12 Mar
Mon
2nd Week of Lent
Dan. 9:4b-10
Ps. 79:8-9, 11, 13
Lk. 9:6:36-38
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     Lent is not simply a season of repentance for our violations of God's commandments or a period of retribution for our sins through penances. It is not merely a time wherein we engage in actions that will win us back God's favour. The season of Lent derives its meaning from its relation to the much awaited Easter experience. Easter is a time of renewal and Lent prepares us for this renewal. Therefore, the Lenten season, much more than helping us to rid ourselves of our sinfulness, is a period of reflection on the values of the Gospel. Our penances must be external signs of our inward desire to assimilate the values of the Kingdom of God.

     In today's Gospel, Jesus spells out another set of values that should permeate the actions of one who belongs to His Kingdom. Jesus begins with the experience of God's compassion. As children of God we are expected to possess the indispensable qualities that our Father in heaven has. Therefore, we too must be filled with compassion. Lent must be characterized by our movement away from a lack of compassion as expressed in myriad ways into being persons filled with compassion.

    

     Lord, help me to be compassionate just as You are compassionate. 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, with the committed help of all believers, the scourge of poverty may come to an end, eliminating the intolerable social and economic inequality in the world
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, with the committed help of all believers, the scourge of poverty may come to an end, eliminating the intolerable social and economic inequality in the world

One might also say that poverty is the negation of economic and social rights and that the poor who suffer from absolute poverty are denied the most fundamental right which is the right to life. The international community too is becoming progressively more aware of the gravity of the problem and has declared solemnly to fight and reduce extreme poverty by 2015. Besides, how can we not realise the situation growing worse in spite of the increase in available resources.

The problem of unequal distribution of resources in its correct setting is an ethical one, since it is a problem of justice: the poor are in the first place victims of injustice. In the era of globalisation we can no longer tolerate a world in which the very rich live side by side with the poor, the property less who lack even the essentials with people who shamelessly waste what others desterately need. One of the more evident worrying consequences of this phenomenon is in fact the progressive increase instead of the decrease of inequalities, in both poor countries and rich countries, and between the North and South.

Let us pray that the scourge of poverty may come to an end




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