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The Gospel speaks of the extraordinary event in the stable at Bethlehem when Mary gave birth to Jesus. She was His mother but the Father is God Himself and Jesus Himself as the Son, shares in the same Godhead as the Father. And so we give Mary the startling title of 'Mother of God'. She is the Mother of God because she is the mother of Jesus, one Person who is inseparably God and man. But, as Paul reminds the Galatians in the second reading, through our identifying with Jesus the Son, we too become sons and daughters sharing the same Spirit that is in the Father and the Son. With Mary, these are all wonderful truths on which we are called to reflect and then somehow make real in our own lives and in the way we relate to others. The Spirit of Jesus in our hearts is not to be kept to ourselves but to be shared with all those we come in contact with. God our Father, may we always have the prayers of Virgin Mother Mary to guide us in all we say and do. |
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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 intensify their efforts to announce together Jesus Christ, the only Saviour of the world.
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In the Apostolic Letter At the Beginning of the New Millennium Pope John Paul II looks towards the future and exhorts the members of the Church not to be afraid to leave the coastal waters "where there is nothing to fish" and move into deep waters. If we are prepared to do this, our catch will be abundant. The Pope particularly exhorts Christ's disciples to intensify their efforts to bring greater unity in the Christian Community. The invocation "Launch out into the deep" is a binding imperative, the strength that sustains us, and a salutary rebuke for our slowness and closed-heartedness. It is on Jesus' prayer and not on our own strength that we base the hope that even within history we shall be able to reach full and visible communion with all Christians. Our trust that we may succeed in attaining the full and visible communion of all Christians, "rests on Jesus' prayer, not on our own capacity". The Lord calls us to unity and will not fail to pour forth His grace on us. But in this context also, as in all our relations with God's salvific grace, we too must do our share. God does not save us against our will; God does not save us if we do not collaborate towards our salvation. | |
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