Weekly Reflections

Just giving you all a quick update on my health and thanking you for your support during Holy Week and Easter. Keep the Easter celebrations going strong during the next few Sundays with lots of joy and excitement!

In some ways, Palm Sunday/Passion Sunday is almost like Cliff’s Notes of the Week.  We begin with the wildly glorious celebration of Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem. Then, WHAM! We walk straight into the rock wall of the Passion Gospel

I hope that since it’s Lent, you are finding some quiet time to rest and ponder where you are in your life, secular and spiritual. But even though it’s a time for a “bit less”, things aren’t stopping at St. Margaret’s. Take a look at some upcoming news and fundraisers.

For me, Lent is about change and obedience. As we journey through Lent, consider if God might be calling us to some kind of change. Maybe something small that only you would notice. A very helpful question to ask the Holy One in prayer is, “What is the next good thing you would like me to do?” Then, be sure you listen for a few moments for God’s guidance.

Sometimes as I got older, it almost seemed to me that the focus of Lent was more on the technicality of what we were giving up, and less on the spiritual meaning of Lent. Last week, I saw a wonderful bit of advice from Pope Francis. It has stayed with me day after day. Read what Pope Francis says about fasting for Lent.

This week’s reflection letter includes our Ash Wednesday programs and our Lenten class on the Psalms called “Words from the Soul”. In the meantime… Get ready for Lent with an explosion of ALLELUIAS!

I am delighted with the warmer temperatures we’ve been having for the last few days, and grateful for the not-terribly-chilly nights (not just for my heating budget, but also for all the folks who are outside). But the light is still dimmer than I’d prefer. So you can imagine how much I love EPIPHANY!!!! The season when we celebrate enthusiastically the LIGHT that has come into the world, and which darkness cannot defeat.

The secular calendar tells us Advent is about getting ready for Christmas. True. A number of the readings tell us it is about getting ready for Christ’s return at the end of time—also true. But the way we prepare for Christ’s return is by how we live day after day. So Advent asks us: What will you do TODAY to make room for Jesus in your life? What will you do TODAY to bring his return each day, not just in the future?

Many of you have heard me say how fond I am of the Jesus Prayer. It is a simple sentence, composed of a few words, which can be repeated prayerfully throughout the day to keep us grounded and centered in God. But more than that, it is an expression of our faith, an acknowledgment of who Jesus is, and a reminder of our own status.

Some of us have to live paycheck-to-paycheck. And some of us are fortunate enough to have money in savings.  But it is a fact of life that we all need money to survive in this world.  While St. Margaret’s is all about our spiritual lives, even a church needs money to keep the lights on,