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December 11, 2009
Advent Weekday (St. Damasus I, pope)

Read

Read the sixth lesson from this year’s celebration of “Lessons and Carols.”

 

 

Daily Readings

Pray

Prayers, p. 40-41 Maranà, Thà
Come, Lord Jesus!
Come in your way,
in the ways that you know.
Come wherever there is injustice and violence.
Come to the refugee camps,
in Darfur, in North Kivu, in so many parts of the world.
Come wherever drugs prevail.
Come among those wealthy people
who have forgotten you,
who live for themselves alone.
Come wherever you are unknown.
Come in your way
and renew today’s world.
And come into our hearts,
come and renew our lives,
come into our hearts
so that we ourselves may become the light of God,
your presence.
In this way let us pray with St. Paul:
Maranà, thà! “Come, Lord Jesus!”
And let us pray that Christ may truly be present
in our world today
and renew it.
Amen.
Audience
November 12, 2008

Reflect

Pope Benedict XVI,
Caritas in Veritate # 27
Life in many poor countries is still extremely insecure as a consequence of food shortages, and the situation could become worse: hunger still reaps enormous numbers of victims among those who, like Lazarus, are not permitted to take their place at the rich man's table, contrary to the hopes expressed by Paul VI[64] . Feed the hungry (cf. Mt 25: 35, 37, 42) is an ethical imperative for the universal Church, as she responds to the teachings of her Founder, the Lord Jesus, concerning solidarity and the sharing of goods. Moreover, the elimination of world hunger has also, in the global era, become a requirement for safeguarding the peace and stability of the planet. Hunger is not so much dependent on lack of material things as on shortage of social resources, the most important of which are institutional.. . . The problem of food insecurity needs to be addressed within a long-term perspective, eliminating the structural causes that give rise to it and promoting the agricultural development of poorer countries.

Act

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