The God we delightfully await

Lord My Chef Sunday Recipe by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Solemnity of the the Holy Trinity, Cycle C, 15 June 2025
Proverbs 8:22-31 ><}}}}*> Romans 5:1-5 ><}}}}*> John 16:12-15

*Photo by author, Hidden Spring Resort, Calauan, Laguna, 20 February 2025.*

We resume the Sundays in Ordinary Time with the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity today that is the highest truth in our Church teachings often referred to as a “mystery” or something so difficult to explain and understand.

We find this context of “mystery” right in our gospel this Sunday that takes us back again to the Last Supper scene as in the final Sundays of Eastertide.

Jesus said to his disciples: “I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth. He will not speak on his own, but he will speak what he hears, and will declare to you the things that are coming” (John 16:12-13).

What is the “more” Jesus has to tell his disciples that include us today which we cannot bear, that we need to be guided by the Holy Spirit?

“I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now.”

As we have learned in the scriptures especially during the Holy Week and Easter, Jesus was speaking at that time of his life and death prefigured by his Last Supper. He was preparing his disciples to do the same as he expressly said after washing their feet.

It is the same lesson Jesus teaches us every Sunday in the Holy Eucharist, of how we his modern disciples must learn to offer our lives with others which is what the Holy Trinity is all about – a sharing and giving of life of the Three Persons in One God. Unity happens only in the total union of one’s self-giving.

This is the mystery of our personal or relating God revealed to us slowly through time, from the Old Testament that reached its highest point in Jesus Christ in the New Testament that continues to these days because each one of us is a reality of the Holy Trinity.

This Holy Trinity sharing and mutuality of Persons in One God is an ongoing lesson we undergo as disciples of Jesus because like the Apostles, we too continue to cling to life, finding it so hard to let go and let God.

*Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, 20 March 2025.*

As we move on with life, we realize that life is not in clinging but in dying and letting go, in giving and sharing than having or taking or keeping. We realize as we age and mature that more than the wealth and recognition we all aspired for when younger were nothing but a waste in life because what really matters most is our relationships – with God and with others.

It is a lesson that unfolds to us every day, getting better as we age, when we look back to our past especially to our very roots like our parents with whom we find not only proximity and intimacy but most of all, delight and pride in being one with them. This is exactly what the first reading is telling us about Wisdom said to be the personification of Jesus Christ as the Second Person of the Trinity who is one with the Father:

Thus says the wisdom of God: “The Lord possessed me, the beginning of his ways, the forerunner of his prodigies long ago; from of all I was poured forth, at the first, before the earth… When the Lord established the heavens I was there, when he marked out the vault over the face of the deep… then was I beside him as his craftsman, and I was his delight day by day, playing before him all the while, playing on the surface of his earth; and I found delight in the human race” (Proverbs 8:22-23, 27, 30-31).

*Photo by Mr. Boy Cabrido, EDSA 1986 People Power Revolution.*

Life and man are all a mystery. Many times there are no easy answers to our many questions in life. There are times when our questions in life are actually answered in deaths like in the passing of our loved ones. Most of all, many questions in life can never be answered at all.

But, the joy of living is in still asking more questions. Man is known more in the questions he asks because the answers he gives are often wrong or off-tangent. When we ask the right questions, even if we do not arrive at the right answers, somehow we get a grasp or glimpse of the bigger realities and mysteries of life, of the things to come that Jesus tells us today.

I have always been curious as a child, always asking my father on the various things I heard from him and my mother or from the television and later from books I have read. After explaining things to me or passages I have read that I still could not understand, daddy would assure me that “pag-tanda mo maiintindihan mo rin yan.”

Those are my fondest memories of childhood with my father – the delight of learning, of discovering, of understanding. Now that I am a priest and a senior, there is still that deep joy and delight in searching and asking because like what Jesus said, there is so much more to learn in this life and in our very selves. There is that desire and attraction within that leads us outside our very selves to search for more meaning – like resulting from faith and hope in God as reflected by St. Paul speaks in the second reading wherein the Holy Spirit leads us to the glory of God.

*Photo by Ms. Ria De Vera in Delia, Alberta, Canada, 03 June 2025.*

A senator recently made a mockery of the Holy Spirit, claiming his move to dismiss the impeachment complaint as a leading of the Holy Spirit. Making things worst and most unbelievable is the fact that another senator, son of a founder of a local church and preacher played a real devil in quashing efforts to find the truth about the charges of corruption against the Vice President of the Republic.

Clearly, it was not of the Holy Spirit but more of the devil that is divisive and most untruthful, totally unmindful of our relationships as a nation.

The “more” that Jesus speaks of in sending us the Holy Spirit is for each of us to realize our being a Trinity in our very selves, our connectedness as one in God. It is sad that for many, the Blessed Trinity does not really matter that much for them to appreciate or even understand. For many, it is enough to believe in God just like the others in various religions and sects or worst, like those who do not care at all about God except that they “believe” in a Supreme Being.

As we resume the Sundays of Ordinary Time, this Solemnity of the Holy Trinity evokes the most concrete reality of God, that he is a Person like a Father who is the giver of life because he is life himself with whom alone we owe our lives. This we realize and experience in the Son Jesus Christ who became like us humans so we may become like him again as divine, with honor and dignity. It is the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Trinity who guides us to more realities and truth of this loving God so immense, delighting us in awaiting our union in him. Let us pray:

Come, Holy Spirit!
Fill our hearts with that
desire to continuously await
God's coming in Jesus Christ,
as we delight in a life of
giving and sharing,
of caring and kindness,
of mercy and forgiving
until that day we shall be one
in the Father in heaven
in his love.
Amen.

Happy Father’s Day too!

Making things happen in Christ

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Friday, Memorial of St. Charles Borromeo, Bishop, 04 November 2022
Philippians 3:17-4:1 ><}}}*> + ><}}}*> + ><}}}*> Luke 16:1-8

Praise and thanksgiving,
God our loving Father
for the grace of your Son
Jesus Christ 
who had come 
to make us closer to you
more than ever, 
making us "citizens of heaven"
(Philippinas 3:20).

Teach us, dear Jesus,
to be imitators of St. Paul
witnessing your Cross, 
the only path to salvation
because it is our liberation from sin;
do not allow us to be
"enemies of the cross"
whose "God is their stomach;
their glory is in their shame.  
Their minds occupied with earthly
things" (Philippians 3:18-19);
keep us faithful to your teachings 
and example, Lord Jesus Christ
by living your paschal mystery.

Like St. Charles Borromeo
whose memorial we celebrate today,
give us the grace of determination
and perseverance in keeping us
true and faithful to you
by making things happen 
like making Christ present
no matter how difficult and 
unpopular it may be especially 
when others especially our pastors 
have forgotten to live in your footsteps,
when too much time and emphasis
are spent with outward appearances
forgetting internal reformation;
let us stop wishful thinking that
things may get better by being just idle,
simply awaiting for events to happen.
Like that shrewd steward in the gospel,
let us find ways, O Lord, in making
justice and mercy,
love and kindness
become realities
by making them happen
by standing firm in you
Jesus Christ.
Amen.

Finger of God, power of God, power of love, miracle of the Rosary

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Friday, Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary, 07 October 2022
Galatians 3:7-14 ><}}}}*> + ><}}}}*> + ><}}}}*> Luke 11:15-26

God our loving Father,
thank you in making us 
experience your saving power
in the most unusual manner;
the imagery is most unique
like when Jesus used again
that Old Testament expression
"finger of God":

But if it is by the finger of God that I drive out demons, the the Kingdom of God has come upon you.
Luke 11:20

How lovely is that imagery of
"finger of God" as the power of 
God to drive out demons; the
only other instances "finger of
God" was used were in the
Book of Exodus when the 
Pharaoh's magicians admitted
the plagues were the works of 
"the finger of God" and secondly
to describe how the Ten Commandments 
were written by the "finger of God"
on two tablets of stone; 
and now, Jesus described
his driving away of a demon 
from a possessed man as work
of the "finger of God".

In all instances, O God,
your power so great is so
unlike of what we know 
of worldly power that is
threatening and menacing; 
was it coincidental, dear God,
that the most powerful prayer
instrument we now have is the
Holy Rosary that is literally found
on our fingers too?

As we pray the Rosary with our
lips and fingers, suffuse us
with your power that loves and
heals, forgives and cares;
may we "imitate" what the
mysteries of the Rosary "contain" 
by following Jesus like Mary
in all his joys and sufferings,
glory and light.

Like during the time of Christ,
we are being attacked in all fronts
by many detractors who refuse
to acknowledge the Holy Rosary is
a Christocentric prayer that contemplates
the life of Jesus our Savior 
through the face of Mary his Mother;
as we meditate the life of Christ
through the Rosary beads 
with our fingers, 
let us experience
your great power anew,
your power to love
and care especially 
the sick and suffering,
the lost and forgotten
so that in the end,
may your power
triumph over the
evils of the world
expressed in dominance
and manipulations,
lies and character
assassinations,
and disrespect for
life and persons.
Amen.

Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary,
Pray for us!

*Photo from canningliturgicalarts.com*, painting of the Battle of Lepanto Bay with our Lady of Victory or Rosary.

The Spirit of God

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Tuesday in the Twenty-second Week of Ordinary Time, 30 August 2022
1 Corinthians 2:10-16 ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> Luke 4:31-37

Brothers and sisters: The Spirit scrutinizes everything, even the depths of God. Among men, who knows what pertains to the man except his spirit that is within? Similarly, no one knows what pertains to God except the Spirit of God.
1 Corinthians 2:10-11

Your words are so comforting,
so consoling and so soothing today,
God our loving Father that I praise
and thank you for this most wonderful
gift we never acknowledge or
even recognize because to be spiritual
these days is laughed upon.
Or worst, to be spiritual these days
is something of different kind,
products of the human mind that
pretend to be esoteric and exclusive
only to a few; many times, we believe
these days in dark spirits and other
kinds of spirits instead of knowing 
and nurturing your Spirit, O God,
in Christ Jesus.

Help us to be truly "spiritual people"
who share and understand 
"the mind of Christ" (v.16) we all have
that enables us to see people and 
things the way Jesus sees
and values them, sharing in his
vision of the meaning and goal of
our lives which is communion 
in you, God our Father through the
scandal and mystery of the Cross.

Many times in life, 
you know how we always
feel at a loss for your will,
for your plans and for your
love for us because we never
allow your Spirit to grow and
reign in us as we are so busy
and delighted listening and
watching and reading all those
horror and crazy stuffs of the
bad spirits; we would rather go
to witch doctors than to priests
and nuns or any spiritual people
in the real sense, believing more in
the power of evil subjecting us
to all forms of malady and sufferings.

May we nurture your Spirit in us,
O God, so we may live authentically
and with authority in our words 
and deeds like Jesus in today's
gospel when he cast out a demon
from a possessed man just with
his words; let us grow in your Spirit,
God, so we may finally find and 
experience peace and harmony in
our lives and relationships.  Amen.

Seeing Jesus

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Wednesday, Memorial of St. Lawrence, Deacon & Martyr, 10 August 2022
2 Corinthians 9:6-10 ><}}}*> + ><}}}*> + ><}}}*> John 12:24-26

God our loving Father,
just this Monday I have prayed,
telling you how I sometimes wished
to find you in strange visions like
your prophet Ezekiel; today, as we
celebrate the Memorial of your
great Saint, Lawrence, the gospel
speaks so well of finding you
when some Greeks approached Philip,
asking him to help them see Jesus
while in Jerusalem:

Jesus said to his disciples: “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.”
John 12:24

Lord Jesus, so much have changed
in this world in terms of freely worshipping you
 unlike during the early centuries of Christianity
 when your followers shed blood witnessing you;
today, there are no more lions to devour us
nor executioners to crucify or decapitate us
or roast us on gridiron like St. Lawrence;
but your call for martyrdom remains.
Give us the courage to "let go and let God"
in our lives which is to become fruitful
like the grain of wheat to see you
by allowing you dear Jesus to make us become
 everything you want us to be, that is,
a bread produced by grains of wheat
grounded and disintegrated to become
food for others.

“Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life.”
John 12:25

Help us realize, dear Jesus,
that to see you means to think more
of eternal life than of this present life
that is passing; that we own nothing at all
in this world, not even our very lives;
like St. Lawrence who faithfully served
 the poor and disadvantaged the world refuses
to recognize until now as your presence
and "life" because "life" has always been
seen in glitz and glamor revolving around one's self
as the center of everything;
help us realize that we cannot find meaning of life
in ourselves, by being self-centered;
it is in finding you in others, in valuing them too
 that we find life and its meaning!

“Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there also will my servant be. The Father will honor whoever serves me.”
John 12:26

Finally, finding you dear Jesus
and the Father is entering into your very person,
getting into a communion that "it is no longer I 
who live but you, O Christ, lives in me"
(Gal.2:20);
let me welcome you, Jesus into myself,
let me embrace you and your Cross,
join you in your Passion and Death to be 
one in you more than ever in your Resurrection.

Pray for us, most blessed
St. Lawrence that like you,
we may generously offer our lives
to God and inspire others
to experience and see Jesus Christ
present in this world so blinded
by vanities and fantasies.
Amen.

*“Martyrdom of St. Lawrence, Deacon” by Hipolito de Rioja (16th c.) from commons.wikimedia.org*

God our Daddy

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Thursday in the Fourteenth Week of Ordinary Time, 07 July 2022
Hosea 11:1-4, 8-9 ><)))*> + ><)))*> + ><)))*> Matthew 10:7-15

*Photo by Fr. Pop Dela Cruz, 15 June 2022 in San Miguel, Bulacan.*

Your words today, O God,
are so touching 
because you are so human, 
so fatherly, to tender, so loving:

Thus says the Lord: When Israel was a child, I loved him, out of Egypt I called my son. The more I called them, the farther they went from me, sacrificing to the Baals and burning incense to idols.
Hosea 11:1-2

So true, O God:
you have always loved us
despite our unworthiness,
freeing us from sins and other
darkness in life yet,
we turned away from you;
and worst, the more you call us,
the more we turn away from you!
And despite that,
you kept on calling us,
even running after us so we
may return to you through your Son
Jesus Christ but, sadly, the more 
we run away from you.

Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk, who took them in my arms; I drew them with human cords, with bands of love; I fostered them like one who raises an infant to his cheeks; yet, though I stooped to feed my child, they did not know that I was their healer.
Hosea 11:3-4

This part I love so much, God;
so touching, so picturesque
of you, so human, so fatherly
like a daddy teaching us
 how to walk,
tenderly drawing us with
"human cords, with bands of love",
not with with ropes and sticks
used for animals;
most of all, your gentlest
and tenderest image of raising us
to your cheeks like an infant,
stooping to feed us that all show
your intimacy and deep love
we have brushed aside, even spurned.
And that is how ungrateful we are!!!
Yet, you are still here,
loving us, forgiving us
in Jesus Christ who suffered and died
for our sins.

My heart is overwhelmed; my pity stirred. I will not give vent to my blazing anger, I will not destroy Ephraim again. For I am God and not man, the Holy One present among you; I will not let the flames consume you.
Hosea 11:8-9

Lord Jesus Christ,
thank you for letting us call
your Father "Abba!",
thank you for letting us experience
his touch that heals and cleanses,
his love that forgives and casts out
demons from us; let us be
reminders today that the
Kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Amen.

*Photo by Mr. Chester Ocampo, springtime in Japan, 2017.*

Meeting God

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Tuesday, Memorial of St. Irenaeus, Bishop & Martyr, 28 June 2022
Amos 3:1-8, 4:11-12 ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> Matthew 8:23-27

*Photo by Ms. Danna Hazel de Castro, Kiltepan Peak, Sagada, Mountain Province, 2017.*

Disturbing words by Amos in the
first reading and a violent storm in
the gospel while the apostles where
crossing the lake with Jesus asleep
remind us dear God our loving Father
of the inevitable "meeting with you".

Who would not be shaken with the 
words of Amos threatening:

Does a lion roar in the f0rest when it has no prey? Does a young lion cry out from its den unless it has seized something? Is a bird brought to earth by a snare when there is no lure for it? Does a snare spring up from the ground without catching anything? If the trumpet sounds in a city, will the people not be frightened ? If evil befalls a city, has not the Lord caused it? So now I will deal with you in my own way, O Israel! And since I will deal thus with you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel.
Amos 3;4-6, 4:12

Forgive us, Lord, for being complacent
in knowing you, feeling one with you
even if our lives are far from your
teachings that we neither see your
nor are you seen in us or in our live; 
help us realize that because 
you have given us so much, much are
expected from us.

At the other extreme, many times
we are like the apostles in the boat
caught in a violent storm while at the
middle of the sea and even if Jesus were
with us, we act as if he were away.

Many times we do not meet you
because we do not live our faith in you
faithfully, so afraid of what others would
say to us; but, there are also many times
we do not meet you when our fears overtake
us that we do not see you being with us.

The glory of God gives life; those who see God receive life… Life in man is the glory of God; the life of man is the vision of God.
St. Irenaeus, Against Heresies

Help us imitate St. Irenaeus who lived
his faith faithfully that he saw you daily
in his life.  Amen.

This God who connects us

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Solemnity of the Holy Trinity-B, 30 May 2021
Deuteronomy 4:32-34, 39-40 ><}}}'> Romans 8:14-17 ><}}}'> Matthew 28:16-20

If there is anything most difficult and frustrating next to COVID-19 these days, it must be having your internet going “off line” as you lose “connections” with family and friends – and NETFLIX – while isolated in your home due to the pandemic. Making it worst is when it happens on a Saturday evening with no one to even answer your calls at the supposed to be 24/7 hotlines of internet providers that we were flooded with complaints and queries as we could not air our online Masses last Sunday.

As we went back to “stone age” without any internet signal for almost a week, I realized some beautiful things this modern lifestyle we all enjoy with a lot of great patience courtesy of our unreliable telcos. See the terms we use these days that speak of our modern life but at the same time reveal to us something so ancient, so true, and so basic that we take for granted or even disregard – GOD.

Unlike the internet that can be cut off for many reasons, 
our connection with God is permanent --- 
upgraded to the highest level more than 2000 years ago 
in the coming of Jesus Christ and the sending of the Holy Spirit!

God is the original internet, the very first Wi-Fi! He cannot be seen but can be strongly felt. Most of all, God is always around, never goes off line. All we need is make the effort to connect. He has created the whole world and universe as his “Wi-Fi Zone” where we are all interconnected in time and space that we can go back to our past and be healed in him or look into the future and be assured with all of his support.

Unlike the internet that can be cut off for many reasons, our connection with God is permanent — upgraded to the highest level more than 2000 years ago in the coming of Jesus Christ and the sending of the Holy Spirit!

It is in this light that I wish to invite you to join me in reflecting the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity we are celebrating on this first Sunday of the resumption of Ordinary Time.

*From shutterstock.com via Aletheia.com*

God in our midst

The challenge is not to explain fully 
the mystery of the Trinity, 
of the three Persons in one God 
but how we make that mystery 
a living reality in us and among us.

Before the people of the Bible reflected and wrote about the origins of the world and the universe, they were first preoccupied with their long experience with God. They have felt and have wondered how somebody bigger than them, more powerful yet so loving and caring related with them in a personal way in the many events of their lives employing various signs and wonders that instilled the whole spectrum of feelings like joy and fear, guilt and thanksgiving, commitment and love, and all the other emotions we also go through in our own experiences of him!

And that is the most amazing about his total mystery: we cannot fully know and understand God but we know deep inside us he is true, he is real, he exists. We can prove beyond doubt his very existence and use so many illustrations to explain him but will never be enough.

What matters most is that we “know” him, that he is real, that he is true.

To know in the Jewish thought is not only an intellectual assent but more of a relationship: to know a person is to have a relationship with that person. Hence, every knowledge and recognition of God implies a lifelong commitment and relationship with him!

Moses said to the people: “Ask now of the days of old, before your time, ever since God created man upon the earth; ask from one end of the sky to the other: Did anything so great ever happen before? Was it ever heard of? Did a people ever hear the voice of God speaking from the midst of fire, as you did, and live? This is why you must now know, and fix in your heart, that the Lord is God in the heavens above and on earth below, and that there is no other”
Deuteronomy 4:32-33, 39

Beyond doubt, God is always present, the perfect present in fact as he told Moses at the burning bush, “I Am Who Am” (Ex.3:14) that to say the very word GOD means he exists, a foolishness to claim that “there is no god” (Ps.14:1).

We have come to know him in our many experiences, giving us a sense of “belonging”, of being linked and interconnected like Wi-Fi that we do not see and for all we know, has always been there present in the airwaves, in the atmosphere tapped only recently through our modern communications technology.

The challenge is not to explain fully the mystery of the Trinity, of the three Persons in one God but how we make that mystery a living reality in us and among us.

To be wrapped by – not to grasp – the mystery

Unlike the internet signals we have discovered only lately in history, God as a reality revealed himself to us in his relationships in the past, reaching its highest point in Christ’s coming that was affirmed and enlightened to the Apostles at the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost in Jerusalem which continues to our time.

For this Sunday, we use the majestic conclusion of the Gospel according to St. Matthew that has a very strong Trinitarian flavor with the Lord’s command before ascending into heaven.

The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them. When they saw him, they worshipped, but they doubted. Then Jesus approached, and said to them, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”
Matthew 28:16-20

Last Thursday after Pentecost we celebrated the new Feast of Jesus Christ, the Eternal Priest to remind us of our sharing in the priestly ministry of Jesus when we were baptized. That is, to adore, honor, praise and thank the supreme majesty of God in our prayers. We see this exercise of our common priesthood in Christ in this gospel we have heard: the disciples went to a mountain in Galilee as ordered by Jesus. The mountain indicates the presence of God, conveying a message of praying and coming to him.

The Sign of the Cross is essentially an ascent to a mountain, a prayer in itself to God in the Holy Trinity. When we make the Sign of the Cross, we become the embodiment of God’s mysterious threeness of persons in one God. We affirm his reality as we enter into his mystery of the Trinity by fulfilling Christ’s triple mission given to the apostles.

“Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations.” To truly experience the mystery of the Trinity is to lose one’s self in Christ as his disciple. In his teachings and very life, Jesus had shown us the importance of forgetting one’s self as his follower, of becoming like a child that whoever wants to be the greatest must be the least and servant of all. The mystery of God is not something we grasp but something we allow to envelop us to be covered with his transcendence in order share in Christ’s Passion, Death, and Resurrection. Remember that it is not difficult to find God who reveals himself to those truly seeking him by following Jesus on the Cross.

“Baptize them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” We have seen how since the start of the Church after Pentecost, baptism has been conferred to those who welcomed the Gospel of salvation from Jesus Christ. Through him, with him, and in him, every baptized person is born into God’s life in his Holy Trinity as beloved children of the Father and coheirs of his kingdom in heaven, as brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ, and as the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Thus, we become a holy people to God, one again in him as he had deemed since the beginning that was fulfilled in Jesus our Eternal High Priest at the last supper and Good Friday.

“Teach them to observe all I have commanded you.” St. Matthew has been very particular in this aspect in his entire gospel account, of the need to put into practice the Lord’s teachings. It is not enough that people are baptized, that they welcome in faith Christ’s commandment to love: they have to live it up! That is when the Trinity becomes so real and true in us when we live in love, when we are willing to give ourselves in love for others.

In this world that has become so highly sophisticated and complicated as well, when what matters most are fame and popularity, connections that do not last at all, always erratic, never contented with what is most essential like value of persons and life, it is no wonder that even God is slowly being removed from the daily equation of life.

*Photo by author, Bangui Windmill, Ilocos Norte, 2011.*

This is most especially true in this post-modern generation without absolutes, when anything goes as everything is relative; and worst, when something that cannot be proven as tangibly present and real, then the mystery of the Trinity is even pushed even to the back seats of our lives.

See how so many people are so ashamed of even doing the Sign of the Cross in public!

This solemnity of the Trinity that we celebrate on the first Sunday at the resumption of Ordinary Time reminds us of the daily coming of God into our lives, of his personal relationship with us that is being challenged strongly by the ways of the world that is opposite his ways of love and kindness, mercy and forgiveness, simplicity and humility.

Let us ask the help of the Holy Spirit to lead us as “children of God, not slaves” of the world’s selfish ways (Rom. 8:14-17) so we may maintain that strong connections in the Father through Jesus Christ. Amen.

A blessed first week of June 2021 to everyone!

Our lives in Christ

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Friday, Week XXIV, Year II in Ordinary Time, 18 September 2020
1 Corinthians 15:12-20   ///   Luke 8:1-3

Photo by author, “private Mass” during lockdown, March 2020.

Another week is about to close, loving Father. Praise and thanksgiving to you for the grace of making it through, of passing over doubts to certainty, darkness to light, sickness to health, and death to new life in Jesus Christ your Son.

What a pity indeed if there is no resurrection of the dead nor resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Brothers and sisters: If Christ is preached as raised from the dead, how can some among you say there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then neither has Christ been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then empty too is our preaching; empty, too, your faith.
1 Corinthians 15:12-14

In this time of so much divisions fueled by dictatorship of relativism without any absolute truth nor good, many among us have stopped believing not only in resurrection of the dead but even in you, O God. Many have created themselves as their own god or have turned to other gods and idols. Sadly, many even have the guts to blaspheme you and dare challenge you and your precepts.

We are sorry, Lord , at how many of us have gone astray from you, relying more on science and technology and modern thoughts, leading lives empty of meaning, without directions. Aimless and worst, homeless.

Show us, Lord, the path we have to take to lead people back to you.

Give us the clarity of mind, purity of heart and intentions of St. Paul in leading our lives in Christ Jesus.

Enable us to embrace the new life in Christ like those women who followed Jesus in his ministry, “providing for them out of their resources” (Lk.8:3).

May our lives glow with your loving presence Jesus to lead others back to you. Amen.

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

Monday, Week XVII, Year II in Ordinary Time, 27 July 2020

***Jeremiah 13:1-11* >><)))> >>><)))> >><)))> Matthew 13:31-35***

What a great way to start our last week of work and studies in July with your sense of humor, O God! Your words are so witty and funny but with a strong punch. Hard-hitting, so biting. And so revealing.

For, as close as the loincloth clings to a man’s loins, so I had made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, says the Lord; to be my people, my renown, my praise, my beauty. But they did not listen.
Jeremiah 13:11

You really got me, Lord.

What can I say?

Our underwear, that is, the loincloth of Jeremiah’s time, is our most intimate clothing, always in contact with our very selves, in that part of our body that we always guard and keep to ourselves.

But, what happens when we “dirty” ourselves with sins, when we put on all those filth in ourselves, we also feel the same way inside, no matter how clean and crisp our clothes are but when deep down our loincloth – underwear – is rotted and good for nothing?

We can always hide it from others and they will never know the kind of underwear we have but we cannot deceive ourselves of how dirty we are with sins and evil.

And so far from you, O God.

Forgive us when you are supposed to be the closest to us, the one we are always in contact with but we have totally disregarded because of our many sins, when we thought we can always have our own ways without you, denying the fact it simply cannot be for indeed, you have made us to be that closest to you.

Forgive us in your Son and our Lord Jesus Christ. Renew us inside, cleanse us and refresh us to be in close contact with you again, O God.

Help us to remain good and clean inside like the little mustard seed so we may grow to have leafy branches for birds to come and dwell in us.

In your mercy, cleanse us of our sins and be our yeast to mix with us again to leaven into a dough to make your kingdom come here on earth. Amen.