Tag: sunday

“I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” by U2 (1987)

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music, 05 January 2020

Merry Christmas!

And welcome to our first Sunday Music this 2020 as we celebrate the Epiphany of the Lord Jesus Christ, the third major celebration of Christmastime after the Nativity of the Lord (December 25) and Mary Mother of God (January 01).

From the Greek word epiphanes meaning manifestation, today’s celebration reminds us of God’s great love for everyone. Jesus came for us all, to give us life and fulfillment.

Jesus is the true and only star “wise men” always seek.

Our Sunday Music featured today is from U2’s “Joshua Tree” album released in 1987 and inspired by gospel music.

However, lead singer Bono admits it is not about faith but rather more about doubts.

I have climbed the highest mountains
I have run through the fields
Only to be with you
Only to be with you
I have run I have crawled
I have scaled these city walls
These city walls
Only to be with you
But I still haven’t found
What I’m looking for
But I still haven’t found
What I’m looking for

We are all looking or searching for something deeper, more profound, larger and bigger than ourselves and whatever we have. It is a given, a grace in everyone.

When we were younger, we search for more ordinary and mundane things like fame and wealth. But as we mature in life, we start looking for deeper and bigger realities of life like meaning, peace and serenity, joy and fulfillment.

Whatever it may be, it is always God, our semper major (always greater), the ultimate in everything.

St. Augustine perfectly expressed it in his Confessiones, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”

U2’s hit “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” was like an anthem for us young college graduates of the mid-80’s, searching for meaning in life. The music video is very interesting as it was set in Las Vegas to remind us that whatever we are truly searching in life can never be found in money and material things.

Though the song speaks of God in the line “kingdom come”, in the end, it is not really us who find God – it is the other way around: it is always God who finds us! After all, this life we live here on earth is planned and designed in heaven.

God always tries to invite us to follow his ways, to find him so he can direct us to our fulfillment, for us to find whatever we are looking for.

Here are three lessons we can learn from the magi who eventually found what they were looking for, “the newborn king of the Jews”, Jesus Christ:

First is to welcome darkness and troubles in life. Discontentment and problems are always a prelude to spiritual growth. When the magi arrived in Jerusalem searching for the child Jesus, King Herod and the whole city were deeply troubled; but, it led to their knowing where Jesus was born! Like in the story of creation found in Genesis, out of chaos comes order. We learn and find more lessons in life in adversarial situations than in our comfort zones.

Second is to always pray the Sacred Scriptures. Herod consulted the chief priests and scribes of Jerusalem to ask them what the prophets have told about where the Messiah would be born. Ironically, they found the answer in Prophet Malachi’s book which is Bethlehem yet, they never followed it! Prayer opens us to be humble to learn the lessons of the darkness and troubles happening in us.

Third lesson from the magi is: what are you willing to give up and offer to find whatever you are looking for? There are no shortcuts in life and definitely, no one is born entitled in this world. We have to earn and work for everything because essentially, that is the path that Jesus is telling us in life: whoever loses his life shall gain it and whoever keeps his life will lose it.

Hope you find what you are looking for this 2020.

“The Dream” by Michael Franks (1993)

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music, 08 December 2019

Advent wreathe at the Malolos Cathedral, 04 December 2019.

Advent is the season of hope when we are encouraged to work on to fulfill God’s grand design for lasting peace here on earth. It is a time for us to dream with eyes wide open!

I had this dream
In which I swam with dolphins
In open sea a transparent blue
(Maybe you dreamt it too)
And on the earth
The trees grew heavy with blossoms
The rainforests had not died
And the Amazon shined like an emerald
Somewhere, somehow, some way
We must hold back the dawn
While there’s still time to try
Keep the faith, keep the dream alive

That is why we have chosen for this Second Sunday of Advent jazz master Michael Franks’ The Dream from his 1993 album “Dragonfly Summer”. It is a song very similar with Isaiah’s prophecy in the first reading of a “peaceable kingdom” where

“the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; the calf and the young lion shall browse together, with a little child to guide them.”

Isaiah 11:6

Considered as a leader of the “quiet storm” or “smooth jazz” movement, a genre of jazz music mixed with pop and rock tempo, Franks has collaborated with some of the great musicians of the world in the last 40 years with his compositions covered by many artists from the wide spectrum of the music world proving his genius and versatility.

For me, Franks is the Walter Becker/Donald Fagen of jazz, always precise and almost perfect in every piece of music that is intelligent and exquisite but never snobbish and definitely without pretensions. Like Steely Dan, his music is picturesquely evocative that one can feel and even see the timbre of every voice and instrument.

Gifted with a cool and sophisticated voice, Franks can sound playful like with “Eggplant” and “Popsicle Toes”, philosophical and dead serious with “Tiger in the Rain” and lovingly romantic with “Rainy Night in Tokyo” and “Lady Wants to Know”.

His music and lyrics are simple yet profound, always fresh and relaxing not only to ears but also to one’s soul that’s very inspiring.

Going back to our featured music on this second Sunday of Advent, Franks’ The Dream challenges us to test and keep our faith in order to work for a lasting peace here on earth.

I had this dream
That we were all one family
Which war and famine could not undo
(Maybe you dreamt it too)
Our family name
Was either Kindness or Compassion
We recognized each other
And we recognized the light inside us

Dream on in Christ, dream with Michael Franks!

“I Can See Clearly Now” by Johnny Nash (1972)

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music, 01 December 2019

Photo by Mr. Jim Marpa, 2018.

A blessed Sunday to you my dear follower and reader!

It’s the first day of December, the final month of the year but at the same time the start of a new year in our Church calendar with the Season of Advent, the four Sundays before Christmas.

From the Latin adventus that means coming, Advent has a two-fold character on the two comings of Jesus Christ: beginning today until December 16, all readings and prayers are focused on his Second Coming; from December 17 to the 24th, we shift our sights to the first Christmas when Christ was born in Bethlehem 2000 years ago.

Jesus said to his disciples: “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. In those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day that Noah entered the ark. They did not know until the flood came and carried them all away. So will it be also at the coming of the Son of Man.”

Matthew 24:37-39

Nobody knows when Jesus Christ is coming again but he assures us that it will be sudden and unexpected like in the days of Noah. It is useless to know exactly when it would be because it may be any time. According to St. Bernard of Clairvaux, between the two comings of Christ is his third coming – that is, in every moment of our lives.

Contrary to common beliefs, the Second Coming of Christ at the end of time known as parousia will not necessarily be catastrophic. It all depends to our attitude: if we are negligent of our Christian duties to love and serve those in need, then we end in disaster like what Jesus tells us in the gospel today.

Jesus is coming again not to destroy the world but to bring it to perfection, into new heaven and new earth. What he is asking us is to be like him, Christ-like, to be his presence by allowing us to let his light shine through our words and deeds.

Here to inspire us to glimpse Christ’s coming to our daily lives is Johnny Nash in his 1972 hit “I Can See Clearly Now”.

Composed and produced by Nash himself, I Can See Clearly Now evokes a very Advent spirit of active waiting and vigilance. Its musical arrangement laced with reggae influences from Nash’s earlier collaborations with Bob Marley gives the song with some touch of solemnity that makes it so perfect for this First Sunday of Advent.

Happy listening and may the song open your eyes too to Jesus Christ’s love for you!

“When It Was Done” by Hugo Montenegro (1970)

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music, 17 November 2019

Photo by Johannes Plenio on Pexels.com

Today’s gospel speaks about the end of time, the Second Coming of Jesus Christ when he predicted the fall of Jerusalem and destruction of its Temple in 70 A.D.

Every coming of Jesus Christ is a day of judgment and salvation, a call to love, love, and love.

When Jesus comes again at the end of time, he won’t be asking us how much money we have but how much do we share?

He won’t be asking us what car do we drive but how we move people with our kindness and warmth?

Jesus will not ask us those questions we are so preoccupied in this life but instead ask us the basic question we have always avoided answering, “how much do you love”?

Everything follows from that question because only those who truly love are the ones willing to suffer and sacrifice, even give life so others may live.

And that is why we have chosen this very poetic song, When It Was Done by the famed American composer Jimmy Webb in 1969 and first recorded by Winter Wanderley that same year.

There are other artists who have covered this beautiful song but Hugo Montenegro’s version is the best, giving it a more ethereal quality despite its poignant character.

It is a story of a man’s love presumably to a very lovely woman he never had the chance to express his feelings because she had been taken by somebody else.

If I could bind your mind to mine in
time, to keep you from that world of his
If I could change the strangers in
your kind, then I’d know where your soul is
Then I’d know what song I’d have to
sing, to touch that chord within you
Then I would weave such wondrous
songs, and when it was done, I’d win you
If I could stand with the stars on
either hand, and say girl this ain’t the answer
If I had been where you’re going, but then I’ll never be no dancer
If I was I’d know what step to take, and laugh at what had freed me
And smash the great wall down girl,
and when it was done, you’d need me

Too late… but the gentleman pins his hopes to the end of time when probably on judgment day he could have the chance to finally have that lovely woman.

If I can face the fate that waits to cast me into shambles
And sit across the velvet boards from God then I would gamble
And if I could,
I’d know what chance to take and before the devil sold you
I’d bet my soul against the stars, and when it as done, I’d hold you

Of course, it is all wishful thinking. And that is why – “when all was done” – there’s no more going back because it is judgement day. So let’s do whatever good we can in the here and now where Christ comes again.

Meanwhile, enjoy this lovely piece and shower your loved ones with all the love you now have.

“Pick Up the Pieces” Live From Daryl’s House (2010)

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music, 10 November 2019

Photo by Mr. Chester Ocampo, October 2019.

Today’s Sunday gospel is admittedly very difficult: the resurrection of body and life everlasting.

In our gospel, the Sadducees tried to trick Jesus with their “levirite law” from Moses that decreed “If someone’s brother dies leaving a wife but no child, his brother must take the wife and raise up descendants for his brother” (Lk.20:28).

Right away, Jesus quashed their wrong argument because there is no point in having analogies and comparisons when it comes with the resurrection of the dead. Marriage is something of this world while resurrection is something beyond this world and life.

What Jesus is asking us this Sunday is to focus our sights on our loving and merciful Father because faith in resurrection is faith in a living God.

Moreover, faith in resurrection of the dead is borne out of an encounter and experience of God, moving us to forge on with life amidst all its difficulties and trials because we believe this life would be changed and perfected by God in the end.

And that change, that resurrection begins right here in this life – every time we try to pick up the pieces of our lives, when we try to start anew, whenever we rise again from every little death, that is when we experience our little resurrection.

From that experience we slowly gain passion for life because we are convinced deep inside there is something more bigger awaiting us because we have God on our side who would never forsake us and perfect us in eternity.

In reflecting these things of the above like heaven and resurrection of the dead, I always choose next to prayer the way of music, and believe me, not just meditative or classical music.

I do it with rock and funk and soul!

See how Daryl Hall and his musicians play with so much passion and gusto this classic by the Average White Band (AWB) called “Pick Up the Pieces”: it’s a natural high, feeding our soul deep within, transporting us to somewhere higher in realm and reality.

Released in 1974 by Scottish musicians AWB, Pick Up the Pieces is essentially instrumental with its title being shouted occasionally.

I prefer the version of Daryl Hall when he invited to his internet show Live From Daryl’s House AWB original Alan Gorrie jamming with them in his home-studio in New York state in January 2010.

Just enjoy and feel the music, feed your soul, be assured Jesus is always on your side who journeys with you through this life into eternity. Amen.

“Never Existed Before” by Minnie Riperton (1979)

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music, 03 November 2019

My cousin Joyce Pollard-Lopez with Tony during their honeymoon 40 years ago in Greece, still together and very much in love with each other!

It’s the end of a long weekend of bonding and prayers for the All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day that ushered in the penultimate month of every year that is November.

Let us not forget that on these days dedicated for our departed loved ones, we are also reminded to remember more of God and those people he sends us to experience his immense love for us.

They are the people who have profoundly changed us into who we are today, that made us live like we never existed before…

So you ask me what do I see
When I look in your eyes
I see things that have never existed before
Shall I tell you all that I find
In those beautiful eyes I can try
But it never existed before
The silvery moon… a walk in the park
The tunnel of love… a kiss in the dark
The light of the stars… the clouds in the sky
The fireworks on the fourth of july
And you ask me what do I hear
When you whisper my name
Music plays that has never existed before
Oh, and I don’t know why
But it’s there just the same
And it’s plain that it never existed before
The song of the rain the flowers in spring
The wind in the willow trees murmuring
The laughter that falls the children at play
Like church bells that call all the people to pray
So you ask me why do I glow
Well, I think you should know
I’m in love and I never existed before

Minnie Riperton co-wrote this song released in May 9, 1979 as part of her fifth and final album called Minnie.

Two months later, Minnie died of cancer at the age of 31.

Never Existed Before speaks so well of how Minnie had experienced the great love of her husband Richard Rudolph especially in her long struggle against cancer.

The song leaves no trace of her great sufferings as Minnie herself was filled with joy by actively working for her advocacies in cancer prevention and research.

Beautiful voice, beautiful woman, and beautiful song.

Just like Zacchaeus.

He only had one desire – to see Jesus who surprised him by coming into his house as a guest!

It is a story of faith, no matter how little it may be for as long as there is that desire for God.

Jesus comes first in our hearts, to those who truly seek him in their hearts.

And the mark of being saved and loved by Jesus is to be filled with joy like Zacchaeus who promised to change his life and even repay those he had cheated.

Truly, any encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ can change us deeply to live differently, like we never existed before.

“I Say a Little Prayer” OST “My Best Friend’s Wedding” (1997)

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music, 20 October 2019

Photo by Emre Kuzu on Pexels.com

It’s a lovely Sunday especially for all married couples.

I am officiating the 40th Wedding Anniversary later today of a dear cousin when I remembered the 1997 movie “My Best Friend’s Wedding” with one of its most romantic scene with the singing of I Say a Little Prayer.

Composed by Burt Bacharach and Hal David in 1966 for Dionne Warwick, the song is meant to convey the woman’s sentiment for her man serving at the Vietnam War. It was finally released in 1967 and became an instant hit not only in the US but around the world. Since then, I Say a Little Prayer has been covered so many times even by male vocalists and went back to the charts again in 1997 as one of the tracks in the romantic comedy that starred Julia Roberts.

Prayer is the expression of our faith that always presupposes the presence of love. If there is love, there must be a community, a relationship.

Like people who love each other, believing in each other, they always speak and communicate even in silence. What matters most is their being together, their being one in faith and in love.

Exactly like in prayer.

If we love God, then we must always speak to him and most of all, be one with him, like most people who truly love.

We have chosen that lovely scene from “My Best Friend’s Wedding” singing I Say a Little Prayer because it evokes a lot about prayer: faith and love and relationships.

Most of all, in that movie, the prayer was heard loud and clear for Julia’s best friend.

See the movie again and have those kilig moments back with your loved one 22 years ago.

https://youtu.be/3IlzGRBnino

“Someday We’ll Know” by the New Radicals (1999)

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music, 06 October 2019

Photo by Essow Kedelina on Pexels.com

I was a newly ordained priest assigned to an all-boys’ high school in 1998.

People were looking up to me as a priest or a “man of the cloth” but my students and the younger generation counted me in as “one of them” when they learned my favorite bands at that time were the Eraserheads, Sugar Ray, and New Radicals. And like this blog, I would spice up my homilies in the Mass and reflections in class and recollections with modern music so our students could make “sakay” (ride) with God’s words and lessons from the Bible.

Just like our featured song on this lovely Sunday by the New Radicals released in 1999 from the only album they have released a year earlier called “Maybe You’ve Been Brainwashed Too”, “Someday We’ll Know” is a song about love at the beginning was thought to be so perfect that later ended up in separation.

Two years after their split, the man was still wondering what happened to their seemingly perfect love, at why he was dumped for another guy by his beloved.

And the bittersweet part is the that the man in the song is wondering not out of desperation but because he still loved the woman, believing and hoping that…

Someday we’ll know
Why Sampson loved Delilah
One day I’ll go
Dancing on the moon
Someday you’ll know
That I was the one for you
I bought a ticket to the end of the rainbow
I watched the stars crash into the sea
If I could ask God just one question
Why aren’t you here with me

Faith and love always go together. People who truly love are the most faithful!

In the gospel today, the Apostles asked Jesus Chris to increase their faith upon learning from him the many trials they have to go through in fulfilling their mission from him.

Sometimes in life when things do not go according to our plans, when bad things happen to us despite our efforts to become better persons, we cry out to God in pain, even complain at all the destruction and disorder we go through in life.

And every time we pray to cry out to God in pain or complain, it is a sign of grace that he is within us. Prayer is an ability we can only do with grace from God; that is why, when we pray, our prayers are already half answered because prayer is definite sign of God being with us.

When things are not going well with you now, have faith in God.

Keep praying, keep believing, keep trusting God because someday we’ll know….

“You’ll Never Get to Heaven” by Dionne Warwick (1964)

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music, 25 August 2019
Jungfrau Peak, the Swiss Alps. Photo by Fr. Gerry Pascual (Diocese of Iba, Zambales), August 2019.

Our Sunday music today is still about heaven as Jesus Christ concludes his four-week series of “shock preaching” about being ready for the end or death. From The Smiths’ groundbreaking alternative rock “Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now”, we offer you this Sunday Dionne Warwick’s classic soul and pop “You’ll Never Get to Heaven (If You Break My Heart)”.

Composed by Burt Bacharach with lyrics by Hal David, the song was released in 1964 as the second single from Warwick’s third studio album. It was an international hit that has also been covered by many artists since then.

Its melody and beat are very light, even divine that are very uplifting especially on this rainy day. Most of all, its lyrics are simply honest and true: getting into heaven is trying our very best not to break anyone’s heart especially our loved ones’!

Mother told me always to follow the golden rule
And she said it’s really a sin to be mean and cruel
So, remember, if you’re untrue
Angels up in heaven are looking at you
You’ll never get to heaven if you break my heart
So be very careful not to make us part
You won’t get to heaven if you break my heart

“You’ll Never Get To Heaven (If You Break My Heart)” is a feel good music by Warwick who has accompanied our generation for over 50 years reminding us about the more essential things in life like friends, love, relationships, and God. Unlike the Lord’s “shock preaching” wrapped in mystery, the song is straightforward that can instantly soothe our souls whenever we feel so down especially when the people we love are the ones who hurt us.

It can be very disappointing but amazingly, it is during those dark moments of our lives when Jesus comes to strengthen us and inspire us to keep on loving despite our imperfections.

I’ve been hearin’ rumors about how you play around.
Though I don’t believe what I hear, still it gets me down.
If you ever should say good-bye
I’d feel so awful, the angels would cry.

A blessed Sunday to everyone!

“Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now” by The Smiths (1984)

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music, 18 August 2019
Sacred Heart Spirituality Center, Novaliches, QC, June 2016.

We go alternative rock today as our gospel continues with its “shock preaching” for the third consecutive Sunday.

Jesus said to his disciples: “I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing! There is a baptism with which I must be baptised, and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished! Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.”

Luke 12:49-51

And so, what is the good news in these pronouncements by the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ?

Interestingly like our intriguing gospel today is our featured music “Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now” by The Smiths released as a single in May 1984. And like the gospel today, we might ask, what is so good with this song that has become an anthem for our generation when heaven knows I’m miserable now?

Like our shocking and controversial gospel that sounds so negative on the surface, Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now is a good news in itself worth sharing with others.

It is a very defining song of the time that is why it is listed as one of “Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll”. Its music has remained fresh and crisp, a melody that is definitively rock with a hint of lullaby perfectly given justice by the so British accent and voice of Morissey.

From Google.

And most of all, deep in all those icings, is the perfect cake: the lyrics that is intelligently straightforward and witty laced with deep meanings only a person who truly loves can identify with.

Although its title was inspired by Sandie Shaw’s 1969 single “Heaven Knows I’m Missing Him Now”, Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now is a tribute to those who choose to be good, who choose to stand with what is true and beautiful even to the point of being deserted by others like Jesus Christ, the prophets, the saints, as well as Lucy and Snoopy!

From Google.

It is definitely an intelligent music that has remained relevant up to this time making it truly a good news.

In this age when reason is being disregarded with emphasis given more on popularity, on what is trending and viral, on what has the most “likes” and who has the most “followers”, The Smiths’ Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now shows us how it can sometimes be dangerous being right, being true, being just.

The next time you feel hurt and aching inside, when you feel going through pains for being true and good among those people so ugly inside and outside, who are fake and untrue, pray and fix your sights on Jesus Christ on the Cross because “Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now”.

And, never lose your wit and humor!

What she asked of me at the end of the day
Caligula would have blushed
“Oh, you’ve been in the house too long” she said
And I naturally fled
In my life
Why do I smile
At people who I’d much rather kick in the eye?

Here’s a rockin’ and rollin’ Sunday to all!