Remembering our roots and origin

Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Friday, Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time, Year II
Memorial of St. Maximilian Kolbe, Priest & Martyr, 14 August 2026

O God our loving Father,
help us to always remember -
our origins and beginnings,
our past especially
the people who had cared
and nurtured us,
our parents and siblings,
relatives and friends,
those who gave us 
the breaks and sparks
to begin our great journeys in life,
the people who stood by
when we were down
and nobody believed us:
dear God,
remind us always
of the basic fact,
of the principle and foundation
of our being:
that we came from you
and shall return to you.

Forgive us,
Lord God,
in forgetting you always,
in forgetting others,
in forgetting
we are nothing without you;
touch us,
nudge us if needed
whenever we forget 
you and our lowly beginnings;
let us not be amazed 
by our feats
and abilities.

But you were captivated by your own beauty, you used your renown to make yourself a harlot, and you lavished your harlotry on every passer-by, whose own you became. Yet I will remember the covenant I made with you when you were a girl, and I will set up an everlasting covenant with you, that you may remember and be covered with confusion, and that you may be utterly silenced for shame when I pardon you for all you have done, says the Lord God (Ezekiel 16:15, 60-63).

As we celebrate today
the Memorial of your most
faithful servant 
St. Maximilian Kolbe
who offered himself not just
once for a fellow prisoner in
Auschwitz for he had
dedicated himself to you
entirely before World War II
began,
may we remember
the lessons that led
to the Holocaust;
like St. Maximilian Kolbe
may we continue to remember
your covenant in Jesus Christ
by making a stand against
injustice and immorality,
in defending life especially
at its weakest points,
and most of all,
in remembering
the equal dignity of every person
created in your image and likeness;
like what Jesus told
the Pharisees,
let us go back
to Paradise,
let us return to you,
O God,
as our Lord and Master
alone,
not ourselves,
nor our pride and convenience,
nor anyone
nor their flimsy, 
modern thoughts
and ideas;
like St. Maximilian Kolbe,
may we have the courage
to always stand forward
for what is true
and good
and holy.
Amen.

When God seems so far away

Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Monday, Tenth Week in Ordinary Time, 08 June 2026
1 Kings 17:1-6     ><))))*> + ><))))*> + ><))))*>     Matthew 5:1-12

*Photo by author, St. Anthony de Padua Chapel, D’Alta Tagaytay, Tagaytay City, 02 June 2026.*

Today we begin to listen anew
to your wonderful story of love for
your people Israel during the time
of your great prophet Elijah,
during the reign of your unfaithful King Ahab
who married the pagan Jezebel;
on this gloomy Monday,
the setting is so unsettling even
for us as you pronounced a severe
drought over Israel for turning away
from you, in worshipping Baal.

God, our Father,
it is a story we keep on repeating:
we have so many baals these days -
from gadgets to every kind of foreign beliefs
to celebrities and people we idolize
down to our very selves with ego
so bloated by social media;
forgive us for turning away from you.

Many times,
when troubles happen,
we easily blame you, Lord
for being too far from us
when in fact we are the ones
who always turn away from you.

Make these drought
and dryness in our lives as grace-filled
moments; lead us back to you
even if we have to go through a desert
like Elijah; most of all, lead us back
to your word like a stream quenching
our thirst, washing away our dirt,
filling us with life.

Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord, the god of Israel, lives, whom I serve, during these years there shall be no dew or rain except at my word” (1 Kings 17:1).

Let us re + member you always,
Lord:
inasmuch as you have made us back
as your part in Christ Jesus,
let us not forget to make you
a part also of our lives;
give us the "be attitude"
to be poor and open
for you, Lord
so that we may find life
and fulfillment anew.
Let us be near to you
again, Lord.
Amen.

Lent is returning what we have stolen, claimed as our own

40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Friday, Second Week in Lent, 06 March 2026
Genesis 37:3-4, 12-13, 17-28     + + +     Matthew 21:33-43, 45-46

*Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, March 2023.*

As we come to nearly closing
this second week in Lent,
forgive us Lord Jesus Christ
for the many times we have
claimed everything as our own:
Lent is when we return back 
to God our Father 
the life we have all stolen
and destroyed in the process.

It tears apart my heart,
O Lord, 
that scene when Jacob's sons 
conspired to kill, later sold 
Joseph their own brother
because of jealousy
and sadly,
how this still happens among us 
as brothers and sisters,
"Judah said to his brothers:
'What is to be gained by killing
our brother and concealing his blood?
Rather, let us sell him
to these Ishmaelites, 
instead of doing away with him ourselves.
Afer all, he is our brother,
our own flesh.'
His brothers agreed.
They sold Joseph 
to the Ishmaelites 
for twenty pieces of silver"
(Genesis 37:26-28).

Forgive us,
Lord in owning each
other like a thing,
an object to be possessed
than a subject to be loved
and respected like when we 
rejoice at the summary execution
of criminals, when people argue
in favor of abortion and contraceptives
negating the value of life,
when some insist on same sex unions
and gender reorientation 
disregarding the sanctity of
the human body.

*Photo by author, from Dominus Flevit Church overlooking Jerusalem, May 2017.*

It is the same pride
that consumes us when we
think of our selves,
of our very lives,
of this planet itself
and universe as if
we own everything,
laying claim on everything
and everyone; forgive us,
Father for being so arrogant
with our misplaced confidence
and familiarity in our sense of
ownership and possession
of "your vineyard" entrusted
to us.

We have not only defied you,
Father in disregarding the prophets
you have sent to gather from us your
share of produce from your vineyard
we have now usurped; worst of all,
we have killed your Son Jesus Christ,
not giving him the respect due to him,
"Finally, he sent his son to them,
thinking, 'They will respect my son.'
But when the tenants saw the son,
they said to one another, 
'This is the heir. Come, let us kill him
and acquire his inheritance.'
They seized him,
threw him out of the vineyard,
and killed him"
(Matthew 21:37-39).

Every time we sin,
whenever we disrespect others
especially the sick and the weak,
whenever we discredit someone
not present with us in a gathering,
when we are unfaithful and we betray
those we have promised to love
and to serve,
we steal your vineyard, Father,
we kill your Son and Heir,
we claim as ours
without realizing the truth
we have nothing at all
for we are mere stewards.

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

Lord Jesus,
you have given me with
so much -
life and talents,
experiences and fulfillment
family and friends
not to own
nor possess like things
but gifts to be shared;
I return them to you
so you may use them
and me according to your will.
Amen.