A Shalom

        September 2015


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

INTENTION : That opportunities for education and employment may increase for all young people.


To offer our youth a welcoming place where they can receive an education and find work is a task for those who have already begun the adventure of growth. We are invited to construct a world of opportunities for everyone. The accumulation of riches in the Epulon story teaches us that life is fleeting and that all of us desire to have more than each one of us needs. We must build a different world, where money and material things do not possess us, and we are free of them to share them with others. A selfish or idolatry 'awareness' of money and things must not substitute ethical and moral principles and the right to life for all. In terms of progress we are living through an era of the greatest advancements in the whole history of humanity. But can we say the same in terms of human development? This is impossible to say, when a few rob the hope of future generations watching over an idol called money in "Babel-like" towers. Increasingly life must be elevated by something greater than our human possibilities. God continues to show Himself and we can see the truth ever more clearly. Let us make this truth something more than a condition of possibility. The Pope invites us to light the flame of hope, "hope is like the embers under the ashes, let us help with solidarity, blowing on the ashes, so that the fire is rekindled." The awareness of feeling ourselves human with an "accomplished" path, does not place us at the top of creation. It is entirely the contrary, we are called upon to participate and to care responsibly for the construction of a world of opportunities and occupations for young people today.

Fr Jesus Maria Lora, SJ
Former MEJ Director, Dominican Republic



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