A Letter from Fr. Paul - Sunday, February 18th

God is always calling us to grow, to change, to live Gospel values more fully.  Lent is a special time to pay attention to this call for metanoia.  But, if we are to change and grow, we need to make the effort to do so.
 
One important aspect of change is to spend quiet time with the Lord, allowing the Lord to speak to us.  Quiet, meditative time also helps us see ourselves more clearly, discerning what is good and what needs to change in our lives. Changing oneself is difficult; I think it becomes
almost impossible without quiet time to reflect on who we really are, allowing God to influence us.
 
Our community is offering two resources to help us this Lenten season. One is the Little Black book, which has two entries for each day.  The page on the right each day will walk us through Luke’s Passion account. The page on the left presents a fact or story, which sometimes, for me, sparks a deeper meditation.
 
The second is something we introduced a couple years ago for Lent. It is the Post Game Review, an exercise based on the Examen of St. Ignatius, which invites us to spend time in the evening reviewing our day.  If you no longer have the card explaining the review, there are
copies on the table in the lobby in the vestibule of church. 
 
I plan to use the Little Black book in the morning for some quiet reflection time and the Post Game Review at the end of the day to reflect on how I am doing and how I might need to change my course.  However you decide to do it, I encourage you to make sure you have goals for Lent, with quiet time set aside to reflect on how you are doing.  That is how real spiritual growth and change will take place.  Dear Lord, help us make good use of this special time of the Church year.  Amen.  God bless.
 
Church sign of the week: If you do what you can, God will do what you can’t.