Don't be afraid, Zechariah, be assured that your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son

Gospel text (Lc 1,5-25): In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there lived a priest named Zechariah, belonging to the priestly clan of Abiah. Elizabeth, Zechariah's wife, also belonged to a priestly family. Both of them were upright in the eyes of God and lived blamelessly in accordance with all the laws and commands of the Lord, but they had no child. Elizabeth could not have any and now they were both very old.

Now, while Zechariah and those with him were fulfilling their office, it fell to him by lot, according to the custom of the priests, to enter the sanctuary of the Lord and burn incense. At the time of offering incense all the people were praying outside; it was then that an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing on the right side of the altar of incense. On seeing the angel, Zechariah was deeply troubled and fear took hold of him. But the angel said to him, «Don't be afraid, Zechariah, be assured that your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son and you shall name him John. He will bring joy and gladness to you and many will rejoice at his birth. This son of yours will be great in the eyes of the Lord. Listen: he shall never drink wine or strong drink, but he will be filled with Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb. Through him many of the people of Israel will turn to the Lord their God. He himself will open the way to the Lord with the spirit and power of the prophet Elijah; he will reconcile fathers and children, and lead the disobedient to wisdom and righteousness, in order to make ready for the Lord a people prepared».

Zechariah said to the angel, «How can I believe this? I am an old man and my wife is elderly, too». The angel replied, «I am Gabriel, who stands before God, and I am the one sent to speak to you and bring you this good news! My words will come true in their time. But you would not believe and now you will be silent and unable to speak until this has happened».

Meanwhile the people waited for Zechariah, and they were surprised that he delayed so long in the sanctuary. When he finally appeared, he could not speak to them and they realized that he had seen a vision in the sanctuary. He remained dumb and made signs to them. When his time of service was completed, Zechariah returned home and some time later Elizabeth became pregnant. For five months she kept to herself, remaining at home, and thinking, «What is the Lord doing for me! This is his time for mercy and for taking away my public disgrace».

Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples

Gospel text ( L uke 11,1-4): One day Jesus was praying in a certain place and when He had finished, one of his disciples said to him, «Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples». And Jesus said to them, «When you pray, say this: Father, hallowed be your name, may your kingdom come, give us each day the kind of bread we need, and forgive us our sins, for we also for-give all who do us wrong, and do not bring us to the test»

Money

Is money the ultimate goal, the end of all means? Nowadays, it seems, everything is not just measured in terms of money, but everything needs to be, has to be, in terms of money. Money is set as the goal, over anything. Money is meant to be just a media for exchange of goods and services, not a goal on itself, yet our society has corrupted onto making of money a statement beyond life, family, marriage and most definitively above love and truth. Such a philosophy has degraded our souls to the point of denying everything that is in conflict with the value of money. Even when charity is concerned, it seems mercy can only be measured in monetary terms, as if charity could be measured by anyone except God alone. If there is crusade or cause to be enrolled, the only acceptable way has been institutionalized as the amount of money it can be contributed, regardless of the individual efforts that could be applied or spent.

A matter of life or death

Maybe I am the only one in Ontario, ‘experiencing’ a confrontation with the 407ETR corporation, or maybe not. So far it seems the fact is that I am not, that many out there are subjected to billing from the corporation. No, I am not saying unfair, discriminatory or any of the kind, but I am going to say, unsupported and unsubstantiated. The issue of the matter is that the corporation, for some presumably important reason, is blessed by the province of Ontario to have the ability to stop the licensing of any individual who fail to pay the corporation anything they ask for even if they apparently, are not able to support with facts what they claim.

Cesar Fernandez-Stoll

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