Easter! Sunday April 24. Easter Season 2011.

Alleluia! He has risen!

He has fulfilled His promise!

He has conquered death!

It is through Him that we may live!

Alleluia!

The time of waiting and praying and fasting is over!

We can look back upon this Lent and see how strong we truly are.

How strong we are in the Lord.

This Lent I gave up something slightly extreme.

I gave up solid foods and stayed on a liquid diet.

For the most part, I did really well.

Towards the end of Lent there were a couple of times when I would sneak in some vegetables or rice but all in all I was able to hold to my sacrifice pretty well and it was solely by God’s grace.

I learned a lot of things this Lent.

I learned that I make delicious soups. ;)

But far more importantly, I learned how dependant we are on things of the world when we need to be depending on God.

Obviously we need food but it was such a dramatic change to go from worrying about what I am going to eat to just pouring some soup in a bowl or making a shake. I never realized how something as simple as food takes up our thoughts.

I was also amazed at how our source of strength is truly in the Lord.

So many times, especially at the start of Lent, I just wanted to chew and gum wasn’t cutting it. I wasn’t hungry but yet I just wanted something to chew on.

Or the afternoon boredom. I just wanted something to snack on.

And it was in these times that I turned to the Lord, asked Him for strength, and offered up my wants and desires.

It was so amazing to watch Him pull me through this Lent step by step.

I hope and pray that this Lent was a fruitful one for you as well.

I pray that you were able to begin parting with something of this world or that you are able to continue doing whatever you added on this Lent.

Easter is upon us and it is a time for celebration, family, and thanksgiving.

I hope and pray that you have a joy-filled Easter day and Easter season.

May we go and carry the good news of the Lord with fear of the Lord and His joy filling our hearts just like the hearts of Mary and Mary Magdalene.

Happy Easter!

Christ has risen!

Praise God!

I want to thank each person who has taken the time to read this little blog during Lent.

It truly means so much that you would take your time to read the words written here.

Also, a huge thanks to my dad who, almost daily re-posted my blog on Facebook. Katelyn and Francis, thank you for being support systems. For reposting this blog all on your own. I feel honored that you promoted this blog.

He is working.

He is moving.

He is doing great things.

Praise God.

I will continue with this blog, though most likely not daily, yet, I ask that if you feel called to, please continue to follow along.

Please pray for me as I will pray for you!

Good Friday Evening and Holy Saturday. Saturday April 23. Lent 2011.

Friday night began preparation day for the Sabbath.

The bodies were not to remain on the cross during the Sabbath.

The soldiers had the duty of making sure the men that hung on the crosses were dead.

The soldiers went to each of the thieves and broke their legs.

With their legs now broken, the men could not press against their feet to breathe and thus died of cruel suffocation.

When the soldiers came to Jesus, they saw that He was already dead.

They did not break His legs thus fulfilling scripture.

“Not a bone of it will be broken.”

As solider thrust a lance into Jesus’ side and a combination of blood and water came flowing out.

“They will look upon him who they have pierced.”

The blood that flowed from Christ was the very blood that washed over all of our sins.

The water signified the complete and unending mercy that Jesus has toward us, regardless of our continuous sins.

Joseph of Arimathea received permission from Pilate to take the body of Jesus.

Nicodemus brought a mixture of aloe and myrrh, spices and burial clothes as was the Jewish custom.

When Jesus was taken down from the cross, His mother was given the grace to hold Her Son once again.

“on the hill of calvary
woman behold your son
she watches Him nailed to a tree
the child she bore grasps for air
a loud cry and her heart is pierced
the child she held has gone from her

His body hangs without life
they take him down from the tree
they lay him in His mother's arms
they lay him in her arms
she won't understand
why her son had to die

But she said, "Come hold my son,
Come hold my son."

The Thirsting-

Come Hold My Son

I can’t even begin to imagine the pain and grave and deep sorrow that Mary experienced on Good Friday. I think the greatest pain of all was for Her to see Her Son suffering and She can do NOTHING. There is nothing She could say or do that would change the situation and ease Her Son’s sufferings. When Jesus was placed in Her arms once He was taken down from the cross I would imagine it was the most intense moment of mixed emotions. Mary was still in sorrow and pain that Her Son had died. Yet, He was no longer suffering physical pain. She could hold Him once again but do nothing to change what had just happened. Some say that She knew exactly who Jesus was, what He had come to do, and what would soon happen but that does not take away Her motherly love and desire to care for Her Son.

Jesus was buried and laid in a tomb close by.

The stone was rolled in front of the tomb.

The Sabbath was upon them.

Holy Saturday.

For the Jews, Sabbath.

They could do nothing.

But sit.

And wait.

Despite the events that had taken place the day before, the apostles rested on the Sabbath.

They obeyed the law despite what would have been going through their minds.

I can’t even imagine how hard it would have been to rest when their minds were probably racing a million miles a minute.

Thinking back on every word Jesus had said to them

Playing back His suffering and passion from the day before

Wondering if He really was going to come back

And if so, when?

The apostles probably had to muster much self-discipline to obey the laws of the Sabbath that day.

The important thing here is that they did obey the law.

Regardless of their thoughts, feeling, and emotions they obeyed.

Regardless of what was going on inside, in their heads and hearts, they had FAITH.

Silent,

Quiet,

And obedient.

FAITH.

Maybe they weren’t exactly sure what they had faith in at the moment.

Maybe they did have their doubts.

Maybe they did have their moments where they just wanted to give up,

To stop playing the waiting game,

And to break the law on the Sabbath.

But they didn’t.

They waited in silent, quiet, and obedient faith.

And it was in this moment when their God, OUR God was working.

It is often in moments of silence when our God works.

When we finally shut up and just LISTEN to Him.

Or maybe He doesn’t have anything to say but that we are open to Him.

That we have the faith that He knows what He is doing, even if it is complete silence.

There are moments in our lives when we are communicating with other people when the most effective and correct response to their words is silence.

It is in the silence and the stillness and the peace that our God does great things.

Help us to be silent and filled with peace on this Holy Saturday as we wait for our Lord.

Help us to have silent faith in our lives when we need it most.

Good Friday. Thursday April 21. Lent 2011.

Good Friday.

The day of Our Lord’s suffering, passion, and death.

There are not words enough to do justice to the pain and suffering and glory of this day.

However, using very few words, the movie, The Passion of the Christ gives incredible visuals of the torment and suffering that our Lord experienced all because of His love for us.

This is another day that contains so much detail and depth.

Barabbas was chosen to be released over Christ.

This choice was so that the Lord’s will would be carried out.

And the passion of Christ begins.

Christ was chained to a post and scourged.

His body brutally beaten with cruel weapons.

Weapons that sliced His sacred skin.

Weapons that when thrown upon His body took a hold of His flesh

and ripped it off of His body.

And He went through this because

HE.

LOVES.

YOU.

A crown on thorns was placed upon His head.

Actually, people believe that it was more of a cap of thorns.

The 2 inch thorns were forced into the sacred head of Our Lord.

Blood ran down His face joining with the rest of the blood that covered His body.

And He tolerated this all because

HE.

LOVES.

YOU.

Jesus carried the cross to Golgotha.

The heavy physical burden.

The wood rubbing against Christ’s skin, irritating it even more.

The dirty wood shoving splinters through Christ’s bloody ripped skin.

He falls on the gravel three times.

The gravel pushing up through the gaping wounds all over His body.

The burden of the cross falling down with our blessed Lord.

He carried His cross all because

HE.

LOVES.

YOU.

When Jesus reached the place called Skull, He was rudely placed upon the cross.

Nails that are thought to have been 7-9 inches long were hammered to Jesus’ feet and His hands, just below the wrist.

A block of wood was fastened to the cross under Christ’s feet which left His knees slightly bent.

“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

The nails driven through His hand and wrist area did not break a bone but they are thought to have hit a major nerve that controlled movement and feeling of the shoulders.

Because of the strain on the nerve, Jesus lacked the ability to lift up His head to breathe.

To be able to breathe, Christ had to put force on His feet that were nailed onto the block of wood so that He could force the rest of His body up to breathe.

He went through this pain because

HE.

LOVES.

YOU.

The soldiers mocked Jesus and made fun of Him.

They told Him that He should save Himself.

And He could have.

He is God.

He can do anything.

But He chose to stay on the cross.

Obedience brought Him to the cross

It was love that kept Him there.

His love for YOU.

Love kept Him on the cross.

Staying on the cross showed extreme humility.

His love brought about humility.

He humbled Himself to death, even death on a cross because

HE.

LOVES.

YOU.

Jesus was crucified between two criminals.

One on His right.

One on His left.

One criminal joined in with the soldiers in mocking Jesus.

The other one repented of His sins and asked for Christ’s forgiveness.

Confession.

Right there.

On the Cross.

“Amen, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”

He instituted the sacrament of confession and is gracious enough to forgive us of our sin because

HE.

LOVES.

YOU.

Mary standing at the foot of the cross.

Her pain inexpressible.

Her motherly desire to reach out and help her son was a desire like no other.

But She could do nothing.

It was in this moment that Her fiat was required to be a silent one.

Her yes had to be quiet.

She could only pray.

And then listen to Her son when He said,

“Woman, behold your son.”

He would not leave His mother alone.

He will not leave us alone simply because

HE.

LOVES.

YOU.

At about 3 o’clock,

The hour of mercy,

in Jesus’ great pain and agony He cried out to His father,

“My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”

Jesus then proceeded knowing that His time was almost finished and said,

“I thirst.”

He was given some wine on a sprig of hyssop.

This completed the fourth cup of the Passover from the night before and Jesus said,

“It is finished.”

Thus, that line has many meanings.

The Passover was now finished.

Christ’s time on earth was almost finished.

The suffering on the cross was almost finished.

Jesus cried out in a loud voice,

“Father into YOUR hands I commend My spirit.”

Jesus bowed His head and died.

The earth quaked and people came to believe.

“Truly this was the Son of God!”

“This man was innocent beyond doubt.”

This man was innocent.

Yet He was obedient to the point of death on a cross so that we might live.

Truly He loved us.

Truly He loves us.

And truly He always will.

He gave His life for us.

The least we can do is live our lives for Him.

Just as a side note, some of the information from yesterday’s blog and today’s blog came from a talk that David Calavitta gave the other night on Holy Thursday and Good Friday. He came up with some outstanding insights. So a huge thanks to him! Please pray for David and for all other church ministers that they may continue to do the work of the Lord and that they may continue to let the Lord use them for His glory. Thanks!

Holy Thursday. Wednesday April 20. Lent 2011.

And so we enter the Triduum.

Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday.

Holy Thursday is my favorite day of the whole year.

Hands down.

Without a doubt.

My favorite part of this day is after Mass when we all process into the hall and have Eucharistic adoration.

It brings me so much joy to see the hall jam packed with people praising their Jesus.

There are so many details and so much depth in these next three days.

Holy Thursday is the day when we remember the Last Supper.

Very significant.

Jesus celebrated Passover Seder with His 12 apostles.

Before the Passover celebration began, Jesus, in humble service to His apostles, washed their feet with His own hands.

Christ led by example.

He washed the feet of His apostles to bring to light many things.

Washing the feet of the apostles showed extreme humility.

It exemplified Christ’s parable that the greatest must become least

And that the exalted will be humbled.

The humility shown by the washing of the apostle’s feet was a prelude to the humiliation of the crucifixion.

The washing of the feet also symbolized the cleansing of sin by the death of Christ.

The tradition of the washing of the feet is a tradition that is still carried out at the Last Supper Mass.

And now begins the Last Supper.

The institution of the Eucharist.

The beginning of the most important part of our lives as Catholics.

“Then He took the bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them saying, ‘This is my body which will be given for you; do this is memory of me.’ And likewise the cup after they had eaten saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which will be shed for you.’”

This was the institution of the Eucharist.

It is for this reason that we live and breathe.

We live and breathe for the Eucharist.

Our hearts, minds, and lives should be centered on the Eucharist.

It was at this moment that the priesthood was instituted as well.

Christ took the bread, blessed it, and broke it.

He gave it to the apostles and said,

“Do this in memory of Me”.

Christ made His apostles priests so that they could continue to carry out the mission of the Church once Christ was gone from this earth.

It is unclear whether or not Judas was present when Christ made His apostles priests.

If Judas was present when Christ made His apostles priests, it just shows even more so how much prayer our priests need.

If Judas was made a priest, then from the moment the priesthood was instituted, human nature and jealousy and betrayal crept into the sacredness of the priesthood.

Regardless of whether Judas was made a priest or not, our priests still need prayer.

A tremendous amount of prayer.

Priests are still human.

Yes, they have been blessed with many graces but much is also expected of them.

They need our prayers!

And on we continue with the Last Supper.

Another most remembered event of the Last Supper is the betrayal.

Judas betrayed Jesus.

We all know this.

The betrayal began the events that led to the crucifixion.

Judas was jealous.

It is said that Satan entered Judas.

Judas just did away with His relationship with Christ for 30 pieces of silver.

Judas left at some point during the Last Supper and did not fully participate.

A traditional Passover dinner consists of four cups of wine with food in between each cup of wine. During the Last Supper, Jesus and His apostles partook in 3 of the required 4 cups of the traditional Seder meal. They then sang as song, per tradition, and then went to the Mount of Olives. It was unheard of to not complete the Seder meal. Interestingly enough, that last part would be completed on Good Friday.

The Garden of Gethsemane is located on the Mount of Olives.

It is in the Garden of Gethsemane that the Agony in the Garden took place.

Christ was under so much stress and in so much agony that His capillaries burst and He began to sweat blood while He prayed this prayer, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me; still, not my will but yours be done”.

Jesus was then betrayed by Judas and arrested.

The next day would be a lifesaving, world changing day.

The Christ Ride. Tuesday April 19. Lent 2011.

“There are days my head is spinning
Wishing I could hit the switch and end this ride
If it came to a stop and someone let me off I know
I would just get right back in line”

This is one of the verses to Mercy Me’s song, Back To You.

I have been thinking about these lyrics all day long.

I was thinking about this ride that they are talking about.

I personally picture it as a roller coaster.

With the ups and downs and thrills and scares.

The abrupt stop and the jerk forward and the loops in the air.

A roller coast is a great example of the Christian life we live.

There are ups and down.

There is joy and pain.

There is happiness and there is suffering.

Roller coaster makes sense.

I like the analogy.

So, if we are on this ride;

Who is controlling our ride?

I think there are two choices of operators-

Christ Himself and something or someone of the world.

I think if something or someone worldly is controlling our ride, then when we mess up or are tired of the ups and downs, the worldly thing would either let us off the ride or ask us to get off. I feel like there would be no tolerance for mistakes.

Such as in our life.

If we are allowing something or someone of the world to control our lives, it will not go smoothly.

If we fail, the worldly thing will disapprove.

We will fail the worldly thing and it will become angry.

The relationship of the worldly thing being superior and controlling our lives will never work out. We will eventually be kicked off of the coaster. And then we must go wait in line for the next worldly thing to grant us acceptance into the same old trap once again.

However, if Christ Himself is operating your coast, then the story is a different one.

Christ is all forgiving.

We can scream and become tired of the ups and downs and we may be rude to the person next to us on the ride and we may feel at times like we are just done and want to hit the off switch but Christ will never let us off of His ride.

We may consciously CHOOSE to get off the ride but He will never ever let us off.

He loves us too much.

It would not be of His nature to let someone off His ride of a Christian life.

How much better does the Christ ride sound already?

No being kick off?

Complete love and forgiveness?!

It already sounds so much better.

And if we choose to get off?

Well then that would be our loss and a bad choice.

To turn away from Christ as our operator would be a faulty decision

But we do it

EVERY.

SINGLE.

DAY.

Every time we sin, we are deliberately turning our backs on God and telling Him we don’t need Him.

When we realize we have sinned and hopefully humbly go back to Christ, what does He do?

He certainly does not tell us to get in line.

He receives us with open arms and gives us the best view on the ride.

He fastens the belt with His own hands of safety and protection.

And He says,

“I love you. Yes, you.

I always have and always will, no matter what you do.

My love for you is unconditional.

My arms are wide open waiting for you to come running.

I am so glad you have turned back to Me My child.

I am so very glad you are back”.

What ride are you on?

Get on the Christ ride.

Palm Sunday. Sunday April 17. Lent 2011.

Today begins Holy Week.

The best week of the year in my opinion.

Today is Palm Sunday.

The day that we stand for what seems like hours on end for the Gospel reading (which, by the way, is only about 20 minutes, yes, I did time it.)

The day we don’t listen to the homily because we are making crosses with our palms

and the day we tickle the random person in front of us with our palm

and the day we continuously poke our family members with our palm.

Ah, yes Palm Sunday.

Palm Sunday is the first day of the most contradictory week of the year.

This is the week where Christ suffered more than any of us could ever imagine and died a painful and gruesome death so that we all may live. Oh glorious day.

This is the week where we enter into a deeper understanding and connection with Christ and His passion and death.

Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey and the people greeted Him with their palms and praises exclaiming, “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel”.

The Jews wanted Jesus to be their king.

They shouted out praises and laid down their palms in front of Jesus.

The palms were a symbol of victory.

The victory of good over evil.

Christ is, was, and will always be that victory.

He is the victory over sin and death.

The Jews did not know exactly what was coming.

They didn’t know that the man that they wanted to be their king would change the world.

But they did know there was something special about Jesus the Christ.

They laid down the palms in humble victory at the feet of the donkey carrying the Christ.

This week is a beautiful time to take OURSELVES and lay ourselves down before Christ.

This is the week that Christ lived for.

He lived to die.

His life all comes down to this week.

The week of His death.

His suffering and death.

He deserves nothing less than ALL of our hearts this week.

He deserves for us to lay ourselves at His feet in humble self-giving.

He deserves our empathy this week.

Empathy is one of the most challenging emotions to express

But there is no one who deserves our empathy more.

This week I pray that you find it in your heart to walk with Jesus.

Follow Him in each step that He takes this week.

I hope and pray that this is the most fruitful and amazing holy week that we have experienced. 

I pray that we become closer to Christ 

And that we may truly learn how much Christ loves us

And that He makes us new people, in Him.

God bless you and your Holy Week.

Make it a truly holy week.

Let Christ show you the way of His passion.

Let Him show you, by His death, how much He loves you.

Let Him break you down so that you may be built up for Him.

All I am I want to lay down at your feet
All I am I want to lay down at your feet
All I am I want to lay down at your feet, yeah
I want to
I want to

I give You all of me for all You are
Here I am
Take me apart
Take me apart
Well I give You all of me for all You are
Here I am
Take me apart
Take me apart, yeah now

Tenth Avenue North-

You Are

Thought For The Night... Friday April 15. Lent 2011.

If we hated abortion as much as we hate cancer then maybe we would have a cure for cancer.
Think about it.