Return to grace

Each year around this time I start planning for Lent. What shall I give up? What shall I take on? Continually grasping to worldly things to console emotions and appease passions is self-punishing: we punish ourselves by stepping away from His grace. Jesus is the remedy.

Chosen

Jesus is perspective-bending. People ‘don’t know what they don’t know”; since no other perspective but our own makes sense to us, we have difficulty even acknowledging that another way of seeing exists.

Our transfiguration

On the Feast of the Transfiguration, we are reminded to listen to Him. The daily Ignatian Examen prayer gives us an opportunity to learn His voice and recognize it in the small stuff of our life.

Upon His shoulders dominion rests

This week, we are celebrating the Ascension of Jesus into Heaven. As a babe kings honored Him. As a young man all abused Him. And now He will take those wounds into Heaven with Him, dignifying our humanity. Christ the King takes His proper seat at the right hand of God the Father and, with a watchful eye, oversees His dominion.

Entering into the Triduum

In true Hope, we walk with Jesus helping to carry His cross and knowing that it is only through Him that we may one day bask in the light of God’s face. Every small suffering, frustration or regret is opportunity for relationship with Him.