20 Aug
Fri
20th Week in Ordinary Time
St Bernard, abbot & doctor of the Church
Ez. 37:1-14
Ps. 107:2-9
Mt. 22:34-40
(Ps Wk IV)
How To Pray With Shalom
Home Page of Shalom
Index of This Month
 

The first reading from the prophet Ezekiel gives us a sense of being brought back from death to life. I'm sure all of us experience times when we can say like the people of Israel " Our bones are dried up, our hope is lost and we are cut off" Perhaps we feel we have no energy left, we feel lost in life without direction, perhaps cut off from family and friends and even from ourselves.

Today's first reading has a reassuring message for us that God can breathe His spirit of life into us again and bring us back from all the places where we have been scattered. The word of God is alive and active and can restore us to again to life.

As in the beginning God spoke a creative word and brought forth life and all that is beautiful in our world so God continues to recreate us and lead us to the fullness of life Jesus promised us - a life that will last forever.

This is God's covenant of love with us, a love that continues to reach out to us, a love that is everlasting. And what is God's invitation to us ? "You shall love the Lord your God, with all your heart and you shall love your neighbour as yourself." Everything we do can be summed up in these two commandments.



Let us today give thanks to God for His love is everlasting.

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 the European Union may know how to draw new nourishment from the Christian patrimony which has been an essential part of its culture and history.
Elaboration

- END -