The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Tuesday in the Twenty-fourth Week of Ordinary Time, Year I, 19 September 2023
1 Timothy 3:1-13 ><))))*> _ ><))))*> _ ><))))*> Luke 7:11-17
Photo by author, CLLEX-Tarlac, 19 July 2023.
Your words today,
O God our loving Father,
are very encouraging
and assuring
with our varied
aspirations in life:
Beloved: This saying is trustworthy: whoever aspires to the office of bishop desires a noble task.
1 Timothy 3:1
When is an aspiration
to any office or post,
not just in the Church,
is a desire for a noble task?
Help us,
dear Jesus to make
our aspiration a desire
for a noble task
by first looking at the needs
of others and not for our
personal advantages;
looking at how
to console others,
alleviate their sufferings
and strengthen their
faith and hopes in life
like you did to the widow
at Nain when you were moved
with pity upon seeing the grieving
mother who had been widowed
with no one to turn to in life;
awaken and heighten
our sensitivities,
our sense of empathy
to the silent sufferings
of so many people these
days who sometimes hide
their grief because no one
seem to care at all for them.
Secondly,
make our aspirations a
noble task by sincerely
confronting our very selves
if we have the qualifications
for any office; let us not aspire
for positions for selfish, personal motives
nor to what would please us;
like the criteria set by St. Paul
for those seeking to become
bishop and deacon, may we
realize that you also give the
gifts necessary to respond
to your call; let us not insist
on ourselves, Lord.
Lastly,
may we always leave
your mark, dear Jesus
in our works
as the surest sign
that ours is an aspiration
for a noble task; may God
our Father be the only One
recognized and seen,
felt and experienced
in our tasks like when
you raised the dead
young man in Nain
with everyone exclaiming
"God has visited
his people" (Lk. 7:16).
Many times,
O God, many are losing
that aspiration to serve
you in others lest they be
mistaken for many
opportunists politicians
who shamelessly aspire
for posts with purely
personal motives;
send us, dear God,
with many people
who would aspire
for noble tasks
of serving you
through our poor and
marginalized brothers
and sisters totally forgotten
in our many social equations.
Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Thursday, Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, 14 September 2023
Numbers 21:4-9 ><]]]]'> Philippians 2:6-11 ><]]]]'> John 3:13-17
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 2017.
The cross is perhaps one of the most widely used but also abused and misunderstood sign in almost every generation. In fact, we are so accustomed to the cross of Jesus Christ found everywhere like in churches and cemeteries, offices and classrooms, hospitals, inside every kind of vehicle and, of course, houses. Almost everybody carry it on our persons for various reasons: as an object of veneration, as a badge, or as a jewel.
On the cross we find Jesus shown in glory, peacefully sleeping in death, sometimes with his body broken by suffering. Hence, many times we use the word “cross” like in “cross my heart” to indicate our sincerity and truthfulness. But, are we truly aware of its meaning and significance in our faith, of its centrality as the symbol of God’s love for us expressed by the self-sacrificing death of Jesus Christ his Son?
Photo by author, St. Scholastica Convent, Baguio City, 23 August 2023.
Today we celebrate the Exaltation of the Cross which started in the fourth century. According to legend it began with the miraculous discovery of the True Cross by Helena, mother of the Emperor Constantine, on 14 September 326, while she was on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. She then ordered through her son the emperor the building of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre that was dedicated nine years later with a portion of the True Cross placed inside it in September 13, 335. The following day, the Cross was brought outside of the church to be venerated by the clergy and the faithful.
In the year 627, during the reign of the Emperor Heraclius I of Constantinople, the Persians conquered the city of Jerusalem and removed a major part of the Cross from its sanctuary. The emperor then launched a campaign to recover the True Cross which he regarded as the new Ark of the Covenant for the new People of God. Before embarking into war, Emperor Heraclius went to church wearing black as a sign of penance, then prostrated himself before the altar and begged God for courage. His prayer was granted as he won the war and recovered the Cross from the Persians. He brought the Cross back to Jerusalem in 641 amid great celebrations by carrying it on his shoulders. Upon reaching the gate leading to Calvary, the emperor could not go forward! Heraclius and his retinue were astonished and could not understand what had happened until the Patriarch Zachary of Jerusalem told him, “Take care, O Emperor! In truth, the imperial clothing you are wearing does not sufficiently resemble the poor and humiliated condition of Jesus carrying His cross.”
Upon hearing those words, the emperor removed his shoes and bejewelled robes, put on a poor man’s clothing and was eventually able to proceed to Calvary and replaced the Cross inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre where a number of miracles happened during the occasion: a dead man returned to life, four paralytics were cured, ten lepers were healed, 15 blind men were given their sight, with several possessed people exorcised and many sick people totally healed!
Photo by author, Mirador Jesuit Villa & Retreat House, Baguio City, 24 August 2023.
Very notable in this story were the words of the Patriarch of Jerusalem. It was only after the emperor had taken off his royal clothings and put on those of the poor was he able to carry the Cross.
It is the same thing that is asked of us today: it is so easy to display the cross inside our homes and cars, or wear it as a jewelry or even as a tattoo on our skin. But that would amount to nothing unless we have the cross inside our hearts, our very being. More than the many signs of the cross and imaginary drawing of its lines we draw on our chest is the need for us to empty ourselves of our pride and sins so that we can be filled by Jesus Christ.
Brothers and sisters: Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.
Philippians 2:6-8
Called kenosis in Greek, self-emptying is the way of the Cross of Christ. It is choosing love and mercy than self-centeredness and self-righteousness; sacrifice than satisfaction; fairness and justice than greed and possession; bearing all the pains and perseverance than complaining and whining about difficulties and trials in life like the Israelites in the wilderness (first reading); and, thinking more of others than of one’s self.
Photo by author, 02 September 2023.
The recent COVID-19 pandemic had taught something very amusing about the positivity of being negative, when negative was actually positive – healthy and COVID free! Remember how during those days when we would always wish we would yield negative results in our swab tests for COVID?
When we look at the sign of the cross (+), it is a positive sign, a plus sign. Though the cross calls us to let go, to be detached and dispossessed, it is actually an invitation to have more of God, of life and fulfillment! In this time of affluence when everything is practically easily available for as long as you have the means and the resources, the sign of the Cross reminds us that life is more of letting go and of giving than of having like God who “so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that he who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life” (Jn.3:16). St. Francis of Assisi said it perfectly why the Cross is an exaltation, a triumph:
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.Have a blessed Thursday!
Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Friday in the Twentieth Week of Ordinary Time, 25 August 2023
Ruth 1:1, 3-6, 14-16, 22 <*{{{{>< + ><}}}}*> Matthew 22:34-40
Photo by Mr. Jay Javier at Tayabas, Quezon, 13 August 2023.
O how often,
Lord Jesus Christ
that we ask you until now
the same question by
a scholar of the law:
"Teacher,
which commandment
of the law is the greatest?"
(Matthew 22:34).
And we have always known
your answer, which is, loving God
with one's total self
and loving others as we love our
very selves.
But why do we keep on asking
the same question until now?
Because, we have always believed
that loving is having,
that loving is fullness,
when in fact, it is the
exact opposite:
loving is not having,
loving is being poor,
loving is emptiness,
loving is letting go,
loving is surrendering
for the one you love.
Just like Ruth,
that Moabite woman,
a pagan who left everything
to join her widowed
mother-in-law Naomi to go
back to Bethlehem;
both of them were
widowed, both were
childless and empty,
so poor without anything
except each other
and God.
Let the words of Ruth
be our prayer today
to those we love
without if nor buts,
especially those empty
and poor, sick and dying:
"Do not ask me to abandon
or forsake you! for wherever
you go I will go, wherever
you lodge I will lodge,
your people shall by my people,
and your God my God"
(Ruth 1:16).
God our Father,
help us to remain faithful
and to keep loving when
in the midst of sufferings
and trials, of emptiness
and nothingness like Ruth
to Naomi; how lovely to recall
that Ruth's love for Naomi led
to her becoming the grandmother
of King David and one of the four women
in Matthew's genealogy of Jesus
for it is loving without nothing in return
that we gain, and it is in loving
even in losing ourselves
that we find ourselves in you.
Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Thursday, Feast of St. Lawrence, Deacon & Martyr, 10 August 2023
2 Corinthians 9:6-10 <*[[[[><< + >><]]]]'> John 12:24-26
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 2017.
God our loving Father,
help us to see and follow Jesus
your Son like your servant
St. Lawrence, Deacon and Martyr.
Though there may be less
persecutions these days
of Christians, the call to be
Christ's witnesses is more
compelling today as we live
in world that tries to forget you
and negate you.
Like the Greek visitors in
Jerusalem who asked help
from Philip and Andrew
to see Jesus, we too want
to see him.
“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
To see you, O Lord Jesus
is more than laying one's eyes
on your image
or your Blessed Sacrament;
to see you like St. Lawrence
is to have an insight,
to penetrate your inner mind
of self-sacrifice,
of losing one's self like
the grain of wheat that falls
on the ground to die, disintegrate
and be transformed
as new wheat bearing
much grain to feed more people.
Like St. Lawrence,
let us see that reality
to have the courage to offer
ourselves to you through others
in a life of service and sacrifice
so we may inspire more to serve you,
most especially see you too.
Let us not count the costs
of what we give up for they have
all been paid for by Jesus;
like St. Lawrence,
let us consider everything
as a pure grace from you
meant to be shared
for indeed, "you love a cheerful giver";
may we keep in mind and heart
that "God is able to make every grace
abundant for us,
so that, always having all we need,
we may have an abundance
for every good work"
(2Cor.9:8).
In this world of affluence
amid the ironic poverty of so many,
may we emulate St. Lawrence
in learning and living Christ's teaching
that true wealth is found
not in having things for ourselves
but in sharing and giving
with the others the gifts
we have received.
Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Thursday in the Thirteenth Week in OrdinaryTime, 06 July 2023
Genesis 22:1-19 ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> Matthew 9:1-8
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, Quezon City, 20 March 2023.
God our loving Father,
teach me to offer to you,
to give up like Abraham
the most precious
and the best I have in life;
give me that same kind of
faith and trust in you, O God,
that in life, you are the only
most precious and best
I have in life.
So many times in life,
dear Father, I always question
your will,
your plans,
your instructions
to me;
worst, many times,
I even question and doubt
your goodness to me
and to others like those scribes
who questioned Jesus Christ's
authority to forgive sins.
We have strayed so far from you,
O God; we have believed
so much in ourselves,
in our beliefs,
in our technologies,
in our strengths
and achievements
as if we are gods like you!
Forgive us, merciful Father;
help us find our way back to you
in your Son Jesus Christ.
Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Wednesday, Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 31 May 2023
Romans 12:9-16 ><}}}}*> + ><}}}}*> + ><}}}}*> Luke 1:39-56
Photo by author, sunrise at Anvaya Cove, Morong, Bataan, 19 May 2023.
Glory and praise to you,
God our loving Father
who had come and comes
daily in Christ Jesus our Lord!
Just like in this Feast of the
Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
you always surprise us dear God
like Elizabeth.
Every visitation is always
surprising, especially when
you are the one coming,
O God.
When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said, “Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And how does this happen to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”
Luke 1:41-43
Like Elizabeth,
we are so surprised
with your visitation in
Christ Jesus because
if ever there is anyone
who should be making
the visit, it should be us -
or Elizabeth who should
have visited Mary who was
pregnant with Jesus Christ.
What a beautiful anticipation
it was of Christ's mission through
his self-emptying or kenosis
when he said "The Son of Man
has come to serve and not to be
served" (see Mt.20:28, Mk. 10:45).
Keep us home,
keep us grounded in you,
Lord, like Elizabeth,
always ready to be
surprised with your visit,
to welcome your coming
in the Holy Spirit to shake us
and examine our many beliefs,
traditions and conventions
that have prevented us from
making Jesus more present among us
especially the poor and marginalized;
keep us home,
keep us rooted in you
like Elizabeth, Lord,
ready to be radical,
to go back to our roots
and rootedness so that only
what is most essential we must
keep - the person of
Jesus Christ himself
because many times,
we do not recognize your coming,
your visits as we are busy
"visiting" worldly concerns
than being focused in you
our Lord.
Come, Lord Jesus,
visit us like when you
visited Elizabeth and
John through Mary your
Mother so we may imitate
her in bringing you to the
hungry and poor so that
we may learn to practice
St. Paul's admonition,
"Let love be sincere:
hate what is evil, hold on
to what is good; love one
another with mutual affection;
anticipate one another in
showing honor" (Rom. 12:9-10).
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Tuesday in the Fifth Week of Easter, 09 May 2023
Acts 14:19-28 ><))))*> + ><))))*> + ><))))*> John 14:27-31
Photo by author, Jesuit Cemetery, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, Quezon City, 21 March 2023.
Lord Jesus Christ,
today I feel it is not enough
that we simply pray for peace;
before we could pray for peace,
let us first understand
and embrace the peace
that you give.
Jesus said to his disciples: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.”
John 14:27
Dear Jesus,
in this time when the world
including our families
and very selves are beset
with tensions and conflicts,
the more we keep on praying
for peace but the more it
has become elusive; worst,
on many occasions, peace is
often used as a slogan just
for the sake of saying something
precious and important without
realizing the more peace is
cheapened and played at.
Let it be clear with us,
Jesus, that your peace is not
just the absence of war nor
of conflicts but the fruit of love
as our Church Fathers declared
at Vatican II; let it be clear with us
that your peace is not like what
the world gives based on transactions
that often favor the powerful;
let it be clear with us that your
peace entails sufferings,
of "undergoing many hardships"
(Acts 14:22) and most of all,
calls us to confront our true
selves because what troubles us
most are those moments and things
we insist more on ourselves than
surrender ourselves to you and
to others; many of our troubles
are rooted inside us making
peace improbable because
we have too much of ourselves,
without any room for others
and for you.
Teach us, Lord Jesus,
that to achieve your peace,
we have to be at home with
our true selves by accepting
our strengths and giftedness
as well as weaknesses in order
to be at home too with those
around us in their own imperfections
and talents so that in the end,
we all rely only on you, Jesus,
as we entrust ourselves to you,
our thoughts and feelings,
our plans and agenda
including our fears
so that we all
become at home
with you because
your peace
is being at home
with our true selves,
with others,
and with you.
Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Christmas Recipe by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Monday, Memorial of Sts. Basil the Great & Gregory Nazianzen, Bishops/Doctors of the Church
02 January 2022
1 John 2:22-28 ><))))*> + ><))))*> + ><))))*> John 1:19-28
Photo by Mr. John Ryan Jacob, 31 December 2022, Paco, Obando, Bulacan.
What a great Monday morning
in this new year of 2023,
God our loving Father!
Thank you for your words
that invite us to examine
our true selves,
of who we are,
and what are we?
This is the testimony of John. When the Jews from Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to him to ask him, “Who are you?” He admitted and did not deny it, but admitted, “I am not the Christ.” So they asked him, “What are you then? Are you Elijah?” And he said “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” He answered, “No.”
John 1:19-21
Many times we are at a loss
for answers for these basic
questions we refuse to face
and answer, always evading
because deep inside we are lost;
empty our hearts of our pride
and sin to let your Son Jesus Christ
come within;
may we let him dwell in our hearts
and fill us with his humility,
justice,
and love.
Like John,
may we be firm in telling
and showing everyone who we are;
let us not be liars who deny
Jesus is the Christ not only in
words but most especially in deeds;
many times, we just remain silent
amid all the evil and indecencies
that abound us these days especially
in social media.
Like the two great friends
Sts. Basil the Great and
Gregory Nazianzen who were both
Bishops and Doctors of the Church,
they never buckled down in their faith
defending and fighting the truth of Jesus Christ;
help us cultivate such kind of friendships
and relationships that flourish
in great faith and love of Jesus.
Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog
Monday, Memorial of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 21 November 2022
Revelation 14:1-3, 4-5 ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> Luke 21:1-4
Lord Jesus Christ,
as we enter today this final stretch
of the current liturgical calendar,
you gave us the Memorial of the
Presentation of your Blessed Mother
as an occasion for us to present ourselves
to you fittingly like her.
Help us to always remember your love
and mercy, Lord, so we may remain on track
on your path of humility and obedience
like Mary; may we always remember
your call to holiness and to mission
being sent like you by the Father;
may we always remember like Mary
to be always truthful and clean in our lips.
These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They have been ransomed as the first fruits of the human race for God and then Lamb. On their lips no deceit has been found; they are unblemished.
Revelation 14:4-5
Help us imitate, dear Jesus,
that poor widow at the temple area
who gave everything she had -
"two small coins" - into the treasury box;
grant us the grace to be like her,
to be like your Mother Mary,
to be like your grandparents St. Joachim and St. Anne
who offered their whole lives,
their whole livelihood to God
because they believed,
they trusted, and hence,
they loved without measure.
Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Thursday in the Twenty-Ninth Week of Ordinary Time, Year II, 20 November 2022
Ephesians 3:14-21 ><000'> + <'000>< = ><000'> + <'000>< Luke 12:49-53
Photo by author, 2018.
Dearest Jesus,
Help me imitate St. Paul's
beautiful prayer for the Ephesians:
may the Holy Spirit strengthen my
"inner self" so that you may dwell
in my heart that is "rooted in faith"
and "grounded in love";
grant me the "strength to comprehend" -
not just understand but embrace totally
"the breadth and length and height and depth"
of your love that "surpasses knowledge"
by entering into a communion in you,
an intimacy "with all the fullness of God"
(Ephesians 3:16-19).
This can only happen to me,
Lord Jesus Christ,
if I allow myself to lose my soul to you
in order to gain it by allowing
your fire to purify me of my sins
and self-centeredness
(Luke 12:49-51).
Set me on fire, Jesus,
as you have declared in the gospel:
lit me with courage and joy in witnessing
your Cross in this time of darkness
when everybody follows the artificial lights
of the world that lead to emptiness;
let me be immersed into your paschal mystery
of Passion, Death and Resurrection,
of bearing all the pains that lead to conversion
and to true peace as you have promised
at the Last Supper that is the fruit of
love and sacrifices, not of compromises
as the peace of the world offers.
Dearest Lord,
let me see everything in your love
even if it seems so impossible
like your victory over death;
seduce me, O Lord,
dupe me like Jeremiah
to join you in your adventure,
to go beyond my limits
even if it may be fatal
for that is the only way
to lose myself
in order to gain you,
Jesus Christ our Lord!
"Now to him who is able to accomplish
far more than all we ask or imagine,
by the power at work within us,
to him be glory in the Church
and in Christ Jesus to all generations,
forever and ever. Amen."(Ephesians 3:20-21)
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