Love is being present – and a present, too!

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Wednesday, Memorial of St. Cornelius (Pope) and St. Cyprian (Bishop), Martyrs, 
16 September 2020
1 Corinthian 12:31-13:13   ///   Luke 7:31-35

Photo by author, Mt. St. Paul Spirituality Center, La Trinidad, Benguet, January 2020.

Praise and glory to you, God our loving Father!

Thank you for the rains these past three days. Thank you for the feasts of the Exaltation of the Cross and of Our Lady of Sorrows, respectively these past two days.

Most of all, thank you for the present moment!

As I prayed on your words for today, I got fixed on St. Paul’s description of love as the greatest of all your gifts:

It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.
1 Corinthians 13:7-8

I just prayed on these verbs, Lord. I do not know if I make sense. But, through them I felt your love!

Love bears all things when you keep on carrying, having someone just because you love the person, you feel a link with the person like a brother or a sister, a friend, a parent. Like you, our Father. Or Jesus our brother.

Love believes all things when you give more room, more space for something to be realized and fulfilled in a person just because you love. Like when we feel unworthy with all our sins, you still welcome us back to you, you let us “shower” and clean up to begin anew in you and with our loved ones.

Love hopes all things when you know even if things get worst, you still love us, Lord. I know some things in me and my loved ones will not get any better. Some day we shall die and everything will end. But, you will always love us, dear God, because you are love.

Love endures all things because it bears all things, it believes all things, it hopes all things. That is why love never fails.

Photo by author, Petra, Jordan, May 2019.

In all of these, Lord, I found love is everything because it is the present, the here and the now – the meaning and reality of your name “I AM WHO AM”.

All these verbs describing love are all in the present tense, not in the past nor in the future.

And that is love, always present, also a present — a gift. A most wonderful gift leading to eternity!

That is why love is the greatest!

Teach me, Jesus, to be always present in you, to you, and with you through others around me as you implied in the gospel today. Amen.

St. Cornelius and St. Cyprian, pray for us!

Living in the presence of Christ

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II

Wednesday, Memorial of St. Martha, 29 July 2020

***1 John 4:7-16* >><}}}> ))+(( <{{{><< *John 11:19-27***

Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, Quezon City, 2018.

Thank you very much Lord Jesus Christ is sending us holy women like St. Martha whose Memorial we celebrate today. Seven days ago we celebrated the feast of her younger sister St. Mary Magdalene.

How nice of you coming to visit families, even calling brothers and sisters as your disciples like St. Peter and St. Andrew, St. James the Greater and St. John, and now, St. Martha and her siblings St. Mary and St. Lazarus.

What a beautiful reminder for us today so busy with other people like friends and clients and everybody else except family: that you always come first in the family, among husband and wife, parents and. children, and siblings.

Most of all, in the life of St. Martha, you remind us of the need to be present in you and with you every time you come for a visit.

Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise.” Martha said to him, “I know he will rise, in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and anyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world.”
John 11:23-27

Many times, Lord Jesus, you come to us to be present with us but we are always absent from you like St. Martha.

Like her, so often we are working for you, doing for you, so busy because of you without realizing you prefer us to be doing your work by first being present in you.

There are times, we overthink of your words and of your thoughts we forget the present moment like when you told St. Martha that her brother Lazarus would rise again: we believe in our minds than in our hearts that we look more into the future than in the present moment when our departed loved ones can be truly present with us in you.

As we keep ourselves preoccupied with so many tasks here on earth, teach us also, sweet Jesus like St. Martha that in the resurrection of the dead, we shall all be present in you and with you as the one serving us all in the heavenly banquet. May we choose wisely what is most important like her sister St. Mary. Amen.

Bakit masarap balikan nakaraan?

Lawiswis ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Ika-22 ng Mayo 2020

Mula nang mag-quarantine 
palagi nating hiling
sana'y maibalik dating takbo
nitong buhay natin.
Kung tutuusin bahagi ng sarili natin
ano mang luma laging kinagigiliwan 
basta mayroong kinalaman sa nakaraan:
lumang tugtugin at awitin,
naninilaw na mga liham, nalimot na nilalaman;
mga kupas at sepia na larawan,
sinaunang estilo at disenyo
ng mga gamit at damit, bahay at gusali;
lumang radyo, lumang kotse
antik at klasik kung ituring
tibay at husay walang kapantay.

Mga bakas ng kahapon
ayaw nating itapon
bagkus tinitipon, kinakahon
sa isang sulok ng bawat ngayon
upang kung may pagkakataon,
mga ito ay malingon
baka sakaling makabangon
at humakbang pasulong.
Madalas sa atin mga kahapon
tila palaging umaayon sa bawat ngayon
dahil alam na natin nangyari noon:
mga kinalabasan at hinantungan
ng ating pagsasapalaran
hatid man ay tuwa o luha
mga iyon atin nang nalampasan.

Madali at masarap balikan nakaraan
dahil alam na natin ang nagdaan
habang sa bawat ngayon at kinabukasan
tayo ay laging kinakabahan
dahil wala tayong panghawakan
maliban pakikibaka at sapalaran
gaya noong nakaraan 
nang tayo ay pumailanglang
sa walang katiyakan.
Kaya nga huwag kabahan
sa kasalukuyan maging kinabukasan;
mahalaga ating matandaan 
matutuhan mga aral, kabuluhan, at kahulugan
ng kasaysayan upang itong kasalukuyan 
malampasan, mapagtagumpayan!

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II

Wednesday, Memorial of St. Martha, 29 July 2020

1 John 4:7-16 >><}}}*> ))+(( <*{{{><< John 11:19-27

***1 John 4:7-16* >><}}}> ))+(( <{{{><< *John 11:19-27***