“Do not reflect too much on the affairs of life. Do not worry about anything. Cast your burdens upon the Lord, and He shall sustain you.” (Saint Kyrillos VI)
The sacramental life of the Catholic Church is the lifeblood of our relationship to God in the Most Holy Trinity and His holy people. It is where we are able to let go of our fears, doubts and hurts to be healed and where we are able to lift our voices in praise, hope and thanksgiving in sharing the gratitude of generosity God showers into our lives. We know and believe God is with us and we hear this clearly in the beautiful poetic word from “Footprints in the Sand”
He whispered, “My precious child, I love you and will never leave you
Never, ever, during your trials and testings.
When you saw only one set of footprints,
It was then that I carried you.”

In this Lenten season we are reminded through the words of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton of the gift we are given, “Truly it is a great mystery how souls for whom he has done such incomprehensible things should shut themselves out by incredulity from his best of all gifts, this divine sacrifice and holy Eucharist, refusing to believe in the spiritual and heavenly order of things, that word which spoke and created the whole natural order. With what grateful and unspeakable joy and reverence I adore the daily renewed virtue of that word by which we possess here in our blessed Mass and Communion.” (St. Elizabeth Ann Seton)
One of he greatest gifts we share as Catholics is the Eucharist and we know the heartbreak that occurs when people we know and love absent themselves intentionally from this grace of salvation. We understand, through our love of them, the many and varied “reasons” they give for this absence and yet we also know the sorrow it causes the Body of Christ. It is a conversation that I have too often with parents and grandparents, brothers and sisters and the adult children of people who have “left the faith.” What are we to do? Taking the St. Elizabeth Ann Seaton’s advice we are called to be “renewed in virtue” daily. That is, to become the Eucharistic person, the person of faith, hope and joy proclaiming the Communion we share in the life of grace. It is the trusting of the mystery and not falling for the temptation of despair and fear.
Forgiveness and mercy are movements of inspiration and life. St. Teresa of Avila shares with us, “Here, in approaching the sacraments, it has the living faith to see the power that God has placed in them; it praises you because you have left such a medicine and ointment for our wounds and because this medicine not only covers these wounds but takes them away completely. It is amazed by all this. And who, Lord of my soul, wouldn’t be amazed by so much mercy and a favor so large…? I don’t know why my heart doesn’t break as I write this!”(St. Teresa of Avila)
Or faith must be alive, vibrant and open to conversion. God desires we live in communion of heart and mind. Practicing forgiveness and mercy within our families grows into the living faith of our relationship with each and every person. One of the reasons our parish is using the “A Parent Who Prays” is to see how living the virtues and praying for the help of these virtues and gifts of grace through God changes lives and grows holiness. Seeking and receiving the grace of forgiveness are active movements towards another…it is never a solitary endeavor. The “breaking of heart” St. Teresa speaks of is the shattering the hardness of heart that separates us from one another. The Sacrament of Reconciliation is the grace received.
Each moment of life is a moment of conversion and moment of transformation, to become Christlike in our relationships. “This transformation of a person into Christ includes not only the loving adoration of the Father with Christ and in Christ, but also the participation in the sacrifice of Christ and in the uttering of the “Word” the only true praise and glorification, address by Christ to his heavenly Father.”(Dietrich von Hildebrand) How does this occur? “The participation in the sacrifice” is the only possible path. We are invited by Love to enter into a sacrifice that is filled with generosity and abundance where the sufferings of the world are transformed into the redemptive mercy where rather than being divided we become united in God’s presence, healing and love.
Invite someone to Mass, Reconciliation and in prayers.
God Bless
Fr. Mark