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Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 03 November 2026
A week before Undas, we went to Imus, Cavite; it was my first time and in obedience to my late mother's instruction, we went to pray at the Cathedral Parish of Our Lady of the Pillar.
According to tradition, Saint James the Greater was discouraged at his preaching of the Gospel in Spain with very few converts; the Blessed Mother who was still then living in Jerusalem appeared to him via bilocation at the banks of Ebro River in Zaragoza, Spain while standing on a jasper column. Mary gave the pillar to Saint James with the instruction to build a chapel in her honor there that became the Cathedral-Basilica of Zaragoza, considered as the first Marian apparition in history that happened on the year 40, second day of January.
Saint James eventually won many converts and returned to Jerusalem where he was martyred in the year 44 to become the first among the Apostles to shed blood for the Gospel. His remains were later translated back to Spain, reaching its final destination in the now famous Santiago de Compostela.
I have always wanted to go on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in Spain but it seems God has other plans for me; while praying there at Imus, it just dawned upon me that we can always do that pilgrimage to any holy site first in our hearts, in our own hallowed hiddenness.
Right inside this beautiful Cathedral in Imus after praying, I felt taking my iPhone to observe the steps, the internal camino of many other pilgrims coming there only with their hearts for Jesus with Mary. Like this man silently, intensely praying.
I have realized that hiddenness is a sacred presence where each of us can be all by one’s self focused on God who is the root of our being and existence. According to St. John Paul II, God created man first to be alone with Him. And that is how it will be to each of us in the end: we die alone. With God in Jesus. We all have this gift of hiddenness within whenever we desire to be still, for some “me” time to rediscover and find one’s self anew.
“In our society we are inclined to avoid hiddenness. We want to be seen and acknowledged. We want to be useful to others and influence the course of events. But as we become visible and popular, we quickly grow dependent on people and their responses and easily lose touch with God, the true source of our being. Hiddenness is the place of purification. In hiddenness we find our true selves” (Fr. Henri Nouwen).
Hiddenness is the passageway to the great gifts of silence and stillness that lead us to the deeper truths and realities of life, of self, ultimately of God.
Silence is the language of God; silence precedes very communication by God something we have refused to learn about communication that is why we quarrel a lot, misunderstanding each other always. We never dialogue nor communicate but simply talk, talk, and talk without silence in order to listen to others.
Hiddenness is God’s mode of presence that cannot be captured nor described in human terms. That is why He is hidden. It is not that God is hiding from us but He is inviting us to be intimately close with Him to exclusively and personally experience Him, be filled with Him.
It was the same thing Jesus did on Easter, remaining hidden before finally appearing to Mary Magdalene whom He stopped from touching Him to signal her and us today of the new level of relating with the Risen Lord in hiddenness. In all Easter stories, we are told how the disciples fell silent whenever Jesus appeared to them. In Emmaus, after the breaking of bread, the two disciples finally recognized Jesus who immediately vanished because Jesus wanted them and us today to follow Him personally in His hiddenness to find Him and ourselves too.
Appearances, images and noise are fleeting. The most significant moments and insights we have in life are those that come from our long periods of silence, of prayers and soul-searching.
This November as we continue to remember all those who have left us in this world, let us keep its sacred origins in the hiddenness of our hearts: All Saints Day for those souls already in heaven and All Souls’ Day for those who have departed but still being purified in the purgatory. Both invite us to “hide” in prayers, in silent remembering to experience God and our departed loved ones in the most intimate and personal manner without the gadgets and things that numb us of their presence. Amen. Have a blessed and meanigful All Saints’ and All Souls’ Days!
