31 Oct Tue 30th Week in Ordinary Time Eph. 5:21-33 Ps. 128:1-5 Lk. 13:18-21 How To Pray With Shalom Home Page of Shalom Index of This Month        St Paul has used the example of the mutual love and care of a husband and wife to explain how God has shown His love for us through Jesus Christ and how we should respond to that gift. The unity of a man and woman in marriage is a miniature of the unity and harmony that should exist between Christ and all the women and men who make up the Church, which is His body. Just as Christ has made us a holy people, so a husband nourishes and cherishes his wife, and enriches her through his love. Just as the members of Christ's Church reverence Him as the one who cares for them, so a wife treats her husband with the respect that is the fitting response to his loving concern for her. This unity of mutual love was spoken of in scripture long ago, 'the two will become one body'. The word of God referred not only to the marriage of two people, but to the unity that would one day be typical of the Church of Christ. Such unity in love is a powerful thing. It is God's plan for the world. Like the leaven and the seed in our Gospel reading, the harmony of men and women in their homes and in the Church can provide peace and shelter for many more. It could transform the earth.      Lord, bless all the married couples. Nourish them in Your love. DAILY OFFERING Eternal Father, I offer You everything I do this day; my thoughts, words, joys and sufferings. Grant that, vivified by the Holy Spirit and united to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, my life this day may be of service to You and to others. I also pray that all those preparing for marriage discover in Sacrament the source of Christ's grace for living a fithful and fruitful love. Amen. PRAYING WITH THE CHURCH INTENTION That young married couples may be sustained by the example and assistance of their parents and other families MORE
- END - P R A Y I N G    W I T H    T H E    C H U R C H     INTENTION : That young married couples may be sustained by the example and assistance of their parents and other families The testimony and help that parents and other families must offer to sustain young married couples finds its place in the ambit of post-matrimonial pastoral care. Parents and other families are the most suited to offer this assistance to young spouses because clearly they have lived personally the values which they must transmit. These parents show faithfulness through living in the best possible way the commitments assumed during their marriage. One could ask, but why is it necessary for young couples to be sustained by the testimony of their parents and other families? The answer is, because today there are many negative attitudes which scandalise and discourage young people. Being new to the condition of matrimonial life they need advice, encouragement, moral support, correction and prayer. They cannot be left alone or abandoned in this phase of their lives. Couples need to take advantage of the wealth of the experience and wisdom of their parents. "The pastoral action of the Church must be progressive, also in the sense that it must accompany the family, following it step by step in the various stages of its formation and development," (Familiaris Consortio n65, 69). - END -