23 Jan Tue 3rd Week in Ordinary Time Heb. 10:1-10 Ps. 40:2, 4, 7-8, 10-11 Mk. 3:31-35 How To Pray With Shalom Home Page of Shalom Index of This Month        Both readings today are about God's will - what it is and how we are to fulfil it. The first reading tells us that on entering this world Christ proclaimed that He came to do God's will, this divine will requiring obedience rather than ritual sacrifice. This obedience of Christ to the Father's will governed and ruled His entire existence on earth, from the first thoughts of His mind to Gethsemane and Calvary.     The first reading also tells us that God's will is that all His children be made holy through the sacrifice of Christ. We are made holy, brought to perfection, by Christ's sacrifice on Calvary to which we must unite our own lives by an obedience after the pattern of that of Christ. Our entire Christian life is to be an obedience of faith. The Gospel reading makes the same point. Christ's new family, His real family, is not one of any blood relationship. It is constituted by obedience to the Father's will.      Lord, may all of us live as good members of Your new family. 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 favour the evangelisation of the new generations through the constant search for the unity wanted by Christ. 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 favour the evangelisation of the new generations through the constant search for the unity wanted by Christ. The question of full Christian unity and evangelisation led to the beginnings of the ecumenical movement. The Holy Father decries the negative consequences of division among Christians and calls them to search for full Christian Unity as inspired by the Lord's Prayer. As evangelisers we must offer Christ's faithful an image of people who are mature in faith and capable of finding a meeting point beyond all tensions. The destiny of evangelisation is bound up with the witness of unity given to the Church. The urgency of preaching and displaying unity to the world arises from the fact that Christians can impair the vitality of proclaiming the Gospel and even become a scandal to the world, particularly when the churches appear to proclaim "a kingdom against itself". It is clear that the proclamation of the Gospel by divided Christians becomes counter- itness. As Christians we ought to give collaborative common witness which is founded in the common baptism in Christ and faith in the Triune God. Pray for the courage to work positively with other Christians for the purpose of promoting evangelisation. - END -