times I wished I have an Ate, an elder sister, someone I could turn to in times of difficulties. Someone to look up to. Hindi yung ako lang palagi tinitingala nila especially after Dad had passed away in 2020.

But, up there in La Trinidad, I have realized that in life, it is not really about looking up and looking down. The only time we ought to look up is to God who is above all else and everything. Our semper major. The rest, in my view, is not about looking up nor looking down but of seeing more each one as a person, a beloved. Life is about seeing – not looking – to find the giftedness of everyone that has always been ever present.

Truly, “persons are gifts of God to me, that come all wrapped so differently” as we used to sing in our daily Masses in the high school seminary. This was most true as we left the garden when we have to ascend.

It was our only nephew Tommy who was most gracious and kind, and strong enough, to pull us up from the steep and sometimes slippery pathways.

Along the way, he found these plants which he called as nature’s “chocolate batirol”.

Despite his denials, he seemed disappointed when Camp John Hay’s Chocolate de Baterol was still closed when we walked there earlier.

We shall definitely go back to Baguio City to relax and unwind. And get lost again.

Thank you for joining us in our trip. God bless everyone! May you also have a great vacation soon! Amen.