Friends are gifts from God

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Friday, Seventh Week in Ordinary Time, Year I, 28 February 2025
Sirach 6:5-17     ><}}}}*>  +  ><}}}}*>  +  ><}}}}*>     Mark10:1-12

Thank you very much
dear Father for February
and most especially
for the gift of friends
you gave us.

Your servant Ben-Sirach
was so right after all,
"Let your acquaintances be many,
but one in a thousand your confidant.
When you gain a friend, 
first test him,
and be not too ready to trust him"
(Sirach 6:6-7).

Heal us in Jesus,
Father,
of the many hurts
and pains some friends
have caused us:
those who have left us in time
of distress;
those who have become an enemy;
the boon companion who left us
in time of our sorrow;
those who have turned against us
and avoided us when we were down;
and those who took advantages
of our goodwill
(cf. Sirach 6:8-12).

For our friends who came
for reasons and seasons
and now gone,
bless them, Jesus;
and for those friends
who have remained
because of love,
bless them more!

Friends come from you,
Jesus, one of the greatest gifts
one can receive for it is a unity of souls
that give nobility and sincerity to love,
a kind of love only you Lord
had designed;
therefore, 
let us work on our friendships
but never change our friends
into someone they are not
gifted to be;
it is only then a friend
becomes a treasure
we cherish and nourish,
never to be given away
like in divorce and
adultery that Mark tells us
today in the gospel
(Mark 10:1-12).
Amen.