Shalom

11 Jun Mon	St Barnabas
	Acts 11:21b-26, 13:1-3 Ps. 98:1, 2-4, 5-6 Mt. 10:7-13

How To Pray With Shalom

Home Page of Shalom

Index of This Month

We kow a fair amount about Barnabas whose feast we celebrate today. Born Joseph on Cyprus, Barnabas was an early convert to Christianity and an early missionary. He introduced Paul to the apostles after his conversion. The two travelled together until they quarreled about John Mark's reliability. Barnabas attended the council at Jerusalem in the year 49, less than 20 years after Jesus' death and resurrection. We read today that Barnabas was 'a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith.' His Jewish parents called him Joseph, but when he sold all his goods and gave the money to the apostles in Jerusalem, they gave him a new name: Barnabas, which means 'son of consolation' or 'man of encouragement'.

There is much more to say about him but the real question is 'what does his example say to us today?' Our answer comes in the Gospel reading. As you go proclaim the good news know that the kingdom of God is near. In proclaiming the good news, Barnabas was open to accepting Paul who had been a notorious persecutor of the Christians, and he was willing to give his life, knowing the Kingdom of God lay always within his grasp. May the same Spirit that inspired Barnabas give us faith and courage to proclaim the Good News.

Lord, give us the courage to proclaim the Good News.

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 our every activity may have its beginning and its end in Christ present in the Eucharist
Elaboration

- END -

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

INTENTION :	That our every activity may have its beginning and its end in Christ present in the Eucharist
In this month, dedicated to the Sacred Heart, we are encouraged to contemplate the Heart of Jesus in the Eucharist. It will spur us to seek in that Heart the inexhaustible mystery of the priesthood of Christ and of the Church. It will enable us to taste the spiritual sweetness of charity at its very source. It will make us rediscover our baptismal promises and thus be made more aware of having to live our apostolic dimension by spreading love and participating in the mission of evangelisation. We pray the Lord of the harvest to grant the Church "shepherds after His own Heart" who will be ready to go out into the highways of the world to proclaim that He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. We pray that today's young people, docile to the voice of the Holy Spirit, will let the great expectations of the Church and of humanity resonate in the depths of their hearts and respond to Christ's invitation to consecrate, themselves enthusiastically and joyously with Him "for the life of the world". The entire devotion to the Heart of Jesus is rooted and finds its summit in participation in the Holy Mass where we fraternally assembled, listen to the Word of God and learn to offer with Christ our lives.
- END -