Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul, 03 October 2025 Friday in the Twenty-Sixth Week in Ordinary Time, Year I Baruch 1:15-22 <*((((>< + ><))))*> Luke 10:13-16
Photo by author, Atok, Benguet 27 December 2024.
Your words today O Lord remind me so well of Bob Dylan's classic song "Blowing In the Wind":
How many roads must a man walk down Before you call him a man? How many seas must a white dove sail Before she sleeps in the sand? Yes, and how many times must the cannonballs fly Before they're forever banned?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind The answer is blowin' in the wind
Yes, and how many years must a mountain exist Before it is washed to the sea? Yes, and how many years can some people exist Before they're allowed to be free? Yes, and how many times can a man turn his head And pretend that he just doesn't see?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind The answer is blowin' in the wind
Yes, and how many times must a man look up Before he can see the sky? Yes, and how many ears must one man have Before he can hear people cry? Yes, and how many deaths will it take 'til he knows That too many people have died? The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind The answer is blowin' in the wind
Photo by author, Atok, Benguet 27 December 2024.
I could feel your exasperation, Jesus in your words, "Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would long ago have repented, sitting in sackcloth and ashes" (Luke 10:13); many times, I feel the same like you, Lord: we have become so numb and callous of each other, even indifferent to what is going on.
On the other hand, how I wish we all feel like Baruch during the Babylonian captivity "flushed with shame" for all their sins against God, not heeding his voice as they "went off after devices of their own wicked hearts, served other gods, and did evil in the sight of the Lord" (Baruch 1:15, 22); Lord Jesus, bring back our sense of sin as individuals and as a people for us to realize how all this mess of corruption in government is the sum of our personal sins of not heeding your voice especially in choosing our leaders.
Earthquake survivor Jesiel Malinao sits beside the coffins of her two sons on Thursday, Oct. 2, 2025 after a strong earthquake on Tuesday caused a landslide that toppled their hillside homes in Bogo city, Cebu Province, Central Philippines. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
Have mercy on us, Lord Jesus! Bring back our sense of sin for us to be "flushed with shame" too like your exiles; awaken us from our indifference and numbness to all the corruption and sin happening in our country; we have trapped ourselves in our own abyss of miseries as we remain divided, seeking to follow people than you, O Lord Jesus who is the truth, the way and the life. With all the calamities and corruption happening among us, let us rise and stand by your side, Jesus - upholding what is true, what is good, and what is just. Have mercy on us your people, Jesus especially the little ones long been abused by the powerful and suffer most in calamities. Amen.
Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Our Lady of Fatima University Valenzuela City (lordmychef@gmail.com)
Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul, 15 July 2025 Tuesday, Memorial of St. Bonaventure, Bishop & Doctor of the Church Exodus 2:1-15 ><))))*> + ><))))*> + ><))))*> Matthew 11:20-24
Photo by Ms. Jo Villafuerte, Atok, Benguet, 03 September 2019.
Sometimes I wonder O God how it feels to be in front of you, of what to feel when you are so like us humans - sadly frustrated, exasperated.
Jesus began to reproach the towns where most of his mighty deeds had been done, since they had not repented. “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would long ago have repented in sackcloth and ashes” (Matthew 11:20-21).
Forgive us, dear Jesus when we are so callous and numb before you, not feeling you at all because we are so absorbed in our own pride and foolishness, justifying our sinful ways that we hardly feel you, because we could not feel others nor ourselves as our bloated egos numbed our humanity; we have lost our sense of sinfulness and could no longer appreciate what is good and beautiful, right and orderly; we have become like those two Hebrews Moses caught fighting each other that instead of feeling his care and concern for them, they felt separated he would kill them like the Egyptian officer.
How true were the words of our Saint for today, the most pure Bonaventure who wrote, "If you do not know your own dignity and condition, you cannot value anything at its proper worth."
Help us realize Jesus how once mighty cities like Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum remains in ruins to these days, never to have recaptured their old glory days because since your time, they never saw their dignity and condition as your beloved ones; let us not fall into ruins too because of our unrepentance for our sins. Amen.
40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Monday, Second Week in Lent, 17 March 2025 Daniel 9:4-10 + + + Luke 6:36-38
Photo by author, Canyon Woods Resort, Laurel, Batangas, 15 March 2025.
Lord Jesus Christ, on this first working day of Second Week in Lent, give me the grace to be shamefaced; give me the sense of embarrassment, the sense of sinfulness, a sense of humanity.
Yes, Lord, we have been so callous and numb, so thick-faced as in "kapal"!
“Lord, great and awesome god, you who keep your merciful covenant toward those who love you and observe your commandments! We have sinned, been wicked and done evil; we have rebelled and departed from your commandments and your laws. We have not obeyed your servants the prophets… Justice, O Lord, is on your side; we are shamefaced even to this day… O Lord, we are shamefaced, like our kings, our princes, and our fathers for having sinned against you” (Daniel 9:4-7, 8).
Do not let us sink deeper into sin and misery like your people in the time of your Prophet Daniel, Lord, for us to be shamefaced in admitting our sins, our treachery against you; our nation is so divided these days with no one having any sense of shame at all with the decadence we have sank into like excessive profanities, rampant fake news, overt personalisms, too much politics without any regard at all with what is right and wrong, with what is evil and what is good and worst of all, without any respect for one another and for life in general; many of us have discarded your image and likeness in us as we have lost our sense of sinfulness and shame.
Let us be shamefaced like Daniel, Jesus; mahiya naman kami, Lord!
Before we can be merciful with others, let us be shamefaced first; let us be shamefaced, Jesus, so we can be generous with others for without any shame at all like with what is happening now in our country, we are sinking deeper into the pit of destruction. Amen.
Photo by author, Canyon Woods Resort, Laurel, Batangas, 15 March 2025.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Tuesday in the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time, Year II, 18 June 2024 1 Kings 21:17-29 <'[[[[><< + ><]]]]'> Matthew 5:43-48
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2024.
God our merciful Father, grant me the grace today to understand my sins more clearly so that I may come to sorrow for them, sorrow that leads to love of your Son Jesus Christ and not despair; let me keep in mind that sin is not just a breaking of your laws and rules but simply a refusal to love You and others around me; and the worst part of sin we are not aware of is how it seriously affects our personality, our personhood because whenever we sin we become a less-loving person.
So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Matthew 5:48
Being perfect, being holy like You, dear Father, means being filled by You which is a process of daily conversion when we ask your forgiveness Father, to gain a better self-knowledge of ourselves to identify our weaknesses and sinfulness so that in your grace, we become a better person than before.
Let us have within us that sense of sinfulness and sense of sin, Father so that we we may grow in your love. Amen.
40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Monday in the Second Week of Lent, 26 February 2024 Daniel 9:4-10 <*((((>< + + + ><))))*> Luke 6:36-38
Thank you, Lord, "great and awesome God" (Daniel 9:4) for another month about to end as we entered the second week in Lent; by this time, let us feel more your mercy and forgiveness, your immense love despite our repeated sins that have actually habitual to many of us.
Like Daniel your prophet, make us "shamefaced" before you instead of being shameless.
Justice, O Lord, is on your side; we are shamefaced even to this day: we, the men of Judah, the residents of Jerusalem, and all Israel, near and far, in all the countries to which you have scattered them because of their treachery toward you. O Lord, we are shamefaced, like our kings, our princes, and our fathers, for having sinned against you.
Daniel 9:7-8
Before we can be merciful as you are merciful dear Father according to Jesus Christ, let us be shamefaced first of all for our sinfulness; many of us have lost that sense of sinfulness, becoming shameless and so thick-faced that saying it in Tagalog is best, "makapal ang mukha".
This Lent, teach us to be ashamed of our sins and iniquities; teach us to let go of our many excuses and alibis that only make our face grow thicker like the soles of our feet; make us realize the more shame we put on our selves when we feel so self-righteous that we have no room to be kind and understanding, even caring and forgiving of others.
This Lent, let us start being shamefaced, of having a healthy mistrust of our selves so that we begin to trust you more, O Lord, and become like you, loving and merciful, and eventually a vessel of your blessings for others. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Friday in the Twenty-Sixth Week of Ordinary Time, Year I, 06 October 2023
Baruch 1:15-22 <*((((>< +++ ><))))*> Luke 10:13-16
Photo by author in San Juan, La Union, 24 July 2023.
Of course,
dear God,
you never get angry
with us nor with any one
for you are love and
kindness yourself,
so rich in mercy
and forgiveness.
What truly happens,
O Father, is that when
we finally become aware
of our sinfulness,
of the evils we have done
repeatedly,
shamelessly despite
your goodness,
we become angry with
ourselves because
that is when we realize
all the bad things happening
to us are the results of our
turning away from you,
from your words,
from your precepts.
And the evils and the curse which the Lord enjoined upon Moses, his servant, at the time he led our ancestors forth from the land of Egypt to give us the land flowing with milk and honey, cling to us even today. For we did not heed the voice of the Lord, our God, in all the words of the prophets who he sent us, but each one of us went off after the devices of our own wicked hearts, served other gods, and did evil in the sight of the Lord, our God.
Baruch 1:20-22
Grant us, merciful Lord,
the grace of a sense of sinfulness
because the more we are aware
of our sinfulness,
the more we get closer to you;
when we acknowledge our sins,
that is when we admit
there is a gap between us
and among us we need to close
and make whole anew;
open our eyes,
our hearts,
our souls to your truth
and presence, Lord Jesus;
let us not be blind
to your coming
to free us from the
bondage of sins that
have made us more angry
than ever with ourselves
and with others;
let us not be complacent,
Jesus with all the blessings
you have poured upon us
so we may change and be
converted.
Indeed, the motto of the
Carthusians, an order founded
by St. Bruno whose memorial
we celebrate today is so true:
"while the world changes,
the cross stands firm."
Like St. Bruno and
the Carthusians,
may we strive
"to seek God assiduously,
to find God promptly,
and to possess God fully."
Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Sunday in the Sixteenth Week of Ordinary Time, Cycle A, 22 July 2023
Wisdom 12:13, 16-19 ><}}}*> Romans 8:26-27 ><}}}*> Matthew 13:24-30
Photo by author, Bgy. Alno, La Trinidad, Benguet, 11 July 2023.
Start with Why is Simon Sinek’s bestselling book written more than a decade ago about the need to focus on asking first “why” before making any choice and decision in life. I have found it very enlightening and useful even in matters of spirituality and prayers.
This is seen in our readings too this Sunday as we continue to listen to our Lord’s teachings using parables until next week. In all occasions of his teachings, his disciples asked him always “Why do you speak to them in parables?” (Mt. 13:10).
As we have explained many times before, parables are simple stories we usually take for granted that reveal to us profound truths about life and our very selves, most especially of God and his kingdom which Jesus had come to proclaim.
The key to unlocking the beauty and lessons within parables is having that spirit of openness and sincerity of heart, especially in asking why which may often take different forms.
Jesus proposed another parable to the crowds, saying: “The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a man who sowed good seed in his field. While everyone was asleep his enemy came and sowed weeds all through the wheat, and then went off. When the crop grew and bore fruit, the weeds appeared as well. The slaves of the householder came to him and said, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where have the weeds come from?'”
It is the question we ask most often, why is there evil at all if God our Creator is good? It is most difficult, even scandalizing when evil happens to us despite our efforts to be better and holy.
Today’s parable of the weeds among the wheat answers those many whys we have in life. It is a beautiful continuation of last Sunday’s parable of the sower that offers us Christians with many insights and challenges for the deepening of our faith and commitment to our mission.
First is our sense of sinfulness. It is one of the most serious problem Christianity, even the whole humanity is facing today. More and more people are losing that sense of sinfulness with so many becoming complacent in their faith and morals, always having reasons and alibis, worst, even justifications in committing sins. Or just about everything!
Today’s parable reminds us to always ask like the slaves, “Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where have the weeds come from?”
Photo by author, Bgy. Bahong, La Trinidad, Benguet, 12 July 2023.
Why all the evil in the world today?
How sad that many people have grown cynical with evil, simply accepting its existence in the world as a given reality, to be accepted wholly as if we can do nothing about it. Some even go to the extent of thinking the devil does not exist at all with evil simply existing like weeds?!
Here we find the importance of prayer life when we get to examine our conscience daily, asking why all the evils are happening. From there, we learn humility by examining too how we may have contributed in the commission of evil. Most of all, it makes us aware of that tricky “sins of omission”, of how we might have failed by omitting in doing what is good that have contributed to the spread of evil and sin. It is always easy to look outside blaming others, pointing at others for all the evil happening without seeing our own sins.
Second is the danger of neglect and complacency among us disciples of Christ. See the genius of Jesus as a storyteller when he mentioned that the planting of the bad seed or weeds happened while the Master was asleep, “The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a man who sowed good seed in his field. While everyone was asleep his enemy came and sowed weeds all through the wheat, and then went off. When the crop grew and bore fruit, the weeds appeared as well.”
From Pinterest.com.
In the New Testament, sleep is a metaphor for neglect. Jesus cautions us his disciples that if we are not vigilant and discerning of what we allow to influence us, bad seeds can get planted in our lives, families and relationships, even in the Church and in our ministry!
In some translations, the word used for the weeds is darnel, a kind of weed that looks like the wheat to show how evil works itself into our lives by masking itself to look something as good and harmless for a moment. “Wala namang masama” is our usual excuse until later when that evil is unmasked and revealed, its devastating impact had already wreak havoc on us because we have complacently tolerated its growth for some time.
Remember the saying, the devil is in the details. Likewise, keep in mind that the devil does not merely want us to sin but to eventually destroy our lives! “Be sober and vigilant. Your opponent the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Pt. 5:8).
Third is Christ’s call for us to be patient but firm in dealing with evil and sin. We live in an imperfect world. There will always be evil and sin like this growing trend called liberalism and wokism that stress everyone’s rights without any regard at all with personal responsibility and accountability. These liberals and wokes who have infiltrated the media and government, maybe even the Church, want the natural order of things be changed like gender and marriage. For them, everything is relative. To each his own like praying the Our Father in a drag version.
Photo by Fr. Pop dela Cruz, San Miguel, Bulacan, 2022.
We have to be patient with them and fight them squarely with more reason and charity, to never stoop down to their level that only shows their weaknesses within.
The author of the Book of Wisdom tells us today how God in his power and might chose to be patient and moderate with us sinners precisely because he is strong; the exercise of strength like being noisy, the flexing of muscles with large gatherings actually indicate weakness.
That is why St. Paul in the second reading reminds us of our own weaknesses too in this time of hope and waiting for Christ’s Second Coming while in the midst of all these evils happening. Hence, our need to pray for the Holy Spirit to enable us to carry out our mission in this world marred by sin.
Here we find again the primacy of prayer life. Not just the recitation of prayers. What St. Paul envisions in our short reading today is the kind of prayer wherein God’s own Spirit is the one interceding for us according to God’s will. Teaching people to pray effectively is one of the most challenging of all pastoral duties because we priests and bishops must first be the ones deep into prayer. When we live in the Spirit, we would always be faithfully in prayer.
Sorry to mention here again our disappointment to our bishops in failing to reflect more on the reasons of upholding the rule that only the priest extends his hands in praying the Our Father. It is fidelity to the liturgy to prevent us from being misled by plain emotions that is already happening like in those “charismatic” Mass and gatherings with emphasis on health and wealth (gagaling, gagaling…siksik, liglig at umaapaw) interspersed with clapping of hands.
Photo by author, Bgy. Alno, La Trinidad, Benguet, 11 July 2023.
Jesus assures us in this parable there will be a time for separation, judgment, and punishment but it is not ours to carry out those actions in the present. Let us continue probing our hearts in prayer. Always start by asking why, not with what we think we know. Many times, as the parables of Jesus tell us, the kingdom of God is found in the simplest things in life like a simple word or a sentence we tend to interpret with our many assumptions. Amen. Have a blessed week ahead everyone!
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle-C, 11 September 2022
Exodus 32:7-11, 13-14 ><}}}}*> 1 Timothy 1:12-17 ><}}}}*> Luke 15:1-10
Photo by author, 2018.
Last Wednesday morning during breakfast, we heard on television news the interview of the undersecretary of agriculture blaming our farmers for the recent oversupply of garlic in Batanes and cabbage in Benguet, saying “they plant crops but they don’t think about the market for their harvests.”
We have been so used to such comments by many heartless government officials ever since; and, they also happen everywhere like in our schools where teachers blame students, at homes with parents blaming children and siblings blaming one another and of course, not to be left out is our church where priests always blame people for whatever problems and mishaps that happen in the parish.
No wonder, we feel more comfortable with God depicted in the Old Testament like in our first reading today when God was so angry and instructed to immediately get down from the mountain to punish the people who have created a golden calf to worship.
We find it so difficult to fully and truly accept despite Christ’s words and assurances that God our Father finds joy in forgiving as depicted today in our gospel. So often, we are like the Pharisees and scribes who could not understand why we have to share in the joy of God when a sinner repents.
Tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to listen to Jesus, but the Pharisees and scribes began to complain, saying, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them. So to them he addressed this parable.
Luke 15:1-3
Photo by author, 2018.
Jesus reminded us these past two Sundays of the demands of discipleship, of the need for us to conform to his very person and not just with morality and even religiosity. Discipleship is being like Jesus, always having him as our top priority in life.
This progression of Christ’s teaching on discipleship reaches its peak as we move into the 15th chapter of Luke’s gospel account considered as the “heart” of the Gospel in presenting to us three parables showing God full of mercy and forgiveness for sinners. Actually, it does not merely present God as forgiving but in fact as the One who finds joy in forgiving, who is inviting us to share in his joy of forgiving repentant sinners.
There are three parables in Luke chapter 15: the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son known as prodigal son. We have opted to consider the shorter form of the gospel which skips the third parable which we have already reflected in the recent Season of Lent.
Photo by Dr. Mylene A. Santos, MD, in Quezon, July 2022.
The first two parables deal with things that are lost, a lamb and a coin; both deal with only one person like “one of you” and “a woman”. On surface, the two parables seem very ordinary but Jesus – and Luke – have a very captivating manner of narrating them, similarly ending each parable with great sense of rejoicing after finding the lost sheep and lost coin.
Simply put, Jesus is appealing to our common experience of how one lost item would surely claim our attention, no matter how small or even insignificant it may be compared with the rest of what we have.
How do you feel when after losing something you were so worried and disturbed searching for it then someone tells you, “para yun lang?”
We feel so mad, like being rubbed with salt on our wounds because such comment “para yun lang?” betrays their lack of concern and love for us, of not knowing at all or at least recognizing how much that missing thing means to us!
How much more with persons like family and friends who have gone wayward in life like the prodigal son and suddenly coming back to us, saying sorry, trying to pick up the broken pieces of our lives to be whole again as friends and family? Would we not also rejoice when they come home, when we finally find them again?
Photo by Dr. Mylene A. Santos, MD, 2020.
In narrating the two parables in such manner so common with us, Jesus now affirms the incomparable value of every repentant sinner. Moreover, Jesus is showing us in these parables the more deeper ties we have with each other that we must rejoice when a sinner is converted. Hence, the demand too on the part of the sinner, of everyone, to recognize our sinfulness first.
Notice how Luke began this new chapter by telling us how “Tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to listen to Jesus, but the Pharisees and scribes began to complain, saying, ‘This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.’ So to them he addressed this parable.”
Look at the attitudes of the Pharisees and scribes that are not just snobbish but recriminating against the tax collectors and sinners; for them, those kind of people were hopeless, improbable to change that no one should be socializing with them like Jesus.
But, what really got to their nerves that they were complaining why Jesus was sharing meals with them was the fact that tax collectors and sinners were not turning to the Law but to Jesus himself, following him, and even preferring him more than everything! They felt left out when in fact they were the first to separate themselves from everyone.
That’s what they could not accept, that they were no longer relevant.
And the main stumbling block to that was their lost their sense of sinfulness as they have believed so much with themselves as if they were like God, so pure and so clean. Due to their lost sense of sinfulness, they have been totally detached from God and from others as well because they were playing gods, setting them apart from everyone even from God himself because they believed they were sinless. In that sense, they felt God had nothing to do with them because they were sufficient in themselves.
There is nothing God cannot forgive.
This is the grace of this 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time.
Whenever we admit and confess our sins to him,
it is God who is first of all filled with so much joy
for he has long been searching
and waiting for us to return to him.
Photo by author, 2019.
This is the problem we have in this modern time, when we have all kinds of excuses and alibis, reasons and arguments in doing just everything, losing our sense of sin that unconsciously, we feel like God, in fact always playing God when we presume to know everything that we would neither rejoice when people change for the better nor sympathize with those suffering and in misery. Like the Pharisees and scribes and those heartless people in power and authority in government and schools, at home and in the church, they have no time to even see and review why and what have caused people to sin.
In the first reading, Moses is teaching us the attitude of a true disciple, of one who intercedes for the people by confessing the tender mercy and fidelity of God to his promises and to his people; Moses did not bargain with God to relent in punishing the people. Notice his language, his manner of praying to God, appealing to him as “Lord” filled with faith in God’s boundless mercy and forgiveness. We all know how in a twist of humor, it was Moses who was so furious later when he saw the people worshipping the golden calf that he threw on them the two tablets of stone of God’s Ten Commandments.
In the second reading, St. Paul reminds us through Timothy of God’s boundless love expressed in his mercy and forgiveness to us all sinners. We can never experience this unless we first realize and admit and own our sinfulness like St. Paul who may be considered the worst of sinners for having persecuted the early Christians. There are so many other saints who followed after him with so dark and sinful pasts but became great men and women of faith because they first admitted their sins and sinfulness. As the saying goes, there is no saint without a sinful past and there is no sinner who is denied of a saintly future.
There is nothing God cannot forgive. This is the grace of this 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time. Whenever we admit and confess our sins to him, it is God who is first of all filled with so much joy for he has long been searching and waiting for us to return to him. Amen.
Have a blessed week ahead!
Photo by author, Mount Sinai at the Monastery of St. Catherine, Egypt, 2019.
The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Monday, Feast of St. James the Greater, Apostle, 25 July 2022
2 Corinthians 4:7-15 ><)))*> + ><)))*> + ><)))*> Matthew 20:20-28
Photo by author, 2018.
Praise and glory to you,
Lord Jesus Christ for your
saint and apostle, James the
Greater!
His martyrdom and holiness
are testaments to your
gentleness, Lord,
for we are all earthen vessels
keeping you, proclaiming you
to all nations.
Brothers and sisters: We hold this treasure in earthen vessels that the surpassing power may be of God and not from us. We are afflicted in every way, but not constrained; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body.
2 Corinthians 4:7-10
Despite his weaknesses
in having a big ego as seen
in many instances like when he
his brother John told you to send
fire to a Samaritan village that have
refused you to pass through and
making a request through their mother
to be seated at your right later when
you have established your kingdom,
you never dismissed James as a
hopeless case; instead, full of love and
mercy, kindness and patience, you
"handled him with so much care" by
bringing him along during your transfiguration
and agony in the garden; you let him
experienced your gentleness and humility
that after you have gone back in heaven,
he became the first bishop of Jerusalem
and because of that, the first among
your Apostles to die like you,
for you and your flock.
Dearest Jesus,
please be patient with me,
with my pride and arrogance;
let me realize that I am nothing
but like an earthen vessel, a claypot
so privileged not because of my own
merit but due to your own choosing
to be a vessel of your love and mercy.
Thank you, Jesus,
for taking care of me,
for handling me with care
the way you did with James
the Greater and all the others saints
who were all like us - sinful and weak
but so loved and blessed by the Father
in you. Amen.
40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Monday, Fifth Week in Lent, 22 March 2021
Daniel 13:41-62 ><}}}*> + <*{{{>< John 8:1-11
Praise and glory to you, O God our loving Father for the gift of life, for this final week of Lent you are giving us to continue uncovering the sins we hide from you, from others and even from ourselves. And worst, the sins of others we bare to cover our own sins.
How wonderful are your words today, Lord, of two women accused of adultery – one falsely, the other guilty – but, the same story of your justice and mercy.
Susana in the first reading was spared from death when her two accusers who were both elders and judges of the people were convicted of perjury following the courage and wisdom of your prophet Daniel.
As she was being led to execution, God stirred up the holy spirit of a young boy named Daniel, and he cried aloud, “I will have no part in the death of this woman.” All the people turned and asked him, “What is this you are saying?” He stood in their midst and continued, “Are you such fools, O children of Israel! To condemn a woman of Israel without examination and without clear evidence? Return to court, for they have testified falsely against her.”
Daniel 13:45-48
Stir in us, O God the same Holy Spirit that like Daniel we may have the courage to defend and stand for those wrongly accused of any wrongdoing whether in our homes or community or in the courts.
I pray most especially for women who are often at the receiving end of false accusations, of gossips and of hurtful lies. The victims of rape and molestation and sexual harassment cry in the silence of their deep pains and sufferings just because they are women and sadly, because their accusers are men of stature and position. Send us more Daniels, dear God to defend them.
Let us take into our hearts the challenge of your Son Jesus Christ to let the one who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at anyone guilty of sins (Jn.8:7). It is not that we must be silent with the evil persisting around us but so we may be cautious against hasty pronouncements and judgement against those guilty of any sin.
Worst of all is when we accuse sinners of evil they are guilty of doing only to cover our own sins we have been hiding from you and others, even foolishly from ourselves. Give us some decency, at least like those people, “beginning with the elders (Jn.8:9)” who left guilty of sins without casting any stone to the woman caught in adultery.
Have mercy on us, Jesus, when we act like those Pharisees and scribes who look for sinners, accuse them in public in order to look good and find something against you. Amen.
lordmychef.com 