12 Aug
Sun 		19th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)
Wis. 18:6-9
Ps. 32:1, 12, 18-19, 20, 22
Heb. 11:1-2, 8-19
Lk. 12:32-48
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We would all like to have total control of our lives. We would all love to know that our future is perfectly secure. But we know deep down that, no matter what precautions we take, no matter how much money we have in the bank, it can never be like that. The only place of total security is in God's hands. God is going to come and take us to Himself one day. When? We do not have the faintest idea. So what are we to do? Live in constant anxiety and worry? As Fr Anthony de Mello used to say: 'If we worry, we die; if we don't worry, we die.'

The Gospel today tells us to be ready, ready to hear the call to leave this world at any time and in any manner. How best to do that? It is to forget about the future and to concentrate on the here and now. The only place I can find God is HERE . . . NOW. Let me spend every waking hour of every day aware of His presence recognising Him in every person and every experience and then I can say I am ready. He will never take me by surprise.


Help us, Lord, to live in perfect readiness by being aware of Your closeness to us at every moment of our lives.

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
The awareness that only God is the master of human life may orientate the decisions of the legislators and leaders of nations
Elaboration

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P R A Y I N G    W I T H    T H E    C H U R C H    

INTENTION : The awareness that only God is the master of human life may orientate the decisions of the legislators and leaders of nations

Evidence shows with increasing clarity how policies and laws opposed to life are causing societies to decline morally, demographically and economically. The encyclical Evangelium Vitae makes the urgent appeal "that we offer this world of ours new signs of hope, and work to ensure that justice and solidarity will increase and that a new culture of human life will be affirmed, for the building of an authentic civilisation of truth and love".

Thus there is no reason for a defeatist mentality which claims that laws opposed to the right of life are inevitable. On the contrary, they are a seed of corruption for society and its foundations. The civil and moral conscience cannot accept this false inevitability. The relationship between the civil and moral law deserves great attention because of the growing importance they are destined to have in the restoration of social life.

Lawmakers are asked to renew their commitment to change unjust laws that legitimise or tolerate such violence. The changing of laws must be preceded and accompanied by the changing of mentalities and morals on a vast scale. The Church cannot spare any effort nor can she accept negligence or guilty silence.



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