Last week’s blog was about the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Specifically, how it changes us, sets us free and thus changes the world and influences our neighbors and families. Making the journey to the confessional, to seek Jesus in this beautiful and intimate sacrament is often scary and can be a bit intimidating. Today, I’m going to share some resources and ideas for helping to prepare our hearts, minds and souls to jump back into Confession. 

Growing up, I believed that going to confession was one of the scariest things that I could do. I was incredibly nervous because confession is uncomfortable. We have to dig deep, reflect, sit in silence and be sincerely sorry for the things we have done that hurt another. As humans, those things seem hard, scary and many of us would much rather avoid them. 

Are you ready for battle?  Man, I wonder if that should be a question we start asking during marriage preparation!  When a young couple sets out and prepares for marriage the last thing they are thinking about is battle?  Hopefully, they realize they won't always get along, they won't always agree, children will do their best to pin them against each other, BUT, battle?  What do I even mean by that?

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Quarantine? Are you serious?  What does that even mean?  According to our handy dictionary, it means, a state, period, or place of isolation in which people or animals arrived from elsewhere or been exposed to infectious or contagious disease are placed.  I haven’t been anywhere?  They are telling me what??  I have to stay home? Educate my children?? Put up with my husband all day???  WHAT????

“Tell us, Mary: say what thou didst see upon the way. 

The tomb the Living did enclose; I saw Christ’s glory as He rose!”

Victimae Paschali, Sequence for Easter Sunday

Victimae Paschali Laudes, the medieval sequence chanted before the proclamation of the Gospel on Easter Sunday, tries to express in beautifully inadequate words the reality of what we celebrate during the Easter liturgy. 

For most Catholics, Lent 2020 has been a Lent like no other. We have found ourselves giving up things we never thought of giving up, due to forced quarantines, lock-downs, lay-offs, and perhaps for many of our Catholic Marriage Prep couples, even wedding dates and receptions. The global pandemic, and our response to it, has made us reflect on our own mortality, our faith, and our priorities in life.

Henry Ossawa Tanner's The Annunciation

Every year on March 25^th, the Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord, the mystery wherein God takes on flesh and comes to dwell in the womb of Mary. This mystery has always had a special place in Catholic devotion and piety. For one, we remember Jesus’ incarnation, the truth that God put on flesh and became man in Jesus Christ. In addition to this life-altering event, we honor Mary’s role in this whole drama we call Salvation History. That despite her confusion and the plans she may have had for her life, Mary gave her fiat, her total and complete yes, to her role in God’s plan of salvation.