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The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Wednesday, Memorial of St. Vincent de Paul, Priest, 27 September 2023 Ezra 9:5-9 <*(((>< + ><)))*> __ <*(((>< + ><)))*> Luke 9:1-6
Show us your will, your ways, and your path, loving Father in the face of the many great changes happening now in our lives, in our world, in our places of work; truly, changes are inevitable; in the process, there would be alterations, destructions in order to build like the restoration of your temple after the exile; but, dear God, let us not forget in all these our own sinfulness and your mercy and forgiveness. Give us the grace to cry and pray like Ezra:
I said: “My God, I am too ashamed and confounded to raise my face to you, O my God, for our wicked deeds are heaped up above our heads and our guilt reaches up to heaven. From the time of our fathers even to this day great has been our guilt, and for our wicked deeds we have been delivered up, we and our kings and our priests, to the will of the kings of foreign lands, to the sword, to captivity, to pillage, and to disgrace, as is the case today. And now, but a short time ago, mercy came to us from the Lord our God…”
Ezra 9:6-8
How sad that we never learn from our lessons of past sins, of how the many scourges we deserve fell on us that we still keep on living in evil, denying its hold on us, becoming blind to all the excesses around us that indeed our wicked deeds are heaped up above our heads! How sad, most of all, that we easily forget your love and mercy, the forgiveness and new life you gave us to start anew in rebuilding our lives in you.
Let us heed your call and summons to proclaim Christ's gospel of forgiveness and healing like St. Vincent de Paul to the many people deep into sin and evil these days because of fame and power and wealth. Amen.
