Hollowed, then hallowed

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Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Friday, Memorial of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 21 November 2025
1 Maccabees 4:36-37, 52-59     <*{{{{>< + ><}}}}*>     Luke 19:45-48

God our loving Father,
today I praise and thank you again
for the recent chance to travel
and experience your majesty
and beauty abroad
and among other peoples
of different culture;
most of all,
I am grateful to have been
to the home of the Blessed
Virgin Mary in Ephesus;
until now, 
I am savoring,
"masticating" the blessed
experience.

Jesus entered the temple area and proceeded to drive out those who were selling things, saying to them, “It is written, My house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves” (Luke 19:45-46).

As I recall 
that brief moment of stay
inside the Ephesus home of Mary,
I felt my whole being emptied - hollowed -
and as I knelt and prayed
without any distractions,
no worries about pictures nor of time,
slowly I felt being filled within
by you, O God: from hollowedness
to holiness or hallowed;
that is why Jesus drove away
the merchants out of temple:
every temple,
every place of worship
including our very selves
is a home and dwelling place of God;
the chief priests, scribes
and leader of the people
felt under attack by Jesus
because they were empty of God,
filled of the world and its things;
the people were spellbound
on the other hand because
they have realized that
truly, we are the indwelling
of God; therefore, let us cleanse
ourselves always within
not only of sin but also of
so many things that distract
us away from God 
to dwell in us
like social media.

O Blessed Virgin Mary,
from the very start you have
been reserved by God from any stain
of sin to be the Mother of the Christ
but it was also fulfilled because 
of human cooperation: of your parents
dedicating you to God and most of all,
of your fiat to God.
Pray for us, Mama Mary
that we may cultivate a prayer life
that shall make us a home
to God; let us express our
fiat to him daily by presenting
ourselves to him like you.
Amen.