Shalom

18 Apr Thu	3rd Week of Easter
	Acts 8:26-40 Ps. 66:8-9,16-17,20 Jn. 6:44-51

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"No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him to me." This clearly shows us that salvation is indeed a gift from God, our loving Father. We are saved only by the grace of God. The text from Acts that shows us the events, encounters and circumstances that finally led the Ethiopian eunuch to his baptism in the water gives us another clear glimpse of salvation as a gratuitious gift of God.

"Everyone will be taught by God" (Jn. 6:45) . . . and we remember the other text that says "To everyone He gives a measure of faith". Our God is indeed a just and fair Father. What is left then for us to experience the eternal and abundant life that He came to give us is our own response. "Anyone who hears the Father and learns from Him comes to me . . . , he who believes has eternal life". (Jn. 6:45.47). In our given freedom and in that loving voice of God that invites us over and over again "Come", do we hear? Do we learn? Do we believe and do we say "Yes" and come into the arms of the one who has been waiting for us all His life . . . just to embrace us into Himself that each of us may know that we are eternally and unconditionally loved. He loves us so much that He gave His body and His blood just so that we may live. Yes! He has loved us and continues to love us with His very life.

Father remove the scales from our eyes, the plugs from our ears and the layers that have hardened our hearts so that we may hear and learn and respond positively to Your invitation, "Come".

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 in the many rapid changes taking place in today's world, the importance of the family may be recognised in its fundamental vocation as cradle of life and school of faith and right values
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 in the many rapid changes taking place in today's world, the importance of the family may be recognised in its fundamental vocation as cradle of life and school of faith and right values
The family as a domestic Church and cradle of life is the appropriate setting in which faith can increase. It is here that faith can be nourished through an attitude of appreciation of the treasure which parents are called on to transmit to their children through personal words and testimonies of life. This attitude must then be nourished with a sense of wonder and hope and it must be contemplated as Mary contemplated it in the face of the Word she received and the events of her life. This deep sense of faith helps parents and their children to fulfil the vocation received from God. Parents, teaching their children and bearing witness to the true sense of suffering and dying, lead the young to be more attentive to all forms of suffering. They, thus develop positive attitudes of assistance and sharing with others, especially with weaker people like the sick and the aged. This life of faith must be continually nourished through individual and family prayer. On the strength of this foundation the family becomes a place for training in justice, self-control, temperance, respect for the personal dignity of each individual and the service of the poor and needy.
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