Prayer for balance in life

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Tuesday, Memorial of St. Francis of Assisi, Religious, 04 October 2022
Galatians 1:13-24   ><000'> + <'000><   Luke 10:38-42

Lord Jesus Christ:
While I am so eager to
recite the prayer for peace
of your blessed St. Francis of Assisi
today being his Memorial,
thank you for making me realize
in your words today that
before St. Francis was recognized
for his works that balanced
everything in creation,
help me first achieve balance in
myself in prayer.

The Lord said to her in reply, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.”

Luke 10:41-42

Let me grow closer to you first,
Lord Jesus Christ by loving you
among the poor and suffering, 
by spending precious moments 
under your Cross on bended knees
like St. Francis.

Let me grow closer to you first,
Lord Jesus Christ by loving you 
as I value life more than ever in this
age of materialism, by making known to
everyone the value of every person,
the value of human life especially
at its weakest stages of pregnancy and 
infancy like St. Francis who set up the
first Nativity scene at Grecchio.

Let me grow closer to you first,
Lord Jesus Christ by loving you
in deep prayers like St. Francis who 
befriended even Death he had called 
"cousin" in his beautiful Canticle of the Sun.  

Lord Jesus Christ,
long before St. Francis came
and all the other saints, you have
shown us personally that prayer is
life's primary balancer,
equalizer; like St. Paul in the first
reading, may we personally feel
your coming to us in prayers
and moments of contemplation and
meditation because the more we become
active in life, the more we need to be 
contemplative; balance in life happens
when the more we pray, the more we work;
and, as we work more, let us pray more too!

Most of all,
through the example of
St. Francis of Assisi,
let us handle life with prayer:
may we study hard, 
work harder, 
and 
pray hardest!
Amen.