The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Monday, Week XVIII, Year I in Ordinary Time, 02 August 2021
Numbers 11:4-15 <*(((>< + ><)))*> Matthew 14:13-21
Photo by author, sunrise at Camp John Hay, Baguio City, 2018.
On this first working day
of August 2021, I pray to
you our loving Father
to watch over the many
others today who feel
the same way as Moses
in the wilderness
being blamed by family
members and relatives,
by friends and others
for all their troubles
and mess in life.
When Moses heard the people,
family after family, crying at the
entrance of their tents, he was grieved.
"Why do you treat your servant
so badly?" Moses asked the Lord.
"Why are you so displeased with me
that you burden me with all this people?
Was it I who conceived all this people?
Or was it I who gave them birth,
that you tell me to carry them
at my bosom, like a foster father
carrying an infant, to the land you have
promised under oath to their fathers?
I cannot carry all this people by myself,
for they are too heavy for me."
(Number11:10, 11-12, 14)
It is so frustrating, Lord
every time there is a hardship or
difficulty being encountered along the way
to every goal and aspiration, we have to resort
to the blaming game with the accusing finger
pointing on somebody else except one's self
for all the woes and miseries,
the chorus lines of wishful thinkings
and litanies of things missed most
that suddenly the higher ideals are
all forgotten for the sake of little comforts
regardless of dignity and freedom recovered.
Teach us, dear Father
to be persevering like your Son:
When Jesus heard of the death
of John the Baptist, withdrew in a boat
to a deserted place by himself.
The crowds heard of this and followed him
on foot from their towns.
When he disembarked and saw
the vast crowd, his heart was moved with
pity for them, and he cured their sick.
He said to his disciples,
"There is no need for them to go away;
give them the food yourselves."
They all ate and were satisfied,
and they picked up the fragments
left over - twelve wicker baskets full.
Those who ate were about five thousand men,
not counting women and children.
(Matthew 14:13-14, 16, 20-21)
Like Jesus our Lord,
open our eyes to see more, not less
of what we have despite the many
burdens we also carry.
Open our hearts to have more room
for those with more difficulties
and hardships going through in life.
Stretch our hands wider to embrace
those burdened and about to give up
on their dreams and aspirations in life.
When we feel so weighed down by
all the blame of everybody else,
may we see more the light of life in Christ
than the darkness of death and surrender
like Moses at the wilderness.
Thursday, Feast of St. Alphonsus Liguori, 01 August 2019
Exodus 40:16-21, 34-38 >< )))*> <*((( >< Matthew 13:47-53
Photo by Lorenzo Atienza, 12 June 2019, Malolos City.
You must have heard so many times, Lord, our many wishful thinking of being with you like in our bible readings today.
We always think – and believe – that if we were there with you in the wilderness with Moses or with Jesus in his time in Galilee, we would have obeyed and followed you.
So many times we waste our prayers with so many wishful thinking how you would just let your cloud appear like that in the wilderness so we would know if we must continue with our journey or stop for a rest.
We waste precious moments wishing we are face to face with Jesus inside the house, listening to him explain his parables as if we would understand it easily.
On this feast of St. Alphonsus Liguori, we pray to you O God that we may imitate him to be like “every scribe who has been instructed in the Kingdom of heaven who brings from his storeroom both the new and the old” (Mt. 13:52).
Give us the grace like what you have given St. Alphonsus to continually seek you and your will at all time, in sickness and in health, especially in the most trying moments of life when we are old and sick, when those we have trusted betray us, relying solely in your fidelity and mercy and love.
Instead of entertaining flights of fancies about you, may we be like St. Alphonsus who was so open to your presence and reality especially among the poor and the suffering, the confused and the lost.
May we rediscover not only you, Lord, but through the intercession of St. Alphonsus Liguori, may we also rediscover the beauty and practicality of your morals so we may truly follow your ways of holiness in life.
Likewise, on this feast of St. Alphonsus Liguori, we pray in a special way those suffering various forms of arthritis that afflicted too our blessed saint today. Amen.
According to stories, St. Alphonsus Liguori’s arthritis was so severe that his head was bent down acutely that the pressure of his chin caused a wound on his chest.
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