Sunday, June 29, 2014

From CMMB: Your Weekly Reflection in Prayer 6/29/14

Weekly Prayer Reflection for Summer
You are Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.
 Matthew 16:18
June 29, 2014
Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul
Dear Friends,
Instead of the normal Sunday Scriptural readings and prayers, this Sunday we celebrate the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul. This is unusual, and it points to the importance of these two saints, and indeed of all saints in the Christian tradition. Peter was the chief of the apostles, the leader of the early Church, and Paul took the gospel message to the nations, to the ends of the earth.
By celebrating these two saints with such solemnity, the Church is pointed to the importance of human cooperation, that almighty God looks to and depends upon human help and cooperation to achieve His goals and wishes for humanity.
One important aspect of God’s action in the world is that of healing. Here, too, God looks to human help and cooperation in the countless doctors, nurses, research scientists, and suppliers of medicines who bring medical help to those in need. Can we not look to the men and women who support and work with and for the Catholic Medical Mission Board as those who, like Saints Peter and Paul, cooperate in building God’s Kingdom? We, too, cooperate with the healing Spirit of God. We witness and make present God’s healing and compassionate hand in our world today.
Let us Pray for God’s Blessing:
May almighty God bless you, for He has made you steadfast in Saint Peter’s saving confession, and through it has set you on the solid rock of the Church’s faith.
Having instructed you by the tireless preaching of Saint Paul, may God teach you constantly by his example to win brothers and sisters for Christ.
Thus by the keys of Saint Peter and the words of Saint Paul, by the support of their intercession, may God bring us happily to that homeland that Peter attained on a cross and Paul be the blade of a sword. Amen.

 Rev. Peter Schineller, S.J., CMMB Board of Directors