HEALING MASS SA VERITAS April 9, 2023 | 6:00 PM

Remembering our roots and origin

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

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

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

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

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

Set my eyes on you, Lord…

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Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Thursday, Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time, Year II, 13 August 2026
Memorial of Sts. Pontian (Pope) & Hippolytus (Priest), Martyrs
Ezekiel 12:1-12     <*((((><  +  ><))))*>     Matthew 18:21-19:1

Set my eyes on you,
Lord God,
that I may see you present
always in and around my life,
whether at work or at home,
in school or in office,
in the park,
or wherever;
set my eyes on you,
Lord God,
that I may see you always
and be reminded that
all this has been made 
possible by you
because you love me;
set my eyes on you,
Lord God
that I may realize 
you are holding me,
that everything that happens
in the world,
among us
are in the palm of
your hand.

The word of the Lord came to me:: Son of man, you live in the midst of a rebellious house; they have eyes to see but do not see, and ears to hear but do not hear, for they are a rebellious house (Ezekiel 12:1-2).

Indeed, 
Lord God,
we have not only
become callous and numb
but sadly blind too to you
and your very presence 
in us and among us;
we only have sights
without vision;
we refuse to look at
the truth and realities of life
and prefer to look through 
prisms of our own making;
we have been so conceited
like that servant pardoned for
his debts in today's parable
but unforgiving to
his fellow debtor.
give me the courage
to confront myself
like Saints Pontian and
Hippolytus 
who both contradicted
each other
but in the end shed off
their own pride to 
totally embrace and see
your real truth
in your Jesus Christ.
Amen.