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Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul, 23 October 2025 Thursday in Twenty-Ninth Week of Ordinary Time, Year I Romans 16:19-23 <'[[[[>< + ><]]]]'> Luke 12:49-53
I may be struggling with stress daily like most people these days, Lord Jesus, but today's gospel made me realize how you too experienced "stress" like us because, after all , you are truly human like us.
Jesus said to his disciples: “I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing! There is a baptism with which I must be baptized, and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished! Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division (Luke 12:49-51).
How good it is to realize that you, Lord Jesus, was also stressed - "I have come to set the earth on fire... There is a baptism with which I must be baptized..."; like you, we could feel the weight of things to be done, of mission to be accomplished; like you, we too could feel the great responsibilities on our shoulders. Thank you, Jesus, thank you for being one with us in our stress.
Teach us Lord your way of handling stress so we can put these challenges into good use, into more evangelical in nature by first accepting and embracing like you our mission and responsibilities when you said, "how I wish it were already blazing" and "how great is my anguish until it is accomplished"; many times what we do is as much as possible avoid our mission and responsibilities or, if not, delay acting on them that eventually stress us further; give us also the courage like you, Jesus, to face and deal with our many divisions in life that stress us, of learning to bridge the many gaps between the ideal and the sad realities we are into as well as the many limitations and handicaps we have.
Make us whole, Lord Jesus in your love and kindness and peace by claiming our blessedness in your gift of salvation and sanctification as we pursue holiness according to St. Paul's advice in the first reading. Amen. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Our Lady of Fatima University Valenzuela City ([email protected])
