Family and friends, we need your help cleaning the Church after the Easter Vigil on Saturday at 1:30am Please message me if you can. Confirmación students and parents, this is a great time to do some volunteer hours.

Se solicita su ayuda para este sábado después de misa de Resurrección a la 1:30am Se solicita ayuda en limpiar la iglesia grande, recordemos que es una forma de agradecer a Dios por todo lo que nos da. Por favor me avisan.

Join us for Holy Week activities

Come to Jesus and Live! Holy Week has begun. The Holy Triduum is just days away. Our hearts and minds attempt to wrap around emotions of both sorrow and joy. Why does He have to die? In order to rise again, we answer ourselves. But why do they have to be so cruel to Him? Because that is the result of our horrible sin, our monologue continues. And before our thoughts go a single step further, an overwhelming sense of gratitude takes over. We are saddened and then joy filled because Holy Week shows us, like no other time of the year, the depth of God’s love for us. A Christian hymn written by Chris Rice sums it up beautifully: Weak and wounded sinner Lost and left to die O, raise your head, for love is passing by Come to Jesus Come to Jesus Come to Jesus and live! Now your burdens lifted And carried far away And precious blood has washed away the stain, so Sing to Jesus Sing to Jesus Sing to Jesus and live! And like a newborn baby Don’t be afraid to crawl And remember when you walk Sometimes we fall, so Fall on Jesus Fall on Jesus Fall on Jesus and live! Sometimes the way is lonely And steep and filled with pain So if your sky is dark and pours the rain, then Cry to Jesus Cry to Jesus Cry to Jesus and live! O, and when the love spills over And music fills the night And when you can’t contain your joy inside, then Dance for Jesus Dance for Jesus Dance for Jesus and live! And with your final heartbeat Kiss the world goodbye Then go in peace, and laugh on Glory’s side, and Fly to Jesus Fly to Jesus Fly to Jesus and live! Fly to Jesus Fly to Jesus Fly to Jesus and live! As Lent gives way to Easter, this is what it’s all about. Seeing love pass by, realizing that His precious blood has washed away our sin, feeling him there with us when we fall, are lonely and in pain, celebrating with him when we are overjoyed, and ultimately spending eternity with Him. During this final week of preparation for Easter, may you learn to come to, sing to, fall on, cry to, dance with and fly to Jesus, our Precious Lord and Savior.

The Truth Will Set You Free We all want to be free, don’t we? Today’s Gospel is all about freedom. As a child, I wanted to be free of rules and regulations. As a young adult, I want to be free of college debt. I am sure in a few years I will have new things that I want to be freed from. None of us enjoys being enslaved. I’m reminded of one of my favorite musicals, Les Miserables. For those who have not seen it, the play begins with the main character, Jean Valjean, being released from prison. He has his entire life ahead of him and has finally been freed. He has a choice to make, he can choose to try and make an honest life for himself or he can go back to his previous life of theft. A Bishop takes him in for the night, giving him a meal and a bed. But when the Bishop retires, Jean Valjean makes his choice. He chooses enslavement, steals the Bishop’s silver and runs. Of course he is caught, but when the police bring him to the Bishop to confirm the theft, the Bishop claims he gave the silver to Jean Valjean. These are the words of the Bishop to the man: But remember this, my brother, See in this some higher plan. You must use this precious silver To become an honest man. By the witness of the martyrs, By the passion and the blood, God has raised you out of darkness: I have saved your soul for God. In today’s culture, we see freedom as doing whatever we want whenever we want with whomever we want. This kind of mentality was really pioneered by the sexual revolution in the 60’s and 70’s. But we have to ask ourselves what is true freedom? Is true freedom really doing whatever we want? I did what I wanted in my youth and I was not happy due to several years of addiction to pornography. It wasn’t until I realized that true freedom must begin with truth, that my life started to change and I started to experience real peace. But what is truth? That question rang through the walls of a Roman palace over 2,000 years ago on Good Friday. What is truth? Thankfully Jesus answers this question in saying, “I am the way and the truth and the life.” So if Jesus is the truth and we were created by God, then John Paul II was correct in saying that, “Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought.” It is living in the way that God has commanded us, not because God is an authority figure who loves control but because He made us and knows our hearts and knows how we will ultimately be happy. We don’t think of freedom in this way anymore. Instead, we would rather exercise our “freedom” and become more enslaved to our precarious choices. Paul acknowledges this when he says in scripture, “I do not practice what I want to do, but I do what I hate.” It is in trusting that God knows what is best for us and has created us in a certain way, that we can start to live by that truth in freedom. Similarly, Jean Valjean in Les Miserables listens to the advice of the Bishop. He realizes his dignity as a son of God and realizes that because of this dignity, he is to live a certain way. He goes on to serve those less fortunate in his community and enjoys true freedom. We all have a choice. Free will does not give us the right to work against our Creator, but it does give us the option. We can either follow the ways of the world and become enslaved to money, power, greed, or lust or we can start to live by the truth, and that truth will truly set us free.

Excessive, Extravagant, Reckless Prodigal: Adjective Excessive, Extravagant, Reckless. “He ran”. (Luke 15:20) Recently in my 6th grade class, we studied the parable of the Lost Son. Before reading the story, I asked the class what they remember about the scripture story. There were points of the son wanting his father’s inheritance, using all his money, eating with pigs, and then wanting to go back to his father. After recalling all the details of the story, I showed the class a video of a man’s perspective of the parable through slam poetry. Slam poetry is a type of poetry that expresses a person’s personal story or struggle in an intensely emotional style. It is very powerful, sincere, and moving. There were three videos with three different slam poetry perspectives: The Lost Son, The Older Son, and The Father. In the video of The Lost Son, the son articulates passionately his experience. His words were intense as he describes his thought process of being lost, broken, and dirty. At one particular moment, he sees his Father in the distance. He sees that he is running to him. He shouts, “Dad Dad, why are you running?! Like you never run!” At this comment my class began to laugh. He goes on to say, “And how do you still recognize me? I’m dirty, I’m stained.” Throughout the rest of my work day, the rest of my week, and possibly, the rest of my lent- my heart keeps repeating the words “He ran”. My track coach in high school used to make us run at a certain rate during practices. He would give us percentages to run at. We were told “This sprint is only 75% effort, 50% effort, 100% effort”. We had to learn to gage our running and the amount of effort we put into each sprint for training. This parable is a reality of the Father’s love for us. Time and time again, the Father gives a 100% sprint to meet us. Every time there is even a mere glimpse of our hearts turning back to Him, he sprints. This doesn’t mean God just sprints to us once or twice or ten times, but constantly. Over and over again I fall and miss the mark. Over and over again, He sees me turn even the slightest bit and is in a full on sprint to greet me. He doesn’t give 75% effort because this is the thousandth time I’ve turned back. He doesn’t even give 99% effort because He knows I may leave again soon. He is only capable of choosing to give 100% in his sprint to meet us. His love for us is excessive. His love for us is extravagant. His love for us is reckless. Through hills and valleys, miles and miles apart, he sees us turn around and he runs to us. For the rest of Lent, I challenge you to know this truth. I challenge you to know that He runs to you every time you return your heart to Him. I pray that He gives you the grace to experience the love of this action. I hope you envision Him sprinting towards you from miles away. May each step of His sprint make you feel truly wanted, pursued, and cherished. Our Father’s love for us a reckless love- and he does not grow weary.

So Much Childishness! “I don’t want to! I don’t want it! No!” I hear my three-year-old repeat over and over again, as we try to get him to eat healthy, use the bathroom, play nicely with his brothers, get his shoes and coat on to leave the house, or to do pretty much anything. As parents it can get very frustrating, especially if we are in a hurry, haven’t slept well or are just plain cranky. As he goes through this stage of exploring his independence, it seems that he only obeys when a consequence is enforced or it is something that he really likes to do. When I read through today’s first reading, it sounded all too familiar. “We’re hungry! We’re thirsty! This food is gross!” (Ref Numbers 21:5) God gives them food and drink and just like my three-year-old, they exclaim, “I don’t want it!” Only when they get bit by serpents do they realize their waywardness and repent. It all sounds so childish. But, perhaps it is meant to… As soon as the Israelites confessed their sins and begged God for mercy, he alleviated their suffering almost instantly. But, why? Because they were His children, His beloved, His chosen ones. Just as Jesus says in the Gospel “The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone…” (John 8:29) so He also says to us “I am with you, I will not leave you alone.” It is a mystery to me how God does not get frustrated with us. In the case of the Israelites, he was leading them out of slavery toward the Promised Land and provided them with food and water, and they STILL complained. Did they not see all that He was doing for them? In our case, he leads us out of a life of sin toward Eternal Life and provides for our daily needs and yet we STILL complain. What gives? What else could possibly make us happy? As our Lenten journey slowly comes to close, I would invite you to shift your focus. May we follow the example of our Lord, and seek not what makes us happy, but in always doing what is pleasing to the Father. (ref John 21:30)

Do These 4 Things Before Holy Week The countdown to Holy Week has begun, and for some of us that’s an unwelcome reminder that we’ve become less enthusiastic or energetic about the Lenten practice or discipline we selected back at the beginning of March. Forty days is a long time, and giving up one thing, or adding on something else, can become difficult to maintain over time. By Jeannette de Beauvoir The good news is that you’re not alone: a lot of Lenten practices don’t make it through the season. No one does everything they planned to do during Lent—that’s part of being human! God isn’t grading you on how well you did; the point is to increase your closeness with God and your capacity to love him. So what can you do, now, before Holy Week begins, to re-center and re-energize your spiritual life? Keep it small, and keep it simple! 1. Pray every morning. When you get up, thank God for the new day. Say an Our Father while you’re getting dressed. That’s all: keep it small, and keep it simple. When you start the day with prayer, you’re starting it right. 2. Do some good works. Both the Spiritual Works of Mercy and the Corporal Works of Mercy give you a plethora of opportunities to reach out to others this Lent. Choose a couple to perform between now and Holy Week. 3. Read Scripture. Remind yourself of the story that is unfolding throughout Lent. You can’t just jump into Holy Week; read the Gospels that bring you up to Christ’s entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. 4. Examine your conscience. This is a helpful and simple Ignatian practice. Before you go to bed, review your day. Ask yourself if you’ve done your best, and resolve to do better tomorrow. There are many useful Lenten practices and disciplines, but the best ones are the ones that actually work, that bring you into a closer relationship with God and that help you express love for God’s people and God’s creation. The best Lenten rule of all? Keep it small, and keep it simple.

Go to Joseph! Today we interrupt Lent to celebrate St. Joseph. Among saints, he’s in a category all of his own, right up there after the Blessed Mother. When God the Father sent his Son into the world, he entrusted him to Joseph. That’s all we need to know, and maybe that’s why the Gospels say so little about him. If Joseph was the Father’s choice pick, we should consider making Joseph one of our top saintly friends. We can learn more about Joseph from the story of Joseph of Egypt found in the Book of Genesis (ch. 17 to 50). This Joseph is like a foreshadowing of our great saint. Recently in reading his story, I was struck by how capable Joseph of Egypt was. First, his brothers sold him into slavery, but once in Egypt, he became the trusted servant of a high-ranking official. When Joseph was thrown into prison on false charges, the chief jailer put him in charge of the other inmates. Later, Joseph’s talents helped him rise to a high position in Pharaoh’s service, and he became the mastermind who stockpiled an adequate food supply before the famine hit the land. “Joseph stored up grain in such abundance—like the sand of the sea—it was beyond measure” (Gen 41:49). Whatever Joseph did prospered because the Lord was with him. That’s the background for St. Joseph, the saint of divine Providence, and the saint who cared for the Son of God. Joseph was a man of deeds, not words. Whatever he did, prospered. Jesus must have been thinking of Joseph when he said, “Who then is the faithful and prudent manager whom his master will put in charge of his servants, to give them their allowance of food at the proper time?” (Lk 12:42). Doesn’t that sound like a saint you want to have working for you? And Joseph wants to “work” for us when we ask him to intercede for our needs. He’s the patron of workers, of finding employment, of providing for all needs. St. Teresa of Avila said, “I cannot recall that I have ever asked him for anything he has not granted.” Joseph is also the special patrons of fathers, and of obtaining a holy death. Popular devotions for this feast include the Italian custom of the St. Joseph table. This involves a simple shrine set up in one’s home or shop, with a table spread with food for anyone who happens to come by. This is a beautiful reminder that we not only invoke St. Joseph for our own needs, but also follow his example by helping others. St. Joseph, pray for us!

Lord, watch over all families. Strengthen and heal the relationships of spouses, parents, children, siblings and all other family members. Comfort those who have lost loved ones through death or separation. Heal and sustain those who have suffered the pain of divorce. Please bless my own family today and every day. Amen.

Lord, open my heart to the pain and suffering of others. Help me to quiet my own complaints so that I can hear the pleas for help and comfort that are voiced around me. Empty me from self-seeking behaviors and help me to follow You in the service of others. Amen.