31 Mar
Sat
4th Week of Lent
Jer. 11:18-20
Ps. 7:1-2, 8-11
Jn. 7:40-53
How To Pray With Shalom
Home Page of Shalom
Index of This Month
 
     Jeremiah compares himself to a 'trustful lamb being led to the slaughter-house'. The danger he is in is revealed to him and Jeremiah puts his trust in the protection of God. His future vindication over his enemies is then revealed to him.

     The parallel with Jesus is obvious. He is the innocent 'lamb of God' (Jn. 1:36). There is plotting against Him and police are sent to arrest Him. Jesus too has committed His cause to His Father. In the passage under consideration He is protected from arrest because He speaks as nobody ever spoke, and His message was that of eternal life. It is only when His 'hour' comes that He walks the road to Calvary. But here especially He commits His cause to the Father (Lk. 23:46) and is vindicated by being raised from the dead.

     All those who commit their cause to the Lord will likewise be vindicated, whether it be by being saved from evil, as in today's Gospel reading, or by being led safely through it, as Jesus went through His Passion and Death to the glory of His Resurrection.
    

     Lord, we seek Your protection and love.
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

- END -









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




- END -