POPE SAINT JOHN XXIII

Ordinary Time: Week 27 Readings I - Jonah 4: 1-11 II - Lk. 11: 1-4 POPE SAINT JOHN XXIII From the Gospel passage today we infer that every rabbi taught his disciples to pray. Inspired by the prayer life of Jesus, the disciples insisted Jesus to teach them too to pray. May be because they realised that the power of his words and the passion for his mission was the fruit of his prayer life. The life was Jesus was a life of integrity. The credibility of the life of Jesus made the disciples to desire for learning how to pray. Prayer is the well spring and life stream of a happy, contented, joyful, peaceful and fruitful living. The happiness and contentment come from humble acceptance submission to the will of God in prayer. Prayer paves a hotline connect with God helping us courageously face all things is life with the serenity and tranquility. Today the Church celebrates the feast of Pope St. John XXIII. He was pope from October 28 1958 until June 3 1963 when he died at the age of 81 years in his Apostolic Palace in Vatican City. Instead of becoming a short-period pope who would do nothing, Pope John XXIII convened the Second Vatican Council on October 11 1962, the council that changed for the better, the face of Catholicism in matters of liturgy, ecumenism, approach to the world, and evangelization. He had been a humorous pope. He loved his flock so much that he was also termed as ‘people’s pope’. He went around Rome to visit the sick in hospitals, prisoners in the jail, reformatory schools for juvenile delinquents, and other institutions that take care of the least of the society. This kind gesture made many people to feel the presence of God in him. He toiled for the people and for the Church in an unassuming way. He actualized prayer in his life. May the life of the saint inspire us to live our lives unassumingly but with God.