Fighting the ghosts within us

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The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Wednesday, Memorial of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, Virgin & Martyr, 09 August 2023
Numbers 13:1-2, 25-14:1, 26-29, 34-35   <*{{{{>< + ><}}}}*>   Matthew 15:21-28

How timely are your words
these past three days, 
God our loving Father;
like your people in the wilderness
after their Exodus from Egypt,
we continue to grumble and
complain against you and your
plans for us through the people
you have sent to lead us
like our parents, siblings, 
even friends and superiors
in work or in community.

Worst than our stubbornness
in defying your instructions through
the modern Moses you send us,
we have even created our
own monsters and ghosts
within us,
exacerbating the fears
we have in trusting you,
believing you,
and following you!

So they spread discouraging reports among the children of Israel about the land they had scouted, saying, “The land that we explored is a country that consumes its inhabitants. And all the people we saw there are huge, veritable giants (the Anakim were a race of giants); we felt like mere grasshoppers, and so we must have seemed to them.”

Numbers 13:32-33

Forgive us Father
for our outrageous foolishness
that have infected so many others,
paralyzing us to move
on in life,
to dare and dream
great things in life
that could proclaim
your majesty and mercy,
your life and love;
forgive us Father
for choosing mediocrity
than striving for the best
for us,
for others,
and for you;
forgive us Father
for not daring to venture
into the unknown
where Jesus Christ
goes, the Tyre and Sidon
of our lives that we fail
to meet him.

Grant us, O Lord,
the courage,
tenacity and faith
of the Canaanite woman
who begged Jesus
to exorcise her daughter;
most of all,
grant us the clarity
of mind and perseverance
of St. Teresa Benedicta
to seek and follow you,
and stand for you
even before the real monsters
of our time 
like the gas chambers of
indifference and
the prison camps
of power and pleasures
that all negate the Cross
of Jesus Christ..
Amen.