18 May
Sat
7th Week of Easter
Acts 28:16-20,30-31
Ps. 10:4,5,7
Jn. 21:20-25
How To Pray With Shalom
Home Page of Shalom
Index of This Month
 

Who is this beloved disciple in whom Peter is so interested? We know him as John. More than that, the message that we are supposed to receive here is to remember that the beloved disciple, John, was the first of the apostles to 'believe' in Jesus' resurrection. What does this mean to 'believe'? When John arrived at the empty tomb on the day of the resurrection, "he saw and believed." At the same time we know from the story that he did not actually see Jesus at the tomb. Rather, he remembered what he had been told; the promise. He did eventually meet Jesus with the other apostles. And it was his commission to write down.

At the end of the Gospel, "follow me" is the commission to all believers provided by Jesus Himself. In fact, this is the message of all of the Gospels. To follow Jesus means to believe that He is present to us in our communities. To follow Jesus means keeping our eyes focused on Him rather than comparing our good deeds with those of others. To follow Jesus means to be able to see him in the eyes of those we meet and to share the love that we receive with others. If we let him, Jesus will give us the answer to our most personal question: "What does it mean to follow you, Jesus?"



Jesus keep my heart open to the ways in which You are inviting me to follow You.

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 Christians may live their faith coherently and so be credible witnesses of the hope of the Gospel
Elaboration

- END -









P R A Y I N G    W I T H    T H E    C H U R C H    

INTENTION : That Christians may live their faith coherently and so be credible witnesses of the hope of the Gospel

That we may live a "coherent faith" that is a faith which produces the testimony of good works is the ecumenical intention of the Holy Father. In the Joint Declaration on the doctrine of justification signed between the Catholic Church and the World Lutheran Federation in 1999 it is stated that "only through grace, by means of faith in Christ and his salvific work, and not through any merit of ours, we are accepted by God and receive the Holy Spirit which renews our hearts, enabling us to perform and leading us to good works".

It has to be understood that no human effort is capable of buying salvation. It is fundamentally a gift of God for which we have a duty to respond and co-operate through "faith-in-action" or "practised faith".

Hence, the strengthening of one's inner faith through prayer and the sacraments will assist in the growth of charity which leads us to live the new commandment of love more fervently. Now is the time to look at charity in a new way. It is not a matter of doing the same thing in the same way. It is a time to seek and find new expressions of love for every human being. Then we become "credible witnesses of evangelical hope"




- END -