The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Monday in the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time, Year II, 14 November 2022 Revelation 1:1-4; 2:1-5 ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> Luke 18:35-43
Your words today, O dear Jesus, to your servant John in writing the Book of Revelation speak also directly to me:
“I know your works, your labor, and your endurance, and that you cannot tolerate the wicked… Moreover, you have endurance and have suffered for my name, and you have not grown weary. Yet I hold this against you: you have lost the love you had at first. Realize how far you have fallen. Repent, and the works you did at first.
Revelation 2:2, 3-5
Thank you, dear Jesus, for reminding me of how I have lost that love for you when I have stopped loving others too; help me find my way back to you. Like the blind Bartimaeus in today's gospel, I have been blinded too by so many other things like wealth and power and fame; help me see again your face in the persons closest to me, those I encounter each day; let me see beyond the ordinary and temporary things so I may be more loving, looking beyond outer appearances but more into the worth and dignity of everyone bearing your identity which is also LOVE,
Why is it, O Lord, that as we grow old, when we mature, when we are supposed to be more knowledgeable and more intelligent when we become less loving? Why is it, O Lord, as we become more blessed in you in so many things when we turn away from you, when we love less and think more, desire more, count more? Lord Jesus, like Bartimaeus, please let me see: let me see again myself so loved and forgiven by you; let me see again one another as my brother and sister in you, a companion in this journey of life; let me see the way back home to you in the Father and start loving again! Amen.
