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Are you able to click timeless photographs that capture the heart and soul of the moment? Are you able to bring out the best that nature has to offer through your photography?
Be Shalom’s Favorite Photographer!
We need your eye for detail and a beautiful, vivid photograph to print on the inner cover of Shalom Tidings magazine.
Email your photographs to connect∂shalomtidings.org along with your social media handles, we’d love to tag you whenever possible.
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Theme – Mother Mary Statues from your parish, grottos, or from around the world
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Image Orientation – Portrait
Image Quality – 300 dpi (high resolution)
Shalom Tidings
There is a story told about a young Jewish boy named Mortakai who hated going to school. After several failed attempts, his parents took him to their Rabbi and explained the situation. The Rabbi said not a word. He simply picked up the boy and held him to his heart for a long time. Then, still without a word, he set him back down. What words couldn’t do, a silent embrace did. Mortakai not only eagerly went to school, he went on to become a great scholar and a Rabbi himself. This story beautifully illustrates how the Eucharist works. In it, God physically embraces us. Words have a relative power. In critical situations they often fail us. When this happens, we have yet another love language. The most ancient and primal love language of all is the physical embrace. It can convey and demonstrate what words cannot. Jesus, for most of his ministry, used words. Through words, he tried to bring us God’s consolation, persuasion, and strength. His words stirred hearts, healed people, and brought about conversions. Powerful though they were, they too became inadequate and something more was needed. So on the night before his death, having exhausted what he could do with words, Jesus went beyond. He gave us the Eucharist, his physical embrace (Luke 22:15). The Eucharist is like a kiss, it needs no explanation. It’s inner dynamics need no elaboration. The Eucharist is God’s kiss.
By: Father Roy Palatty CMI
More“Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His Love endures forever.” (Psalm 107) I give thanks to the Lord when the sun is shining brightly, bringing forth rays of new hope and expectancy. But I also give thanks to my God when my heart is being tossed about like a ship in the vast ocean in the midst of a terrible storm. When fear threatens to overcome me, I run to His Presence. I throw myself down at His feet, knowing that I will find safety there. As the waves of doubt and fear threaten to overtake me, I stand firm because I am anchored in His love. I weep before my King and He ever so gently wipes away each tear. He invites me to sit in His presence so He can love me just as I am. As I gaze upon my Eucharistic Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, He embraces me with His tender love and mercy. As I welcome His embrace, Jesus whispers softly: “My precious child you are my beloved and I love you just as you are. Allow me to fill your heart with my love and peace.” My King and my God, You are all that I need. You are all that I want. You are worthy of all my praise. Your love endures forever.
By: Connie Beckman
MoreWhat, besides love, motivated the Father to send the Son, to endure such a horrific ordeal? To send His Son on a mission so integral that the only solution was his passion and death. And what of the Son, Jesus? What unwavering trust and resolve to take each step that led to the cross? One phrase that comes to my mind is: “Nothing else matters.” It’s why He came. The agonizing procession through the streets. Stones and insults hurled his way. Shouts and slanders. His sorrowful Mother. Nothing else matters. Stripped, and staked to the tree. Hung in humiliation. Precious Blood like droplets fell. Father, forgive them. Because nothing else matters. Mother, your son…Nothing else matters. Father, into Your hands…Because nothing else matters. I realized how many times I let everything else matter. What people thought. How I looked. What I had or didn’t. I am reminded that nothing else should matter. It’s all transitory—words, whispers, paper, and cloth. I let them get in the way and distract me, thinking they mattered. We are everything that matters to Jesus. Upon His mind and with every agonizing step. Precious and priceless. Outside of saving our souls, nothing else matters. Heavenly Father, you gave us your only Son. In total surrender He said yes. Our salvation matters. Our presence in eternity matters. Give us the strength and courage to say no to temptation and sin. Because only Heaven matters.
By: Barbara Lishko
MoreWe all wrestle with God at one point or another, but when do we really attain peace? Recently, a struggling friend told me: “I do not even know what to pray for.” She wanted to pray but was growing weary of asking for something that was not coming. I immediately thought of Saint Peter Julian Eymard’s Eucharistic Way of Prayer. He invites us to model our prayer time after the four ends of the Mass: Adoration, Thanksgiving, Atonement, and Petition. A Better Way Prayer is more than asking, yet there are times when our needs and worries about our loved ones are so pressing that we do nothing but ask, ask, plead, and then ask some more. We might say: “Jesus, I leave this in your hands,” but 30 seconds later, we grab it right out of His hands to explain why we need it again. We worry, fret, and lose sleep. We don’t stop asking long enough to hear what God might be trying to whisper to our weary hearts. We go around like this for a while, and God lets us. He waits for us to wear ourselves out, to realize that we are not asking Him to help us, but we are trying to tell Him how we think He needs to help us. When we grow tired of wrestling and finally surrender, we learn a better way to pray. In his letter to the Philippians, Saint Paul instructs us on how we should approach our petitions to God: “Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” (4:6-7) Combat the Lies Why do we worry? Why do we get anxious? Because, like Saint Peter, who stopped looking at Jesus and began to sink (Matthew 14:22-33), we too lose sight of the Truth and choose to listen to the lies. At the root of every anxious thought lies a big lie—that God will not take care of me, that whatever problem worries me now is bigger than God, that God will abandon me and forget me…that I don’t have a loving Father after all. How do we combat these lies? With the TRUTH. “We must simplify the work of our mind by a simple and calm view of God’s truths,” reminds St. Peter Julian Eymard. What is the truth? I like Saint Mother Teresa’s answer: “Humility is truth.” The Catechism tells us that “humility is the foundation of prayer.” Prayer is raising our hearts and minds to God. It is a conversation, a relationship. I can’t be in a relationship with someone I do not know. When we begin our prayer with humility, we acknowledge the truth of Who God is and of who we are. We recognize that, on our own, we are nothing but sin and misery but that God has made us his children and that in Him, we can do all things (Philippians 4:13). It is that humility, that truth, that brings us to first adoration, then thanksgiving, then repentance, and finally to petition. It is the natural progression of one who is completely dependent on God. So when we don’t know what to say to God, let us bless Him and praise His name. Let us think of all the blessings and thank Him for all He has done for us. This will help us trust that this same God, who has always been with us, is still here today and is always for us through good times and difficult times.
By: Ivonne J. Hernandez
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