August 2008



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

INTENTION : That the human family may know how to respect God's design for the world and thus become ever more aware of the great gift of God which creation represents for us.

Psalm 135 has this refrain "for His mercy endures for ever" repeated 26 times. This is the solemn praise the Jews intoned during their Passover liturgy. At the centre of this phrase the word "mercy" rings out repeatedly to express the covenant that exists between the Lord and his People. The term seeks to define the attitudes deriving from this relationship: faithfulness, loyalty, love and God's mercy.

Here we have a concise summary that portrays the deep, personal bond established by the Creator with His creatures. With this relationship, God does not appear as an impassive and implacable Lord against whose mysterious power it is useless to struggle. Instead, He shows Himself as a person who loves His creatures, watches over them, follows them on their way through history and suffers because of the infidelities with which the people often oppose His merciful and Fatherly love.

Sacred Scripture reawakens our reason and tells us that all things were created in wisdom. The universe in which we live was created by Him who is the source of all that exists. The whole world comes into existence by the power of the creative word. Therefore let us pray that our minds would be illumined to appreciate the creative wisdom of love and goodness for "His mercy endures forever".



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