Exciting! Amazing! Awesome! Relieving! These words were spoken by our 8th Grade students about the Luke 18 retreat they’d been on all weekend. They attended the 10:30 Mass last Sunday, and were certainly the focus of the Mass. I asked them beforehand what they’d say about the weekend, and those were the words they said. The one young man said “relieving” because he found out that God could really forgive their sins, and that they could forgive each other too. Pretty good retr

LISTEN TO HIM—Last Sunday, the gospel was the shocking event of the Transfiguration. Why shocking? Well, it certainly was for the apostles, who were just walking along dusty roads from place to place with Jesus when this happened. It’s also shocking for us, because it happens in Lent! and early in Lent. While we may think of it as a dark, penitential time, the church from ancient times has presented this glorious vision of Christ for our Lent. Early writers of the church said

SPIRITUALITY—what is it? One description is, it’s the way we live. It’s what we choose—what we choose to do, what we spend time on, what we spend money or effort on. The deeper are the things we spend our time, effort, or treasure on, the more satisfied our spirit will be. That’s what Lent is about. Why “give things up”? In itself, this has no value. But if making a few choices to not be so automatic about food, diversions, or “passing time” instead of doing something with it