When things turn bad in our lives

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The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Thursday, Memorial of St. Alphonsus Liguori, Bishop & Doctor of Church, 01 August 2024
Jeremiah 18:1-6     ><))))*>  +  <*((((><     Matthew 13:47-53

God our Father,
I love your words today,
of You being like a potter that
"Whenever the object of clay
which he was making turned out
badly in his hand, 
he tried again, 
making of the clay
another object of whatever sort
he pleased.
Then the word of the Lord came to me:
Can I not do to you,
house of Israel,
as this potter has done?
says the Lord.
Indeed, like clay in the hand
of the potter,
so are you in my hands,
house of Israel"
(Jeremiah 18:4-6).

Teach me, Lord
to be docile
and to have faith in You
when things turn out badly
in my life;
let me be like the clay,
pliant and flexible,
permeable and absorbent
easy to be formed;
like St. Alphonsus Liguori
who was at first a very able lawyer
but after losing a case due to a
simple neglect,
he was depressed
that he left his legal profession
to become a priest
who later became a bishop.

How lovely to remember
accomplished people
like St. Alphonsus
committing costly mistakes in life
still given a chance
to become even greater
in your new calling;
remind us, dear Lord,
especially in moments of failures,
in times things turn out so badly
in our lives
how all the beautiful potteries we see
came from the same process of
failures and destruction
in order to be formed into
something even more beautiful
than before.
Amen.