Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul, 23 September 2025 Tuesday, Memorial of St. Padre Pio de Pietrelcina Ezra 6:7-8, 12, 14-20 <*{{{{>< + ><}}}}*> Luke 8:19-21
Photo by author, Angels’ Hills Retreat House, Tagaytay City, 19 April 2025
How amusing are the settings of your words today, God our loving Father! In the first reading is the story of the rebuilding of your home, your temple in Jerusalem, of your people's homecoming in you while in the gospel is the striking story of our Lord Jesus Christ's Mother standing outside the house where he was preaching.
They completed this house on the third day of the month of Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of King Darius. The children of Israel – priests, Levites, and the other returned exiles – celebrated the dedication of this house of God with joy (Ezra 6:15-16).
The mother of Jesus and his brothers came to him but were unable to join him because of the crowd. He was told, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside and they wish to see you.” He said to them in reply, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and act on it” (Luke 8:19-21).
How lovely, dear Jesus that in Hebrew the first letter in the word "God" resembles a house, or a door because you, O Lord, is our home, our house; like our home, it is more than walls and beams but of relationships, of love and kindness that make each one of us your indwelling. Bless our homes, bless our families with your presence always, Lord.
Through the intercession of St. Padre Pio, help us heed his words: "Always be united in the Faith and try to be a family according to the heart of God." Amen.
St. Padre Pio, Pray for us!
Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Our Lady of Fatima University Valenzuela City (lordmychef@gmail.com)
Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul, 22 September 2025 Monday in the Twenty-Fifth Week of Ordinary Time, Year I Ezra 1:1-6 <*((((>< + ><))))*> Luke 8:16-18
Photo by author, 08 August 2025.
We praise and thank you, God our loving Father for the peaceful rally yesterday though marred by some hooligans; we hope and pray that you will touch the hearts and souls of our leaders and government officials to imitate King Cyrus of Persia that they choose what is good for the people, that they choose your divine will, that they choose to be remembered well despite our many differences.
In the first year of Cyrus, King of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord inspired King Cyrus of Persia to issue this proclamation throughout his kingdom, both by words of mouth and in writing: “Thus says Cyrus, King of Persia: ‘All the kingdoms of the earth the Lord, the God of heaven, has given to me, and he has charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Therefore, whoever among you belongs to any part of his people, let him go up, and may his God be with him! Let everyone who has survived, in whatever place he may may have dwelt, be assisted by the people of that place with silver, gold, goods, and cattle, together with free-will offerings for the house of God in Jerusalem” (Ezra 1:1-4).
King Cyrus could have kept your people enslaved in Babylon, Lord, after he had conquered the Babylonians but King Cyrus chose to set them free to return to Jerusalem; moreover, he returned their gold to bring back to your temple in Jerusalem; we still believe, dear Lord in the goodness of people: touch them especially those involved in the flood control scams in our country; give us more men and women willing to stand for the truth so that the guilty ones are punished and the funds are returned to be put into good use for your people. Amen.
Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Our Lady of Fatima University Valenzuela City (lordmychef@gmail.com)
Lord My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul, 21 September 2025 Twenty-Fifth Week in Ordinary Time, Cycle C Amos 8:4-7 ><}}}}*> 1 Timothy 2:1-8 ><}}}}*> Luke 16:1-13
Scene at a wedding inside the flooded Barasoain Church in Malolos City, 22 July 2025; photo by Aaron Favila of Associated Press.
Our readings today are so timely like today’s headlines of rampant corruption – actually looting – of tax payers money by DPWH officials in connivance with some lawmakers and contractors.
The scriptures are very challenging for us, especially the first reading from the Prophet Amos.
Hear this, you who trample upon the needy and destroy the poor of the land! “When will the new moon be over,” you ask, “that we may sell our grain, and the sabbath, that we may display the wheat? We will diminish the ephah, add to the shekel, and fix our scales for cheating! We will buy the lowly for silver, and the poor for a pair of sandals; even the refuse of the wheat we will sell!” The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob: Never will I forget a thing they have done! (Amos 8:4-7)
Photo by author, Malagos Garden Resort, Davao City, 2018.
The Prophet Amos is telling us something so true today that he had noticed in his own time almost 3000 years ago.
More than the growing economic disparity among the rich and the poor as well as the growing consumerism during his time still happening today, Amos is not promoting a political agenda nor advocating a revolt against the wealthy and powerful. Moreover, Amos is not like other demagogues encouraging the people to turn away from Money that has become the new god of so many in his time and today.
Amos is a prophet because he speaks in the name of God, denouncing what is inside the hearts of the greedy rich, of their perverse intentions that they keep hidden while observing religious rituals and celebrations – a hypocrisy so rampant even these days. But, with a new twist as it is happening inside the church, among us the clergy.
Workers of a new subcontractor of a flood control structure in Barangay Sipat in Plaridel, Bulacan, lay cement and steels on September 6, 2025 amidst the downpour of rain. Photo by Michael Varcas / The Philippine STAR
In the midst of these shameless flood control scams drowning us, let us take a closer look this Sunday where Amos is directing his strong preaching.
It is not merely to the abusive rich and powerful people but also to us inside the Church – we the priests and bishops and volunteers as Amos warns us how religious practices are easily used by everyone to cover one’s selfish motives especially those inside the church.
How sad that our own diocese is so late in denouncing the flood control scams when the DPWH office that orchestrated the shameful looting is right here in our province of Bulacan, under our pastoral care.
Residents of Hagonoy Bulacan walk their way to flooded portions of premise surrondings St. Anne Parish as they protest this was following exposes of flood control anomalies. The Bulacan has been under scrutiny for receiving multi million worth of flood control projects but still suffers severe flooding. (Photo by Michael Varcas)
Except for the National Shrine of St. Anne in Hagunoy that is worst hit by the floods, it came out way ahead with a call to action that culminated in a rally on their flooded streets this Saturday led by their Parish Priest, Fr. Rodel Ponce prophetically leading his flock in their town’s flooded streets. Another Amos in our midst the other day was Msgr. Dars V. Cabral who led an ecumenical prayer rally in Malolos City with a letter that is bolder than our statement against the corruption.
Why we find the preaching of Amos directed to us in the church are the many connections and links of the involved DPWH officials with so many priests who have asked them for donations in their parish projects, asking them to be the fiesta hermano and donors of funds for church construction which is all over social media.
Check every treasury office of any LGU in the province and city and surely one could find “receipts” or photos of local executives and politicians with priests and bishops on vacation in expensive resorts or dinner in five-star restaurants. And that’s not just once or twice with some of them acting exactly like the nepo babies in flaunting the “good life” in social media, oblivious to the many implications of their actions like the many poor people who are denied of a decent funeral Mass for their departed loved ones when we are always out with politicians and the rich.
From Facebook, 17 September 2025.
Amos reminds us too in the church of our double standards when we are so quick in condemning corruption and sins of those in government and society but we are so slow, even protective of our own brothers involved in sex and financial scams. And just like in the news, we are willing to sacrifice our lay people to take all the beatings just for the sake of our brothers in cloth lest they be put to shame.
The most pathetic double standard we have in the church is when we patronize politicians friendly to our crusades like pro-life and anti-divorce but ostracize those on the other side of the fence.
What a shame! Are they not all tainted with graft and corruption, not to mention immoralities we are so quick to point out in the church? Why can’t we stop asking politicians for favors? Why can’t we be contented with what we have and what we can?
If there is one thing we in the church must stop right away is asking politicians for any favors because that give them the reason, no matter how askew and flimsy, to commit graft and corruption. When we in the church like priests and bishops keep on pleasing the rich and powerful we teach them the wrong notion that corruption is acceptable, that being rich is the key to be close to God through priests and bishops celebrating Mass and sacraments for them.
This is where the very essence of the preaching of Amos is still so relevant today for us: like the people of his time, we too have stopped seeking the face of God in our lives. Like the people of the time of Amos, what we focus is money, money, and more money, a Mammom or false god we unconsciously worship.
Residents of Hagonoy Bulacan walk their way to flooded portions of premise surrondings St. Anne Parish as they protest this was following exposes of flood control anomalies. Bulacan has been under scrutiny for receiving multi million worth of flood control projects but still suffers severe flooding. (Photo by Michael Varcas)
This Sunday, Amos and the Lord Jesus Christ remind us all especially in the church to seek the face of God always – not the face of Mammon that has become the god of many these days.
Let us live in simplicity by being content with what we have. No need to bother the governor or any politician as well as parishioners just for us to have a grand party or a spiritual renewal and retreat out-of-town.
Seek the face of God, not the face of Mammon. That’s the point of Jesus in his parable today of the shrewd steward: the Lord praised the attitude not the person. If we could just be as eager and passionate like him in seeking the face of God in the church, corruption in our government and society would be lessened. Our country would be more humane and decent because in the process, the poor and suffering would realize too that it is God too whom we must first seek, not the face of money.
This Sunday as we all prepare for the rallies in Luneta and EDSA, let us first seek the face of God, let us go to Mass first to pray for our leaders as St. Paul tells us in the second reading. Amen. Have a blessed week ahead!
*We have no claims for holiness or being pure and clean but we have tried as much as possible since our seminary days never to ask donations from politicians that they may construe it as a permission to steal.
Lord Jesus Christ, teach me to imitate you in bringing the good news by inspiring others to follow you.
Jesus journeyed from one town and village to another, preaching and proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom of God. Accompanying him were the Twelve and some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza, Susanna, and many others who nprovided for them out of their resources (Luke 8:1-3).
So, why do I follow you, Jesus? What inspires me in your bringing the good news of God's Kingdom? Here are some, Lord:
I follow you, Jesus because in you I feel loved and welcomed despite who I am like the Twelve Apostles who were of most diverse backgrounds and personalities yet, were united in you; I follow you, Jesus because in you there is warmth and lightness, of forgiveness and healing like those women who followed you after being freed from evil possessions and healed of many sickness; I follow you, Jesus because you inspire me to leave everything behind as I find everything in you like those women who provided for you from their resources.
Teach me Jesus to proclaim to bring to share your gospel of God's Kingdom to others by finding life in you. Amen
Our Lady of Fatima University, Valenzuela City, June 2025.
Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Our Lady of Fatima University Valenzuela City (lordmychef@gmail.com)
Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul, 18 September 2025 Thursday in the Twenty-Fourth Week of Ordinary Time, Year I 1 Timothy 4:12-16 <'[[[[>< + ><]]]]'> Luke 7:36-50
Photo by author, Manila Club, BGC, June 2025.
Your words today surprised me again, Lord Jesus: so many times I find myself like Simon the Pharisee, always welcoming you into my home, into my life, into my meal and many times too like him, I am shocked, becoming judgmental at times like the others when a sinner comes like that sinful woman who gatecrashed to get near you, Lord.
When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, that she is a sinner.” Jesus said to him in reply, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” “Tell me, teacher,” he said. “Two people were in debt to a certain creditor; one owed five hudnred days’ wages and the other owed fifty. Since they were unable to repay the debt, he forgave it for both. Which of them will love him more?” Simon said in reply, “The one I suppose, whose larger debt was forgive.” He said to him, “You have judged rightly” (Luke 7:39-43).
Forgive me, Jesus, when I fail to see my own sinfulness, my past where I came from before being with you as a disciple: I, too, am a sinner like that woman who broke all protocols and conventions just to get close to you, to touch you and be restored by you in your mercy and forgiveness; let me heed Paul's call to Timothy to be "absorbed" in your love because discipleship is more than knowing you and following you but most of all, loving you most especially among the unloveable for we were once like them.
Like that sinful woman, let me go in peace today by rejoicing in your infinite mercy for us all, not just me. Amen.
Photo by author, Manila Club, BGC, June 2025.
Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Our Lady of Fatima University Valenzuela City (lordmychef@gmail.com)
Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul, 16 September 2025 Tuesday, Memorial of Sts. Cornelius, Pope & Cyprian, Bishop, Martyrs 1 Timothy 3:1-13 <*((((>< +. ><))))*> Luke 7:11-17
Beloved, this saying is trustworthy: whoever aspires to the office of bishop desires a noble task (1 Timothy 3:1).
How timely
are your words today,
Lord Jesus:
definitely it is about your
servants in the church;
but, it applies very much
with all other leaders
in the government
and civil society
who have pledged
to serve the poor
and needy.
Give us a prophetic bishop
who is most in touch with
our humanity,
not merely concerned
with one's self
and ego.
We pray, dear Jesus for bishops and government leaders who are decisive with what is true and good and what is just most of all; give us bishops who act decisively as a father, a teacher, and disciplinarian not those concerned with their status and ego.
Jesus journeyed to a city called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd accompanied him. As he drew near to the gate of the city, a man who had died was being carried our, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. A large crowd from the city was with her (Luke 7:11-12).
How amazing, dear Jesus, that despite the "large crowd" you were still able to spot the grieving widow at the funeral of her only son because you are so in touch with our humanity unlike with some bishops and most leaders in government; grant us prophetic leaders who are in touch and amazed with the dignity and honor of persons as image and likeness of God that like you, Lord, they could feel and be one in the sorrow of those in pain and sufferings.
In this point in our nation's history, we need so badly, dearest Lord Jesus, a prophetic bishop, even just one who could rally the other bishops and priests with the many faithful to effect change, to speak of the truth so people would be shaken and realize like the crowd in Nain who exclaimed after you have raised the dead boy to life, "A great prophet has arisen in our midst." Amen.
Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Our Lady of Fatima University Valenzuela City (lordmychef@gmail.com)
Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul, 15 September 2025 Monday, Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows Hebrews 5:7-9 <*{{{{>< + ><}}}}*> Luke 2:33-35
Image from churchofjesuschrist.org.
A blessed Monday indeed, Lord Jesus Christ as we celebrate your Blessed Mother as Our Lady of Sorrows.
The alternative gospel for today's celebration is so striking with the account of Luke of your Presentation at the Temple:
The child’s father and mother were amazed at was said about him; and Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be contradicted” (Luke 2:33-34).
Why were your parents, Joseph, especially Mary your Mother were amazed at the words of the Prophet Simeon?
I really wonder how they looked like, Jesus: to be amazed is more than being surprised with the enormity of reality before one; to be amazed is to be awed, to be seized by that reverential fear Joseph and Mary felt when your coming was announced to them; to be amazed is more of the heart than of the mind, a feeling that overwhelms one's whole being with something so profound, so wonderful, most of all, so real.
Yes, Jesus: being amazed is beyond incredible, simply breathtaking because of your very presence, of your reality. Amaze me, Lord Jesus. Keep amazing me, Jesus so that like your parents Joseph and especially Mary the more I shall know you, love you, and follow you even to the Cross.
“and you yourself a sword will pierce so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed” (Luke 2:35).
O dearest Jesus, being sorrowful is also of the heart like being amazed and both are related: the more we are amazed with the reality of your love for us, the more we are sorrowful not only with your passion and death but most of all of our sinfulness because to sin is a refusal to love, a refusal to recognize the truth and reality of your immense love for us, Jesus; when people no longer feel sorrow with all the sins and senseless killings happening today, when people glorify sin and evil, when the young feel proud more with wealth and fame than the human person, when people are so consumed with things of the world than be amazed with the wonder of human life, the warmth of each person, and the joy of being loved and being loving... that is when we are no longer amazed with you, Jesus, our way, our truth and our life.
Immerse us in your words, Jesus like Mary your Mother; like her, let us act on your words to keep us amazed with your love and mercy, Lord Jesus so we may be sorrowful with our sins and most of all, be resolved in returning to you, remaining in you like Mary your Mother and our Mother too. Amen.
Lady of Sorrows from a triptych by the Master of the Stauffenberg Altarpiece, Alsace c. 1455; photo from fraangelicoinstitute.com.
Lord My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul, 14 September 2025 Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross Numbers 21:4-9 ><]]]]'> Philippians 2:6-11 ><]]]]'> John 3:13-17 *This is a reissue of our 2023 reflection. Salamuch.
Photo by Mr. Gelo Carpio, 27 January 2020, Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan.
The cross is one of the most widely used but also abused and misunderstood sign in almost every generation. In fact, we are so accustomed with the cross of Jesus Christ found everywhere like in homes and offices, churches and classrooms, hospitals, restaurants and vehicles. Almost everybody carries it in our persons as an object of veneration, as a badge, or as a jewel.
On the cross we find Jesus shown in glory, peacefully sleeping in death, sometimes with his body broken by suffering. Hence, many times we use the word “cross” like in “cross my heart” to indicate our sincerity and truthfulness. But, are we truly aware of its meaning and significance in our faith, of its centrality as the symbol of God’s love for us expressed by the self-sacrificing death of Jesus Christ his Son?
Photo by author, St. Scholastica Convent, Baguio City, 23 August 2023.
This Sunday we take a break from our cycle of readings to celebrate this Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross which falls on September 14. Due to its centrality in our faith, it is still celebrated even if the date falls on a Sunday like today.
This feast started in the fourth century with the miraculous discovery of the True Cross by Helena, mother of the Emperor Constantine, on 14 September 326, while she was on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. She then ordered through her son the emperor the building of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre that was dedicated nine years later with a portion of the True Cross placed inside it in September 13, 335. The following day, the Cross was brought outside of the church to be venerated by the clergy and the faithful.
In the year 627, during the reign of the Emperor Heraclius I of Constantinople, the Persians conquered the city of Jerusalem and removed a major part of the Cross from its sanctuary. The emperor then launched a campaign to recover the True Cross which he regarded as the new Ark of the Covenant for the new People of God. Before embarking into war, Emperor Heraclius went to church wearing black as a sign of penance, then prostrated himself before the altar and begged God for courage. His prayer was granted as he won the war and recovered the Cross from the Persians. He brought the Cross back to Jerusalem in 641 amid great celebrations by carrying it on his shoulders. Upon reaching the gate leading to Calvary, the emperor could not go forward! Heraclius and his retinue were astonished and could not understand what had happened until the Patriarch Zachary of Jerusalem told him, “Take care, O Emperor! In truth, the imperial clothing you are wearing does not sufficiently resemble the poor and humiliated condition of Jesus carrying His cross.”
Upon hearing those words, the emperor removed his shoes and bejewelled robes, put on a poor man’s clothing and was eventually able to proceed to Calvary and replaced the Cross inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre where a number of miracles happened during the occasion: a dead man returned to life, four paralytics were cured, ten lepers were healed, 15 blind men were given their sight, with several possessed people exorcised and many sick people totally healed!
Photo by author, Mirador Jesuit Villa & Retreat House, Baguio City, 24 August 2023.
Very notable in this story were the words of the Patriarch of Jerusalem. It was only after the emperor had taken off his royal clothings and put on those of the poor was he able to carry the Cross.
It is the same thing that is asked of us today: it is so easy to display the cross inside our homes and cars, or wear it as a jewelry or even as a tattoo on our skin. But, that amounts to nothing unless we have the cross inside our hearts, our very being. More than the many signs of the cross and imaginary drawing of its lines we draw on our chest is the need for us to empty ourselves of our pride and sins so that we can be filled with Jesus Christ.
Brothers and sisters: Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2:6-8).
Called kenosis in Greek, self-emptying is the way of the Cross of Christ. It is choosing love and mercy than self-centeredness and self-righteousness; sacrifice than satisfaction; fairness and justice than greed and possession; bearing all the pains and perseverance than complaining and whining about difficulties and trials in life like the Israelites in the wilderness (first reading); and, thinking more of others than of one’s self.
Photo by author, 02 September 2023.
The recent COVID-19 pandemic had taught something very amusing about the positivity of being negative, when negative was actually positive – healthy and COVID free! Remember how during those days when we would always wish we would yield negative results in our swab tests for COVID?
When we look at the sign of the cross (+), it is a positive sign, a plus sign. Though the cross calls us to let go, to be detached and dispossessed, it is actually an invitation to have more of God, of life and fulfillment! In this time of affluence when everything is easily available for as long as you have the means and the resources, the sign of the Cross reminds us that life is more of letting go and of giving than of having like God who “so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that he who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life” (Jn.3:16). St. Francis of Assisi said it perfectly why the Cross is an exaltation, a triumph:
For it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned. and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen. Enjoy Sunday and have a blessed week ahead!
Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Our Lady of Fatima University Valenzuela City (lordmychef@gmail.com)
Lord My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul, 14 September 2025 Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross Numbers 21:4-9 ><}}}}*> Philippians 2:6-11 ><}}}}*> John 3:13-17 *This is an updated version of our reflection last year; pray for our Marriage Encounter this weekend.
Via Crucis at Fatima University Medical Center, Valenzuela City, 2025.
This Sunday we have a unique celebration, the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross that falls on the 14th day of September. It is so important that even if it falls on a Sunday, the more it must be celebrated as it is most central in the teachings of Jesus Christ.
It is so unique because despite its being made up of two ordinary pieces of wood, the Cross is most unique with its deeply extraordinary in meaning as sign of God’s immense love for us humans through Jesus Christ’s Passion and Death.
From being the sign of the most inhuman punishment in history, the Cross is now the very sign of how God “so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that he who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life” (Jn.3:16). It encapsulates the whole mystery of Jesus Christ, of how this all-powerful God beyond the ordinary became weak like us in everything except sin so that we too may be like Him, divine and more than ordinary. In His suffering and death on the Cross, Jesus made the lowly wood so ordinary to be so exalted to become His sign of love and mercy, power and majesty.
Photo by author, Jerusalem, May 2017.
Hence, in the Cross is the power of God’s love to transform us to better persons.
In the Cross is God’s power to lead us closer to Him with its vertical beam and to others with its horizontal beam.
In the Cross is the power of good if we choose to embrace it with Christ Jesus as our Lord and Master.
The Cross is most unique of all signs in the world because underneath its ordinariness, that is where we see God’s glory and majesty. It was underneath the Cross of darkness and gloom on Good Friday that humanity began to see light and hope in life’s many absurdities. Most of all, it was underneath that Cross of suffering and death of Jesus Christ that we feel and experience the assurance of the Resurrection.
How?
Through our own pains and sufferings that are most uniquely ours too!
With their patience worn out by the journey, the people complained against God and Moses, “Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in this desert, where there is no food or water? We are disgusted with this wretched food!” In punishment the Lord sent among the people saraph serpents, which bit the people so that many of them died (Numbers 21:4-6).
Photo by author, Dominican Hills, Baguio City, January 2018.
You must have heard that old story of a man who came to Jesus to return the cross given for him to carry; he asked Jesus to have it replaced with a lighter one. Jesus then led the man to a huge room with all kinds of crosses for him to choose which he prefers as the best one for him so that he would stop complaining.
After closely examining the specs of so many crosses, the man finally decided to pick one he deemed as perfect for him after considering its weight and other dimensions, only to find out from Jesus Himself that it was the same cross he had actually returned for exchange!
Many times in life we are like those people in the first reading, never ending in their complaints to God, even challenging Him, accusing Him of forsaking us, of being unfair when life becomes difficult and unbearable. There are times we feel being on the distaff side of life always like a flat tire, never on top. We cry foul to God especially with all our hurts and pains inflicted by others, asking Him where was He when most needed?
Photo by author in Jordan near the Israeli border where Moses put up the bronze serpent as instructed by God to heal those bitten by the snakes after they have complained of their conditions in the wilderness, May 2019.
While it is true life is indeed difficult, the cross reminds us of the fact that the pains and hurts we have are uniquely ours too, something we have to accept and most of all, own.
There are pains that are so deep and won’t go away that have in fact affected us dismally in our lives already. Instead of self-blaming and self-pity, we just have to ask for God’s grace to accept and own them like Jesus Christ. We just have to “bring it home” – that imagery of the Cross planted on the Calvary – into our very selves, in our being as something so true and real. And uniquely ours.
Stop thinking of others’ pains and hurts. We are not all the same. If ever we have similar experiences, the hues and shades even gravity and circumstances are not same because each pain and hurt, like the cross, is uniquely ours. Like every person, every cross is unique because it is also a gift, a mystery, and life. We have to “befriend” our pains and hurts, our own cross instead of resist it. It is in “befriending” our pains and hurts, our cross in life that we grow and mature, becoming more free to love and to be joyful because that is when the cross triumphs over its disgrace and shame in us and with others. That is when our pains and hurts, when our crosses begin to reveal to us the many beautiful truths of Easter awaiting us.
The Cross of Christ triumphed because Jesus carried it wholeheartedly, allowing those two pieces of wood to reveal not only to Him who knew everything beforehand its meaning but most of all to everyone of us the deeper truths the Cross signifies as St. Paul eloquently expressed in our second reading.
The Cross of Christ atop the church of our Lady of Lourdes in France. Photo by my former student Ar. Philip Santiago during his pilgrimage, September 2018.
One thing I realized after my mother died May last year is the fact that while there are so many pains and sufferings in this world, my own pain and suffering in losing her are most difficult to bear; hence, something I must carry because it is uniquely mine.
But, one thing so unique I noticed is that the more I see my cross following my mother’s death, the more I saw also the cross of others. The Cross of Jesus triumphed truly in me when I embraced and owned my cross, when I befriended my pains and hurts that eventually led me to recognize and see, to feel more and experience too the crosses of others.
When we become conscious of each one’s unique cross, slowly we are able to reveal to them the meaning of their personal crosses too because we become more sympathetic, more open, more silent to listen more, love more, care more and be more present with those in their own unique cross. No wonder, I find conversing more engaging with others who also grieve because we can see each other’s unique crosses!
Jesus calls us to imitate Him that by embracing and owning our cross, we too may lead others to finding the meaning of their own cross and thus experience Easter soon. Let us pray:
Give us the grace, dear God to always embrace the Cross like your Son Jesus Christ where we can all be empty of ourselves to be filled with your Holy Spirit and make your love visible in us. Amen.
A blessed week to everyone!
Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Our Lady of Fatima University Valenzuela City (lordmychef@gmail.com)
Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 11 September 2025
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 2023.
Of course, there is no need for us to impress Jesus Christ for he loves us so immensely beyond measure. However, I have realized this week in my prayers that the Lord is most impressed with us when we are in our weakest.
It has been recurring in my prayers several times with the latest in this Wednesday’s gospel, “Raising his eyes toward his disciples Jesus said: ‘Blessed are you who are poor, for the Kingdom of God is yours’” (Luke 6:20).
I just love that scene of Jesus looking up to his disciples, looking up to us because normally we humans are the ones who look up to God his Father where he is seated to his right in heaven. When we pray, we sometimes raise our hands reaching up to God.
There is something so beautiful and wonderful when the Sacred Scriptures tell us of Jesus looking up to us. What an honor and a privilege! Because that happens when we are weakest, most flawed, and dirty with sin.
Imagine being there at that scene of the sermon on the plain and Jesus had to raise his eyes toward his disciples: he must have been at a lower position than them. This scene will have its fullness in the washing of the disciples’ feet after their Last Supper on Holy Thursday.
We who could no longer bow that low to clean and wash our feet as well as trim our toenails know this so well. Imagine all the dirt and flaws Jesus must have seen in the disciples’ feet that evening. Not a word was heard from Jesus. He teased no one nor complained of the dirt and unsightly things he must have seen too. Jesus simply bore everything because he loved them so much.
Photo from Our Lady of Fatima University website, June 2025.
Jesus continues to look up to us every time we receive him in our hands during the Holy Communion. That is why I always tell the people especially our students to be very solemn during that occasion when the Son of God most powerful, all-knowing in his simplest form and sign as a thin wafer, enters us body and blood. It is the most perfect time to pray to Jesus, to tell him everything and most of all, to listen to him because that is when he is right inside our body, when he is down inside us, we above him.
Jesus does not need our triumphs and “goodness” because they all came from him actually. What he does not have is what we have a lot- the negative things like sins, hurts and bitterness, anger and resentment festering deep inside us for a long time. Those are the thing Jesus want from us, the very things he is most “impressed” with us that we are able to live with those burdens for so long. But, he is most impressed with us in the truest sense when we are able to surrender these to him because that’s when we are blessed and filled in him.
Raising his eyes toward his disciples Jesus said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for the Kingdom of God is yours. Blessed are you who are now hungry, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who are now weeping, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude and insult you, and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of Man” (Luke 6:20-22).
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 2023.
In this age of affluence brought about by technological advances, being poor and hungry, being maligned and weeping are things to be avoided at all costs. With people so fascinated with money and wealth, fame and power, being poor and hungry for God, weeping and being maligned for what is true and good and just are not impressive at all, even foolish.
But, look at the effect of those shameless social media posts by “nepo babies” of their crass lifestyle sustained by ill-gotten wealth at the expense of the poor – they have all been bashed relentlessly in the country leading to more evidence of corruption among government officials and law-makers while in Indonesia and Nepal, these same practices have sparked social unrest and upheavals recently!
For so long, many have wished to be rich and wealthy, to have all the money to buy good food and drinks, build mansions filled with expensive cars and adorn themselves with signature clothes and jewelries in the belief they can impress others. Maybe with their fellows with the same benighted souls but more often, they only bred jealousies and envies that led to vicious circles of corruption and crimes in the name of having more money.
In truth, no one is impressed with material things because people who feel good only with possessions are actually the most pitiable ones for they could not see their own value as a person. To be able to see one’s value as a person despite one’s sins and weaknesses is the beginning of being truly human.
Recall the Lord’s parable of the Pharisee and the publican praying at the temple: the publican who stayed at the back beating his chest so contrite for his sins went home blessed according to Jesus than the Pharisee who boasted of his own righteousness. “Magpakatotoo ka!” screamed a soda commercial not too long ago but still echoes so true these days.
Jesus is not impressed with what we have done nor achieved but with what we have become – that amid all the beatings and pains of life with all of our shortcomings and sins, we forge on with life, persevering in faith, filled with hope that Christ is our salvation. What impresses Jesus Christ most in us is what we lack because that is when he can be closest to us, one in us. See yourself the way Jesus sees you – as a person, loved and cared for. Regardless of what. Let me end this with a prayer wrapped in a song which I have always loved because it sounds like Jesus speaking to me, so impressed with me despite of everything.
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