Author: Richard Hay

By Deacon Richard Hay

“Forgiveness”

Many of you may have seen the Milky Way candy bar commercial that shows a series of mishaps including a couch being dropped on top of someone, a very crooked white line on a road causing traffic issues, and a “No Regrets” tattoo that much to the shock of the man being tattooed is spelled incorrectly and reads “No Regerts”.

After each mishap the offending individual says “Sorry, I was eating a Milky Way” to excuse their behavior and responsibility for the incident.

Now a made for TV commercial is nothing like real life – they are intended to grab our attention about the product.

However, with that said, there are times we often quickly offer ”Sorry” for something like bumping into someone in the grocery store, or stepping on someone’s toe, or maybe dropping a glass and breaking it.

In those situations, that quick “sorry” is not so much asking for forgiveness but rather “excuse me” and is appropriate in most situations like that, but what about those times that involve much bigger needs for forgiveness in our relationships with family, friends, co-workers, or even God?

Is a quick sorry the right response?

Well, in today’s gospel, we hear Peter ask Jesus about how often to forgive someone. To understand the scope of Jesus’s response to Peter, we need to understand the teachings of the day when it comes to forgiving others.

I learned this week that many Jewish scholars have said that in Jesus’s day, the acceptable number of times to forgive someone for the same thing was three times. So, when we hear Peter ask Jesus about how often he should forgive his brother, he adds on a second part to the question to ask if it should be “as many as seven times?” There is even a different translation that says it is seventy times seven.

Basically, Peter more than doubles the expectation of the day. He was trying to be very generous as he asked this question to the Lord.

The Lord’s response probably caught Peter and everyone else off guard when he said:

“I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.”

That is of course an astronomical number of times in Jesus’s day compared to the expected norm of just three times.

The lesson from Jesus that we can take away is that forgiveness should not have any bounds – no limits. That is how vast our forgiveness is supposed to be in the eyes of the Lord.

Think about the cross and the sacrifice Jesus made for us. It is why he became man – to shed His blood on the cross to forgive our sins. The ultimate display of forgiveness, love, and salvation. That is our example to try and follow.

We have also have many other examples of what is expected of us when it comes to forgiveness.

In the Lord’s Prayer we pray “forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.” In other words, we must forgive others to receive forgiveness.

During the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus reminds those gathered with him that if they are bringing a gift to the altar and then remember that their brother has something against them – then Jesus said they should leave the gift at the altar – abandon their own offering for forgiveness – and go to be reconciled with their brother first.

Reconciliation with their brother was necessary before seeking forgiveness for themselves. Another reminder for all of us…

Of course, we all know the unconditional love of the father in the story of the Prodigal Son. The first words out of the wayward son’s mouth as he comes home from squandering his inheritance, was “Father, I have sinned against heaven and you.” He asked for forgiveness for his actions against his father and was granted that through his father’s unconditional love – just like the forgiveness we receive from our Father in heaven.

St. John Paul II, while riding to the hospital in an ambulance after an assassination attempt in St. Peters Square, is said to have commented that he had already forgiven the shooter. A couple of years later, he went to the prison where his would-be assassin was being held and forgave him face to face.

From our own parish and diocese, we have a beautiful example of forgiveness in Fr. Rene Robert. Some of you may remember him when he was an associate here at Sacred Heart. He was also active at the school for the deaf and the blind in St. Augustine.

He was tragically kidnapped and murdered seven years ago by someone he was trying to help. A letter Fr. Rene left behind made it clear that his wishes were that if something like this was to happen to him, that he did not want the death penalty sought out by the courts. Imagine being prepared to forgive the actions of someone for such a transgression even before it ever happened.

For us – forgiveness must come from our hearts – it must come from our inner most being – forgiveness is not an intellectual activity otherwise it becomes just a quick “sorry” with no substance.

We should also remember that forgiving someone is not the same as excusing behavior – it simply means we sincerely offer forgiveness to the other person – no conditions – no blame – no expectations – just forgiveness.

Our forgiveness is also not tied to the other person accepting it – they may not yet be in a place where they can do that – but we offer our forgiveness anyway and pray for them.

Our homework for this week is to reflect on the forgiveness we have received from the Lord and others. Offer a prayer of thanksgiving for the blessings that come from that forgiveness. Forgiveness is not easy, and we should always be grateful when it is received.

Remember – forgive others so that our Lord in heaven may then forgive us.

By Deacon Richard Hay

“Enriching the Soil of our Soul”

Anyone here consider themselves a gardener?

Gardening is a continuum that ranges from those who do not consider their day complete without having dirt under their fingernails from working in the garden and those like me who are lucky to keep a plant green and alive. I am really good at making plants brown that aren’t supposed to be brown.

My wife Margo was the first kind of gardener with the greenest of thumbs. She could take plants that others were struggling to keep alive and have them blossom under her care.

Twice a year she would bring home about three hundred pounds or so of topsoil from the local garden store – the trunk of her Volkswagen sedan filled to the top, with the lid barely closed, and riding on the rear axle from all the extra weight.

Of course, it would be my job to distribute those bags around the garden so she could then come and work all of it into the existing soil so that the plants and flowers she loved so much could grow and flourish.

Gardeners know the importance of having rich soil in their flower beds, vegetable gardens and potted plants.

Today’s gospel, which we all know as the “Parable of the Sower”, is about the richness of our own soil – our own soul. It doesn’t matter if we have a green thumb or not because as we know – anything is possible with God.

We understand that Christ is the one sowing the seeds which are the Word of God. It is the Holy Spirit who cultivates the Word in us so we can grow our soul in the richest soil possible.

Those two words are very similar, aren’t they?  Soul and Soil. As someone pointed out to me, the only differences are the letters I and U and we are on this journey together.

The four different types of soil that we hear about have everything to do with the readiness of our own soul to hear, receive, and live what God offers us in the Word of God through Jesus Christ.

Life is a continuous journey of growth, sometimes we move forward and sometimes we might take a step backward, but God’s will for us is to always keep our eyes on Him, to grow in His love, and to be His people.

A gardener understands that a garden is also a continuous journey – not always at its best because of insects, weather and other things. Today’s parable provides an insightful way to see how our lives can parallel the life of a garden based on the richness of its soil.

In the gospel, as the seeds were sowed, we heard that some fell on the path. The seeds in this area are right there on top and exposed to all the elements. However, they are quickly consumed by birds and never get the chance to even sprout in the cracks of the path where there might be just a little bit of soil to start nourishing it. However, even if some of those seeds were to start growing in the cracks of the path – it is a tough existence, and someone is going to eventually come along and pull that plant out or chop it down with a weed eater.

This happens in our own lives when we hear the Word of God and do not understand it, do not take it into our own soul, do not act on it, and don’t seek to learn more. It never has a chance to take root and blossom.

Next, seeds are sown on the rocky ground. However, plants need soil so that their roots can provide nutrients and water to help them grow. Those plants may grow for a time in the rocky ground but eventually, without that rich soil, they are only going to grow for a very short time before they wilt and die for lack of roots.

Have you ever been challenged about your faith? Are we willing to stand up for that faith in the presence of ridicule or maybe the loss of a friend because of our beliefs? If not, then our soul is trying to grow without deep roots and can be easily persuaded to not stand up for the faith to avoid those persecutions that come from family, friends, and society.

The seed which is sown in the thorns is like the rocky ground but instead the plants trying to grow do not get all of the possible nutrients from the soil because the plants with thorns are taking it away and choking their roots.

Our soul experiences this when we hear the Word and understand what we must do to live it out in our lives, but we get distracted by worldly matters and the plants from those sown seeds never have a chance to bear any fruit.

Even when we experience these difficult & challenging situations for trying to grow rich in our own soul at different times in our lives, the Word of God can make the soil of our soul rich if we receive it, embrace it with love, and let the Holy Spirit cultivate it.

Gardeners know what will happen when seeds are placed in rich soil and are nurtured – they will grow and blossom and bear fruit for all to see.

I believe at some point in each one of our lives, we experience all four of these types of soil in our soul. In fact, sometimes we might move in between these different experiences depending on where we are in life and what we are facing. Life is not a straight line, growth that will produce abundant fruit takes effort and that is OK.

So how do we keep our own soil, our own soul, rich? We do that by grace.

Where do we get grace – through the sacraments that were given to us as a sign of God’s love for us.  

The church defines sacraments as effective “…signs of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church, by which divine life is dispensed to us.”

In other words, the sacraments do what they say they do – provide us holiness and grace in our lives. By God’s power – they simply work.

That grace is even more important than the food that keeps our human bodies alive, because they enrich the soil of our soul so that we can bear fruit “a hundred or sixty or thirty-fold”.

By Deacon Richard Hay

“Commissioning the Church”

At the commissioning of a United States Navy ship, everything happens on the pier next to the ship during the ceremony. The crew is there in their best uniforms, honored guests are seated along with the new ships leadership and speeches are given. Then, just towards the end of the commissioning ceremony, an order is giving to “Bring this ship alive!”

At the sound of this order, the officers and men of the crew break out of their formation and rush onboard to stand along the edge of the ships main deck side by side – we called this “Manning the rails”. All these men and women are called “plank-owners” because they are members of the ships first crew.

Today, on this Solemnity of the Ascension, the four verses we hear in today’s gospel are the last verses in the 28^th and final chapter of Matthew which is actually only 20 verses long itself. It is a short chapter but encompasses the days between the resurrection and the Lord’s ascension. These last four verses make up what is known as “The Great Commissioning.”

This is where Jesus tells the apostles to “bring the ship alive!” – the ship that is God’s church and they are the “plank-owners” of this new missionary church that is to “make disciples of all nations.”

This commissioning doesn’t happen on a pier but on a mountain – whenever Jesus showed His Glory there was almost always a mountain involved and His ascension is no exception.

We hear that when the disciples saw Jesus, they worshipped him but also doubted. Earlier in this final chapter of Matthew, the disciples had heard from the two Mary’s that they had seen the risen Lord and that He wanted them to meet Him in Galilee. We have read other accounts in the gospels that the apostles encountered the risen Jesus many times during those forty-days after Easter – yet they still doubted. The lesson for us is that as long as we don’t dwell in it, doubt is going to happen and that is OK – at least for a short while.

Christ knows their doubt and that is why he approaches them – gets close to them as He prepares to commission them. They are told to go make disciples of all nations; to baptize them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit – the same words we hear during the Sacrament of Baptism. Jesus then adds that the disciples should teach all the nations to observe all that he has commanded them. Finally, just before his ascension, He reassures the disciples that He will always be with them until the end of the age.

That is a lot happening in just four verses however, it gives us a wonderfully rich understanding of our own commissioning as Christians, commissioning’s we experience regularly throughout our faith life and that we should act on daily.

The first commissioning we receive is at our baptism. If we were baptized as a baby, then our parents and godparents accepted that commissioning to raise us in the faith, to keep God’s commandments so that we may love the Lord and our neighbor as Christ taught us to do. Those same promises were made by anyone who was baptized as a young child or adult and then they were sealed with the Sign of the Cross and anointed with Sacred Chrism Oil as we were received as members of the Body of Christ.

Another time in our faith journey when we have a commission is after receiving absolution in the Sacrament of Reconciliation – one of our repeatable sacraments. In the words of The Act of Contrition, we pray that we firmly intend, with the help of the Lord, to do penance, to sin no more, and to avoid whatever leads us to sin. It is a form of self-commissioning but one we do not take on alone because Christ is with us to help. When the priest says Go in peace at the end of our confession, that is also a commissioning and how we should go out and approach our lives within the world.

At Confirmation, we are once again commissioned, this time through the words of the bishop as he extends his hands over us and calls on the Holy Spirit to be our helper and guide, to give us a spirit of wisdom and understanding, a spirit of right judgment and courage, a spirit of knowledge and reverence, and to be filled with a spirit of wonder and awe in the presence of God. The Holy Spirit we first received at our baptism, is affirmed in us through confirmation, and provides us a guide as we venture forth into the world to share the good news. 

In the Sacrament of Matrimony, couples are commissioned to celebrate fruitfully the mystery of the union of Christ and the Church, to live it rightly, and to bear witness to it publicly before all. In addition, when they both embrace the conjugal life there is another commissioning in accepting and educating their own children, they then help one another to become holy through that process.

Finally, every time we attend the sacrifice of the Mass, after the final blessing, the dismissal is when the priest or deacon commissions us as we are sent forth to announce the Gospel of the Lord or to go in peace glorifying the Lord by our lives. Commissioned to live our lives in Christ as examples of His love and forgiveness in our homes, workplaces, schools, and everywhere else we are in the world.

After receiving all of the other commissions through the sacraments, this is the one which gives us a regular reminder of our role in the Church. We are to be the hands and feet – the Body of Christ in the world. This is why attending mass regularly to receive the Lord in the Eucharist and to be sent forth is so important. As I have said before, attend as often as possible because the Eucharist is another of our repeatable sacraments.

Just before Jesus ascended into heaven from that mountain, He reminded the apostles that he would be with them always. That would be Him leaving the Holy Spirit, the first Pentecost, as their strength – there is a reason the Holy Spirit ties together everything we do in the church – He is the thread that ties it all together from the beginning of time until now and beyond.

Just like he said to the apostles, the Father and the Son are with us always through the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives and every time we participate in the sacraments, attend the celebration of the Mass, and are sent forth to announce the Gospel of the Lord. Every time we approach the Holy Eucharist and say Amen, we are professing that faith and belief in the true presence of Christ in the Eucharist. That gift is intended to feed and sustain us as we carry out our own commissioning by the Lord – to share our faith with others.

So, here’s the question to take away today, how will each one of us carry out our roles as members of this church’s crew, the plank-owners in this local and universal Church, to fulfill the commissioning that Christ himself gave each one of us and continues to send us forth with today and every day of our lives?

By Deacon Richard Hay

“Seeing is believing…”

          Two sayings we are all likely familiar with come from today’s gospel:

          “Seeing is believing” and “Doubting Thomas”.

As we hear, Thomas is not present when Jesus first visits the apostles in the upper room after His resurrection. However, when Thomas once again joins them after the Lord’s appearance, they quickly share with Thomas that they have seen the Risen Lord. Thomas then responds as many of us might have responded to such unbelievable news – that he will need to touch Jesus’s wounds to believe.

I find that a fascinating response, don’t you? Thomas has been around the other apostles for three-years as they travelled the local countryside right alongside of Jesus. Suddenly, he doesn’t seem to believe or trust what they are telling him.

However, it isn’t hard to understand why Thomas responded as he did, is it? Remember, as I mentioned last week in my Easter homily, the apostles were experiencing this in real time and did not yet fully understand all of it.

Thomas does get his chance to see and believe that Jesus is risen when He once again appears to the apostles in the upper room. He immediately addresses Thomas and offers His wounds for him to see and touch so that, as Jesus says to Thomas, he does not remain “unbelieving, but believe.”

Thomas then gives one of the most beautiful responses: “My Lord and My God.”

That moment of acknowledgement and belief is powerful and many today still use that same phrase to acknowledge Christ’s presence when they encounter Him in the Eucharist.

Jesus’s reply to Thomas after this exchange – “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”

Jesus is talking about us and everyone else who chooses to believe in Him after his ascension into heaven. All those over the centuries who have not seen the physical bodily presence of Jesus, that was made in our likeness, but yet they still make the decision to believe.

Thomas had the opportunity to see the Risen Christ which turned his doubt into belief but how do we do that today in our faith lives?

Believing without seeing is not an easy task, is it?

Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians lays out three simple words that, when we look into them, are precious gifts from God that help us to believe, and he shares them in the thirteenth chapter of that letter.

Paul has just written about the attributes of love, scripture we often hear at weddings, many of you likely know it “Love is patient, Love is Kind…”

He ends with this verse – “So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

“Faith, Hope, and Love”

Let’s start with Faith.

We are blessed to have vast deposits of faith from the Church that helps sustain our faith and plenty is provided for us to “see and believe…”

          The sacraments are our starting point. Although we do not have the benefit of Jesus’s physical presence after the resurrection like the apostles did – we have these beautiful sacraments that He left for us as signs of God’s grace and mercy.

Baptism, Confirmation, Matrimony, Holy Orders, Holy Communion, Reconciliation, and Anointing of the Sick.

These sacraments bring us to belief in God our Father and Jesus Christ His Son through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in each one of them.

As you have heard me say before, those last three are repeatable sacraments – Holy Communion, Reconciliation, and when needed, Anointing of the Sick – receive them often to receive God’s mercy and let Jesus accompany us on this earthly journey of faith.

How about Hope?

Hope is integral to our faith. The hope I am speaking of is not a wishful hope – like “I hope the Jaguars win the Super Bowl”.

No, the hope Paul is referring to is the “I hope in the resurrection” kind of hope – as in to be a part of it – I look forward to it.

St. Thomas Aquinas wrote that our resurrected bodies will be glorious beyond imagination. We will never age, require no food, never experience illness, be free from all disorders and will live this way forever.”

That is the kind of hope Paul is referring to in Corinthians and it should also be the hope we carry with us in our belief in Jesus.

Love – “the greatest of these is love.”

Where would we be without the love of God?

The love of God to not only create the universe we live in but to also create us in His likeness and image.

The love of the Father to send His only begotten Son to become fully human and still be fully divine as the Son of Mary. Ultimately, offering Himself on the cross for our sinfulness.

“There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for a friend.”

The love of God in Christ’s full presence in the Most Blessed Sacrament – Jesus’s body, blood, soul, and divinity in the Eucharist.

The love of Christ who doesn’t appear to the apostles in his resurrected body to chastise them for abandoning Him at the cross but to offer them peace and the gift of the Holy Spirit which comes from the love of the Father and the Son – to accompany them and us on our journey – to strengthen our faith and belief.

The love of the gift, graces, and mercy of the sacraments that the Church received from God the Father through His Son Jesus to sustain us on our journey.

Finally, the love of the two most important commandments Jesus gave us:

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength” and the second “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

So, as we all leave here and head into the world, carry the faith, hope, and love of God’s Divine Mercy and remember as Jesus said to Thomas and now to all of us, do not remain “unbelieving, but believe.”

By Deacon Richard Hay

“He is Risen – Risen indeed! Alleluia – Alleluia.”

What a glorious proclamation!

Our journey through Lent is complete, we can once again proclaim alleluia as we rejoice entering the time of Easter to celebrate the resurrection of Christ. We also celebrate our new brothers and sisters who received the sacraments of baptism, confirmation, and first holy communion last night at the Easter Vigil and who have now joined the Body of Christ to continue their own faith journeys as part of Christ’s church and this community – our parish.

Many of you might remember a radio show hosted by Paul Harvey where he told “The Rest of the Story”. He would share these tales of unique circumstances behind events in the world that had some sort of historical significance or were about a well-known person. Well, today – on this Easter morning – through our readings and the gospel, we come to realize that the apostles could have used an episode of Paul Harvey telling them the rest of the story on that first Easter morning.

We begin today hearing once again, as we do each Easter Sunday, Peter’s account of Jesus’s life from when Jesus was baptized by John in the Jordan River, his three years of ministry, his passion, suffering and death on the cross, his resurrection and then his commissioning of the apostles to carry the good news to all ends of the earth.

Do you know why and to whom Peter was telling this story?

He was telling it in the home of the roman centurion named Cornelius who had his entire family and servants present to hear it. Shortly after Peter finished the story, the Holy Spirit comes down upon all present and Peter then baptized the entire household in Jesus’s name. The members of Cornelius’s family and household were obviously on a journey to belief in Christ and made it together resulting in Peter’s visit.

After our own Lenten journeys over these past forty days, we have also experienced Jesus’s life in a very particular way, especially through his entrance into Jerusalem to shouts of Hosanna on Palm Sunday, and then the most holy Easter Triduum from Holy Thursday, through Good Friday, and in the quiet of Holy Saturday. We have now arrived at the empty tomb and the promised resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

However, for the apostles’ things must have felt very different because they did not yet know the rest of the story quite yet – but as we know – very soon that will happen.

But first – can you imagine the emotions that the disciples went through early on that first Easter morning outside of Jerusalem at the tomb? Remember, they were actively living this experience in the flesh – we on the other hand are blessed to already know how this story ends – but the apostles – they didn’t have that knowledge yet.

Mary Magdalene’s first reaction in John’s gospel, when she finds the empty tomb, is to run and tell the apostles that the body of Jesus had been taken from the tomb – that it had been stolen – what else was she to think in that moment?

This news prompts Peter and John to run to the tomb themselves to see what Mary has witnessed.

John arrived first and slowly knelt down and cautiously peered into the darkness of the tomb through the opening and saw Jesus’s burial cloths right there where they had laid Jesus on Good Friday after His death on the cross. I’m sure John was still trying to understand what he was seeing when Peter caught up and went straight into the tomb, without any hesitation, to also then see its emptiness and the burial cloths that were left behind.

At this point Peter did not fully comprehend what he was seeing. It must have been frightening to find Jesus’s body missing, but, as John will write in the gospel that bears his name many years later, they did not yet fully understand that Jesus had to rise from the dead.

To them, in that moment, this was just another bad situation piled on top of the last few days as they watched their master be betrayed, judged, tortured, and then die on the cross.

That walk back into Jerusalem must have been so heart breaking. All they had were each other as witnesses of what they had seen over the last few days and now the body of Christ is gone from the tomb. Can you feel what that emptiness must have felt like in your own hearts? In that moment, the disciples were likely experiencing a deep hurt and confusion.

As I mentioned earlier, we already know the end of the story. We know that Jesus was not in the tomb because his heavenly Father, our God, raised him from the dead as he promised to do. We are able to rejoice in this moment, on this glorious day, because we know the rest of the story. The apostles would finally know the rest of the story themselves when Jesus appears to them later in the upper room.

At that point, they are also finally able to understand and rejoice in Christ’s resurrection.

Today, as we also rejoice for the empty tomb and the resurrection of Christ, it is now time for all of us to continue this journey, to continue this story and carry the Easter message of Christ out into the world because it is not a finished story – it is still being written – each and every day and we are to go out and show that we are disciples of the Risen Christ, that we are a resurrection people by the way we love each other and our neighbor.

Embrace this Easter season – find and experience new ways to celebrate the gift of Christ’s passion, death, resurrection, and the gifts and graces that come from His sacrifice. He wants to embrace each and every one of us close to his heart – and that love is not seasonal – it is unconditional and forever.

We do this because as it was promised:

He is Risen – Risen Indeed! Alleluia – Alleluia!

By Deacon Richard Hay

“Lent?”

What exactly is Lent?

Yes, it is the forty-day period that we observe before Easter and it is also the period during which we are encouraged to spend more time focused on praying, fasting, and almsgiving to grow closer to Christ as we hear in the gospel.

However, the question I am asking is what exactly is Lent for each one of us.

Is it just dates on a calendar that we make our way through until Easter arrives? Is it just a period of time where we might give up chocolate, coffee, soda, social media, or some other thing because that is what we have always done during Lent in the past?

It might be time to try a new approach to Lent. That it not just be days on the calendar, or simply giving up something just for the sake of giving something up.

It is important to put some thought into why we are doing these things, into why the church provides this period of forty days on the calendar, and how we can individually and as a faith community spend this time truly growing closer to God which is why this season exists.

In his message for Lent this year, Pope Francis writes – “Lenten penance is a commitment, sustained by grace, to overcoming our lack of faith and our resistance to following Jesus on the way of the cross.”

The Holy Father goes on to say that “tradition is a source of inspiration for seeking new paths and for avoiding the temptation of immobility.”

In these two short passages, the Pope is providing a roadmap for Lent.

First is commitment. Commitment needs to be taken to the next level and rather than just giving something up, what about adding something in our faith life. For instance, at Sacred Heart each Friday in Lent there will be a soup supper followed by stations of the cross – one of our Church’s traditions. Maybe another option is to spend more time reflecting, praying, and meditating on scripture, or learning how to pray part of the Liturgy of the Hours.

Next, how can grace be sustained?

Well, where does grace come from? It comes from the sacraments. During Lent we can grow closer to the Lord and be strengthened by grace through reception of the sacraments – in particular the Eucharist and Reconciliation. There will be multiple opportunities for reconciliation here and at other neighboring Catholic churches during Lent. In addition to our weekend schedule, we have daily masses Monday through Friday to receive the Lord in the Eucharist but Jesus is also always present in the tabernacle, and all are welcomed to stop in the church during the day to spend a little quiet time in prayer with Him.

To overcome our lack of faith and resistance to following Jesus fully to the cross, the answer is all of the above. Scripture, prayer, and receiving the sacraments for their sustaining grace.

Finally, the Holy Father mentions seeking new paths that help us avoid past immobility.

In other words, choose to not stick with the status quo but try something new for Lent. Our church is full of traditions and devotions that can be adopted and learned. It is easy to be comfortable with past approaches to Lent. The question to ask ourselves, is did those efforts become new ways for us to be devoted and closer to Christ and were they sustained after Lent was over?

If the answer to either of those questions is no – then it is time to consider a new approach during Lent because ultimately, if nothing changes – then nothing changes.

The goal is not to survive Lent but flourish by growing closer to the Lord and by seeking penance for our sinfulness. Our efforts in the next 40 days and beyond will allow the Lord to mold our hearts to be more like His and that will prepare us to celebrate the Easter mysteries. As a result – just like the Lord promised – our reward will be great in heaven.