Tag: pilgrimage

Jesus lord of the sea and darkness

Happy birthday, Lord Jesus!

Happy birthday to us all too!

Every year we await our birthdate to celebrate life. But more than that we await most Christmas without really realizing why.

Yesterday afternoon at five we entered your Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. After more than three hours waiting in line, we reached your birthplace.

Thank so much for the grace to touch your birth site. We were so touched because we touched base with our very selves too. We felt your love for us, the joy of being alive,

Most of all, like the joy of being born, of being brought forth into the world that is dark and very cold – hostile like the apostles crossing Tiberias in today’s gospel without you in sight – your still come.

You actually stay in us, among us, and with us.

Teach us like the Eleven apostles to concentrate praying your word as we serve the needy. Let us stay in you, stay with you. Amen.

Love Jesus first

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul, Friday, 03 May 2019 Feast of Sts. Philip and James, Apostles

Praise and glory to you O Lord Jesus Christ for this first Friday in your Holy Land!

Yesterday we visited and prayed at the various sites of your ministry around the shores of the beautiful Lake of Galilee.

Here you called your first Apostles and later nearby the others who followed you like Philip and James whose feast we celebrate today.

Like us, they were seeking direction in life. That, they found in you alone, Lord Jesus – something we are rediscovering in a wonderful way these days during our pilgrimage.

So many times due to many concerns in life, we forget you are the Gospel – the Good News – who saved us all (1Cor.15:1).

So many times we forget like Philip that you and the Father are one, that whoever had seen you has seen the Father too (Jn.14:9).

Lord Jesus Christ, visiting “mensa Christi“, your table where you had breakfast with your apostles after Easter, we realized the most important thing of all of being a Christian – to be in love with your first and above all Lord!

Let us love you more deeply Lord Jesus as you well know how weak we are. Amen.

Photos by the author: above is the shore at the back of Capernaum where Jesus preached and last photo is back of church near shore where the Lord asked Simon thrice, “Do you love me?”.

What is a pilgrim?

Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 02 May 2011

As I was telling you since the eve of our departure Sunday… this is my third pilgrimage to the Holy Land, my first as a chaplain guiding 23 other pilgrims.

The word pilgrim entered the English language during the Holy Wars of 1100’s courtesy of the French Crusaders. But its root can be traced to the Latin noun “peregrinus”, the combination of the words “per” or through and “ager” for land. Literally speaking, a peregrinus or pilgrim is one who walks through the land. A pilgrim is a wayfarer as the Hebrews would claim that we have “no lasting city” on earth. We are merely passing through this earth on the way back home to God who is also our origin.

So, what is a pilgrim?

A pilgrim is a follower or a seeker of God. In our age when traveling is a way of life not only in one’s own country but to various parts of the world, a pilgrimage to a holy site is different from a tour primarily because of God himself.

In a pilgrimage, it is God who calls us to follow him or seek him in the Holy Land and other holy sites. It is God who gives us the strength – physically, emotionally, and spiritually – to follow or seek him in a holy site. It is God himself who plans our itinerary for any pilgrimage we undertake! Believe me, every sacred site has a calling and no matter how much you have heard about it that you want to visit but God has others plans for you, you’ll never make it.

It is not superstition. Just today we were prevented from going to Mt. Tabor which we failed to visit in 2017; first time I went there was in 2005. I just don’t know why Jesus is keeping me away from his mount of transfiguration. I just feel deep inside it is not meant for me again. In 2017 I came to visit anew the tomb of King David but it was only then I realized that above it is the Upper Room of Christ’s Last Supper.

Every pilgrimage is an invitation from God. Does he play favorite why not everyone is invited especially in this age of frequent traveling?

God is not playing favorite among us when it comes with pilgrimages. It is more about the question of who is truly serious in following or seeking him for a more intimate relationship through a Holy Land or holy site pilgrimage. And this is because a pilgrim goes through the land to meet himself first. Unless we have come to terms with our very selves, we shall never come to terms with life. Or death. And ultimately with God.

A pilgrim is a serious follower or seeker of God.

A pilgrim walks through the land in order to meet himself or herself. The time and distance or destination do not really matter that much. The goal of any pilgrim is to experience and find God by discovering himself or herself. From being a journey, life then becomes a pilgrimage because a pilgrim is someone who keeps on going through the land, going through all the pains and sufferings to find himself or herself more in order to be with God always.

Ultimately, a pilgrim is someone who willingly enters into a relationship with God to follow Him and be with Him in any direction to reach His home, our final destination which is heaven.

Listen. The Lord must be calling you too to be a pilgrim. Follow Him.

All photos by the author. From the top: Mt. Nebo monastery where God gave Moses the chance to see the Promised Land; statue of Jesus sleeping on a bench in Capernaum; travelling through the desert highway in Jordan; and, morning boat ride at the Lake of Galilee.

Obeying God than men

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul, Thursday, Easter Week II, 02 May 2019

O Lord Jesus Christ, grant us the courage you gave Peter before the Sanhedrin to boldly proclaim “We must obey God than men.”

So often in this modern world, modernity masked in relativism has become our new religion. We are more concerned with what people would say or think about us if we stand by your truth respecting life.

In the name of political correctness and human rights, we choose to be silent or tolerable with so many thoughts that run contradictory to the values of family, sanctity of marriage, sexuality, identity, and life itself.

Let us reflect on your words to Nicodemus “The one who comes from above is above all. The one who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of earthly things. But the one who comes from heaven is above all” (Jn.3:31).

The beautiful churches and rich culture of Madaba and Mt. Nebo in Jordan reflect these things “of the above”. Let us always look up to you and be healed and saved. Amen.

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Pilgrimage of Love

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe
Feast of St. Joseph the Worker
01 May 2019 in Amman, Jordan

Dearest God our loving Father:

Thank you very much for the wonderful experience yesterday at Petra. Thank you in giving us a glimpse of your majesty, of the spectacular work of your hands.

Thank you for taking care of us here in Jordan. Continue to guide us, keep us and protect us as we head for your Holy Land.

So nice of you that as we celebrate today the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker, we head for his native town of Bethlehem in two days. And his workshop in Nazareth.

Cleanse us and purify our hearts that everything we say and do may be all out of love.

You called us into this pilgrimage.

Like the ancient people of Petra, though they did not know you or recognized you, they believed in eternal life with their great burial sites.

Like them, may we do things always in love, “the bond of perfection” (Col.3:19).

May “the peace of Jesus Christ control our hearts, the peace into which we were called in one Body. And be thankful” (Col.3:15). Amen.


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We are all pilgrims

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Tuesday, Easter Week II, 30 April 2019, Amman, Jordan

We are all pilgrims on this earth, Lord God Almighty.

May we be like the early followers of Christ, “one heart and mind” in you. Let us keep in our hearts and minds that everything here on earth is yours to be shared with one another.

Let us seek more of the things of the above like Nicodemus.

Let us follow your directions in Christ through the Holy Spirit like the wind that blows.

Bind us all your children – fellow pilgrims -that we may care for this beautiful planet earth as we walk home to you O God our Father. Amen.

Photos on our way to Petra this morning via the King’s Highway or the ancient desert way.

Pilgrimage prayer

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul
Monday, Easter Week II, 29 April 2019
Acts 4:23-31///John 3:1-8
A view from the Jerusalem Wall, April 2017.

Lord Jesus Christ, today we leave for a pilgrimage to your Holy Land. Your people there claim it is also our land, everybody’s land. Thank you very much for coming to us, walking on earth, being like us in everything except sin.

Most of all, thank you very much in bringing us not only closer to the Father through you but most of all, making us experience you in the Holy Land.

Today’s first reading tells us how you have sent the Holy Spirit upon your Apostles and followers after Peter and John were released from prison in Jerusalem.

As they prayed, the place where they were gathered shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.

Acts 4:31

Our group of pilgrims are not that many to shake the Holy Land, Lord; but, we pray that in our prayers and sacrifices during these days especially in your holy sites, shake our hearts, shake our inner selves, move us closer to you and with one another in faith, hope and love.

Some of us are coming with some darkness within us, but most of us shall be praying for loved ones going through so many trials and difficulties, so fearful like Nicodemus who came to visit you at night.

Bless us going on a pilgrimage and those everyone on a journey with you in their work and studies, at home, in their sickbeds, everywhere… that we may experience to be born from above, to be filled with the Holy Spirit to become new persons in you. Amen.

A view outside the western gate of Old Jerusalem, April 2017.

Praying for you on our pilgrimage to the Holy Land

The Lord Is My Chef, 28 April 2019
Early morning view of the modern side of Jerusalem taken in April 2017.

My dearest followers, relatives and friends:

Tomorrow early morning we are leaving for the Holy Land. It is the only place here on earth that the Lord had blessed me to visit thrice. It is what I call in my homily today as an “a basta!” experience — there is something deep within me that make me confess like the Apostles that “Jesus is risen! Jesus is alive!” , and, “I have seen the Lord!”.

A basta! is all I can tell people why they have to visit the Holy Land even once in their lifetime. And the biggest surprise I have experienced the second time I went there in April 2017 courtesy of my friends from GMA-7 News, even if you visit again the same places you have seen before, Jesus has always something different for you. Very true.

With my three friends who are not only great news women who turned GMA-7 News to what it is today but great “prayer-warriors” too. Since my ordination to the priesthood in 1998, they have never failed to always ask me for prayers not only for themselves and loved ones but also for everyone in the news — as in everyone even form other news organizations who are sick or going through trying moments in their lives. This photo was taken after praying at the Wailing Wall of Jerusalem.

I am not sure if I could blog from there during these next two weeks as I have to lead a large group of pilgrims mostly from our parish. I have always considered myself as a “dinosaur” when it comes to new technology. But since June last year, I have overcome my fears with new technology that I feel I have grown in learning so many things about life and the world through the amazing internet and computers. As a priest, I have found a new calling from the Lord in blogging to reach out to more people with my prayers and sharing of the good news of Jesus Christ.

I shall be praying for you my dear followers, relatives and friends in a very special way during this pilgrimage. Do pray for me too and for my fellow pilgrims. Will surely share with you our experiences – and blessings – from the Lord in this journey in his Holy Land.

God bless you all!

fr. nick

At the sacristy of the Church of Dominus Flevit (The Lord Wept) with a painting of the historic meeting of St. Pope Paul VI and the Patriarch of the Orthodox Church in Jerusalem in 1970’s.