Friends are gifts from God

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The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Friday, Seventh Week in Ordinary Time, Year I, 28 February 2025
Sirach 6:5-17     ><}}}}*>  +  ><}}}}*>  +  ><}}}}*>     Mark10:1-12

Thank you very much
dear Father for February
and most especially
for the gift of friends
you gave us.

Your servant Ben-Sirach
was so right after all,
"Let your acquaintances be many,
but one in a thousand your confidant.
When you gain a friend, 
first test him,
and be not too ready to trust him"
(Sirach 6:6-7).

Heal us in Jesus,
Father,
of the many hurts
and pains some friends
have caused us:
those who have left us in time
of distress;
those who have become an enemy;
the boon companion who left us
in time of our sorrow;
those who have turned against us
and avoided us when we were down;
and those who took advantages
of our goodwill
(cf. Sirach 6:8-12).

For our friends who came
for reasons and seasons
and now gone,
bless them, Jesus;
and for those friends
who have remained
because of love,
bless them more!

Friends come from you,
Jesus, one of the greatest gifts
one can receive for it is a unity of souls
that give nobility and sincerity to love,
a kind of love only you Lord
had designed;
therefore, 
let us work on our friendships
but never change our friends
into someone they are not
gifted to be;
it is only then a friend
becomes a treasure
we cherish and nourish,
never to be given away
like in divorce and
adultery that Mark tells us
today in the gospel
(Mark 10:1-12).
Amen.