The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Monday in the Thirty-first Week of Ordinary Time, Year I, 06 November 2023 Romans 11:29-36 ><))))*> + ><))))*> + ><))))*> Luke 14:12-14
Dearest God our loving Father, I join St. Paul today in praising you through Jesus Christ your Son who made us experience personally your transcendence and immanence: "Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How inscrutable are his judgments and how unsearchable his ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor? Or who has given him anything that he may be repaid? For from him and through him and for him are all things. To God be glory forever. Amen." (Romans 11:33-36)
Forgive me, O God, in always trying to reduce you to our human level when I try to explain how and why things are happening in my life, in the world; you are simply beyond and transcendent, surpassing all we can think about you - the moment we realize a truth about you, it is never enough; at the same time, you are immanent, totally present in everything you have made, yet still, so close and so far at the same time!
Deepen my faith in you, Father through Jesus Christ; let me trust you as St. Paul assured us today that your gifts and call are permanent and irrevocable (Romans 11:29); let me follow Christ's admonition in the gospel to think more of others than of myself especially the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind and those who could never repay me (Luke 14:13); let me realize that it is in sharing your gifts to me with others that I am truly enriched not when I insist on my own interests. Amen.
