Solemnity

When you're struggling with something - including church teachings and dogma, like that of the Immaculate Conception - remember: nothing will be impossible for God.

God knows our sufferings. He knows our failures. And he wants to rescue us from these things, to heal us from our sins and transform our minds to know that we part of his plan regardless of where we fall short. What we need to do is reorient ourselves to let Jesus take over, abandoning everything else in favor of God's will. Thus, when failures come our way, we will not be shaken - for our hope is in God alone.
Spend a few moments each day this week praying to God and abandoning yourself to his will, allowing him to be your king, the Lord over your life. Here is St. Charles de Foucauld's Prayer of Abandonment to get you started:
Father, I abandon myself into your hands; do with me what you will.
Whatever you may do, I thank you: I am ready for all, I accept all.
Let only your will be done in me, and in all your creatures.
I wish no more than this, O Lord. Into your hands I commend my soul;
I offer it to you with all the love of my heart;
For I love you, Lord, and so need to give myself;
To surrender myself into your hands, without reserve, and with boundless confidence.
For you are my Father.
-St. Charles de Foucauld
 
 
"Prayer of Abandonment". Text: Based on a prayer by Blessed Charles de Foucauld, 1858–1916. Text and music © 1998, Tom Booth. Published by Spirit & Song®, a division of OCP. Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE, License #A-737156. All rights reserved.

Sometimes we think we need to present a sanitized version of ourselves or of our lives to God, and then we wonder why we’re not healed. Why do we do that? Jesus ate with sinners, willingly. He touched the sick, physically. He sought out the lost, intentionally. He’s comfortable with our weakness, our brokenness, our foolishness. And in the Eucharist, he waits for us, like a parent waiting for their hurt child to move their hands so they can treat their owie.

In honor of Trinity Sunday, and with his departure approaching at the end of the month, Fr. Tony speaks to his personal and ongoing experience of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit during his time here at Holy Trinity.

When our focus is on God, then it's possible for us to be united together with all kinds of differences in our midst. That is what Pentecost is about: the coming down of the Spirit, renewing us and helping us to stay focused on God so we can be united.

Invite Jesus in to your life and ask Him what He wants you to do. As you begin to sense that He is telling you something, you have to respond. Little by little, you will begin to see Him moving within you – and, in that movement, you’ll experience the joy that comes with having Jesus in your life.

The message of Christmas is that God is with us. Have confidence and trust in that, and when you sense that God has provided you a star to follow, follow it!

There's a lot of misunderstanding about judgement, hell, and purgatory. So many of us hold an unhealthy guilt and fear of what judgement is going to be; that all the sins you've confessed will be held against you at the end. But God's mercy is everlasting and directed at each of us. Holding firm to that; understanding what hell and purgatory are, as defined by our faith, and practicing now the language and values of the Kingdom of God is the key.