Jesus, author of life

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe, Thursday, Easter Octave, 25 April 2019

Acts 3:11-26///Luke 24:35-48

Today O dear Jesus Christ, St. Peter called you as “the author of life” in our first reading — a very beautiful and unique way of describing you who had resurrected from death.

From you alone, Lord, comes life indeed. Most of all, only you can restore and bring back life in case we lose it for you are indeed the author of life. St. Mark the Evangelist whose feast we celebrate today perfectly said it at the start of his gospel account:

The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ (the Son of God).
Mark 1:1

You O Lord Jesus is the good news yourself because you are life, the author of life. Whoever believes in you, accepts you has life, regains life.

Sometimes we are like your disciples in our gospel today who doubted you when you suddenly appeared to them in their room. Sometimes we are overwhelmed with your presence. And most of the time, we think you might be a ghost or an imagination.

But the moment we try to feel you and experience your saving power, then we realize how scary it can be sometimes to believe you than to believe in ghosts because you are REAL, ghosts are not.

Help us to be like St. Mark the Evangelist who wrote the first gospel ever written now bearing his name and symbol of a lion. May we have the courage to write with our very lives your good news of salvation whose only author is you alone. Amen.

*The beautiful west facade of St. Mark’s Cathedral Basilica in Venice, Italy with a statue of its patron atop with a winged lion with a bible below him as symbols. Photo from Bing.com.*

Our Seat, Our Stand?

SOD-0222-ChairofSaintPeter-790x480 — The Chair of St. Peter at the high altar of the Basilica of St. Peter at the Vatican flanked below by the two teachers of the East, St. John Chrysostom and St. Athanasius with the two Latin Fathers of the Church St. Ambrose and St. Augustine. All four saints showed us how love stands on faith; that, without both love and faith, everything falls apart in the Church. Photo from Bing.

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Friday, Feast of the Chair of St. Peter, 22 February 2019

1Peter 5:1-4///Matthew 16:13-19

Glory and praise to you, O Lord Jesus Christ as we celebrate today a most unique feast, the Chair of St. Peter!

It is so unique O Lord especially in this age when the world is so concerned with seating arrangement whether at home, in school, in offices, in buses… everywhere seats matter these days because every seat is about position, rank, power and convenience.

And we have forgotten that more important than our seating position is where we stand.

On this Feast of the Chair of St. Peter, remind us Lord especially your priests of that beautiful example you have shown at the Last Supper when you left your seat to wash the feet of the Apostles.

How sad and shameful, O Lord, when we your priests fail to realize that the throne of the Eucharist is not a seat of power or prestige but a seat of loving service to everyone.

So true were the words of St. Ignatius of Antioch in his Letter to the Romans in the year 110 that the Primacy of Rome is the Primacy of Love because primacy in faith is always primacy in love, two things we can never separate.

May we your priests heed the call of St. Peter, the designated “owner” of that Chair, that we “Tend the flock of God in your midst, overseeing not by constraint but willingly, as God would have it, not for shameful profit but eagerly. Do not lord it over those assigned to you, but be examples to the flock” (1Pt.5:2-3). Amen. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan.

When Listening Is Most Important

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Friday, 08 February 2019, Week IV, Year I

Hebrews 13:1-8///Mark 6:14-29

Today O Lord we thank you for one of the most unique saints of modern time, St. Josephine Bakhita who had taught us the importance of when and how to listen. Her life proved that indeed, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Heb.13:8) for you never abandoned her, always speaking to her on many occasions through the many people and events of her life.

Teach us to emulate St. Josephine Bakhita who chose to listen to your voice within her, in her conscience to do what is good, to desire only your will. Despite the many sufferings she had endured as a child sold to slavery from Africa that she had forgotten her name, she chose to listen to her conscience that had remained pure and clean.

So unlike Herod who loved listening to the preaching of John the Baptist though he would always be perplexed because he refused to accept them. Most of all, Herod preferred to listen to the words of the people around him, especially the daughter of Herodias than listen to his conscience that led to John’s beheading.

O Lord Jesus, so many times I confuse your words with the words of the world. Grant me a clear conscience that I may always pursue your holiness. Amen. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan.

The Presence of Jesus

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul

Thursday, 24 January 2019, Week II, Year I

Hebrews 7:25-8:6///Mark 3:7-12

Sometimes Lord I envy your apostles, the people who have lived during your time and have actually met you, heard you, and most of all touched you.

Of course it is a useless and even a non-sense wishful thinking or daydreaming because as the author of the Letter to the Hebrews explains to us today, you have not really left us. In your great sacrifice on the Cross as our High Priest, you have become present with us always.

“The main point of what has been said is this: we have such a high priest, who has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle that the Lord, not man, set up” (Heb.8:1-2).

And that is the challenge for us today: rather than imagining we were present during your time, what we must always think and reflect upon is making you present today, like your disciples who looked for boats where you preached and healed people. Now more than ever as you sit at the right hand of the Father, every moment is your presence of love and mercy, healing and growing.

Make us realize O Lord Jesus that you are communication yourself, your giving of self in love on the Cross is the most perfect communication of all. More than an expression of your thoughts and feelings for us, Lord, your crucifixion became the most profound level of your communication, actualizing your love and mercy for us even today.

Help us communicate your love and mercy to others not only in words but most of all in deeds. Give us the same grace you have given St. Francis de Sales in ensuring our every communication make you present. Amen. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan.

Quotes from Google.

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Holiness is Living the Beatitudes

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Thursday, 01 November 2018, Solemnity of All Saints

Revelation 7:2-4, 9-14//1John 3:1-3//Matthew 5:1-12

O loving and merciful Father in heaven, on this glorious solemnity of all the saints, I pray to you borrowing the third encyclical of your servant Pope Francis, Gaudete et Exsultate (#63-94) issued last March 19 of this year to remind us of your call to holiness. Therefore, I implore you to:

Help me, O God to become holy by being poor of heart for Jesus said “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” (Mt.5:3) Let me take a deep look into my heart to see where I truly find security in life. Forgive me when I cling more to wealth that ensures nothing and leaves no room to love you and others that make me miss the most important things in life.

Help me to mourn with others, O God, for indeed, “Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.” (Mt.5:4) This is easier said than done for the world tells exactly the opposite that entertainment, pleasure, diversion, and escape make for the good life. Let me see things as they truly are so I may sympathize with those in pain and in sorrow, only to be comforted by your Son Jesus Christ.

Help me, O God to become holy by being meek (Mt.5:5). I know this is very difficult because it is the reign of pride and vanity in my heart that makes me think I have the right to dominate others. Give me the grace to trust in you more, not to be upset and impatient with others that leave me drained and weary always. Let me surrender everything to you, my only Lord and Master.

Help me, O God to hunger and thirst for righteousness (Mt.5:6) so that I may be holy by being filled with you. Hunger and thirst are intense experiences because they both involve basic needs and our instinct for survival. Let me be intense in working for your justice by being faithful to your words even if it is very attractive to join the train of winners through corruption. Let me be faithful to you even if I will not see in my lifetime the fruits of my fighting for justice.

Help me, O God, to be merciful (Mt.5:7) like you which is reproducing in our lives some small measure of your perfection which gives and forgives superabundantly. Teach me to be giving and forgiving like you.

Help me, O God, to have a clean heart (Mt.5:8) so that I may see you more clearly and follow you more clearly in love. Give me the grace to keep my heart free of all that tarnishes love.

Help me, O God, to be a peacemaker and truly become your child (Mt.5:9). When I think of this beatitude, I see the many endless situations of war in our world and yet, too often, I must admit that I am also the cause of some conflicts or at least of misunderstanding around me! Teach me how to sow peace all around me as I try to embrace even those who are a bit odd, troublesome or difficult, demanding, different, beaten down by life or simply uninterested. It is really hard work on my part, O God, demanding creativity, serenity, sensitivity and skill.

Living out the Beatitudes by your Son Jesus Christ is accepting the daily path of the Gospel, even though it may cause me problems, most especially persecution. But whatever weariness and pain I may experience in living the commandment of love and following the way of justice, the cross remains the source of my growth and sanctification. That is why “blessed are those persecuted for righteousness’ sake for there is the kingdom of heaven.”(Mt.5:10) No holiness can ever happen without pain and suffering for the path to heaven is always through the way of the Cross of Christ. AMEN. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan 3022. *Photos from Google.

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You Are the Handiwork of God

POPE JOHN PAUL II HOLDS CROSIER AS HE PRAYS

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe-Prayer

Monday//22October 2018//Memorial of St. John Paul II

Ephesians 2:1-10///Luke 12:13-21

My heart is overflowing with praise and thanksgiving to you, O God our loving Father in giving us the wonderful gift of a saint who had lived during our lifetime, the great St. John Paul II whose feast celebrate today. Having lived during his pontificate, I have experienced your love and majesty, your presence, your reality. When I think and remember our beloved JP2, I cannot but be filled with awe that there is a loving, merciful and personal God like you!

In his own life, today’s words by St. Paul are evidently true that each of us is “your handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for the good works that God has prepared in advance, that we should live in them.” (Eph.2:10) When I recall the early childhood of St. John Paul II, his family, his Poland, his long pontificate along with his many travels and great speeches along with his bubbling sense of humor, the more I see your love and mercy, O God.

Here is a man with so much pains and sufferings until his death who never ceased to echo among us the call of Jesus to be not afraid. Here is a man who had showed us in his very life that “one’s life does not consist of possessions but of being rich in what matters to God.” (Lk.12:15,21)

Give us that grace too, loving Father in heaven, to be like St. John Paul II that we may also see you working in us and through us, despite our many brokenness, that we are not determined by our failures and sins in the past. Make us realize St. John Paul II’s teaching that we can only find fulfillment in your Son Jesus Christ who had come to bring us back into your loving arms. AMEN. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan 3022. E-mail to lordmychef@gmail.com for free subscription.

*Photos from Google.

JPquote

We Are Evangelists of the Lord

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Thursday//18October2018//Feast of St. Luke, Evangelist

2Timothy 4:10-17///Luke 10:1-9

Today we thank you O Lord for opening our eyes through St. Luke in showing to us that what we need most in this world are people who would reveal to us and enable us to experience the mystery of your coming and presence among us. You never told us to pray for more machines or technology, more gadgets or more money for the abundant harvest. What we need are people – laborers – or evangelists who would write with their lives your gospel of love, your gospel of life like St. Luke.

“The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.” (Lk.10:2)

Of your four evangelists, only St. Luke made known to us how he had “decided, after investigating everything accurately anew, to write it down in an orderly sequence” (Lk.1:3) everything about you and your teachings, O Lord. With his life and writings, we were able to have a glimpse of the mysteries of your life especially stories of your Annunciation and Birth up to your presentation at the Temple that have endeared the Christmas season to us.

It was St. Luke who always told us the many instances you have prayed to stress the need for an intimacy with God always in this life. He was the only one who told us the beautiful Emmaus story that has been a constant reminder of Easter burning always within our hearts. And it was also St. Luke who remarkably showed us how Mary has always been your model disciple until the Pentecost.

Give us, Lord Jesus, the same grace as a laborer and an evangelist which is the ability to see and communicate God working in our lives daily in the power of the Holy Spirit. AMEN. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan 3022. E-mail to lordmychef@gmail.com.

*Photo from Google: “Saint Luke Drawing the Virgin” by Flemish painter Roger van der Weyden (1400-1464). It is one of the most important paintings from Europe in the United States now kept on display at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. It is a very lovely and very interesting painting too!

Only God Suffices

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe-Prayer

Monday//15October2018//Week XXVIII, Year II

Galatians 4:22-26, 24-27, 31-5:1///Luke 11:29-32

Today, O Lord, let me take into my heart the notes in the breviary of your blessed St. Teresa of Avila whose feast we celebrate today: “Let nothing disturb me… only God suffices.”

So many times, Lord Jesus, I feel like the Galatians who always doubted your mercy and love for me, your gift of freedom and salvation that I always feel nothing is enough in this life. And that is even if I have experienced so many times how you have never abandoned me, seeing for myself how true were the words of St. Teresa that “only God suffices because God never changes.”

So many times, Lord Jesus, I feel like your contemporaries who keep on asking for signs from you not because I want to feel and experience you more but for more of my own personal needs and gains. Grant me peace and stillness, to let nothing disturb me and let me patiently endure every darkness and desolation like St. Teresa of Avila so that eventually, God may possess me. AMEN. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan 3022. E-mail to lordmychef@gmail.com.

*Photo by Dra. Mai Dela Pena, a rose in the Carmelite Monastery during a Holy Land Pilgrimage. Used with permission.

The Spirit of Prayer

The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe-Prayer

Thursday//11October2018//Week XXVII, Year II

Galatians 3:1-5///Luke 11:5-13

Fifty six years ago today, your Holy Spirit O Lord breathed fresh air into our Holy Mother Church with the first session of the Second Vatican Council convened by Pope St. John XXIII whose memorial we also celebrate today.

A man of great wisdom and wit with great love for the poor, St. John XXIII came to be known as the “good Pope” because the faithful saw in him your goodness, O God. Even if his pontificate lasted only five years as he was already advanced in age when he became a Pope, St. John XXIII accomplished so much in his words and actions because he was evidently sustained with a profound spirit of prayer.

Like St. Paul, he called on the entire Church to go back again to the Gospel Himself – Jesus Christ so we can be more responsive to the modern time. But 56 years after the start of Vatican II, we have become “stupid” like the Galatians who, “after beginning with the Spirit, are now ending with the flesh?” (Gal.3:3)

Help us O Lord, through the prayers and inspiration of Pope St. John XXIII to always go back to the spirit of prayer, to persist in asking for you, in seeking you, and knocking at your door so we could enter into your heart and be closer to you so you would take over us. That is the true power of prayer: it is not with what we say but how we say like in today’s parable. AMEN. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan 3022. E-mail to lordmychef@gmail.com.

st.JohnxxiiiPrayer

Photos from Google.

Prayer to become like St. Francis of Assisi

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Thursday//04October2018//Week XXVI, Year II

Job 19:21-27///Luke 10:1-12

What a blessed first week of October, O God, when we celebrate so many great saints like Francis of Assisi today!

We rejoice O God for your gift of St. Francis who taught us to be an instrument of your peace. We rejoice for St. Francis who taught us 600 years ahead of his time the oneness of your creation, the value of nature and environment. We rejoice most especially for St. Francis who witnessed for us simplicity of life based entirely on trust in you.

This, O Lord, is what we ask from you: the grace of complete trust in you like St. Francis and Job in the first reading that no matter what befalls us in this world, may we always trust in you alone, our Vindicator whom our “inmost being is consumed with longing.” (Job 19:25) May we go like the seventy-two other disciples of your Son Jesus Christ into the world with nothing except YOU. AMEN. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan 3022.

Photo from Google, http://www.sistermoongraphics.com/blog/2017/10/4/feast-of-st-francis-of-assisi