15 Apr Sun Easter Sunday Acts 10:34, 37-43 Ps. 118:1-2, 16ab-17, 22-23 Col. 3:1-4 or 1 Cor. 5:6-8 Jn. 20:1-9 or Lk. 24:1-12 How To Pray With Shalom Home Page of Shalom Index of This Month        In celebration of our Sunday liturgy, the yearly celebration of Easter Day becomes a weekly celebration. This weekly celebration - a daily celebration if we can manage it - is a celebration of the words of Psalm (139:18) which serve as the Entrance Antiphon for today's Mass: "I have risen: I am with you". In these words Christmas and Easter come together in one great mystery, for Jesus came to be Immanuel, "God with us". Death - even death on a cross - could not destroy that presence of God with us in Jesus. For God has made us for this, to follow Jesus through life, guided by the Spirit, ultimately to return to our Father in heaven.      Paul encourages us to live out the mystery of Easter by orienting ourselves towards heaven: "Set your hearts on higher things. Be intent on the things of heaven". If our hearts are truly towards God, towards the things of heaven they will be turned away from all evil. They will even be turned away from the merely passing and ephemeral things of this world, to look for the mystery of God's love drawing us to the heart of the Trinity.           Lord, may the joy of this day which You have made fill every day of our lives, for every day is a day that You have made. 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 consecrated people, answering the call of their particular vocation, may radiate the spirit of the Gospel beatitudes in the present-day world Elaboration
- END - P R A Y I N G    W I T H    T H E    C H U R C H     INTENTION : That consecrated people, answering the call of their particular vocation, may radiate the spirit of the Gospel beatitudes in the present-day world In the world of today there is a widespread search for joy, happiness, serenity, liberty. That is why the consecrated religious is called on to remind every person that the life of a human being comes from God. Religious give outstanding and striking testimony that the world cannot be transformed and offered to God without the spirit of the Beatitudes which proposes a way of living and for people to relate to each other. The consecrated life is for all the faithful a luminous sign of the common vocation to holiness, a model on which to draw inspiration and courage. Besides, the religious community based on motivations of faith, on mutual love and on sharing presents itself as a call to the constant reform of ecclesial communities. The commitment asked of consecrated people needs the support, awareness and prayer of the entire Christian community, so that human weakness may not prevail but may always allow itself to be led and transformed by God's action. In fact, the attitudes indicated by the Beatitudes not only point a sure way towards fulfilment and charity, but also lead directly to the Person of Christ who came so that men and women not only might have life but have it to the full. - END -