Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Thursday in the Seventeenth Week of Ordinary Time, Year II, 30 July 2026
Memorial of St. Peter Chrysologus, Bishop & Doctor of the Church
Jeremiah 18:1-6     <*((((><  +  ><))))*>     Matthew 13:47-53

Help me deepen my
relationship with you,
God our loving Father
by making me more sensitive
to your touch,
to your creative hands
always forming me to a better
self, a better person,
a new creation in Jesus Christ
daily; let me be still and pliant
like the clay, O Lord,
trusting you always.

Sometimes,
your hands have to
smash me,
destroy me
whenever like a clay
I turn out badly;
most of the time,
those hands of yours Father
exert the perfect pressure
with the most delicate touch
to keep perfecting me like
a clay, transforming me into
a beautiful work of art
so unbelievable
considering my origin
of a simple lump of clay.

Oh, Lord,
how easy it is like
your disciples to answer you
"Yes, we understand all these
things" without really realizing
the ongoing process of
your hands shaping me
like the clay.

One thing very clear
with me, O God,
is that whether I am
smashed into a lump of clay
anew or delicately turned into
a beautiful pottery,
these are both the works of
your loving and creative hands;
grant me the grace of patience
to this tedious process of 
"trial and error" molding me
like a clay pot;
keep me "malleable" to the powers
of your hands that sometimes
are harsh,
but often gentle
and soft;
and lastly,
make my heart
"pliable",
to bend without breaking
when the goings get so
tough in bringing out 
the best in me
for your greater glory.
Amen.