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Today's feast reminds us of the sinlessness of Mary. It was only fitting that the person in whom the Son of God should assume a human body like ours should be free from any taint of the sin that infects all of us from the moment we enter this world. Today she is contrasted with Eve, representing the whole human race and so called 'mother of all who live' and who symbolises the tendency to evil which is in all of us. Mary, on the other hand, in the words of the Letter to the Ephesians, "was chosen . . . to be holy and spotless" from all eternity in God's wonderful plan to reverse the way to death on which the human race was headed. But Mary's greatness is not only in the unique privilege which was given to her but even more in the unconditional response she gave to the angel in accepting to be the mother of our Saviour and in accepting all that went with it. She never at any time, even in the desolation of the Cross, took back that 'Yes'. Truly we have much to learn from her. Mary, full of grace, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. |
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P R A Y I N G W I T H T H E C H U R C H
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That Christians may free themselves from the subtle forms of cultural conditioning which prevent them from recognising the dignity and rights of others
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Our vocation and mission as Christians is to bring the light of Christ to the world in order to preserve the world from corruption by permeating it with the values of the Gospel. We need, ourselves, first and foremost to be enlightened by Christ. We do not generate light, we only refract, reflect and radiate. It is His light that we must cast on the world. The more transparent our lives are with the values of the Gospel, the better is the light of Christ reflected and the less we are seen. The world in which we live is mixed with wheat and weeds. There is good and evil. Consumerism is but the logical sequence of a materialistic way of life. Spiritual values are forgotten. Our wants are made to appear as our needs and we are forced to get so immersed in the joys of this world as to forget the joys of the world to come. We are admonished to be aware lest we be trapped by these and other forms of cultural conditioning that mark this world. Awareness is the first step to change. We pray that this awareness may help us to be delivered from the cultural conditioning that hinders and hampers our vision and prevents us from recognising the dignity and the rights of others. | |
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