FM's Message | Sunday, February 11th

This coming Wednesday we begin the holy journey of Lent. It is an opportunity to look at ourselves as a people who are called to listen to and follow Jesus. The most important thing we can do is try to imitate him. One of the interesting things that Jesus showed us was how simplicity in the face of many situations worked well.
This is a quote from a daily reflection I receive. “….so, we can see that the mark of the Christian disciple was to be utter simplicity, complete trust and the generosity which is ours always to give and never to demand.”Lent is the opportunity that help us rise to the challenge of being the people that are seen to be real images of Christ. It is an annual opportunity to prepare ourselves to be more Christ like. When I think of this, I am challenged to think of the area or areas of my life that prefer complications and building mountains out of molehills to the simplicity of generosity and charity. In the second eucharistic prayer there is a line in the prayer that says, “Remember your church Lord, spread throughout the world and bring her to the fullness of Charity with Francis our pope, Seán our bishop and all the bishops. “it is a reminder to me that this is the plan of God, that we be perfectly charitable with one another. It may not mean money, but it could be that how we treat one another, how we regard and talk about one another is the challenge of perfect charity. I am reminded of a story about St. Teresa of Calcutta. She went to beg at a bakery for bread for the children whom she cared for. The baker, recognizing her as a beggar spit in her face. She wiped it off carefully and said, “Thank you for that for me, now what about the children?” it caused the baker to have a sudden and immediate change of heart. It was her “fullness of charity” toward the baker, that caused him to change his mind and cooperate in her holy work. I hope that never happens to anyone else, but the way St. Teresa was able to react like that was a result of her prayer, fasting and almsgiving. It transformed her to be a model of charity to the baker and to the children.
This is the goal for all of us too. If we are ever part of that scene, we hope that it will be one in which our charity shows through enough to retain our dignity and then to continue to help those in need by the example of our humility. Think you have a long way to go? That is what lent is for. We place before ourselves the challenge to willingly forego some food, behavior or attitude to experience some loss and ask only for God’s grace to fill it up. Or we decide to add some behavior or attitude, morning prayer, evening examen or something in the middle of the day that draws our mind to God. One helpful tool is the Hallow program that Steven mentioned at the end of Mass. Signing up is easy and there are spaces for 500 people. This is a great way to add some prayer time in the car on the way to work or after dinner to sit with the Lord for five extra minutes.
I often think that the most important witness to Jesus was the thief on the cross beside him at the crucifixion. He gave witness by stating that he was an innocent victim. This simple act changed his eternity. We might keep that in mind. That the change in our lives begins with the simplest act of humility. Before we do something for Lent, we acknowledge that we need to do something to grow in holiness.
See you Wednesday.
Peace,
Father Murray  

Building news. We had a leak in the foyer and sent the roofers up to the area above there. It appears there was some type of sharp object that the wind was blowing around and tore a hole in the rubber roof. It is patched now, and I expect that the leak will not get any bigger. We are still looking to get rid of tables over at St. James if anyone is interested.