Shalom

10 Jan Thu	Thursday after Epiphany
	1 Jn. 4:19-5:4 Ps. 71:2, 14 and 15bc, 17 Lk. 4:14-22

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The confidence which the early disciples had in Jesus was a grace given them by God. It was supported by their experience that Jesus fulfilled all that had been written in the Law and the Prophets - the Old Testament. We read last Saturday how Philip had used this description to attract his friend Nathanael to Jesus. Jesus' own way of speaking about His fulfilment was more frequently to appeal to the Prophet Isaiah. We can with some justification say that Jesus discovered Himself and His vocation in the pages of this great prophet, especially in what Isaiah had to say about a suffering servant of God. One of the most striking examples of this is today's Gospel. At Nazareth, Jesus read the reading from Isaiah and affirmed that this was a great moment of grace, both for His listeners and for the whole world. His "today" marked, not an end, but a transition and a fulfilment. When anyone grasped the significance of this "today", all the Old Testament - the Law and the Prophets - fell into place. God's word reached a flowering, a climax that was beyond all their hope and dreams.

Jesus speak in my heart today. In Your loving kindness let me experience every "today" as the time of grace, the moment of salvation.

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

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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.
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