The Road To Easter

Ash Wednesday and Lent.

Happens year after year around this time.

How many of us forgot?

How many of us didn’t forget, but were simply “going through the motions”?

Easter is the most important day in the life of a Christian.

Christmas is critical, but loses all meaning without Easter.

You have thought of that, right?

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Food for Families.Nov18

Where do you volunteer?  Presumptuous of me to think you volunteer, right?  Maybe. Maybe not.

You do volunteer, don’t you?  Not judging anyone, simply assuming everyone does something, no matter how big or how small.

When I look at volunteer opportunities, there are a few criteria:

1. We do it as a Family
2. We look for “traditions”
3. We focus on a learning point
4. We have to be able to integrate it into our lives

This morning is a perfect example.  I’ll be reading as a Lector, and Cheryl will act as a Minister of Holy Communion.

Our son (9) has seen us do this once or twice a month for his entire life.

We also have him place our offertory envelope in the collection plate every week.  He knows how much money we give.

When he gets older, we are confident that our actions will instill in him a duty to serve others with his time, talent and treasure.

Do you ever think about the messages you send to your children, or the young people in your lives if you have no children?

“Setting an example is not the main means of influencing another, it is the only means.” –Einstein

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Einstein Was Correct

“There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle.” — Albert Einstein

Attending Kevin’s funeral on Christmas Eve, this quote from Albert Einstein was printed on the cover of the funeral bulletin.

Have you ever been struck with a profound thought or observation, when you least expect it?  When it’s presented in such a deceptively simple format – in this case, printed text?

One more thing struck me from attending Kevin’s funeral, but not until this very moment.  Kevin’s son, maybe three years old, was there, of course. Estimating there were 300 people attending.

But the only other child I saw was the one in my arms most of the Mass.

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Doing the first reading this morning at Mass.  May God’s Holy Spirit fill me with the wisdom to read in such a way, that the parishioners will feel like God is speaking to them and not me.

Blessed beyond measure we are.  Aren’t we?

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And the fact that I would be delivering homilies (sermons) to dozens of elementary school children boggles the mind.

Yet, it will happen again today, like it does the fourth Sunday of every month.  My wife and I volunteer to do this.

Four years ago, a woman from our Church made an appeal to the congregation that she needed more volunteers or Children’s Liturgy would go away.  After Mass, we volunteered, thinking we would simply be helpers “on the sidelines”.

Funny how things turn out exactly opposite from the way we expect.

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