The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Friday in the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time, Year I, 18 August 2023 Joshua 24:1-13 ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> Matthew 19:3-12
Loving Father, teach me to be grateful not only for everything I have but also for everything those who have come ahead of me have had. Many times, I thank you only for what I have without seeing these are just a continuation of your previous blessings - like the gift of a country and nation, the gift of a family, of a religion, of a school, of everything I hold and value like freedom, of everything I now so enjoy that were merely passed on to us like what Joshua reminded your people upon settling in the Promised Land.
Joshua addressed all the people: “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: I gave you a land which you had not tilled and cities which you had not built, to dwell in; you have eaten of vineyards and olive groves which you did not plant.”
Joshua 2,13
Forgive us, dear God not just for being ungrateful for your blessings but for even altering their very nature to suit our own desires and selfish motives like sex and marriage: "Some Pharisees approached Jesus, and tested him, saying, 'Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause?'" (Matthew 19:3).
Forgive us, dear Father, for the hardness of our hearts, in turning away from your intentions, in going against your own will for the gifts you have given and change them to the ways and dictates of the world. Amen.
