30th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2024 - Blind Bartimaeus and Priesthood Sunday

 

Since 2003, the last Sunday of October is designated as Priesthood Sunday— an opportunity for us to reflect upon the role of the ordained priesthood in the life of the Church.  

Today we welcome Tate Johnson, a second year seminarian at Borromeo Seminary here in Cleveland, who will speak to us after communion about his own discernment and formation for the priesthood.

For the homily today, I’d like to consider the role of the priest in light of our Gospel reading---the story of Bartimaeus.  The story offers several meaningful insights relevant to Priesthood Sunday and the priestly vocation and our own call to holiness.

The story begins with blind Bartimaeus crying out to Jesus. In the course of his ministry, the priest encounters countless people who are crying out to Jesus. Many of them, like Bartimaeus, have a hard time seeing Jesus due to the challenging circumstances of their life—a crisis, an illness, a unique encounter with the evils of the world or in their own heart. 

The priest helps people see Jesus. Particularly at Mass, right? The priest has a unique role in the Church to help others see Jesus. Through the celebration of the sacraments—the priest makes Jesus present through the sacramental rituals, particularly in the changing of bread and wine into the Lord’s Body and Blood so we can see Him present in our midst. Also in the homily, hopefully, each week, I help you see Jesus in the concrete details of your life. 

One of my favorite functions in the priestly ministry is to teach OCIA. I’m always pleased to meet those souls hungering, longing to see Jesus. And in those sessions their eyes become more and more attuned to Jesus present in the Catholic Church and come to understand the invitation Jesus makes to them—to come and be changed and transformed. 

Consider another detail in the Bartimeus story. Bartimaeus longs for Jesus, but many in the crowd make it difficult for him—they tell him that he is wasting his time. Similarly, there are many forces in the world today which tell us that we are wasting our time turning to the Lord and seeking to follow Him. The priest has a role in helping members of the Church to take courage in standing up against the worldly forces that seek to silence the Church and to ensure that we never ally ourselves with those terrible powers.

As many of you know, I was appointed by Bishop Malesic as Chaplain for an apostolate called Courage International which helps men and women with same-sex attraction live faithfully the Lord’s call to follow him. Now the world tells them, ah, just give in to your impulses. But, Christians recognize that not every impulse leads to Jesus. Rather, we need to restrain and discipline those impulses that are misaligned. And priests help others break through those wordly voices. Thanks be to God for those priests who tell us the truth and encourage us. 

Next in the story, Bartimaeus runs to Jesus, and Jesus surprisingly asks, “what do you want?” It’s surprising because Jesus already knows what Bartimaeus wants and needs. Jesus can read his heart, he made him. But Jesus asks, and listens. This reflects a very important aspect of priestly ministry. Listening. Before a priest can offer words of advice, or spiritual guidance, or make decisions regarding the life of a parish, he needs to listen. I hope that when you have brought your concerns to me, you have felt listened to. 

You might not have received the answer you liked, I can’t promise that all the time, but I hope that you’ve felt that your concern was taken seriously and it was given the attention it deserved. 

But moreso, we’re not just talking about decisions about clambakes here. The priest takes concerns of the soul with profound seriousness. If you are seeking to follow Jesus more faithfully, more deeply, the priest will listen and pray for you and with you and bring your concerns to the Lord.

Finally, in the story, Jesus heals Bartimaeus.

The ministry of the priest certainly has a healing dimension. Every priest is called to dispense the healing of Jesus Christ primarily in the Sacrament of Confession and the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick.

The Confessional is a place of the most profound healing, a healing of those wounds we inflict on our relationship with God and our fellow man through sin. Now yes, some of our spiritual wounds can be healed in other ways—our venial sins can be healed through repentance and reception of the Eucharist. But our most serious sins, our grave sins, our mortal sins, can those mortal wounds can be healed only in the Sacrament of Confession. 

When we confess our sins to a priest and receive absolution we know that a profound healing occurs at that moment—we feel lighter, we feel the weight of guilt relieved, we feel peace. And I hope that no one here is depriving themselves of the healing that Jesus is waiting to dispense to you through his priests. I hope that neither pride, nor shame, nor embarrassment is keeping you from crying out like Bartimaeus for healing. If you can ‘t get to confession on Saturday afternoons or Sunday mornings, give me a call, we can schedule something. I’m not too busy to hear your confessions, that’s why I’m here. 

Similarly, with the Sacrament of Anointing. If you are going in for serious surgery, or you’ve gotten a serious diagnosis, or you feel the effects of old age or declining health really taking its toll, all you have to do is call, and say, Father, I’d like to receive the Anointing of the Sick. For through that Sacrament Jesus gives powerful spiritual healing and spiritual strength to bear our afflictions with grace.

Recall, that every priest is also Bartimaeus, with his own blindnesses. So always please be patient with your priests, with the same patience you would want for yourself.

And recall too that every member of the Church has a priestly role, of bringing souls to Jesus, of listening to the afflicted and offering wise counsel and comfort, and seeking as best we can to be instruments of the Lord’s healing. Every soul we encounter is another Bartimaeus, who deep down longs to see the Lord.

May all priests and all the priestly people of God be strengthened in their vocations of service and holiness for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

Pentecost 2023 - Renewing the Covenant

 Happy Pentecost everyone. 

The word Pentecost comes from the Greek word “pentecostes” which means “fiftieth.” Originally, Pentecost was the Greek Name for the Jewish spring harvest festival of Shavuot in the Hebrew. On Shavuot, Jews gave thanksgiving to God for the completion of the spring harvest, at which the newly harvested barley would be baked into two loaves of bread and offered to God. Shavuot was a celebration of God causing the crops to live and grow and bear fruit, which allow God’s people to live and grow and fulfill their purpose. 

On Shavuot, the Jews also celebrate God’s covenant with Noah, which took place fifty days after the great flood, a second chance for the human race that had become deeply corrupt with vice and sin. Shavuot therefore celebrates God’s mercy and a new beginning for humanity called to goodness, faithfulness, and virtue. 

Thirdly, Shavuot celebrates the Covenant God made with Moses at Mt. Sinai occurring, you guessed it, fifty days after the Exodus from Egypt. At Sinai, the Spirit of God was given to the jewish elders, enabling them to prophesy and teach and lead God’s people. Therefore Shavuot also celebrates a new and deepened relationship with God as a chosen people. 

In these three ways, the Jewish Feast of Pentecost foreshadowed the Christian Feast we now celebrate.  For today, like the Jews thanking God for the harvest that allows them to live and grow and bear fruit, we express our gratitude for the gift of the Holy Spirit which allows the Church live and grow and bear fruit. Like the Jews thanking God for the covenant with Noah, a second chance for the human race, so too the Church thanks God for the new beginning offered to humanity through Christ and the Spirit. And like the Jews who celebrate the covenant at Sinai and the imparting of the spirit upon the elders, we Christians celebrate the giving of the Spirit upon the whole Church; for through Baptism, every Christian is given the gift of the Holy Spirit and the task to preach and prophecy and order our lives in a way that glorifies God and draws souls to Christ. 

In the Acts of the Apostles all throughout the Easter Season, we’ve heard of the early Church faithfully carrying out that mission begun on that first Pentecost when the Holy Spirit descended upon the apostles in the upper room in presence of the Virgin Mary. The Holy Spirit filled the apostles with a fire for the mission of the Church—evangelization. And we find them bursting out of the locked doors of the upper room, speaking in all the tongues of the nations, so that all peoples could understand and believe the saving Gospel of Christ. So too, we must speak in all of the languages of the world today, to draw souls to Christ. The animating fire given to the Church 2000 years ago that first Pentecost continues to burn and spread wherever the Gospel is preached and the fruits of the Spirit are manifest and shared.

On Pentecost Sunday in 1978, Blessed Oscar Romero, Archbishop of El Salvador, said, “It will always be Pentecost in the Church provided the Church lets the beauty of the Holy Spirit shine forth from her countenance.  When the Church ceases to let her strength rest on the Power from above which Christ promised her and which he gave her on that day, and when the Church leans rather on the weak forces of the power or wealth of this earth, then the Church ceases to be newsworthy.  The Church will be fair to see, perennially young, attractive in every age, as long as she is faithful to the Spirit that floods her and she reflects that Spirit through her communities, through her pastors, through her very life" 

The blessed Archbishop reminds us that we have a duty to cooperate with the Spirit, to cultivate the life of the Spirit, and the Church, our way of life is attractive when we do so. But he also reminds us that there are a lot of forces in our world that seek to extinguish that fire—a lot of vices that vie for our attention and sap our spiritual energy—that make us boring and unattractive. Why would anyone become Christian if we just looked like the rest of the world?

The Venerable Fulton J. Sheen once said something similar. He said, "Even though we are God's chosen people, we often behave more like God's frozen people--frozen in our prayer life, frozen in the way we relate with one another, frozen in the way we celebrate our Faith." And that happens when we return to the sin and vice and fear that God desires to deliver us from. Pope Francis said something similar when he warned of how Christians due to fear of living out the Gospel can become “spiritual mummies”. Encased in tombs, inanimate, unenthusiastic.

So today is a powerful day to ask the Holy Spirit to show you how your sins or fears might be keeping you from bursting out of locked doors like St. Peter. 

The Holy Spirit descended upon the Church to embolden us for the Gospel, and also to help purify us, like a fire, from our sins, vices, and earthly attachments. 

And he does so, most radically, in the Sacrament of Confession. “Receive the Holy Spirit” t Lord commanded the apostles: “Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”

The prayer of absolution in Sacramental Confession echoes today’s Pentecost Gospel when the priest says, “God, the Father of mercies, through the Death and Resurrection of his Son has reconciled the world to himself and poured out the Holy Spirit for the forgiveness of sins.” 

Frequent Confession is a powerful means of making our lives fertile soil for Spiritual Fruit to grow. It renews the covenant in us, it is one of the works of the Holy Spirit now, in the Church, to bring about fecundity and growth and life. Sacramental Confession is a Pentecost. Embrace Pentecost by embracing Confession. Please, don’t let fear keep you locked and frozen and mummified in your sins. But allow the Holy Spirit to revivify you and renew his Fire within you frequently, regularly. 

Pope Francis himself pleaded with the Church to make good use of the Sacrament of Confession. He said, we cannot remove our sins by ourselves. Only God takes [our sin] away, only he by his mercy can make us emerge from the depths of our misery. Like those disciples [who had run away from the cross and locked themselves in the upper room], we need to let ourselves be forgiven, to ask heartfelt pardon of the Lord. We need to open our hearts to being forgiven. Forgiveness in the Holy Spirit is the Easter gift that enables our interior resurrection. Let us ask for the grace to accept that gift, to embrace the Sacrament of forgiveness…Confession is the Sacrament of resurrection, pure mercy.” Whatever you are going through in life, there is always a desire for that "interior resurrection" that Holy Father speaks of of, to be lifted out of some misery, through the spirit. And that can happen when we make good use of Sacramental Confession.

Pentecost is the capstone of everything we've been celebrating from the beginning of Lent, through Easter: the forgiveness of sins is available to us through Christ. And Sacramental Confession renews that covenant in Christ's blood which forgives the sins we commit after baptism. It is good for us to go to Confession during Advent and Lent of course, but we have a long stretch of months before Advent, so make sure you get to confession regularly, in order for the Holy Spirit to remove some of those road blocks to God’s grace. 

We’ve got work to do as God’s people, God’s work, and the fire of Pentecost needs to be emblazoned among us. So make use of Confession, and all the ways God wishes to kindle his life within you. Veni Sancte Spiritus. For the glory of God and salvation of souls.

5th Sunday of Lent 2021 - Jesus raises the dead to new life

Two weeks ago we heard the story of the woman at the well.  She encountered the Lord Jesus, who said to her, “I will give you living water, which alone can satisfy”.  She represents all of us, all thirsting for God. Jesus invites all people of all time to drink deeply of the living waters of God through Him.

Last week we heard of the man born blind.  Again, he is all of us, born in the blindness of sin.  We desire to do good and avoid evil, but it’s not always easy to see clearly. Sometimes our egos, our sinful attachments are so great, they blind us to seeing how God wants us to live rightly. Jesus says to the man born blind and to all of us, “I am the light of the world.”  If you want to see rightly, let the light of my life and my teachings enlighten you. 

These stories in John’s Gospel move toward a sort of crescendo. I am living water which quenches thirst. I am the light by which you see. And today Jesus speaks the greatest of the “I am” statements.  He says, “I am the resurrection and the life” without which you are not fully alive nor will you experience the life of the resurrection. 

What is our God interested in?  Life!  One of my favorite quotations from the early Church fathers is from St. Ireneus of Lyons, who said, Gloria Dei Homo Vivens, “the glory of God is Man fully alive.”  Jesus himself said, I came that they might have life, and have it to abundance. Christ died, that we may live, free from sin, full of divine life.  

God’s glory, what gives God happiness, is that we are fully alive.  Conversely, what saddens the heart of God is when we continue to allow death to reign in us at any level, physically, emotionally, spiritually.  

God speaking through in Ezekiel in the first reading says, “I will open your graves and have you rise from them.”  He’s not just speaking of our final resting place here.  Whatever grave you are in: perhaps an inability to forgive someone, perhaps a jealousy, an inability to grieve the loss of a loved one, or an addiction, or habitual sin, whatever is limiting your life.  Think of laying in a grave, there is no place to move, you are constricted, unable to move, tied up, and God says, from your graves, I will have you rise up.”  God wants life for us.  Jesus , the incarnate Word of God speaks this truth, “I AM the resurrection and the life.”  We are made to have His life in us.

There are three people raised from the dead, given to life, by Jesus in the Gospels.  The first one is the daughter of Jairus. Remember the little girl who died in her home when Jesus was on the way to heal her?  The daughter of Jairus. The second is the son of the widow of Naim.  Jesus sees the widow weeping as they brought out the body of her son, and Jesus is moved to raise him from the dead.  The third is of course, Lazarus.

St. Augustine offered a reflection on these three raisings.  Augustine says these three raisings stand for three types of spiritual death from which we can be raised by Jesus’ love and mercy.

Because Jairus’ daughter dies in her house, St. Augustine says that her death symbolizes the sort of spiritual death that remains locked up in us, the sort of sins that poisons us from the inside: the resentments, the old grudges.  They aren’t necessarily expressed in words or actions, they just sort of fester within us, poisoning our thoughts, isolating us from others 

The soul suffering from this sort of spiritual death might say, “Lord, I’m a good person, I don’t do a lot of evil things, so I must be fine”.  All the while there is anger and resentment and impatience stewing within. In this persons life you’ll see some broken, unmended relationships, and a lot of missed opportunities to go out in the life of the Spirit. Jesus raises the daughter of Jairus, dead in her house, , just as he wants to heal us from all of our interior sinful attitudes to increase in us the life of generosity and compassion.

Secondly, the son of the widow of Naim.  He had died and was being carried outside the house to the cemetery. St. Augustine says, the widow’s son symbolizes that spiritual death, that sin, that comes out from the heart and the mind and has begun to express itself in action.  Anger, resentment, impatience expressed in words and actions and gestures.  Jesus approaches this person too, and offers new life, a new way of interacting with others. 

The third person Jesus raises from the dead is our friend Lazarus.  Lazarus has been carried out of the house and placed in a tomb.  By the time Jesus gets there, Lazarus has been in the tomb for four days.  When the Lord instructs them to roll away the stone that blocks the tomb, his sister, famously says, “but Lord, surely,  there will be a stench.”

St. Augustine says that Lazarus in his grave, stinking and rotting, symbolizes that evil, that spiritual death, that not only has come out of the heart in words and actions, but has established itself as a habitual part of one’s life.  Now, the anger and the hatred and the violence and the lust and the greed, have come out, and have become such a part of my life and my activity, that, I have begun to stink, and it’s affecting the people around me—one’s family, one’s community, one’s nation or the world—depending on one’s position of influence. I think of the Hollywood Elites, Popular Musicians, and politiians..who, well, just stink, who set such bad example, especially for children. But Jesus offers new life to these souls as well. 

So we have these three types of sin, the interior, the exterior, and that…well…stinkiest, ugliest sort of sin.  I remember reading that Saint Christina, whose relics are stored at our diocesan Cathedral, by the way, would become nauseated when she was in the presence of people whose souls were dead and rotting because of mortal sin.

But, at the heart of today’s Gospel, is that Jesus does come, even to the grave of Lazarus, and he brings him back to life.  Jesus goes even into the furthest, smelliest, ugliest souls and invites us back to life.  

From time to time, a priest hears someone say, “Father, believe me, what I’ve done is so bad, even God can’t forgive me.  Don’t talk to me about confession because that won’t help.”  Not true. Nobody, not even those who are entrenched in evil are beyond the reach of the forgiving power of Christ.

Now looking at our own life, we might not be Lazarus, but it is highly unlikely that any of us are without a bit of grave rot. For those powers of death are always seeking to reclaim territory lost to Jesus. So the saints recommend frequent Sacramental Confession, to claim our lives for Christ once again.

This Wednesday, a guest priest and I will offer confessions from 5 to 8 here in the Church. If it’s been more than a year since your last confession, you are over due. 

Notice, too, that Martha and Mary, lead Jesus to the tomb of Lazarus. There are likely souls, who are dead and rotting, who we must lead Jesus to by our prayers and penances. We should never pretend, that just because it’s 2021, that some sins are now okay. And souls can live without a living relationship with Jesus Christ. It cannot be done. I know, it’s unpleasant to think that some souls are in danger of hell. But that should motivate us all the more to pray and evangelize.

For the Lord is willing to go to the deepest darkest places in order to bring forgiveness and healing and new life, but sometimes he wants us to lead him there.

May our conviction that he is the resurrection of life spurn us on in our Lenten journey to Easter, in the journey from sin and selfishness to new life, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

23rd Week in OT 2020 - Friday - Examining One's Conscience and September 11

It is part of our fallenness to notice the failings of other people but not our own. Some of us have even become experts in criticizing others whereas we seldom reflect on what needs to change in ourselves. We have 20/20 vision when it comes to seeing the mistakes of others, but how often do we honestly turn that critical gaze inward—to the parts of us that God wants to change, heal, or build up? 

The Lord commands us to remove the wooden planks from our eyes, so we can be effective in removing the splinters from others.  But, how do we come remove the planks blinding us?  The saints recommend the frequent practice of the examination of conscience.  On a daily basis, perhaps before getting into bed at night, to examine the events, choices, attitudes, interactions of the day, in light of the teachings of Jesus. 

To think of every person you saw that day, and to ask yourself, did I treat that person with the patience I should have? Did I attend to their needs or focus on my own? Someone once said, “you want to know the measure of a man? watch how he treats a waitress or a cashier.” So, how did I treat the cashiers, the waitresses, the janitors?  What was the reason I was so quick to gossip about the faults of my family members?  Did I pray today as much as God is challenging me to pray?  Where was I selfish with my time today? What blessings was I ungrateful for today?

Having made the daily examination, we also do well to make a big weekly or at least monthly examination. If there’s a sin that I’ve been struggling with on a regular basis, that sin needs to be brought to the sacrament of Confession. Because, in a sense, we can’t remove those planks on our own, we need the Lord’s help. Once the splinter is pulled, we need his healing, we need his help, so that another splinter just doesn’t take its place.

On this anniversary of the September 11 attacks, how can best honor those who died in this senseless tragedy? Certainly by remembering their names, but also, perhaps, to turn the gaze inward, to make use of the time we’ve been given to become the people we are meant to be, to cultivate that inner life, that for them was cut short. If we wish to be a positive force in the world, a force which opposes the evil which led to these attacks, we must confess our sins and grow in virtue that we may be filled with God's grace.

Having examined our consciences and confessed our sins, may we become instruments of the Lord’s healing grace, mercy, and forgiveness to those we meet, that we may run the race well and win that imperishable crown for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Click Here for Examination of Conscience

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That through Our Lady, Queen of Peace, terrorism and war and the cheapening of human life may be brought to an end.

For all those who harden their hearts toward God, for those who have left the Church, for all those in serious sin, for their conversion, and that Catholics in need of the Sacrament of Penance may make use of the opportunities to confess their sins and receive God’s mercy.

That our civil representatives may use their authority to lead and build our nation in godly ways.

For the sick and afflicted, the homebound, those in nursing homes and hospitals, for victims of natural disaster and inclement weather, those who suffer from war, violence, and terrorism, for the mentally ill, those with addictions, the imprisoned, the unchaste, for the comfort of the dying and the consolation of their families. 

For the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish and all the poor souls in purgatory, for deceased priests and religious, for the souls of those who died in the September 11 attacks, and for those who have fought and died for our freedom. We pray.

Incline your merciful ear to our prayers, we ask, O Lord, and listen in kindness to the supplications of those who call on you. Through Christ our Lord.

6th Sunday of Easter 2019 - Anxiety and the Gift of Peace

Scripture speaks often of God’s desire to give his people “peace”. Psalm 85 says that God promises peace to his people. Psalm 29 says, “The LORD gives strength to his people; the LORD blesses his people with peace.” Paul tells the Galatians that the fruits of the Spirit are “love, joy, goodness, faithfulness, and peace” Isaiah prophecies that the Messiah will be called “Wonder-Counselor and Prince of Peace”

The Peace which the Lord exhibited in his earthly ministry must have been profoundly attractive to his people. You can tell when people are filled with the peace of God. The holiest people I’ve met have been the most peaceful—peace surrounds them like cloak. I think the opposite is also true; most of us have met people that seem surrounded by a cloud of distress, bitterness, unhappiness; drama and chaos and division follow them everywhere. Perhaps, you’ve met someone who has allowed grief to turn into anger at the world or anger at God and that anger just exudes from them. Christians, rather, should be known by their peace. We are called to be peacebearers and peacemakers.

“Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.” What powerful words, especially when we know, all too well, how anxiety, fear, anger, worry can have such a negative effect upon our lives.

We worry or are angry about the economy, about our jobs, our families, our kids and spouses, our Church and our parish, our government, our country, the environment. Anxities and resentments can have serious repercussions on our physical and mental health, resulting in headaches, irritability, muscular aches and pains, gastrointestinal issues, depression, difficulty in concentrating, both extreme fatigue and sleeplessness, just to name a few symptoms.

And many people turn to compulsive behaviors to cope with their anxiety: overindulgence in alcohol, drugs, promiscuity or pornography, excessive eating and shopping. Anything to give some semblance of control.

Anxiety and restlessness can be a sign that things are out of balance. God designed the human person in such a way that we experience anxiety, some restlessness, when our lives are out of balance. Anxiety can be a sign that we need to make some changes to our Diet, exercise, and sleep schedule, that we need to spending more quality time with family and friends. Serious compulsions and serious anxiety is likely a sign that we need to speak with a counselor.

Yes, anxiety and restlessness can be signs that something is out of balance and needs to be changed about our physical and mental habits. They can also be a sign that something needs to be changed or improved about our spiritual habits. As St. Augustine said so rightly, “Our hearts are restless until they rest in God.” If we aren’t experiencing the peace we think we should, in our spiritual life, we do well to examine what might need to change.

The peace that God wants for us might come from personal changes, it will likely come through other people, working on relationships, and peace will certainly through prayer and the sacraments. One well-known Catholic psychologist said that 5 minutes in the confessional is worth a month of therapy. The honesty of admitting one’s failures in the confessional and acknowledging that God is the source of peace and strength for the future, has a powerful therapeutic effect, not to mention the spiritual cleansing we receive through sacramental absolution.

Boredom, too, is likely a sign that spiritual changes need to be made. I often tell the kids over in the school that boredom is either a sign that they need to get up and do something physical, or it’s a sign that they need to spend more time in prayer. Likely, it’s a sign of both.

Boredom, anxiety, anger, fear, worry, these are signs that we need to go to a quiet place and open ourselves to the gift of peace that Jesus promises in our gospel today. Now some people confuse prayer and worry. Prayer is not simply over-ideating on your problems. Going over and over your worries in your head is not prayer. Rather, prayer requires entrusting our worries to God, asking God to help us identify what we can do about them, and letting him take care of the rest. As they say in AA, let go and let God. Peace comes through faith: yes, it comes from doing what we can, praying hard, working hard, but finally, we need to entrust our needs to God.

St. Padre Pio, the great Italian stigmatist from the last century, is said to have received many letters from around the world. Thousands of letters every day. And these letters, as you guessed it, were filled with people’s problems, needs, and worries. And, it’s said that he would often write back the same thing in every response. He’d write, “work hard, do your best, pray hard, and don’t worry.” Work hard, do your best, pray hard, and don’t worry.

In thinking about worry and anxiety, I can’t help but think, as well, of our mothers who we celebrated two weeks ago on Mother’s day. Not as the cause of our anxieties…mostly…but as the remedy. Who here hasn’t brought a worry or anxiety to your mother? Mothers sort of absorb the worries and anxieties of her children. We no doubt have many mothers here who have taken their own children’s worries and anxieties and needs upon themselves, who have brought their children’s anxieties, in their hearts, to the altar today. And something happens in the mother’s heart, doesn’t it, problems are transformed, sometimes wisdom is discovered, peace is given.

On this final Sunday of the Month of May, I invite all of you to deepen and strengthen your relationship to our Mother in Heaven, Our Lady. She is called Our Lady of Sorrows, because she takes our sorrows and the sorrows of the world to God for us. She is Our Lady Perpetual Help because she is always there, always concerned for each one of us. She is Our Lady, Refuge of Sinners, because we can always find peace and protection in her care. As Mediatrix of Grace she is the channel through which God’s peace is offered to us.

So, bring your needs, your worries and woes, your stresses to Mother Mary every day. In the moment of fear, in the moment of anger, in the moment of temptation, call upon Mother Mary. She will always help us find and know the gift of peace, given to us by Her Son, Our Lord. No Doubt, Mary’s presence brought peace to Jesus Himself throughout his own sufferings. We know Mary comforted Jesus on the way of the cross, we know she stood by him as he suffered crucifixion and died. Jesus gave Mary to us as our own Mother, and we do well, to allow her to do a mother’s job in our own life, to be that powerful source of peace in our needs and troubles.

Please know that as I embark on pilgrimage this week, I bring all of your needs, worries, anxieties, and petitions with me, and pray that the Lord may continue to bless us with his gift of peace, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

5th Sunday of Lent 2019 - "I make all things new"

Fifteen years ago already, actor, director and producer Mel Gibson released a film depicting the final hours, crucifixion and death of Jesus Christ called The Passion of the Christ.  I saw the film during my semester abroad in Rome, and it was during Holy Week, and I remember being deeply and tearfully moved by this highly realistic presentation of Jesus’ passion.  It definitely changed the way I pray the sorrowful mysteries of the rosary and the stations of the cross, the graphic bloodshed and suffering etched in my memory. 

Particularly difficult to watch was the scourging of Our Lord at the pillar and when the crown of thorns was shoved onto his forehead, and when he fell underneath the weight of the cross on the road to Calvary.  Difficult to watch, not just because the amount of blood and suffering was gross or morbid, but as the film progressed I got that growing awareness that his suffering was because of my sins.

I remember tears nearly squirting out of my eyes at the scene depicting the 4th station of the cross where Jesus meets his mother. Amidst the mockery and beatings from the roman soldiers, Jesus meets his mother, looks at her, bloodied and beaten, and says words we find in the book of Revelation, “See Mother, I make all things new.”  All of the suffering, all of the blood, the hard road of the cross was for the purpose of ushering in something new.

Both the first reading and the Gospel this weekend made me think of that powerful utterance. In the first reading, Isaiah seven hundred years before the crucifixion of Jesus, speaks a word of hope to the Jews in exile. In a sense, Israel had been bloodied and beaten by its captors.  God’s people suffered the humiliation of living in a foreign land, under foreign rule.  The promises of God seemed ever so distant; it looked as if God’s enemies were victorious.

And in the darkness, God sends a prophet, Isaiah.  And through his prophet, God says, as we heard in the first reading, “see, I am doing something new!”  God is promising that He is going to break-in to creation in an unexpected way, he’s going to break the bonds of our captivity.  He’s going to usher in a new unheard of era of freedom from the powers of darkness and evil, a new way of walking in friendship with God, a whole new order to creation.

Certainly this is the kingdom Jesus establishes: in his Church, through the Sacraments, Jesus makes souls new, he makes human relationship news, he even makes new God’s relationship to us in making God present to His people in a way he had never been before, so that our very bodies and souls become temples of the Holy Trinity.

So many of the Gospel stories brim with that newness.  In the Gospel today, it looked like it was the end of the road for the women caught in the act of adultery.  She was guilty of a capital crime.  Yet, Jesus does something new.  He stops the momentum of this violent crowd and forces them to consider something new, to consider that they too are sinners, and that should change how they treat each other. As the crowd walks away dumbstruck, Jesus then invites the sinful women to a new way of life—a life without sin made possible through His mercy.

Last week, I talked about the Sacrament of Confession, how God the Father embraces us in His mercy there. With this week’s Gospel in mind, we could say that in Confession, God makes us new. Though our sins be as scarlet, we are washed clean,  our sins absolved. And in Confession, the priest dismisses us, much like Jesus in the Gospel today, Go and sin no more. Something new is possible through the Sacrament of Confession.  The slate is wiped clean.  It’s a new start, a fresh start, with God’s promise that He will help me overcome the sinful tendencies I’ve just confessed.

Lent challenges us to seek that newness God wants for us. The very word, Lent, refers to the springtime lengthening of days, in which new growth emerges from the dust of the earth. Our Garden Club, knows well that Spring is also a time for clearing away dead branches, and pruning—cutting away the less healthy branches so that new growth can occur.  Lent helps us to identify unhealthy attitudes and behaviors that need to be cut back, so new growth can occur in us. All that keeps us from loving Christ and loving as Christ should be counted as rubbish, as St. Paul says in our second reading today.

For me, the hardest part about Lent, isn’t so much the fasting or the prayer, but the willingness to make the break with unhealthy attitudes and behaviors. We’re all struggling with that aren’t we, “let he who is without sin cast the first stone” so we better be patient with each other, and give each other the benefit of the doubt that we’re trying, shouldn’t we. To not be so quick to condemn. Humble awareness of our own inner flaws should bring us greater more patience, not less, with the flaws of others. We should seek to learn all we can from others, instead of condemning them.

Speaking of new things. This week, Holy Father Pope Francis, issued a new apostolic exhortation, titled, Cristus Vivat! Christ is alive. The document is dedicated to young people, and the opening lines are so powerful. Pope Francis writes: “Christ is alive! He is our hope, and in a wonderful way he brings youth to our world, and everything he touches becomes young, new, full of life.” The words new and renewal are used 104 times in this document. The Holy Father promises young people that the answers to the new questions of modern life can be found in Jesus. How Jesus always invites us to make a new start when we’ve fallen. How when we look to God we find the beauty that is ever ancient, ever new, the beauty our heart longs for. How young people, in facing new and difficult modern challenges, not to be supported by us, taught the truth of the faith, so that they can be equipped with the Gospel.

Certainly, one of our challenges here at St. Ignatius is to ensure that we continue to be a community  welcoming to all people who are seeking renewal and refreshment in Christ and especially young people and young families who are hungering for that newness of life, that truth, goodness, and beauty ever ancient, ever new. We have a long history here of being a parish where a rich diversity of people gathers in Catholic worship, and we seek to continue to be faithful to that heritage. Our individual duty, then  is to constantly be seeking that inner renewal that comes through a vibrant relationship with Christ, so that Jesus might draw all people to himself through us.

Pope Francis writes to young people and to all of us: …God loves you just as you are…but he also keeps offering you more: more of his friendship, more fervor in prayer, more hunger for his word, more longing to receive Christ in the Eucharist, more desire to live by his Gospel, more inner strength, more peace and spiritual joy.”

Next week, we shall begin the Week called Holy. Hopefully, we’ve taken that call to seek that something more, that something new, in our Lenten prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, so that we can experience the Paschal Mysteries with new eyes and new heart and with new gratitude for the depths of Jesus love for us in his willingness to suffer and die for us.

May we open our minds and hearts to all the ways that God wants to do something new in us—new ways of serving, new ways of praying, new ways of doing penance, new ways of spreading the joy of the Gospel—for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

4th Sunday of Lent 2019 - The Return of the Prodigal Son

One of the most famous of the parables of Jesus, proclaimed on this 4th Sunday of Lent, is the renowned Gospel we call the Parable of the Prodigal Son. The word prodigal isn’t one we use every day. It comes from the latin “prodigus” which means wasteful, excessively extravagant, or greatly lavish. The prodigal son was certainly excessively lavish and wasteful, selfishly demanding his share of his father’s estate. He took it, he left his father and brother, and went with all that money, and what did he do? He was prodigal with it. He wasted it on drinking, gambling, prostitutes, and soon enough he had squandered it all and was reduced to eating pig food. Finally, he gets the idea that he could go crawling back to his father, and perhaps enter into lowly servitude in order to subsist. He would have to live with the consequences of his prodigality, his lavish waste.

And yet, could we not also call this the parable of the Prodigal Father? Wasn’t the father, in a sense, prodigal? Not Prodigal in wasting money on earthly pleasures, of course, but excessively lavish and extravagant…in mercy, in forgiving his son. For when his prodigal son attempted to return, the father would have had every right to turn the wretch away: “How dare you show up here. You made your bed, now sleep in it.” And yet the father was Prodigal, lavish, in his mercy. He says, “Son, your return here, to my embrace, to the shelter of my house is something to celebrate. Welcome home.”

The point of Jesus’ parable of course is that WE are the prodigal sons and daughters. We waste God’s many gifts, we squander His blessings; instead of using the time we’ve been given to pursue truth, goodness, and beauty, we pursue flattery, selfishness, and the boring ugliness of sin. We are prodigal in our relationship to God. Yet, thanks be to God, God is Prodigal in Mercy. When we kneel before the Father, and say, Father I have sinned against you, I’m no longer worthy to be called your son or daughter, what does God Our Father do? He wraps us in the mantle of His Mercy, He calls for celebration in heaven when a sinner repents. He lavishly showers immense blessing upon the contrite, he welcomes home the wayward and the squandering with open arms. If that’s not good news, if that doesn’t cause us immense joy, what will? How appropriate that we have this message of joyful reconciliation on this 4th Sunday of Lent, which is called Laetare Sunday, Joy Sunday. God’s mercy is the source of our joy.

As you probably know, we have a beautiful print of Rembrant’s painting of the Return of the Prodigal Son in the parking lot entrance way. This was one of Rembrant’s last paintings before his death, and he beautifully depicts the son, in clothes, tattered from his life of dissipation, his sandals deteriorated from his wayward path, kneeling penitentially at his father’s breast. His father calmly embraces his son, laying hands on his shoulders as if to absolve him of sin. The dark scene is illuminated by the father’s tenderness, a symbol of weary and sinful mankind taking refuge in the shelter of God's mercy.

Now here is the challenge though: we must not let the message of mercy become a generic. God’s mercy is not just something that Jesus wants us to think about. Rather, he wants us to experience it, concretely and personally.

We are to really, physically kneel down and utter those words, “Father, I have sinned against you. I no longer deserve to be called your son or daughter. I have squandered your blessings. And here are the precise ways I have sinned.” And this humble acknowledgement and accounting of sin is primarily done in the Sacrament of Confession, the Sacrament instituted by Jesus Himself for the forgiveness of sins committed after baptism.

It is there in the Sacrament of Confession, we hear the words we long to hear, the words of our father saying, “welcome home, all is forgiven, you are still my son, you are still my daughter.”

Our Lord has given us the Sacrament of Confession to be that precise, concrete, personal moment of reconciliation, where we admit our prodigality before God, and we rejoice in God’s prodigality, who lavishes his mercy and forgiveness upon the repentant.  And there is no better time to return to the Sacrament of Confession than the season of Lent, as we prepare for Holy Week and Easter.

To be honest, there has been a great falling away from the celebration of this Sacrament over the past few decades. We are soberly aware of some distressing statistics. In a recent CARA study, only 12 percent of Catholics go to Confession at least once a year. 42% said, they never go. It’s not good. We are in danger of becoming Prodigal—wasteful—of one of the most beautiful, powerful, and life-changing ways that God wishes to encounter his people. “No thanks God, I’m fine, I don’t need your mercy.” How dangerous.

There are various excuses one hears for not going to confession: “the priest yelled at me when I was little, some priest or nun told me that Vatican II did away with the need for frequent confession,” this is not true. “I forgot how to go to confession, I forgot my act of contrition, it’s been too long, I wouldn’t know where to begin” or the worst of all “I don’t have any sins to confess”, which likely means you have failed to thoroughly examine your conscience…there are a lot of excuses, but none of them amount to anything, compared to the mercy God wishes to give you in that sacrament. If we really understood how much the Father wishes to meet us in the Confessional, we would run to the confessional. If you are avoiding confession out of laziness, embarrassment, fear, anger, confusion, or you disagree with the very institution of Confession, it’s time for a change. God, the Father, is waiting for you; for some of you, he’s been waiting a long time, but he is ready, to embrace you as the Father embraced the son in the Gospel today.

In the Lenten Scripture readings and orations today the Church challenges us to consider the joy of being reconciled to God. The Opening prayer spoke of hastening with promptness and eagerness to encounter God. And the prayer before communion speaks of the joy that comes from receiving the remedy for sin. Let’s allow God to answer these prayers in our life.

If you haven’t already, please make a Lenten confession, that you may know the peace and joy of the embrace of our merciful Father. To quote Paul in our second reading: “We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.”

And let us all pray for those who are lost, those who have left the Father’s house of the Church, that the lost may be found, that those dead in sin may through repentance and grace receive new life. There are inactive members of this parish and members of our family who, let’s be honest, are lost. And our prayers and our penances are so important in winning for them the grace of repentance. St. Paul, saw himself as an ambassador for Christ, an ambassador for the reconciliation that comes through Christ. Let us too be ambassadors for reconciliation and mercy.

May we be generous with God, continuing our Lenten penances with great gratitude and joy over the gift of God’s mercy, that his grace and mercy may abound in our parish and in our families for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

5th Sunday of Easter 2018 - "Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit"

Last Week, Fr. Klasinski shared how some of the most ancient sacred images of Jesus we have, are not of the crucifixion, but of Jesus, as a young, strapping shepherd. These images of Jesus the Good Shepherd are found throughout the catacombs of Rome.

Once we came out from the underground, with the legalization of Christianity in 313 by the Roman Emperor Constantine, we started building beautiful basilicas in honor of the Lord. One such basilica, built over an ancient pagan temple to the roman god Mithras is the basilica of San Clemente—named after the first century Pope, Pope St. Clement I who was martyred around the year 99 during the persecution of the Emperor Trajan and who is mentioned in the first Eucharistic prayer.

I’ll never forget visiting the Basilica of San Clemente, for it contains one of the most beautiful mosaics in the world, and it depicts our Gospel today. I recommend you search the web for an image of this amazing mosaic when you get home; for now you will just have to imagine. At the center of the mosaic is Jesus on the cross, and out of the foot of the cross grows this green leafy vine. “I am the true vine”, Jesus says in the Gospel today.

Above Jesus crucified is a hand, the hand of God the Father, the vine grower, the one who blesses the sacrifice of his son and the growth of the Church, as Jesus says “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower.”

Now picture, growing out of the foot of the cross is this multitude of curling branches, filling this whole mosaic. And in the midst of all these undulating, curling branches, are birds and deer and fruit and flowers, poor peasants, pious religious, and Doctors of the Church. And these represent us, the rich diversity of the Church. As Jesus says, “I am the vine, you are the branches.”

Now picture on the branches closest to Jesus on the cross are his blessed mother on one side and the beloved disciple St. John on the other, with his head inclined toward Jesus, like he did at the last supper. Mary and John are for us two great examples of how to remain close to Jesus, as he teaches us “Remain in me, as I remain in you.” We are each to follow the example of the Blessed Mother, imitating her humility and her courage. And we are to follow the example of St. John who inclines his ear to the heart of Jesus. To remain with Jesus we, like Mary and St. John, need to follow Jesus to the cross, meditate upon his sufferings, and love Him with the heart of a mother and the heart of an apostle.

Now picture, on the wood of the cross, surrounding Jesus’ body are twelve white doves. The dove makes us think of the holy spirit, and the number 12 makes us think of the 12 apostles. So these white doves are the apostles, filled with the Holy Spirit, ready to fly around the world to spread the peace of the Gospel. They also symbolize the twelve fruits of the Holy Spirit: love, joy, patience, kindness, gentleness, modesty, chastity, self-control, and the like. These fruits are to be evident in the life of the Church, for as the Lord teaches: “Whoever remains in me, and I in him will bear much fruit.” Only when we remain connected to Jesus will we be as patient as we need to be, as gentle and kind and courageous as God made us to be.

I’ll post an image of this mosaic on my blog and facebook page, along with a copy of this homily, as I do every week. So you can see for yourselves this tremendous image. And you’ll notice all those branches growing from the cross are not growing in a haphazard, random way. They fit perfectly together, in an orderly fashion, as if they have been pruned and cared for by the vine grower. As the Lord teaches, “He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and every one that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit.”

The Father prunes us. The Father seeks to remove all those attitudes and behaviors which are unbecoming of His children, for He wants those spiritual fruits to flourish in our lives. So often, we resist spiritual growth by speaking violent resentful words instead of forgiving upbuilding words, by letting others do the hard work of the Church instead of taking it up ourselves, by giving into temptations of the flesh instead of the deep urgings of the spirit. So, through the trials, challenges, and, yes, the suffering of our life, the Father prunes us, to teach us, to humble us, to help us sever our unhealthy relationships and behaviors, so that we can bear healthy spiritual fruit.

In the mosaic there are no dead branches, just as Jesus says, those that do not bear good fruit “will be thrown”, gathered, thrown into a fire, and burned.  Jesus here speaks quite apocalyptically, speaking of the eternal consequences for those who do not remain in communion with Him through lives of faith, hope, and love.

Thanks be to God, that if and when we have severed ourselves from God through serious sin, through mortal sin, we can be grafted back upon the vine through the Sacrament of Confession. For as the Catechism teaches, “The whole power of the sacrament of Penance consists in restoring us to God's grace and joining us with him in an intimate friendship.”

So, as you’ve been imagining this mosaic from San Clemente, imagine now the moment in the Mass, where you come forward to receive Holy Communion. Imagine from this altar, vines curling out to you, to bring spiritual nourishment and God’s very life. The life that flows from the self-giving of Jesus on the cross is to flow into your life so that your life might bear the same fruit that Jesus’ life bore.

But that vine isn’t detached as you leave Mass, let it not be severed as you walk out of Church. You are to remain connected to the altar, to the cross, to the Lord, in your family interactions, your business relationships, your political associations, your treatment of strangers, your sensitivity to the needs of the poor.

The final detail from the mosaic is the type of vine the artist chose to depict. He chose to use the ancient symbol of the acanthus plant. From Greek antiquity, the acanthus has been used for medicinal purposes. So, too the Christian in the world, united to Christ through prayer and through the Sacraments, is to have a medicinal effect in the world. We are to bring healing to broken relationships, peace to violent conflicts, purification to corrupt governments, cleansing of perverted cultural norms.

“By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples." Throughout the eek may you remain to the Lord, bear fruit for the Lord, bring healing to the world for the Lord, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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Before the Creed I would like to share with you some news. This week, I received a letter from Bishop Perez.  After four years here at St. Clare, my assignment has come to an end. And so on the 12th of June, I will be the new parochial vicar of Holy Family Parish in Parma, Ohio. I have treasured my time here at St. Clare, but  "we must go where we are sent" by God...and the Bishop. I’m so glad I was sent here to St. Clare, but the bishop, also like the good vine grower, tends the vine, and sends me back to the west side.

But listen to the beautiful words of the Bishop from my appointment letter from Bishop Perez describing the work of the Parochial vicar: "Continually fortified by the grace of ordination, you have the task and the privilege of reverently leading the faithful in prayer, especially in the celebration of the Holy Eucharist. You are empowered by God's call and by his grace to know and love the people you serve, to care for the poor and needy, to teach the youth, and to attend the sick and dying with the compassion of Christ."

So, please pray for me, that I may be faithful in this new ministerial assignment. Fr. Klasinksi will share news about your new parochial vicar after communion today. So if you are in the habit of immediately leaving Mass after receiving Holy Communion…shame on you…you should stay and finish mass anyway, but today you’ll hear some news affecting your parish.

3rd Sunday of Lent 2018 - Biblical Foundations of the Sacrament of Confession

Wednesday night, in every parish church in the diocese of Cleveland, the sacrament of Confession was offered for three hours. I heard confessions for three hours straight and I know many priests who did the same. It was truly a night of grace. Many souls who had been away from the Church for, in many cases, decades, were reconciled. And therefore it was a night of great joy. For as the Lord himself teaches, “there is more joy in heaven over one repentant sinner, than over ninety-nine who do not repent.”

Major television networks advertised the evening of confession, and kudos to any of you who personally invited anyone who’d been away from the sacrament to come and confess.

The diocese also advertised the evening of confession on the diocesan website and facebook page. Strangely, the Diocesan Facebook page became a sort of forum for people to express their opinions about the Sacrament. On one hand, there were people testifying to how they came back to the Church after falling away, and how glad they were to be home. On the other hand, there was comment after comment, condemning the Catholic Church for being…well, Catholic.

Claims like, “No priest can forgive sins, only God.” Or, “I don’t need to go to a priest, I go directly to Jesus.” Or “Jesus is the one mediator between God and man.” These are common critiques, many going back to the Protestant Reformation. How do we address them?

Well, it is certainly undisputed that Jesus Christ has the power to forgive sins. In the story of the paralytic, Our Lord asks, “Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? But so that you might know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sin . . . .” Then he said to the paralytic, “Get up, take your mat and go home.”

Jesus came not simply to give us an ethical system by which to guide our lives, or suggestions for happy, healthy living. Jesus Christ came to forgive sins, without which the gates of heaven would be closed to sinful man.

Jesus is able to forgive sins because he is God. But last time I checked, I’m not God. So, how can priests forgive sins? In John, chapter 20, after the resurrection, Jesus appears to his apostles, breaths on them, and says, “receive the holy spirit, those whose sins you forgive are forgiven them.” Jesus passes on the authority to forgive sins to the Apostles, and that authority is passed on to the bishops and priests after them.

St. Paul testifies to this fact when he writes to the Corinthians, “For, what I have pardoned…I have done in the person of Christ.(2 Cor 2:10)” The priest, like Paul, pardons, forgives in the person of Christ. In the Sacrament of Confession, the priest stands in the person of Christ. It is Christ who pardons through the sacrament.

This sacrament of forgiveness was evident in the early Church. The Apostles James writes in chapter 5 of his New Testament letter,  “confess your sins to one another.”

The Sacrament of Confession was instituted by Jesus so that we can know the forgiveness of sins. And there is nothing on earth that brings the joy and peace like making a good confession. I heard a Psychologist once say, that one good confession is worth more than many hours of psycho-therapy. And he was speaking simply from a psychological point of view.

From the spiritual point of view, because sin damages or even destroys the right relationship with God  and the Church begun in baptism, confession restores and strengthens those bonds.

Our Lord understood human nature well, as the Gospel stated. And His human understanding can be seen in the Sacrament of Confession. It is one things to read about the forgiveness of Christ in the Gospel, and quite another thing to hear Him speaking through the lips of the priest, “your sins are forgiven”.

When do you have to go to confession? When one has committed a serious sin: violating the Lord’s Day, failing to fulfill the Sunday obligation, blasphemy, contraception, fornication, theft. Any serious violation of the 10 commandments, like those heard in the first reading, need to be confessed to restore the grace lost through sin and before we can worthily receive the sacrament of holy communion.

Prior to the Sacrament, we are to make a good examination of conscience. We have pamphlets outside the confessionals for this purpose. I had several people use their iphones the other night, which is fine, as long as it is not set to record the confession; anything to help you make a good confession.

I’m spending so much time talking about confession this third Sunday of Lent because this is the season of mercy and grace. This is the season to examine deeply if we are allowing the Word of God, the Truth and Teachings of Christ, to permeate and change our lives.

The word Lent comes from the Anglo-Saxon word Lencten, which is the lengthening of days as we approach springtime, the season of new Growth. And any good gardener knows that you need to clear away the clutter, the dead weeds before the spring planting season can begin. Or just as our houses need spring cleaning, so that we can live more peacefully, happily, and blessedly, this is the time to clean up our souls.

In the Gospel, we read of Jesus’ dramatic visit to the temple of Jerusalem during Holy Week. This event made a profound impact on the early Christians: it is reported in all four Gospels. From the Church’s first centuries, early Christian writers have made the comparison between Jesus cleansing the Temple in Jerusalem and Jesus cleansing the temple of our hearts and bodies.

Jesus cleanses the corruption from the Temple, to show that God’s Temple is to be a place wholly set aside for the worship of God. So, we examine this Lent, our souls, to identify any corrupt attitudes or behaviors that keep us from being in right relationship with God. What selfish or wordly attitudes, what vices, keep me from being the person God made me to be?

In addition to our normal weekly confessions, we still have a few more extra opportunities to make a good Lenten confession here at St. Clare and our cluster parish, St. Paschal. If it’s been more than a year since your last confession, don’t let fear, embarrassment or hardheartedness keep you from God’s grace. As Pope Francis said recently, Don’t be afraid to go to the Sacrament of Confession, where you will meet Jesus who forgives you.”

Even for those who’ve already made a good Lenten confession, continue to allow the Holy Spirit to help you identify the parts of your life that need to be cleaned up, healed, and transformed. Allow Jesus to cast out the corruption, the selfishness, the pride, lust, greed, and laziness, from the Temple of your souls, that he may dwell there with His Father and the Holy Spirit, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.