This week marks Holy Week beginning with the celebration of Palm Sunday commemorating Christ's entrance into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey, to shouts of Hosanna!...Many of our children processed into church yesterday holding their palms and singing Glory,Laud and Honor..to you Almighty King...It was a beautiful entrance and moment as we recall Christ's life on earth. We stood longer during the reading of the Gospel - many chapters - describing Christ's passion and death - what God did for us through His only begotten Son. Did we complain our feet were hurting a little more?...our backs were a little achey, we were hungry, or tired? I know my mind drifted through all those physical things that cause discomfort and yet my spirit was so focused on the words of scripture and the manner in which Christ accepted His sentence and cruel death without complaint.
Most Christians worldwide recognize Holy Week and they participate in it in some manner as they prepare for the glorious celebration of Easter and a Risen Christ! For Cathlolic Christians, this week is the most important week as we remember God born man and his passion and death for the sake of our salvation. His total surrender to the Father's Will, not His own; how selfish we are day in and day out, even in our Christian outlook, of being our own gods! and not really submitting ourselves to God's Will.
I look forward to this time of year more and more as I mature both in age and faith. It is not easy being Catholic, it never has been, it is very challenging to live the faith truly, it can be very counter-cultural, (no-birth control) especially in this day and age when most, including some very good Christians are looking for a feel-good mountaintop experience and only focus on non-suffering and a Risen Christ with no cross in sight, forgetting that before that glorious day occured, much suffering occured. I feel in awe of how God works through His church on earth, a physical presence for man to commune with and how many sources of grace He grants us through such a presence. Christ did leave us with structure and form to follow. He taught us everything - how to pray, how to forgive, how to suffer, how to commemorate, how to invoke His presence, how to draw on the power of the Holy Spirit, how to Rise again to new life -the Gospels tell it all.
I am Catholic by choice in my life and remain faithful to what I know and believe to be true: whether the church goes astray or corrupt, still doesn't change the fact it is the original church founded by Christ and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. It is challenging to be a true practicing Catholic - a lot of people may bail from it, many are cafeteria types that pick and choose what they want to believe in rather than what God has given us to believe; a lot of people may not understand it, but still others remain steadfast. I want the challenging faith! Christ has not left His church. This makes me more convicted and during this time of the liturgical season I could not be more grateful for my Catholic faith and the practices that go with it, that are not in vain, but rather, are edifying, faith and character building and help deepen my faith and belief in Christ and leave me in awe of our great God! God's church has given us so many "helps" for the long road of life on earth. All the church gives us and teaches us leads to Christ. It is not for her benefit, it is all for the glory of God for which we all benefit.
I am Catholic by choice in my life and remain faithful to what I know and believe to be true: whether the church goes astray or corrupt, still doesn't change the fact it is the original church founded by Christ and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. It is challenging to be a true practicing Catholic - a lot of people may bail from it, many are cafeteria types that pick and choose what they want to believe in rather than what God has given us to believe; a lot of people may not understand it, but still others remain steadfast. I want the challenging faith! Christ has not left His church. This makes me more convicted and during this time of the liturgical season I could not be more grateful for my Catholic faith and the practices that go with it, that are not in vain, but rather, are edifying, faith and character building and help deepen my faith and belief in Christ and leave me in awe of our great God! God's church has given us so many "helps" for the long road of life on earth. All the church gives us and teaches us leads to Christ. It is not for her benefit, it is all for the glory of God for which we all benefit.
I could go on and on because I have such a great love and passion for Christ and my faith, but instead, let me leave you with three thoughtful books, the links to them, that I posted previously in a recent post. These books are excellent for any time of year, but seem to make impact naturally at this time of the Christian year; I hope you will consider reading them. God bless you this week!
May you die with Christ and Rise to new life in the Risen Lord!
2 comments:
I love the new look of your blog! I had spent a week mostly away from anything other than school and work, and missed a lot!
Thank you Megan! It was time to move into the 21st century with my blog -- I loved my old blog - the parchment paper look, but technically it was very old! This new technology is really cool. Thanks again!
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