8 May
Wed 		6th Week of Easter
Acts 17:15,22-18:1
Ps. 148:1-2,11-12ab, 12c-14a,14cd
Jn. 16:12-15
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The readings for today will call us to be witnesses of Jesus. In the first reading, St Paul witnesses to Jesus before the Council at Athens. In the Gospel reading Jesus promises His disciples that the Spirit of truth will come and lead them all to the complete truth. This Spirit of truth will teach only what it has learnt from the Father. Hence, what the Spirit reveals will glorify Jesus because Jesus and the Father are both one. The Spirit will witness to Jesus and hence glorify Jesus.

The readings for today remind us that just as St Paul was we too are being called to be witnesses of Jesus for our own times. Further, our witnessing must not depend on our own intelligence or reasoning but must be a fruit of the Spirit. Only the Spirit can reveal to us personally who Jesus truly is and empower us to be His witness. During this season of Easter we are being challenged to reflect on how we can be witnesses of Jesus in our own personal ways.


Dear Lord, grant me the grace to be open to Your Spirit of truth so that I may allow it to teach me to be Your witness today. Amen.

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 live their faith coherently and so be credible witnesses of the hope of the Gospel
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 live their faith coherently and so be credible witnesses of the hope of the Gospel

That we may live a "coherent faith" that is a faith which produces the testimony of good works is the ecumenical intention of the Holy Father. In the Joint Declaration on the doctrine of justification signed between the Catholic Church and the World Lutheran Federation in 1999 it is stated that "only through grace, by means of faith in Christ and his salvific work, and not through any merit of ours, we are accepted by God and receive the Holy Spirit which renews our hearts, enabling us to perform and leading us to good works".

It has to be understood that no human effort is capable of buying salvation. It is fundamentally a gift of God for which we have a duty to respond and co-operate through "faith-in-action" or "practised faith".

Hence, the strengthening of one's inner faith through prayer and the sacraments will assist in the growth of charity which leads us to live the new commandment of love more fervently. Now is the time to look at charity in a new way. It is not a matter of doing the same thing in the same way. It is a time to seek and find new expressions of love for every human being. Then we become "credible witnesses of evangelical hope"



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