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While trying our level best to live according to the Word in a spirit of love and goodwill ... yes, even in trying our best to foster friendship and brotherhood through ecumanism, we must remain steadfast to our core belief and the basic doctrines of our Catholic faith. This is important if we are not to become like the people in the Book of Maccabees who through compromise and wanting an easy way out chose the "Broad way" instead of the "Narrow way" and in time found themselves being led into idol worship. The cry of a physically blind beggar was a prayer, but the apostles found it annoying. What about the cry of the spiritually blind? Will the apostles find it even more outrageous and annoying? However the motive for their "crying" is the same. They want "to see". If we understand this then as bystanders we would not be so quick to scold. Instead, like the Lord, Himself, we would become more compassionate and merciful, reading in their actions and their cries a heart-rending plea to be healed and to be made whole. And we would use our energy, instead of scolding and stifling their cries, to facilitate their way to the feet of our Lord who alone has the power to heal and make them whole.Lord, give us a spirit of true poverty to realize that we too are beggars in need of God's healing touch. |
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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 holy and exemplary men and women may be our companions in proclaiming boldly the Gospel of the Kingdom of God.
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"They began to proclaim the word of God boldly" (Acts 4:31). The word "boldly" can also be translated as "audaciously" or with "forthrightness" in announcing the Christian message. The ideal agents of evangelisation should be "holy and exemplary persons". Though God could have spread His Kingdom without human collaboration, He has always sought human partners, who as suitable and free instruments, work for the salvation of humankind. The laity can evangelise chiefly through prayer, the testimony of life and the establishment of a temporal order inspired by the Gospel. Though preaching the Gospel is the competence and principal duty of those who have been ordained, lay people, who have the necessary theological training, can preach. Vatican II stresses the need for priests to be holy preachers. God ordinarily prefers to show his wonders through those men who are more submissive to the impulse and guidance of the Holy Spirit. Because of their intimate union with Christ and their holiness of life, they are able to say with St Paul: "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me" (Gal. 2:20). Let us therefore pray that all those who devote themselves directly to evangelisation may live a holy life that emphasises the credibility of the Christian message. | |
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