23 Feb
Sat
1st Week of Lent
Deut 26:16-19
Ps. 118:1-2,4-5,7-8
Mt. 5:43-48
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The older law seemed the natural thing to do: Love your neighbour, hate your enemy. Jesus' demand seems to ask too much. We may be prepared to try not hating but loving, that's really too much to ask. Could we just try to ignore them? Perhaps we are misled by the word 'love' here. Jesus is not asking us to have warm affection for them or to 'fall in love with them' or even to be friends with them. 'Love' here really means that I am filled with a deep concern for their well-being. Who really needs my prayers and concern more than a person who is acting in a way that is destructive to himself and others? Jesus never hated anyone. When people misbehaved, he wanted to reach out and help them to change. That is why he spent so much time with sinners. It was not because he was 'in love' with them but because they needed the care he was offering them. Jesus tells us that God treats every single person equally, each one gets the same amount of his infinite love. He asks us to try to do the same. If we really think about it, it is the only way to go. The way of hate has no future - for me or for anyone else.



Help me, Lord, like you to care for others, even those who wish me harm.

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 Catholic hospitals may be outstanding examples in the struggle against suffering and may play a leading role in proclaiming the Gospel of life and respect for the human person.
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 Catholic hospitals may be outstanding examples in the struggle against suffering and may play a leading role in proclaiming the Gospel of life and respect for the human person.

Suffering in any form has a supernatural value. It becomes an efficacious moment for our own and other people's sanctification. This has been the teaching of the Church throughout history bearing in mind the grace of Redemption obtained for us by the Lord on the Cross in Calvary. The Lord's missionary mandate to preach the gospel includes the dual concept "evangelisation and care for the sick".

Convinced of this missionary goal and called on to be visible signs of the mercy and charity of Jesus, Catholic Hospitals are urged to give special evangelical witness by loving works and actions, the Church's solicitude for those who suffer. Hence, Catholic Hospitals are to promote initiatives and actions in favour of life and that the entire hospital health care system be imbued with the culture of enhancing life through generous love and dedicated service.

An essential characteristic of Catholic Hospitals is that its treatment of physical suffering must reflect the mark of the Holy Spirit which is "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, understanding of others, fidelity, gentleness and self-control" (Gal 5:22).




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