Tag: priorities

Our misplaced priorities

Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul, 25 September 2025
Thursday in Twenty-Fifth Week of Ordinary Time, Year I
Haggai 1:1-8     <*((((><  +  ><))))*>     Luke 9:7-9
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
God our loving Father,
give us humility and courage
to admit our sins
and faults 
for all the mess
we are into today
as a nation:
the wholesale corruption
and looting of government 
money that resulted in more
floods,
substandard facilities,
inefficient services
and shameless servants;
painful but true,
these are all because 
of our misplaced priorities
in life.

Now thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways! You have sown much, but have brought in little; you have eaten, but have not been satisfied; you have drunk, but have not been exhilarated; have clothed yourselves, but not been warmed; and whoever earned wages earned them for a bag with holes in it (Haggai 1:5-6).

Like the people
at the time of your 
Prophet Haggai,
we have been preoccupied
with our selves,
of gaining so much
money and material
things forgetting you,
O God, and things of the
above like decency,
morality,
and spirituality;
for the right price,
many among us
have brought into power
not just corrupt
but inept officials
to run our government;
many among us
have glorified thievery,
of amassing wealth
even in sinful ways
that everything is now
measured in terms of 
money and gold;
many among us
have forgotten you,
Lord, to live in your ways
and precepts
following more of the world
that led us to destruction
and emptiness;
let us prioritize you
again, Lord
so that we too
may see how you
see things and 
persons unlike Herod
in the gospel;
let us prioritize you,
Lord so that we may
start planting
and building
things you want in life
that delight you
and perfect us
in the process.
Amen.
Photo by author, Dangwa Flower Center, Manila, September 2018.

Lent clarifies our priorities & responsibilities

40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Thursday in the Second Week of Lent, 29 February 2024
Jeremiah 17:5-10   ><))))*> + ><))))*> + ><))))*>     Luke 16:19-31
Photo by author in Tam-Awan Village, Baguio City, March 2018.
Teach us, Father,
to realize anew our
priorities in life this Lent;
make us begin anew
in this holy season to 
prioritize on you and
spirituality than material
things especially wealth.

Probe our hearts, O God,
and remove our many attachments
to things that pass and fade,
that hinder us from growth
and maturity, preventing us
from experiencing fulfillment
in you.

Thus says the Lord: Cursed is the man who trusts in human beings, who seeks his strength in flesh, whose heart turns away from the Lord. He is like a barren bush in the desert that enjoys no change of season, but stands in a lava waste, a salt and empty earth. Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose hope is the Lord. He is like a tree planted beside the waters that stretches out its roots to the stream: It fears not the heat when it comes, its leaves stay green; in the year of drought it shows no distress, but still bears fruit.

Jeremiah 17:5-8
When you become the priority
in our lives, God,
then we become more responsible
with our neighbors too;
we become concerned with everyone,
especially the poor and those in need,
we become our brother's keeper,
thinking about the good of others
unlike the rich man
in today's parable;
grant us the grace
in Jesus Christ
to have a heart that feels
the hunger and thirst of the poor,
the pains and anguish of
 the sick and dying,
enabling us to do good
in others.
Amen.