Advent is being alert

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Friday, Second Week of Advent, 11 December 2020
Isaiah 48:17-19 >><)))*> + >><)))*> + >><)))*> Matthew 11:16-19

Forgive us, O Lord, for not being alert for your coming in our lives. Indeed, your words are so true!

Jesus said to the crowds: “To what shall I compare this generation? It is like children who sit in marketplaces and call to one another, ‘We played the flute for you, but you did not dance, we sang a dirge but you did not mourn.’ For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they said ‘He is possessed by a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking and they said, ‘Look, he is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But wisdom is vindicated by her works.”
Matthew 11:16-19

Being alert is more than being vigilant; it is being open to see and test everything, even take risks to verify whatever is at hand.

So many times, Lord, we are caught flat-footed not exerting any effort, even doing nothing, in being aware and conscious of your presence, of your coming.

Give us a healthy mistrust of our feelings and knowledge sometimes. May we try to listen in our hearts, to find where we are at peace for wherever there is peace, there you are found.

Being alert is also listening intently to you, O God, following your commands that lead us to fulfillment and fullness in life. So often, we find your voice too simple even repetitive without realizing your words are always borne out of love. Like the Israelites thrown into exile, we would rather follow the strange gods than You without noticing, without being alert, of the many dangers we are being led to.

Heighten our awareness of your presence in us, in others and in the things happening around us. Amen.

Advent is God making us laugh

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Thursday, Second Week of Advent, 10 December 2020
Isaiah 41:13-20 <*(((><< +++ >><)))*> Matthew 11:11-15

Thank you dearest Father in making us all “risible” – the ability to laugh, the gift of having sense of humor for, if there is truly any sign of being alive, it must be when we laugh. And it must have only come from you, O God, for you are the fount of wit and wisdom.

Just like today. You are so Fatherly in telling us,

I am the Lord, your God, who grasp your right hand; it is I who say to you, “Fear not, I will help you.”
Isaiah 41:13

Then, suddenly like most human fathers, you tease us while declaring your love,

Fear not, O worm Jacob, O maggot Israel; I will help you, says the Lord; your redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.
Isaiah 41:14

You are so funny and witty, Lord! You assure us of your love and like kids, you called your chosen people worm and maggot?!

Thank you for making us laugh, dearest Father as you tease us full of affections, calling us “worm” and “maggot”.

Thank you for the gift of wit and humor that while teasing us for who we really are, so low and dirty due to sins, we feel deeply inside how much you love us. You are not mad nor exasperated with our sinfulness but simply telling us how we have truly behaved. And that is what most funny about — you still love us, you still call us, you still want to save us even if we are not worthy.

So true are the words of our responsorial psalm: “The Lord is gracious and merciful; slow to anger, and of great kindness.”

Indeed, we are so blessed that even if we are “the least in the Kingdom of heaven, we are greater than John the Baptist” who was the greatest of all people born of women during the time of Jesus because we have lived in your time of coming and salvation (Mt.11:11).

May we always be open and humble before you, O God, to be able to see the many joys of living tucked in our sense of humor that helps us recognize your Advent in the midst of many darkness. Amen.

*Photos above by Mr. Jim Marpa, 2018-2019.

Advent, a prelude to Easter

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Monday, Advent Week-II, 07 December 2020
Isaiah 35:1-10     >><)))*>  >><)))*>  >><)))*>     Luke 5:17-26

Photo by author, sacristy altar, 05 December 2020.

Your words today, O God are so uplifting, evoking in us springtime when everything is bursting into new life making this Season of Advent a prelude to Easter. And rightly so!

The desert and the parched land will exult; the steppe will rejoice and bloom. They will bloom with abundant flowers, and rejoice with joyful song. Then will the eyes of the blind be opened, ears of the deaf be cleared; then will the lame leap like a stag, the tongue of the dumb will sing. Streams will burst forth in the desert, and rivers in the steppe. The burning sands will become pools, and the thirsty ground, springs of water.
Isaiah 35:1-2, 5-7

But for us to see life bursting forth around us, let us in our selves first desire life, persevere our healing, and keep your gifts of mercy and forgiveness like the men who lowered through the roof a paralyzed man on a stretcher before Jesus while preaching inside a packed house.

Strengthen us to go out and find ways in meeting you, Jesus, like those men.

Forgive us for the many occasions of cynicisms and indifference, as well as arrogance and pride like the scribes and Pharisees who questioned your authority to forgive sins.

As we have reflected yesterday, Advent is a two-way street: you always come, Lord Jesus but we must also come to meet you. So many times you have come to our lives but we never met you, never experienced you nor even felt you because we have always been full of ourselves, of our sins, and of so many other people and things.

Keep us one with you always, Jesus – in your cross, in your humility, in your love.

Like St. Ambrose your great Bishop of Milan, may we lead more souls discover you, Jesus, and experience life anew like St. Augustine, his famous convert. Amen.

Advent is “a very little while…”

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
First Friday, Advent Week-I, 04 December 2020
Isaiah 29:17-24 <*(((><< + >><)))*> Matthew 9:27-31

Photo by author at Silang, Cavite, 20 September 2020.

Your words today, O God our Father are so reassuring and refreshing especially for many of us like the Babylonian exiles who are so tired and exhausted, almost about to give up for the many pains and sufferings, hardships and trials in life while awaiting your Advent, your coming.

Thus says the Lord God: But a very little while, and Lebanon shall be changed into an orchard, and the orchard be regarded as a forest! On that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book; and out of gloom and darkness, the eyes of the blind shall see. The lowly will ever find joy in the Lord, and the poor rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
Isaiah 29:17-19

Yesterday I was crying out to you, pouring out my pains unto you, Lord, wondering and lamenting if Advent is truly your coming when sometimes I feel the opposite, that you have abandoned me; your words are so sweet but when I looked into my life, I felt so bitter as things are not turning out so well as you have promised.

And I paused, waiting for you.

Then, you said, “But a very little while…”

How long is your “a very little while”, Lord?

Soon enough I have learned yesterday too that it all depends on my faith in you!

Photo by Ms. Jo Villafuerte of sunrise at Atok, Benguet, 01 September 2019.

Yes, a very little while you can change everything from darkness into light, from gloom into joy, from sickness into health, from desolation into consolation, from problem into solution!

It all depends on how strong are we holding on to you, Lord.

Like those two blind men who followed Jesus. How they did it — I do not know though it is funny– at how people of great faith would always do extraordinary things because of you, Lord!

Teach us that in life, we need to come to you in faith, hope and love to experience your Advent, your coming because you have already come. That is why, a very little while, so many great things and miracles can happen because as Jesus had shown us in the gospel today, you are just waiting for us like those two blind men to come to you for healing and other needs.

Grant us, O Lord, the courage and perseverance to always seek you, hold on to you, and come to you no matter how dark it may be because you are always with us so that a very little while, your Advent is fulfilled. Amen.

Advent is renewing friendship with Jesus

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Thursday, Memorial of St. Francis Xavier, Missionary, 03 December 2020
Isaiah 26:1-6 >><}}}*> >><}}}*> >><}}}*> Matthew 7:21, 24-27

Photo by Mr. Red Santiago of his son while praying in our Parish, November 2019.

Thank you very much, God our loving Father in continuing to keep us, in gathering us together as family, as friends, as a community despite our many sins and failures, most especially in the midst of these trying times.

Like the remnants of Israel thrown into exile in the first reading, you have gathered us in Jesus Christ as our “strong wall and rampart” (Is.26:1), protecting us, blessing us, befriending us.

Let us not make same old mistake again like your chosen people thrown into Babylonian exile who worshipped you only with lips:

Jesus said to his disciples: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my father in heaven.”
Matthew 7:21

In this Season of Advent, let us rediscover you anew, Jesus, our Lord and Savior. Help us renew our friendship in you by cultivating a prayer life that is consistent because friends always communicate, they always listen and speak to each other.

Sorry, Lord, for ignoring your words for so long, listening more to empty words of media than to your words that are performative or life-changing as Pope emeritus Benedict XVI used to say.

Most of all, friends not only talk and listen — they love each other.

Teach me to be truly wise, dear Jesus, to love more in deeds than in words.

Teach me to have my life founded on you, rooted in your love like St. Francis Xavier whose memorial we celebrate today for having accomplished so much against all odds because of his love for you and for people scattered in the Far East, hungry for your words.

Fill my heart with your love so that like St. Francis Xavier, I may be “stirred to meditate on spiritual realities, to listen actively to what God is saying to me… that I may forget my own desires, my own human affairs and give myself over entirely to God’s will and choice that my heart would cry out: Lord I am here! Send me anywhere you like!” (adapted from a letter by St. Francis Xavier to St. Ignatius).

St. Francis Xavier, pray for us! Amen.

Advent is being at home with God

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Wednesday, Advent Week I, 02 December 2020
Isaiah 25:6-10     >><)))*>   +   <*(((><<     Matthew 15:29-37

Photo by Dr. Mylene A. Santos, MD, Katmon Harbor Nature Sanctuary, Quezon, March 2020.

O God our loving Father, as we eagerly await the coming Christmas break to finally come home and be with our loved ones, may we also pray and reflect the greatest homecoming of all when your Son Jesus Christ returns to bring us back to you in heaven, our truest home.

How interesting that Jesus must come again to finally bring us home to you; yes, he had already come and always comes to us but unfortunately, we rarely come home to you. We insist on going somewhere or to someone else who just leave us empty and disappointed.

Home is where the heart is and that is you, Father, in heaven. May we constantly search you and dwell in you while still in this world; destroy the “veil that veils all peoples, the web that is woven over all nations” (Is.25:7) that mislead and imprison us with false hopes in superficial relationships and materialistic briberies of the world.

Sometimes we have to go hungry and thirsty to realize the more essential things in life like you, dear God and the people who truly care for us and love us like our immediate family and friends.

Like the crowd who have followed Jesus in the wilderness for three days with nothing to eat: they experienced advent, the coming of God when Jesus fed them after they were first disposed to desire the longings of their soul than of their bodies. It was only then when Jesus fed them through the miraculous multiplication of the loaves of bread for the second time.

May the darkness and gloom that envelop us this season of Advent like the pandemic and other personal crises dispose us to desiring you alone, God our Father, so we may finally enter your heavenly banquet with “rich food and choice wines” (Is.25:6). Amen.

Praying for the Spirit of God

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Tuesday, Advent Week I, 01 December 2020
Isaiah 11:1-10     >><)))*>   +   <*(((><<     Luke 10:21-24

Thank you very much, God our Father, for bringing us to this final month of 2020, December, with its chilly morning and resplendent sunrise that seem to promise us with a day filled with warmth and life like your words to the Prophet Isaiah.

On that day, a shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse, and from its roots a bud shall blossom. The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him…
Isaiah 11:1-2

On this first day of December, we pray dear Father for your Holy Spirit to rest upon us too so our minds and our hearts may be enlightened to always seek and follow your Holy Will like Jesus whose return we eagerly await.

Grant us your Spirit of wisdom and understanding, Father, that we may search for you and the ultimate truths in life, not just the information fed unto us by media that can be misleading and even manipulative sometimes.

Grant us your Spirit of counsel and of strength so we may forge on in this life amid all the problems and sufferings we are facing from the pandemic and calamities plus the personal trials we have to go through. Just keep us moving forward and resist temptations of giving up the struggle, and giving up on our loved ones.

Grant us, most of all, dear Father, your Spirit of fear of the Lord. Please forgive us, merciful Father, for being so bold and daring in the wrong sense that we turn away from you, disregard you and your precepts because many of us feel we know and could know everything in life.

Instead, give us the grace to be bold and daring in faith in you like the children, so humble to believe you and always awed with the wonders of life like shoots and flowers budding forth. Amen.

Photo by author, Mt. St. Paul Retreat House, La Trinidad, Benguet, January 2020.

Disturb me to follow you, Jesus!

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Monday, Feast of St. Andrew the Apostle, 30 November 2020
Romans 10:9-18 >><)))*> + >><)))*> + >><)))*> Matthew 4:18-22

Photo by author (May 2019), shore of Galilee at Capernaum where Jesus called the brothers Peter and Andrew to come and follow him.

Praise and glory to you, Lord Jesus Christ, on this second day of Advent you have given us the feast of St. Andrew the Apostle known as the “protoclete” or protokletos, the first to be called to follow you because he was also the first to entertain be “disturbed” by you.

Grant us this grace of being disturbed, of being moved within in a positive manner to seek out the truth like St. Andrew.

The moment he first saw you when John the Baptist identified you as the “Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world,” he was there, moved in his heart and so disturbed that he asked you, “Rabbi, where are you staying?” And when you invited him and his companion to “come and see,” he believed you are the Messiah (Jn.1:35-41)!

I wonder what did he see in you, in your home, Lord Jesus that convinced him right away you are the Christ? What disturbed him?

Then in the wilderness as you tested Philip and asked him where you could buy food to feed more than 5000 people, Andrew again felt his heart so disturbed with the situation they were into that he was moved to bring to you a boy with five loaves of bread and two pieces of fish but at the same time, sincerely admitted to you how disturbed he was when he asked you, “what good are these for so many?”

You never answered his question, dear Jesus, but Andrew remained with you and the crow until the great miracle happened when everyone was fed and satisfied with so many leftovers (Jn.6:1-15)!

St. Andrew must have been more disturbed than ever with what he had seen and experienced that he came to follow you more closely like his brother Peter!

For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved.
Romans 10:10

St. Andrew always believed in his heart, always allowed his heart to be disturbed with your words, with your presence, with your feelings.

And he never kept to himself those stirrings in his heart, always asking you or voicing out what he felt or thought no matter how crazy or even stupid they may be!

It was because of this openness with himself to you with his inquiries that you were made known as the Christ that eventually in his death, he chose to be crucified in the most different manner because he had truly owned your cross!

Give me that same grace, dear Jesus, to be honest in recognizing the inner stirrings in my heart no matter how crazy they may be, always telling these to you as part of carrying my cross. Like St. Andrew, may I have the courage to lovingly, faithfully and sincerely embrace your cross by expressing to you always whatever disturbs me that in the process you are more revealed in me and to others. Amen.

God in the signs of the times

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Friday, Week XXXIV, Year II in Ordinary Time, 27 November 2020
Revelations 20:1-4, 11-21:2 >>> + <<< Luke 21:29-33

O God our loving Father, today I echo the song of the psalmist, yearning to be with you, hoping to dwell with you: “My soul yearns and pines for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest in which she puts her young — Your altars, O Lord of hosts, my king and my God!” (Ps.84:3, 4).

As we come closer to the end of the current liturgical calendar, looking forward to Advent and Christmas, make us more sensitive in finding you Lord in the signs you always give us by cleansing our hearts so that there is always a sacred space for you there within us.

May we always abide in you, O Lord, living in your precepts, finding you among us in the many signs you send us so that when your promised “new heaven and new earth” is realized in Jesus Christ, may we find favor in his judgement as we strived to live his gospel.

You have created us, fashioned us in your hands, breathing in us your life-giving spirit, Father; we are yours and meant to dwell in you in all eternity. Amen.

From “cage” of sin to heavenly wedding

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Thursday, Week XXXIV, Year II in Ordinary Time, 26 November 2020
Revelation 18:1-2, 21-23; 19:1-3, 9 >>> + <<< Luke 21:20-28

Praise and glory to you, Lord Jesus Christ for your words today that offer us with clear images about true freedom that leads to fullness of life. So often, many among us are greatly misled by the belief that true freedom is breaking free from sufferings and God and morals, of having absolute freedom to do everything.

That has always been one of the fundamental tenets of pagans of ancient Rome you have banished for being a “cage”, an imprisonment!

“Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great. She has become a haunt for demons. She is a cage for every unclean spirit, a cage for every unclean bird, a cage for every unclean and disgusting beast.”
Revelation 18:2, 21

True freedom is choosing what is true and good, trying to bear all pains and sufferings that purify us into better persons, that free us from impurities to enter into your heavenly banquet of eternal life.

Then the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who have been called to the wedding feast of the Lamb.”
Revelation 19:9

Life continues to bear down upon us these days, Lord, especially the poor who are left with almost nothing in this life; worst, with nothing else but their dignity as persons, there are times they are being forced to give it up for a price.

Give us the grace of perseverance, to withstand all pressures by holding on to you, clinging to your merciful love that amid all the trials and sufferings going on, we may “stand erect and raise our heads because our redemption is at hand” (Lk.21:28).

Let us not be ashamed of being faithful to you, Jesus, for you alone can lead us to true freedom as a person. Amen.