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The Jewish teachers often discussed among themselves which of the hundreds of laws, which were part of their teaching, was the most important. So one of the teachers of the Law came up to Jesus one day to get His opinion. Jesus answered him quickly and directly but, instead of giving just one law, He cited two. First and foremost is the command to love God with all our heart and soul and the second to love our neighbour as oneself. For Jesus these are not really two commandments but two sides of one. It is not possible to love God without loving those around us. On the other hand, to be a truly loving person with all those one meets, is in fact to be loving God. The Scribe saw the thrust of Jesus' words very clearly and, to show that He did, He added that to love in this way was "far more important than any holocaust or sacrifice". In other words, without this love at the heart of all we do, say and think, all other religious activities have no value whatever. Let me ask myself today, am I truly a loving person in the way that Jesus speaks? Father of mercies, fill our hearts with Your love and keep us always faithful to the teaching and example of Your Son. |
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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 : |
For the ecclesial organisations and groups engaged in social
action, that in their testimony they may proclaim strongly and consistently
the Gospel of Love.
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It is the Church's desire that all social-charitable initiatives might
always be inspired, in their implementation, by the immutable principles of
the Gospel. There is danger, however, that professional organisations
engaged in the social field risk losing the fundamental motivation for their
existence: that is bearing witness to Christ's charity which the Church has
the duty to communicate and to share with others. In order to be effective, then, continual spiritual formation is needed for voluntary co-operators who wish to devote themselves to social action. All these initiatives tend to develop the awareness that the foundation and centre of our action is Christ, in whom the God of love revealed himself and gave himself to men and women. Consequently all those who welcome Christ follow him and answer the call to be faithful witnesses to it. This awareness must totally imbue the hearts and minds of individuals so that it also inspires the Communities they set up for organised action in support of underprivileged persons and communities suffering from material and moral poverty. Being thus imbued and formed it becomes necessary that volunteers pray to draw Christ into their midst and have him accompany them. | |
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