NSU Catholic/Life Teen: a message from your priest.
During this time of uncertainty, I wanted to take a moment to reach out to everyone and let you know I’ve been thinking about you all and you’re in my prayers as I offer private mass.
These are unprecedented times: not being able to gather on Sunday for mass, many of the freedoms we are so accustom to suddenly gone, and a pandemic spreading throughout the world that has become deadly to some. In 1 Jn 4:16-18 the sacred scripture says: “God is love… perfect love casts out all fear.”
Being socially isolated from one another presents many challenges: having to do school work from home, lack of structure, the need for self-motivation, boredom, missing friends… and what to do with all this extra time on our hands? What we decide to do can great effect how we deal with this crisis.
As we prepare for Holy Week, starting with Passion Sunday this weekend, this situation we are in presents us with a unique opportunity to reflect on the meaning of life; to ask some deeper questions. Why am I here, why do I exist, what is the purpose of my life, who do I want to be, who does God want me to become? The answers we seek are found in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who came into the world to redeem us by dying on the cross and rising from the dead on Easter Sunday. We are invited to reflect on the great mystery of our salvation during Holy Week. It is the revelation of God’s amazing love for us. “God proves his love for us, that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.” Rm 5:8.
As we come to the end of the season of Lent what are ways Jesus has been calling us to grow in virtue and to abandon vice, who are people we need to forgive but struggle with letting go of resentment, how are ways we can come to know and love God more in our lives? Pick up a bible and read something from the New Testament, spend some time in quiet prayer with no distractions, talk to God and take time to listen.
By making the inward journey, we will encounter God who dwells within us, and discover a peace that passes all understanding in these trying times.
Rev. Marc A. Noël