5 Mar Mon lst Week of Lent Lev. 19:1-2, 11-18 Ps. 19:8, 9, 10, 15 Mt. 25:31-46 How To Pray With Shalom Home Page of Shalom Index of This Month        God gave Israel the Law to help them live according to their covenantal relationship with their Lord. The Covenant revealed to Israel the meaning and implications of God's choice: out of all the nations on the face of the earth, God had chosen them as a special possession. At various times, different teachers had tried to sum up the Law in a short form that would precisely express what it meant to be a member of the Chosen People. It may be said that the Book of Leviticus achieved just such a precise formulation: "Be holy, for I, the Lord, your God, am holy". To have been chosen by God means to belong to God. Since God is holy, there is only one way of belonging: the way of holiness. For the Jews, the Law was, and is, good news. Recently, I read these words of a modern Rabbi: "Each time I think of the Torah, the Law, I feel like dancing!" This is not our own usual reaction when we read the Old Testament, but perhaps there is a call here to penetrate more deeply into the meaning of the Word of God as the revelation of the way of holiness.           Lord, through Your holy word teach us to follow the way of holiness which You have marked out for us. 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, with the committed help of all believers, the scourge of poverty may come to an end, eliminating the intolerable social and economic inequality in the 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, with the committed help of all believers, the scourge of poverty may come to an end, eliminating the intolerable social and economic inequality in the world One might also say that poverty is the negation of economic and social rights and that the poor who suffer from absolute poverty are denied the most fundamental right which is the right to life. The international community too is becoming progressively more aware of the gravity of the problem and has declared solemnly to fight and reduce extreme poverty by 2015. Besides, how can we not realise the situation growing worse in spite of the increase in available resources. The problem of unequal distribution of resources in its correct setting is an ethical one, since it is a problem of justice: the poor are in the first place victims of injustice. In the era of globalisation we can no longer tolerate a world in which the very rich live side by side with the poor, the property less who lack even the essentials with people who shamelessly waste what others desterately need. One of the more evident worrying consequences of this phenomenon is in fact the progressive increase instead of the decrease of inequalities, in both poor countries and rich countries, and between the North and South. Let us pray that the scourge of poverty may come to an end - END -