18 Mar
Sun
4th Sunday of Lent (B)
2 Chr. 36:14-16, 19-23
Ps 136(137):1-2,3, 4-5, 6
Eph 2:4-10
Jn 3:14-21
(Ps Wk IV)
How To Pray With Shalom
Home Page of Shalom
Index of This Month
 
 

Trust, or even any belief in God, for many people in our modern world is a big problem. Not only personal prayers and questions seemingly not answered, but natural disasters, massacres, extreme suffering, brutality between people - God seems to "allow" it all to happen. Why? How can this be, how can there be a loving God?

In contrast, we hear the gospel today saying that "God loved the world so much that He gave His only Son." And St Paul talking about God loving us with so much love, and that we are "God's work of art."

That gospel is part of a conversation Jesus had with Nicodemus, the learned and religious man who came to meet with Him at night-time. Coming to the Light, Nicodemus had to tear himself away from the darkness, and so come to believe and to have eternal life. He was, like all of us, a mixture of shadow and light, but wanting to be enlightened.

The bible isn't an "answer-book" for my questions, but Jesus in the gospels is the visibility of God among us. His cross is the brightest sign of how much God loves, showing how Father and Son each give to each other, to the full. Jesus submits to suffering and death, His Father submits to watching Him die. There is separation and desertion; but also communion and intimacy.



Lord, take me out of my darkness, where I cannot see You; take me into your Easter Light where I may see the meaning of your Passover passion, death and rising. Draw me, Lord, into deeper faith in You. Amen.

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 whole world may recognize the contribution of women to the development of society.
Elaboration

- END -


© Copyright Shalom 2012. All rights reserved.