Shalom

6 Jan Sun	EPIPHANY (A)
	Is. 60:1-6 Ps. 71:2, 7-8, 10-11,12-13 Eph. 3:2-3a, 5-6 Mt. 2:1-12

How To Pray With Shalom

Home Page of Shalom

Index of This Month

Today's feast is a symbol of Jesus as the Light of the World. The baby Jesus is Emmanuel, God-with-us, coming with a message for peoples everywhere. The star is a symbol of that light which is dawning on a dark world, a light which will shine forth from the life of Jesus through His teaching, His example and most of all through His sacrificial suffering and glorious rising to new and unending life. But we, too, are called to be partners with Him in carrying that Light to the furthest corners of the earth. "You are the light of the world." And is it not something for us to reflect that those "wise men" (how many were there?) came from the "East", seen in those days as the source of the world's wisdom. But, whatever our origin, our wisdom now is in making the wisdom of Jesus our own and radiating it through our communities, speaking always the Truth in a spirit of unconditional love.

Teach us, Lord, how we are to spread the light of Your Gospel and the message of the Kingdom among all our peoples.

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 intensify their efforts to announce together Jesus Christ, the only Saviour of 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 Christians may intensify their efforts to announce together Jesus Christ, the only Saviour of the world.
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.
- END -