coming/arriving

Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul, 14 July 2025
Monday, Memorial of St. Camillus de Lellis, Priest
Exodus 1:8-14, 22   <*((((>< + ><))))*>   Matthew 10:34-11:1

What a lovely Monday
dear God when your words
are "come" and "welcome" - 
two words that indicate 
challenges in our relationships,
challenges we refuse to face
and resolve, challenges that
are so difficult to accept 
nor understand.

A new king, who knew nothing of Jospeh, came to power in Egypt. He said to his subjects, “Look how numerous and powerful the people of the children of Israel are growing, more so than ourselves! Come, let us deal shrewdly with them to stop their increase; otherwise, in time of war they too may join our enemies to fight against us, and so leave our country” (Exodus 1:8-10).

Jesus said to his Apostles: “Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law” (Matthew 10:34-35).

Many times
we come to foreign countries
like Israel in Egypt
upon your own sending,
Father,
 but instead of
opportunities and green pastures,
we come to many sufferings
and trials like our OFWs
and immigrants;
and there are times
that because of our being
a follower of Christ,
a wedge is driven between
us and our family
or friends or colleagues.

What are you teaching us,
Lord in every coming?

That life is a series of coming,
never of going, and,
whenever we come,
we take up our crosses
and follow you,
Jesus.

The difficulties
and trials that come our way
teach us to "welcome"
these in itself as
the opportunities
and blessings in disguise
we have actually
"come" for!

“Whoever receives you receives me, whoever receives you receives the one who sent me” (Matthew 10:40).

*Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com*

How lovely in other translations
that to receive is to welcome;
what matters most in life
and discipleship,
dear Jesus
is we always come to you,
come to where we are sent
and most of all,
to welcome every coming
as your very presence
like St. Camillus
who lovingly served
the sick
in whom he found you
in each one of them.
Amen.

St. Camillus de Lellis,
Pray for us!

Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Our Lady of Fatima University
Valenzuela City

*Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 2023.*

Thank you, O God our Father,
for sending us your Son Jesus Christ
who had come,
who shall come again,
and continues to come daily to us;
how lovely is this season of Advent
characterized by "coming":
the coming of the Son
so that we can come to the Father!

How powerful
and evocative is that word
"come" resounding in this
season of Advent,
so representative of Advent:
make this Season of Advent
truly a blessed one for us to
come one by one to You, God
our Father in Christ Jesus
who still comes to us.

Even the most famous hymn
of Advent and Christmas
uses this verb "come",
calling us to gather around You,
dear Jesus, to listen more
intently to you in order to meet You
like the shepherds who first came
upon learning about the birth of Christ
so magnificently proclaimed by the
age old sacred piece,
"O Come, all ye
faithful..."

Lord Jesus, You have come, You shall come again, and You still come to us each day while we refuse to come to You; let us come to You, Jesus, by thinking more of others than of myself; let us come to You, Jesus, in our poverty than come to You in all our wealth and knowledge; let us come to You, Jesus, trusting You more, believing your every wordl for surely like before, You shall come. Amen.

Tag: coming/arriving

Come. Welcome.

“Come”