Dear Parishioners,

I hope all the mothers had a special day last Sunday as they were shown love and appreciation for the amazing people they are and all that they do.  You were all very much present in our thoughts and prayers.

As we continue this journey of Lent moving closer to the passion, Jesus begins to explain what is to come.  He describes His passion, death and resurrection with the words “unless a wheat grain falls on the ground and dies, it remains only a single grain; but if it dies, it yields a rich harvest.”.  The fruitfulness of the grain comes through that journey of death, just as the fruitfulness of Gods love came through Jesus’s passion and death culminating in the power of God though His resurrection.  It was something that was transformative for the whole Christian Community, for His Disciples and Apostles.

We too are invited in our lives to make a journey, like Jesus did, to pass through a process of internal death in order to yield a rich harvest so that the God can be revealed though our lives and through the ways we love and reach out to others.  And Jesus tells us that this means that we must hate out lives.  Hate is a very strong word but the invitation behind it is for us not to be attached to our life in this world, that our priorities are not the values of this world (such as success, perfection, outward appearances, the latest trends etc).  Our priorities instead should those of the kingdom, love and self giving perhaps even in a sacrificial way if necessary.

We celebrated mothers last week and what better human example do we have of this type of sacrificial love than that of parents and families.  Families rooted in respect, forgiveness, sacrifice: trying to and growing in a love like Jesus’s.  Our tiredness a sign perhaps of this sacrificial love.  Having families and communities that are places of this type of divine love means a constant process of transformations.  We are invited to be committed to becomes that grain of wheat willing to die if necessary: to be the one to let go, to forgive, to make the first step, to be consistent, to accept our weakness.

And in this way just as Jesus glorified His Father with his life, through His love and sacrifice we too can do the same in our lives.

So let us continue to commit ourselves to make a good Lenten journey, learning from Jesus how to love and give of ourselves.

Have a Blessed week

Ann Marie, FMVD