I’ve been sick for the past several weeks. I wasn’t able to publish Pope Leo’s January prayer intention on January 1 and I apologize to you for the delay.
It is such a beautiful prayer intention, one that we all need. I hope you will overlook my slowness in getting it to you and focus instead on the beauty and power of what our Holy Father is teaching us with his intention.
Pope Leo is asking us to pray that the Word of God that is found in the Scriptures will become a part of our thinking, our actions and our lives. He wants us to pray that we may all — each and every one of us — become “missionaries” of God’s Kingdom and through us, acting in union with the Church, the “hope of a new world may be born again.”
We’re just 10 days into this New Year, and already tsunami of lies and violence, cruelty and evil have been poured down on our heads from the top of our government. It is tempting to shut it out, to close our eyes, ears and hearts in self-protective despair, and let it happen.
But that is not the way of Christ. We have a hope and a promise that transcends every evil. We do not have to be afraid, and we do not have to be overwhelmed with sorrow and confusion by the blast furnace of unadulterated evil that is coming at us.
There is another way. It is simple and it is absolutely reliable. Pope Leo’s prayer intention for January seems directed by the Holy Spirit. It does what the Church is meant to do. It shows us the way to the Way that leads to eternal life.
Pope Leo asks us to pray that our faith will grow “through our encounter” with God through His Word. He prays and is asking us to pray that we will “reach out to others, to serve the most vulnerable, to forgive, build bridges, and proclaim life.”
We need this my friends. We all need it.
In these times of darkness and trouble we need the promises of Christ and the certainty of the Cross and the Empty Tomb. We need the steadying and sure guidance of the Sermon on the Mount and the Ten Commandments.
These teaching are true. They come to us directly from God.
Jesus Christ preached the Sermon on the Mount several times. That’s why Scripture refers to Him preaching it from a boat, on a mountain, and on a plain. He taught it repeatedly. I think He meant it.
Jesus is God, and the Sermon on the Mount is His explicit instruction on how we should walk our walk with Him. It is what He told us to do.
The last commandment He gave on the night He was taken was “love one another.”
We’re not loving one another very well right now. We need to take a look at ourselves. Not look at the other guy. Look at our own selves.
My prayer for you, my dear friends, is that you pray the pope’s prayer intention for January with an honest and searching heart and that you act on it. I pray that you will open your heart to God and let Him lead you.
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