21 Jan
Mon
2nd Week in Ordinary Time
1 Sam. 15:16-23
Ps. 49:8-9, 16bc-17, 21 and 23
Mk. 2:18-22
How To Pray With Shalom
Home Page of Shalom
Index of This Month
 

The first reading might make us cringe a bit. Today we would not associate such a violent command with God. But the point of the story is certainly valid. If God inspires or asks us to do something, it is far better to do the thing that was asked, rather than something more to our own liking. Sometimes we try to substitute something easier or less painful. The same thing would apply when we are faced with difficult or challenging situations. In offering the sacrifice, Saul was in control, doing what he wanted to do rather than obeying God. God was not impressed.

New wine in new wineskins - what does that have to do with spirituality? Everything! Jesus is trying to teach people a new way of envisioning God and being human. Those around him do not get the point, because they are still using old ideas, worldviews, and models of God. Jesus insists that we must expand our hearts and minds and be willing to change, update or discard our ideas and images of God. Only then will we be truly open for the work of the Spirit. Cardinal Newman once said, "To live well is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often!" God is alive and the Spirit is in motion, so let us strive to be renewed inwardly each day.



Lord, open my mind and heart to the movement of the Spirit.

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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