24 Nov
Sat
Ss Andrew Dung-Lac, priest and Companions, martyrs
1 Mac. 6:1-13
Ps. 9:1-3, 5, 15-18
Lk. 20:27-40
How To Pray With Shalom
Home Page of Shalom
Index of This Month
 

Often we ask a question and are frustrated that the answer seems to elude us. Perhaps we are asking the wrong question. We need to be more open and to even reconsider how we think about something. Jesus has been challenged by some bystanders who are asking Him a "trick question" about the resurrection. He replies that they are demonstrating by the nature of their question that they understand neither the resurrection nor the Kingdom of God. Their thinking is limited to an earthly and human understanding. They think that the resurrected life is merely a continuation of their earthly one. Don't limit God or yourselves, Jesus warns. God is so much greater than that, and so is what He has prepared for you. Don't cling to what you have here; it is good and holy, but a shadow of what the Kingdom will be like. We can be prisoners of our culture, education, and experience. God invites us to transcend them and to view reality in a new way. An awareness of how little we know or understand is the beginning of wisdom and growth. Instead of being resistant to different ideas or points of view, let us listen with the ears and the heart, asking God's spirit to teach and illuminate us.



Lord, open my mind and heart to Your Kingdom.

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 holy and exemplary men and women may be our companions in proclaiming boldly the Gospel of the Kingdom of God.
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 holy and exemplary men and women may be our companions in proclaiming boldly the Gospel of the Kingdom of God.

"They began to proclaim the word of God boldly" (Acts 4:31). The word "boldly" can also be translated as "audaciously" or with "forthrightness" in announcing the Christian message. The ideal agents of evangelisation should be "holy and exemplary persons". Though God could have spread His Kingdom without human collaboration, He has always sought human partners, who as suitable and free instruments, work for the salvation of humankind.

The laity can evangelise chiefly through prayer, the testimony of life and the establishment of a temporal order inspired by the Gospel. Though preaching the Gospel is the competence and principal duty of those who have been ordained, lay people, who have the necessary theological training, can preach.

Vatican II stresses the need for priests to be holy preachers. God ordinarily prefers to show his wonders through those men who are more submissive to the impulse and guidance of the Holy Spirit. Because of their intimate union with Christ and their holiness of life, they are able to say with St Paul: "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me" (Gal. 2:20). Let us therefore pray that all those who devote themselves directly to evangelisation may live a holy life that emphasises the credibility of the Christian message.




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