Stop putting boulders in His way

From the Desk of Father David

Dear Friends in Christ,

             In John’s Gospel, Jesus says, “take the stone away” before He raises Lazarus from the dead.  In the book Rebuild, the authors come up with the conclusion that God will rebuild His Church, we need to stop putting boulders in His way and start working with Him.  When we apply both of theses truths to the spiritual life, we realize that Jesus wants to do great things in our lives, but first the stones needs to be removed.  Boulders are items in our lives or Church that block God’s action.  Some common boulders are lack of forgiveness, anger, loneliness, pride, apathy, trying to do too much, and anxiety.  Over the next couple of weeks, it would do well for all of us to reflect upon what stones need to be rolled away with God’s help, so that our lives can be transformed into a spring of life giving water.  This new spring of life giving water not only brings more peace, joy and healing to ourselves but also to those around us.  The first step is to grow closer to Jesus through 1. enriching our prayer life, 2. fasting from what we don’t need and feast on what is life giving to ourselves and others and 3. spending time listening to and building others up.  These three come from the Ash Wednesday Gospel.

Let us make this Lent the best by growing closer to Christ and each other.  Our Lenten promises should be positive.  For example, I will help my family by spending less time on my phone or computer or I will help feed the poor by buying an extra item for the food pantry with the money I saved from not buying coffee everyday. 

Lord Jesus, Your Spirit is the well spring of life that dwells within us.  Help us to remove anything that blocks us from allowing Your Spirit to enliven every aspect of our lives with new strength.

Peace,

Fr. David