Being grateful

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Friday in the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time, Year I, 18 August 2023
Joshua 24:1-13   ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'>   Matthew 19:3-12

Loving Father,
teach me to be grateful
not only for everything I have
but also for everything those
who have come ahead of me
have had.

Many times,
I thank you only for
what I have without seeing
these are just a continuation of
your previous blessings - like
the gift of a country and nation,
the gift of a family, of a religion,
of a school, of everything I 
hold and value like freedom,
of everything I now so enjoy 
that were merely passed on
to us like what Joshua reminded
your people upon settling in the 
Promised Land.

Joshua addressed all the people: “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: I gave you a land which you had not tilled and cities which you had not built, to dwell in; you have eaten of vineyards and olive groves which you did not plant.”

Joshua 2,13

Forgive us, dear God
not just for being ungrateful
for your blessings but for even
altering their very nature
to suit our own desires
and selfish motives like 
sex and marriage:
"Some Pharisees approached Jesus,
and tested him, saying, 'Is it lawful
for a man to divorce his wife 
for any cause?'" (Matthew 19:3).

Forgive us, dear Father,
for the hardness of our hearts,
in turning away from your intentions,
in going against your own will 
for the gifts you have given
and change them to the ways
and dictates of the world.
Amen.