Rebuild Your Relationship

This Lent we have invited you to go on retreat to rebuild your relationship with God. We have reviewed the ways to deepen that relationship and rebuild a relationship with God during Lent. If you missed our Lenten Mission with Tom Corcoran, the co-author of Rebuilt Faith then I invite you to watch the Lent Mission talks on the St. Albert the Great Youtube site of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ioOcVoWwYc

On Palm Sunday we have the blessing of getting two Gospels. The first Gospel is proclaimed at the beginning of mass right after our palms are blessed and reminds us of Jesus' triumphant entry into Jerusalem. We then have the opportunity to meditate on the Passion narrative of Jesus. Please give yourself permission to really enter into the passion. Feel free to close your eyes at times to imagine yourself hearing the words of Jesus or imagining the disciples or Pilate. Let yourself connect the passion of Jesus to moments of suffering in your own life. Who has been your Pontius Pilate and has unjustly condemned you in your life? Who has been your Simon of Cyrene and has helped lift you up when you have fallen down in life? Who has been your Veronica and has wiped your face when it has been full of tears? Who have been your disciples who abandoned you in your moment of greatest need? Who has been a Mary in your life and has been that mother figure you needed when life got hard? 

This weekend we are focusing on rebuilding our relationship with God through sharing our faith with others. We do not often realize what a powerful effect sharing our faith with others has on our own personal relationship with God. I found that my relationship with God is strengthened every time I invite someone to church who has not been in a while or who has never been to church. The reason is I have to reflect on my own relationship with God if I am going to share it with others. Also, if I am lukewarm with our faith then I will not share our faith with others. However, if I believe in our faith and am fired up about it then I will share it. Sharing an invitation to attend mass on Easter is a great way to fire ourselves up for Easter. On Easter, Jesus told Mary Magdalene to share the news of His Resurrection with others and so we too should feel empowered to share the joy of the Resurrection by offering an invitation to others. 

This week is the holiest of weeks and I encourage you to participate in as many of our Holy Week activities as your schedule permits. Two new Holy week activities this year are Tenebrae on Holy Tuesday at 8 PM and a special meditative English Stations of the Cross at 12 PM. Tenebrae is a powerful way to meditate upon the death of Jesus through light, darkness and sacred music.  The Good Friday Stations of the Cross in English will involve meditations given by me and instrumental music played by Ben Batalla. It will be a way to meditate on the Stations of the Cross in a way you have never before experienced. 

Let us rebuild our relationship with God through sharing our faith with others, 
Fr. Charlie