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The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Friday, Memorial of St. Andrew Dung-Lac & Companions, Martyrs, 24 November 2023 1 Maccabees 4:3-37, 52-59 ><}}}}*> + ><}}}}*> + ><}}}}*> Luke 19:45-48
If COVID is over, If COVID is no longer that threat, I wonder, dear God our Father, why we especially in the Church, have not set any major celebration? Why have we not staged any major celebrations for COVID'S demise or waning? Do we not care anymore that is why we have stopped praying and celebrating Masses in churches because you have heard our prayers, God? Oh, not to forget, dear God, the evil among us who took advantage of the poor and suffering during pandemic by profiteering from others miseries!
How I wish and pray today, God our Father, that we imitate Judas Macabeus of the first reading to rededicate ourselves, our world to you as we reel from COVID; may we also have some serious cleansing of our selves and the Church like Jesus at the temple to gather and assess the important implications and lessons from the recent pandemic by working to close the big gaps and imbalances among peoples and nations. Since COVID started, Christmas countdowns and decorations have started earlier than usual to uplift our spirits dampened by the pandemic; now that COVID is almost gone, may we remember too how you, O Lord Jesus came among us in our darkest hours to bring your light of healing and life, joy and peace during those troubled years of pandemic; May "we praise your glorious name, O mighty God" like the psalmist today. Amen.
