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The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Wednesday, Memorial of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, Virgin & Martyr, 09 August 2023
Numbers 13:1-2, 25-14:1, 26-29, 34-35 <*{{{{>< + ><}}}}*> Matthew 15:21-28
How timely are your words these past three days, God our loving Father; like your people in the wilderness after their Exodus from Egypt, we continue to grumble and complain against you and your plans for us through the people you have sent to lead us like our parents, siblings, even friends and superiors in work or in community.
Worst than our stubbornness in defying your instructions through the modern Moses you send us, we have even created our own monsters and ghosts within us, exacerbating the fears we have in trusting you, believing you, and following you!
So they spread discouraging reports among the children of Israel about the land they had scouted, saying, “The land that we explored is a country that consumes its inhabitants. And all the people we saw there are huge, veritable giants (the Anakim were a race of giants); we felt like mere grasshoppers, and so we must have seemed to them.”
Numbers 13:32-33
Forgive us Father for our outrageous foolishness that have infected so many others, paralyzing us to move on in life, to dare and dream great things in life that could proclaim your majesty and mercy, your life and love; forgive us Father for choosing mediocrity than striving for the best for us, for others, and for you; forgive us Father for not daring to venture into the unknown where Jesus Christ goes, the Tyre and Sidon of our lives that we fail to meet him.
Grant us, O Lord, the courage, tenacity and faith of the Canaanite woman who begged Jesus to exorcise her daughter; most of all, grant us the clarity of mind and perseverance of St. Teresa Benedicta to seek and follow you, and stand for you even before the real monsters of our time like the gas chambers of indifference and the prison camps of power and pleasures that all negate the Cross of Jesus Christ.. Amen.
