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The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Tuesday, Memorial of St. Vincent de Paul, Priest, 27 September 2022 Job 3:1-3, 11-17, 20-23 ><000'> + ><000'> + ><000'> Luke 9:51-56
Thank you again, dear God our loving Father in keeping us safe from the powerful super typhoon that hit us Sunday evening; most of all, thank you in giving us that faith within us like Job when we go through storms in life, sometimes so violent and devastating like the real ones.
Bless us, O God, to be like Job: to have that grace of crying out our hearts, of venting out our pains and even anger when like him, we curse the day but never you:
Job opened his mouth and cursed his day. Job spoke out and said: Perish the day on which I was born, the night when they said, “The child is a boy!” Why did I not perish at birth, come forth from the womb and expire?
Job 3:1-2, 3
Help us realize, dear Father, these little "deaths" we go through daily in life like sickness and loss of loved ones are the realities of life itself that prepare us for our eternal union in you that would surely come on our Death with a big D; we are indeed "being-towards-death" beginning on the day of our birth when we have to cry out loud and kick hard to be alive!
It is through our pains and sufferings that we become truly human, when we feel with others in empathy and sympathy, when we stay with others in consolation, when we strive to be like Jesus in raising up others by being "resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem" (Lk.9:51) to face death that have inspired saints like your servant Vincent de Paul who worked so hard for the sick, the abandoned, and the poor, inspiring other saints in the process!
We pray for everyone going through darkness, battered by storms in life to keep their faith, that it is okay to cry and complain because it is really difficult; most of all, remind us, Jesus, that without pains and sufferings in this world, then this life would be so dull, even meaningless because that is when we are totally by ourselves, utterly selfish because we can only find life's meaning in others, never in our selves. Amen.
