10 Dec
Mon 		2nd Week of Advent
Is. 35:1-10
Ps. 85:9-10, 11-12, 13-14
Lk. 5:17-26
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The passage from Isaiah today demonstrates that the prophet looked at the Exodus not only as an event but also as a principle or model. The miracles of the Exodus are not confined to that historical event. In principle, God is always the God of the Exodus, the God who liberates us from all kinds of bondage, whether social or physical or spiritual. Thus Isaiah sees that God will liberate Israel once more from exile as He liberated it from Egypt. This liberation will affect the very land in which they are to live again. It will be experienced as the healing of the afflicted.

Jesus fulfils this prophecy of Isaiah as He continues this liberating work of God through healing the sick and forgiving sin. He removes the physical bondage of illness as well as the spiritual bondage of sin.

The faith of the paralysed man and his friends allowed them to receive Jesus' mercy in the miracle of healing. The healed man "went home praising God". The proper response to the miracle was thus praise of God. We must learn from the Gospel to respond to all the signs of God's miraculous love and mercy by such an act of praise.


Lord Jesus, heal our hearts that we may always be sensitive to the incredible gifts of God.

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 Christians may free themselves from the subtle forms of cultural conditioning which prevent them from recognising the dignity and rights of others
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 : That Christians may free themselves from the subtle forms of cultural conditioning which prevent them from recognising the dignity and rights of others

Our vocation and mission as Christians is to bring the light of Christ to the world in order to preserve the world from corruption by permeating it with the values of the Gospel. We need, ourselves, first and foremost to be enlightened by Christ. We do not generate light, we only refract, reflect and radiate. It is His light that we must cast on the world. The more transparent our lives are with the values of the Gospel, the better is the light of Christ reflected and the less we are seen.

The world in which we live is mixed with wheat and weeds. There is good and evil. Consumerism is but the logical sequence of a materialistic way of life. Spiritual values are forgotten. Our wants are made to appear as our needs and we are forced to get so immersed in the joys of this world as to forget the joys of the world to come. We are admonished to be aware lest we be trapped by these and other forms of cultural conditioning that mark this world.

Awareness is the first step to change. We pray that this awareness may help us to be delivered from the cultural conditioning that hinders and hampers our vision and prevents us from recognising the dignity and the rights of others.



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