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One Bread, One Body

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All Issues > Volume 30, Issue 3

<< Monday, May 26, 2014 >>

St. Philip Neri

Acts 16:11-15
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Psalm 149:1-6, 9

John 15:26—16:4
Similar Reflections

AT HOME WITH JESUS

"If you are convinced that I believe in the Lord, come and stay at my house." —Acts 16:15

Your house is one of your most important resources for evangelization. The Church teaches that your home should be a "domestic church" (Catechism, 1656). You should be able to look at a chair in your kitchen and remember when your neighbor, John, sitting in that chair, gave his life to Jesus. You look out at the porch and remember when Kathy from work was filled with the Holy Spirit in that very spot of your house. Over there is the couch where Ted and Cindy sat, three years ago. They had come to announce their divorce. They left your home forgiving, forgiven, and reconciled.

Next to the family-altar is the table where you taught your children the Scriptures from their infancy (2 Tm 3:15). At the front door, you can see the holy water font where you blessed the kids a thousand times. On the buffet stands the statue of Mary — a little worse for wear. (You told the kids to be more careful.) Above the doorway hangs the crucifix. You still sometimes cry when you see His crucified love.

This is home. This is love. This is life in Jesus. Amen!

Prayer: Father, make my home a house of prayer (see Is 56:7), evangelization, repentance, healing, hope, love, and life.

Promise: "When the Paraclete comes, the Spirit of truth Who comes from the Father — and Whom I Myself will send from the Father — He will bear witness on My behalf. You must bear witness as well." —Jn 15:26-27

Praise: St. Philip was so hospitable to the youth of Rome that his room was known as "the home of Christian mirth."

PRAYER FOR THE UNBORN CHILD

Almighty God, our Father, you who have given us life and intended us to have it forever, grant us your blessings.

Enlighten our minds to an awareness and to a renewed conviction that all human life is sacred because it is created

in your image and likeness.  Help us to teach by word and the example of our lives that life occupies the first place,

that human life is precious because it is the gift of God whose love is infinite.  Give us the strength to defend human life

against every influence or action that threatens or weakens it, as well as the strength to make every life more human

in all its aspects.

Give us the grace...

When the sacredness of life before birth is attacked, to stand up and proclaim that no one ever has the authority

to destroy unborn life.

When a child is described as a burden or is looked upon only as a means to satisfy an emotional need, to stand up

and insist that every child is a unique and unrepeatable gift of God,  a gift of God with a right to a loving and united family.

When the institution of marriage is abandoned to human selfishness or reduced to a temporary conditional arrangement

that can easily be terminated, to stand up and affirm the indissolubility of the marriage bond.

When the value of the family is threatened because of social and economic pressure, to stand up and reaffirm that the family is necessary

not only for the private good of every person, but also for the common good of every society, nation and state.

When freedom is used to dominate the weak, to squander natural resources and energy, to deny basic necessities to people,

to stand up and affirm the demands of justice and social love.

Almighty Father, give us courage to proclaim the supreme dignity of all human life and to demand that society itself give its protection.

We ask this in your name, through the redemptive act of your Son and in the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

(From Pope John Paul II's homily of October 7, 1979.)