Crosses For Sale

Jesus said to his disciples:                                                      

"The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected
by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,
and be killed and on the third day be raised."

Then he said to all,
"If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself
and take up his cross daily and follow me.
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.
What profit is there for one to gain the whole world
yet lose or forfeit himself?"
Luke 9: 22-25

Crosses come in all shapes and sizes.  As we look at the selection of crosses that are available, we notice that some are huge and heavy and some appear to be smaller and somewhat more manageable.  The salesman comes up to me and tells me that he has just what I am looking for.  He tells us to trust him.  He looks like a nice guy and so I tell him to pick out a cross for me.  I follow him as he goes up one row and down another.  He keeps up a pleasant chatter as we go through the supply of crosses.  He stops by a cross that is neither too large nor too small and he tells me that this is the one for me.  I look about and see some huge gnarley crosses that look like only a giant ironman could carry, I do not see any crosses that are smaller so I agree to accept the cross he has picked for me.  He invites me back to the office to sign the paperwork.  As he prepares the paperwork he tells us that he was glad that he was able to find a cross that was such a good fit.  

He does state that once I accept delivery that there is no turning back and the store has a strict no exchange policy.  Remembering how the cross selected compared to the other crosses I verbally assure him that I am very happy with my selection and I quickly sign the paperwork and with a smile, the salesman tells me to go to the pick-up area and the cross would be waiting for me.  

I get to the pick-up area and sure enough, there is a cross waiting for me.  It kind of looks similar to the one I saw on the sales floor but here it seems heavier and the wood that seemed so smooth on the sales floor seems very coarse and as I heft it, I get a splinter in my finger.  There has to be some mistake.  I turn and try to get back into the store, the door is locked and there is a red neon sign that says " No Returns or Exchanges." 

I turn back to my cross and I pick it up, it is so heavy and I begin to drag it out of the store.  Once outside I see two lines of people.  In one of the lines I see people running and skipping and laughing, without a care in the world, and not one of them is carrying a cross.  Instead, behind them are crosses of every size that had been discarded and they appear to be very happy.  But over the horizon in the direction that they are going to I see nothing but storm clouds. 

The other line was populated by people who were carrying crosses behind a man who carried the largest cross I had ever seen!  They walked slowly under their burden.  The horizon that they walked towards was bright and sunny and the people carrying the cross were not in tears.  They accepted their burden and when one of their neighbors seemed to stumble, they took on part of their neighbor's burden too until the neighbor could carry the cross on his own.  This teamwork, helping one another,  seemed to fill them with a great joy as they followed the huge cross carried by the Good Shepherd.  They traveled slowly but joyfully carrying their cross behind Jesus and when the going got tough, Jesus helped all with their burdens as they got ever closer to the promised land of Heaven. 

The crosses we receive in life can be carried or can be thrown away. The ones we carry will make us stronger and as we walk the road that Jesus walked we will learn to love more, to help more, and to experience the total joy of being a follower of Christ. 

I have to say this again.  Not everyone who dies goes straight to heaven. Purgatory is the temporary home of millions of good people who are preparing themselves to be in God's presence.  They are losing the attachment to sin that they carried into eternal life and Purgatory is the place where they will be cleansed of this.   Just because you don't believe in Purgatory does not mean that it does not exist.  Please pray for your relatives and friends who have passed.  Do not let your love end at the grave.  Millions of strangers, Protestants of all denominations who deny Purgatory are there now and because of their belief, they have no one to pray for them.  Please take a moment and pray for the poor souls in Purgatory.  They need our help and they need it now. 

Top Secret ! Lent Should Make You Smile ! ! !

"When you pray,
do not be like the hypocrites,
who love to stand and pray 
 in the synagogues and on street corners
so that others may see them.
Amen, I say to you,
they have received their reward.
But when you pray, go to your inner room,
close the door, and pray to your Father in secret.
And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.
"When you fast,
do not look gloomy like the hypocrites.
They neglect their appearance,
so that they may appear to others to be fasting.
Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward.
But when you fast,
anoint your head and wash your face,
so that you may not appear to be fasting,
except to your Father who is hidden.
And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you."
Mark 6; 16-18

Welcome to Ash Wednesday!  For those of you who are confused and thought it was St. Valentines Day, well, it is, but Ash Wednesday takes precedence over the memorial for Valentine.   It is a day of fasting and abstinence.  So, no eating meat today and no eating between meals and your main meal should be less than the two smaller meals you are allowed to maintain your strength.  Now, if you are a senior citizen, that is 59 1/2 or older, the Church says that you can skip the fasting, but keep the bratwurst in the freezer and break out the fish sticks or tuna because the meat thing applies to us oldsters too! 

In the time of Jesus, fasting was a way of prayer that was used by a lot of people. The issue that Jesus had with it was that the Pharisees would wear sad expressions and rumple their clothing and look like death warmed over so that everyone would know how wretchedly holy they were because they were fasting. The great majority of people would look at these people with awe because they appeared to be so very, very, very holy.  Jesus says the admiration of the people was their reward and that the Pharisees should expect no other reward for their trouble. 

It was the same when some of the Pharisee's went to the temple to pray.  They stood and looked up to the sky, moved their lips silently, and appeared to get lost in ecstasy as they seemingly hob-knobbed on a private channel with God Himself. Again the average man standing in the back of the temple would be awe-struck and wonder how he too could get that close to the almighty.  Then he would look at himself, dressed in dirty peasant gear, looked at the dirt ground in to the callouses on his hands and then he would look at the majestic robes of the scribes, and the scrubbed faces and immaculate manicures of the Pharisees and realize there was no way he, a simple man of the earth,  could ever be like the holy Pharisees. He would leave, his prayers unsaid in his shame.  Again, Jesus says this earthly admiration is about all that these holier than thou Pharisees could expect. 

Jesus gives us the secret to how to get the most out of our Lenten sacrifices and prayers.  That is to do them in secret, fast, by all means, it is good for the soul, but don't make a point of telling anyone you are fasting.  Offer the fasting to God, He will see it.  In the meantime pretend that you ate your fill and be of good cheer.  (This is hard for me, very hard. )   


Also, don't make a big deal about your prayer time.  When the time comes, with a smile, excuse yourself and go to a place where you won't be seen and pray your heart out!  God will listen and respond and no one needs to be the wiser. Let everyone think you just had something that you just had to do.

These next forty days will be a journey with Jesus to Jerusalem or perhaps forty days in the desert with Him or a personal forty-day retreat where we get closer to Jesus than we ever have been before.  Arm yourself for the journey, make sure you get to Mass, every Sunday and maybe one more time during the week?  Have a prayer time and put it on your calendar and honor it as you would any other appointment.  


Be especially kind and thoughtful to the people in your household and on the job and even to strangers.  Forgive and take less offense, be happy to help without being asked and without being thanked.  Think what it means to you to be a Christian and do those things that make Christianity come alive for you.  Do small things with great love. That is what these next forty days are all about.  




During this penitential season, take time to remember the poor souls in Purgatory. Give to them some of the prayer time each day.  Can you spare a Rosary once in a while?  Can you offer up your Mass and Communion for their benefit?   Not everyone goes directly to heaven and not everyone has someone to pray for them.  Volunteer and help the Poor Souls.  They suffer greatly and gladly for they know the day is nigh when they will rise from the ashes and enter Heaven and they will remember those that shortened their suffering by offering their prayers and sacrifices.  

Prayer for the Holy Souls in Purgatory by St. Gertrude the Great

According to tradition, St. Gertrude the Great was told by Our Lord that the following prayer, each time she piously recited it, would release 1,000 souls (or a vast number) from their suffering in purgatory:

“Eternal Father,
I offer You the most precious blood
of thy Divine Son, Jesus,
in union with the Masses said
throughout the world today,
for all the Holy Souls in Purgatory,
for sinners everywhere,
for sinners in the universal Church,
for those in my own home,
and in my family. Amen.”

Free cheese always available in mouse traps.

Blessed is he who perseveres in temptation,

for when he has been proven he will receive the crown of life 

that he promised to those who love him.

No one experiencing temptation should say,

"I am being tempted by God";

for God is not subject to temptation to evil,

and he himself tempts no one.

Rather, each person is tempted when lured and enticed by his desire.

Then desire conceives and brings forth sin,

and when sin reaches maturity it gives birth to death.

Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers and sisters:

all good giving and every perfect gift is from above,

coming down from the Father of lights,

with whom there is no alteration or shadow caused by change.

He willed to give us birth by the word of truth

that we may be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

Welcome to Mardi Gras!  It seems like just yesterday we were welcoming the birth of Jesus and tomorrow we will begin our walk through the desert and join with Christ in his journey to Jerusalem and His trial and death on a cross.  

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Jesus was subject to all of the temptations that we as human beings have to conquer.  James in our reading today is reminding us that the temptations do not come from a god that that takes delight in catching his creatures in doing wrong so that he can find ways to punish them.  No, the major source for all temptation is from the supply that we carry with us.  Our desires for pleasure, for comfort, for ease, and even justice.  

The inner us contains a treasury of things that we want for our own reasons.  Some of these things are natural and good.  We want food, drink, shelter, companionship and all of the things that keep the spark of our life from extinguishing prematurely and these things are good.  In that same treasury are things that are wanted just because they are wanted.  These things are born of our sinful nature and they make up the part of us that needs to be tamed, brought into line with what we know is actually good for us.  All things that we desire can be good.  For example, food is good, we need it to nourish our body and to keep it strong.  It also can be an evil in our life when it assumes the guise of a replacement for God.  Truly, a wonderful meal is a comfort for the soul, but when we make food almost a thing of worship, allowing it to take the place of God, well, then the best of the best might as well be made of worms because it is assuming a place of more importance in our life than it is entitled to.  

Sex too has its place in our life.  The conjugal act with our husband or wife is a thing of great beauty and joy, however, letting lust to run our lives and to act on all of the many thoughts that can come our way is also giving this gift of God a more important place in our life than it deserves. Of course, the misuse of sex outside of our marriage vows will eventually bring on problems of jealousy, hate, and even violence, and greed always travels as lust's faithful companion. 

So, on this Mardi Gras Tuesday as we prepare to start our Lenten journey, let us stop and audit ourselves.  Let us ask the Holy Spirit to come and reveal to us where we have strayed off of the path and make plans to work on making ourselves closer images as to what God wants us to be.  There is a very fine line between something being good and being sinful.  This Lenten season, let us resolve to make our forty day journey one of joy and hope and one that brings us not sorrow but joy and not restlessness but peace.  Let us  resolve to see the good in all things and to search out and find the good in others, especially in those who "rub us the wrong way."  Let us engage in acts of kindness that remain just between us and God.   This is so much better than "giving up something" for Lent.  

Lent means spring.  Of course, this year, Lent has come very early and at least where I live, there is a good chance that Easter Sunday will find us shoveling snow!  But because lent is spring, let us plant the seeds of happiness everywhere we go and watch as God waters them and they grow and make our world a much more beautiful place. 

Please remember the poor souls in purgatory.  They need your prayers.  They will appreciate whatever you do for them for all eternity.   Remember, where they are, you might someday be. 

Standing In The Pouring Rain

James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,

to the twelve tribes in the dispersion, greetings.

Consider it all joy, my brothers and sisters,

when you encounter various trials,

for you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.

And let perseverance be perfect,

so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

But if any of you lacks wisdom,

he should ask God who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly,

and he will be given it.

But he should ask in faith, not doubting,

for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea

that is driven and tossed about by the wind.

For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord,

since he is a man of two minds, unstable in all his ways.

The brother in lowly circumstances 

should take pride in high standing,

and the rich one in his lowliness, 

for he will pass away "like the flower of the field."

For the sun comes up with its scorching heat and dries up the grass,

its flower droops, and the beauty of its appearance vanishes.

So will the rich person fade away in the midst of his pursuits...

James 1: 1-11

The Pharisees came forward and began to argue with Jesus,

seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him.

He sighed from the depth of his spirit and said,

"Why does this generation seek a sign?

Amen, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation."

Then he left them, got into the boat again,

and went off to the other shore.

Mark 8: 11-13

As we have been working our way through the Gospel of Mark we have noticed that the one thing that each person who received a miracle from Christ exhibited one important characteristic, they believed that Jesus could help them, they had faith in Him.  

What exactly is faith?  This question has been the subject of many contemporary Christian songs.  Michael Card says that faith is hearing with your heart. Michael W. Smith says that faith is standing in the pouring rain and knowing that the sun will shine again. The late Steve Green wrote a song asking that our descendants find us faithful. The late Rich Mullins said of faith “A faith that moves mountains is a faith that expands horizons, it does not bring us into a smaller world full of easy answers, but into a larger one where there is room for wonder.”  Rich also says in his song Creed, "“I believe what I believe is what makes me what I am” 

So it is easy to wax poetically about what faith is. It is easy to illustrate because faith is something that we all have, and I mean even atheists have faith that there is no God.  Faith is what allows us to move forward.  One silly example is that we have faith that the elevator will be there when the door opens.  Today, many people test this by walking into the elevator with their faces buried in their smartphone, hopefully reading Michael the Lesser's blog! 

Faith is so important that the heretics in the sixteenth century made it the most important thing that there was, sola fide was born.  While it is true that we first must have faith, we must be able to demonstrate our faith.  Damien the Leper demonstrated his faith by stepping off of a ship and on to the leper colony at Molokai knowing full well that once his shoe touched the shore, he was there for life and he made that step in faith, willingly and with full knowledge of his possible fate.  Mother Angelica, may she rest in peace, was a woman of great faith.  She exhibited it many times during her long years of faithful ministry.  Once the monastery got into the peanut business.  They roasted peanuts and sold them to a wholesaler.  One day a new wholesaler came to town and he took over the monastery's account and he let it be known that in order for their peanuts to be sold, there would have to be some consideration paid to him so that the monastery account could continue to be properly serviced.  In other words, he wanted a kickback. She told the man that she would not go to hell over peanuts but that he could.  The peanut sales were what was keeping the monastery going but she had faith that God would open another way for her to keep the lights burning and of course, EWTN was born because of her stubborn faith.  

Faith without works is empty and lifeless.  Again Rich Mullins had a song that illustrated that. The song was called "Screen Door." It was done in rap style, very progressive for the eighties, and the keywords were  "Faith without works, Is like a song you can't sing (sing) It's about as useless as A screen door on a submarine…"  So faith is a lot of things.  It is believing in what we cannot see with our eyes.  It is believing just as if we can see with our eyes.  Faith is trusting that what we cannot see but see through the eyes of faith is true because we know that the reason for our faith is God who can neither deceive nor be deceived.  Faith is the first step and the works that faith engenders is the second step.  The Lord says, "Be thou faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of life." 

Please remember the poor souls in purgatory.  They need your prayers.  They will appreciate whatever you do for them for all eternity.   Remember, where they are, you might someday be. 

Curing The Leper / Curing Ourselves

"The one who bears the sore of leprosy                                                       

shall keep his garments rent and his head bare,
and shall muffle his beard;
he shall cry out, 'Unclean, unclean!'
As long as the sore is on him he shall declare himself unclean,
since he is in fact unclean.
He shall dwell apart, making his abode outside the camp."
LV 13: 44-46 


A leper came to Jesus and kneeling down begged him and said,
"If you wish, you can make me clean."
Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand, 
touched him, and said to him, 
"I do, will it. Be made clean."
The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean.
Then, warning him sternly, he dismissed him at once. 

He said to him, "See that you tell no one anything,
but go, show yourself to the priest 
and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed;
that will be proof for them."

The man went away and began to publicize the whole matter.
He spread the report abroad
so that it was impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly.
He remained outside in deserted places,
and people kept coming to him from everywhere.
MK 1:40-45

From Biblical times up to more modern times, the disease of Leprosy was considered a death sentence for those afflicted.  It was considered a very contagious disease and the only cure for it was to throw the afflicted one out of society and have him dwell alone or with other lepers, anywhere but in with the healthy crowd.  

What this disease meant for the people that had it back then was a fate that was indeed worse than death.  They were, as I said, cast out of society and for Jews of that period that meant they were unable to worship Yahweh in the temple, participate in the Passover, or even go to the synagogue.  Couple that with the death sentence that their disease carried in this time before antibiotics and you had a sad situation indeed.  You also lost the support of your family and friends and had to depend on the long-distance charity of others to keep yourself fed.  It was a lonely and terrible way to live out your life.

Jesus knew all of these facts about what it was to be a leper. He also knew that to touch a leper would render himself ritually unclean and unable to enter temple or synagogue for a period of time, such was the fear that this disease carried with it.  But, Jesus is God, did He have to touch the leper to effect a cure?  Of course not, He is God, and could have just willed the cure to happen.  Then there must be a reason why He reached out His hand and used physical touch to cure this man riddled with disease and full of hope and faith. 

The physical act of touching the leper was restorative not of the man's body but of his heart and soul.  We do not know how long this man had been afflicted but we do know that he approached alone so perhaps he was handling this disease without the company of even other lepers, no human contact at all. His self-esteem was at its lowest.  The act of touching assured the man that he was indeed a worthy human being and that he was loved and the touch strengthened his mind and his body at the same time. 

So, where does that leave us in the scheme of things?  If we met a leper today, we would suggest that he go see a doctor because the disease is readily curable.  But we see lepers every day and we assign them to leper colonies that are just as horrible as they were back in the days of Jesus. 

There are people who have crossed our paths and have done us harm in some way.  We take their offense to heart and we cast them from us and wish them nothing good.  This is an understandable human reaction.  Some people seem to have the knack of offending where ever they go.  Sometimes they hurt us deeply, they hurt us physically, they hurt us mentally and they become lepers to us.  Where possible, we should reconsider the offenses that we charge them with and ask if they are truly unforgivable. Many times we can see our way clear to offering a pardon and repairing the relationship.  On the other hand, we do not have to return to a relationship that was abusive either physically or mentally because we, ourselves, are worthy creatures of God and do not deserve being treated cruelly.  

Do we continue to keep the offender in the leper colony?  Well, the answer is not an easy one.  As a Christian, we need to release the person who hurt us and forgive them as we hope to be forgiven by the Father.  It does not mean we have to invite them back into our house to pick up where we left off because we need to protect ourselves from physical, mental, and spiritual harm and we have the right and duty to do so.  Forgive, yes, it is required for us to do so.  Volunteer for more?  Not on your life should you put yourself back into a situation you have successfully gotten yourself out of. 

One other way to look at this is perhaps we are the leper.  Have we committed offenses against others that have placed us on the outside looking in?  Are we brave enough to accept the fact that we might have been wrong in what we did or said?  If we are the leper and we need to make amends, we have to do so with care and consideration.  If our offenses hurt others deeply, we should apologize from afar, keeping our distance as a good leper should, meaning what we say and then comes the hard part, we must stay away from the other party and be content with the knowledge that we have done what we could to heal the wounds and because the wounds were caused by our actions in the first place and were so deep, we will wait patiently for the day when the other party makes the first step towards us and initiates repair of the relationship before we try to get any closer than a leper should get. 

It is very hard for us to accept that sometimes, no matter how much we apologize and how heartfelt that the apology was that the relationship may be past the point where healing is possible.  The hard fact is that out of love for the other person we have to accept their decision and we have to move on and leave the situation in the hands of God.  He has seen our actions and knows what is in our heart and that is all we have to worry about.  

PRAY FOR THE POOR SOULS IN PURGATORY 

According to tradition, St. Gertrude the Great was told by Our Lord that the following prayer, each time she piously recited it, would release 1,000 souls (or a vast number) from their suffering in purgatory:

“Eternal Father,
I offer You the most precious blood
of thy Divine Son, Jesus,
in union with the Masses said
throughout the world today,
for all the Holy Souls in Purgatory,
for sinners everywhere,
for sinners in the universal Church,
for those in my own home,
and in my family. Amen.”

Food For The Journey

In those days when there again was a great crowd without anything to eat, 

Mark 8: 1 - 10

Jesus summoned the disciples and said,
“My heart is moved with pity for the crowd,
because they have been with me now for three days
and have nothing to eat.
If I send them away hungry to their homes,
they will collapse on the way,
and some of them have come a great distance.”
His disciples answered him, “Where can anyone get enough bread to satisfy them here in this deserted place?”
Still he asked them, “How many loaves do you have?”
They replied, “Seven.”
He ordered the crowd to sit down on the ground.
Then, taking the seven loaves he gave thanks, broke them, and gave them to his disciples to distribute,
and they distributed them to the crowd.
They also had a few fish. He said the blessing over them and ordered them distributed also. They ate and were satisfied. They picked up the fragments left over–seven baskets.
There were about four thousand people.
He dismissed the crowd and got into the boat with his disciples
and came to the region of Dalmanutha.

Jesus knew how to keep a crowd's attention.  This crowd of some four thousand people had spent the last three days with Jesus in a deserted place listening to His teaching and being held captive by the wisdom that they were hearing.  No other man taught as Jesus did, He taught with authority and did not just quote learned teachers of the day.  The people, whose life was hard under the rule of the Romans were ready for a Messiah. Now, one of the signs of the Messiah was going to be that He would bring with Him an abundance and in this story we see that Jesus did just that.  He brought an abundance of truth and when He also made sure that the people who had been listening to Him had food for the journey.

Jesus, our Messiah, our Lord, our Saviour has the same compassion for us.  He knows that our journey is a long one and He feeds us from the resources He brings, the Word of His mouth, through the Bible readings we have at every mass and the spiritual food as we feast on His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity in the Holy Eucharist.  Jesus brings an abundance to us and He will never let us go hungry or faint while on the journey. The abundance of grace will help us defend ourselves against the snares that the evil one sets for us and from the bad impulses that come from our divided heart and soul because we are human. 

Don't let the significance of what taking communion means.  When you receive you are a close to God as you can be in this world. Don't go back to your seat and pick up the bulletin to read about the pancake breakfast taking place next week.  Don't be rude to your visitor.  Jesus is there, with you, inside you, open your heart so that he can open the treasury of graces that he carries with Him with just you in mind. How many of us take the host and consume it as if it were mere bread?  Be aware of the gift and the giver for He wants to share with you and is waiting for you to allow Him to proceed.

I know I've said this before but sadly not everyone goes directly to heaven when they die. For most of us, Purgatory is a stop along the way. Please pray for your relatives and friends by name.  How many are there in Purgatory that wait for prayers and receive nothing?  Don't let your love stop at the edge of their grave.  Remember too that as they are you may someday be. 

Be Open and Say it LOUD

Jesus left the district of Tyre
and went by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee,
into the district of the Decapolis. 
And people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment    
and begged him to lay his hand on him.
He took him off by himself away from the crowd. 
He put his finger into the man's ears
and, spitting, touched his tongue;
then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him,
"Ephphatha!" (that is, "Be opened!")
And immediately the man's ears were opened,
his speech impediment was removed,
and he spoke plainly. 
He ordered them not to tell anyone. 
But the more he ordered them not to,
the more they proclaimed it. 
They were exceedingly astonished and they said,
"He has done all things well. 
He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak."

Today, Mark lets us see Jesus at work once again.  He happens upon a man who was deaf and he also had a speech impediment. With his touch, Jesus cures the man and at once, in the KJV the words used are "straight away" he was able to hear and speak.  

Did Jesus have to use his body to fix the body of another person?  No, He would have simply been able to will the person to be able to speak and hear and it would be done.  He would not have had to utter a word to make the miracle happen and yet we are told that he said the Aramaic word that means "be opened."  Why would He do that if he did not have to?  There has to be a reason otherwise it would not be in the Bible.  Every detail in the Bible is important, so what do we have here?  

There is more to what is being done here than meets the eye.  True, the beggar was made to hear and was now able to speak but what Jesus did, what His command meant was that the man should now be opened to the Kingdom of Heaven for God had worked a great wonder in his life.  Jesus cautioned him to tell no one what had transpired but he and the crowd would not be silent. 

Jesus wants to cure us as well. We have been deaf too long to the promptings of the Spirit.  We have been mute as well, avoiding telling others about the kingdom and about Jesus.  But worse than that, we have strayed from God's mercy.  This is a very special time.  Jesus will not turn you away if you come back to Him.  Open your ears and hear the voice of the Spirit as He reveals to you your sins and lights the way to the confessional for you.  Open your mouth and tell God what He already knows, that you are a sinner, that you have sinned, that it is now time you want to confess what you have done and you want to turn away from evil and begin to commit good acts and to commit yourself to Christ. 

Time grows shorter every day. The time of mercy will have to end someday and then will follow the Day of Justice.  Please consider going to confession.  Even if it has been decades since you last went, go this weekend if you can.  You are being called by name.  Jesus wants to work with you in conquering sin.  He knows you by name.  He knows what is in your heart, He needs you to come to Him and ask for the help that you need.  He will not abandon you and he will put a ring on your finger, kill the fatted calf and hold a party when you come back to Him.  Fear or embarrassment are two deadly reasons why you might stay away.  But the formula is:        Fear + Embarrassment = Pride.