Love never fails.

Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Wednesday, Twenty-Fourth Week in Ordinary Time, 16 September 2026
Memorial of Sts. Cornelius, Pope, and Cyprian, Bishop, Martyrs
1 Corinthians 12:31-13:13     <*((((><  +  ><))))*>     Luke 7:31-35

Love never fails.
In other translations,
love never ends.

How lovely,
Lord Jesus;
and so challenging
because many times
I think of at least an end
to "loving" like when Peter
asked you last Sunday
"how many times must I forgive
my brother who sins to me...
is it seven times?"

When you said it is
"seventy times seven" -
that is clearly what love
that never fails.

As I pray to you,
I realized every age,
every generation in 
history always thinks
itself as the worst,
almost hopeless
like during this time in 
our lives not only in the world
but in our own country:
everything is chaos and disordered,
injustice and corruption are
the norms followed ironically
in this predominantly Christian
nation where money not
only talks but even shouts.

But, here we are still
Jesus: alive and kicking, 
fighting and surviving,
eagerly awaiting our 
new dawn of salvation
in you, Jesus;
grant me patience
and perseverance to keep
loving especially when it seems
to be no longer feasible
and even not doable;
like Sts. Cornelius and Cyprian
during their time,
it was not persecution per se
that was the problem
but divisions among early
Christians especially in the 
refusal of some in forgiving
and readmitting apostates to
to the faith; dear Jesus, 
teach us to be flexible,
more loving than legalistic
like your former Pope St. Cornelius
and his friend St. Cyprian the bishop
who both insisted those who denied
their faith while facing persecution 
may be forgiven and be readmitted;
it was clearly choosing to be more
loving than to be legalistic.

Teach me,
Jesus, to learn to read
the signs of the times
and most specially your 
divine will in dealing with the 
many complicated issues we 
now face in our being Christians.
May in everything 
we let love prevail for wherever there
is love, you are always there, Lord
because that is when we have
communion and oneness in 
you.
Amen.