|
|
||||||
|
Today, St Paul encourages children to obey their parents. He urges parents not to anger their children but to bring them up with training and instruction befitting the Lord. Among those who have grown sour on life, his clear but simple advice is greeted with cynicism. It is all too easy to dismiss his directives as naive, far removed from the pressures and tension of modern living. But St Paul is correct. True happiness comes from unselfish love, a love manifested by Jesus Himself in His life and in His death. Are we then willing to give up on such a beautiful ideal? Why abandon the only possibility for real fulfilment in life? When a person gives up trying to achieve an ideal, he dooms himself to failure. When an entire society abandons ideals, the result is catastrophe. The complaint, "It just won't work," is a surrender when surrender is not necessary. Life calls for growth, sometimes slow and unnoticeable, but the will to grow must last. In today's Gospel, Jesus warns us to try to come in through the narrow door, which means that we should not seek the easy way adopted by those who have given up on ideals. Lord, remind me always not to give up easily but to trust in You always. |
|
- END -
P R A Y I N G W I T H T H E C H U R C H
| INTENTION : |
That we may recognise and revere the cultural and spiritual riches of the different ethnic groups and religious minorities present in every country.
|
|
This month we are invited to give thanks to God for the variety of gifts he has given to humankind. There is hardly a country in the world today which is not marked by the coming together of different cultural traditions. It ought to be recognised that religion has influenced cultures and is the soul of a particular culture. Vatican II also mentions the good that is to be found in the rites and customs of peoples, recognising this as having been sown by God's Word (LG 17). In fact, Christians belong to many different cultures which have been deeply marked by the Christian faith. In order to appreciate these cultural and religious riches we are called to make an effort to understand and appreciate all that is good in another person and in that person's culture. We are invited to look upon our fellow human beings with the eyes of God who created man in his own image and likeness and who saw all that he had made and found it very good. We are therefore encouraged to consider prayerfully how God is at work in all peoples. In this context our prayer will be that the ongoing dialogue between the Gospel message and cultures may produce fruits of true freedom, joy and peace for the whole of humanity. | |
|
- END - | |