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Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Thursday, First Week in Ordinary Time, Year II, 15 January 2026 1 Samuel 4:1-11 <*((((>< + ><))))*> Mark 1:40-43
Your words since Monday at the start of Ordinary Time are so amazing and lovely, O God our Father; I love, O Lord, the contrasts presented between the first reading and the gospel just like today that is so unique with the striking differences in approaching you, dear God.
The Philistines fought and Israel was defeated; every man fled to his own tent. It was a disastrous defeat, in which Israel lost thirty thousand foot soldiers. The ark of God was captured, and Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were among the dead (1 Samuel 4:10-11).
A leper came to him (Jesus) and kneeling down begged him and said, “If you wish, you can make me clean.” Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand, touched the leper, and said to him, “I do will it. Be made clean.” The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean (Mark 1:40-42).
Until now, many of us are still like those Israelites who brought the Ark of the Covenant to the battlefront as if it were an "anting-anting" in fighting the Philistines who overwhelmingly defeated them; the recent Traslacion that many still continue to defend is something we ought to rectify or recalibrate by deepening our faith to put order and solemnity in a supposed to be religious activity; show us the way in witnessing to others the proper approach to you, Lord, is like that leper full of trust and surrender to your will, not in insisting our personal desires and "panata" that in the process we forget to imitate your Son Jesus in being loving and charitable. Amen.
