The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Monday in the Thirty-third Week of Ordinary Time, Year I, 20 November 2023 1 Maccabees 1:10-15, 41-43, 54-57, 62-63 <*(((>< + ><)))*> Luke 18:35-43
God our loving Father I feel so much like your psalmist today, asking you to "Give me life, O Lord, and I will do your commands." I have been praying for this for sometime with the abuses and abominations among us priests, of how like in the first readings many of us have turned away from you, worshipping money and self, usurping your sacred altar as ours with all of our grandstanding and inanities, of how we have become beholden to the rich and powerful always present in all their functions at the expense of the poor, always seeking the ways of the world as influencers than ministers and pastors shamelessly splashed all over social media.
Indignation seizes me because of the wicked who forsake your law. Though the snares of the wicked are twined about me your law I have not forgotten. Redeem me from the oppression of men, that I may keep your precepts. I beheld the apostates with loathing, because they kept not your promise.
Psalm 119:53, 61, 134, 158
I have no claims to holiness nor cleanliness except I strive to follow your Son Jesus; and many times, amid my indignation at the abuses and abominations done to our sacred duties even by those supposed to lead us, I never fail to see myself as the blind man at Jericho, possibly blinded by my sins and imperfections; like him, dear Jesus, I pray and beg you, "Lord, please let me see" (Luke 18:41).
Lord, please let me see not only the things that make me indignant; let me also see you most importantly: your gentle mercy amid your strong conviction against sin and evil, your wisdom in confronting errors and misinterpretations, your peace and serenity in the middle of storms and adversaries. Let me go against the tide, and be my guide. Amen.
