I will leave this place and go to my father and say:
‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.’ LK 15:18
‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.’ LK 15:18
JOSHUA 5:9-12 ©
My Soul's Beloved,
Grant that we take advantage of the Sacrament of Reconciliation before the great feast of Easter so we may wash away the stench of Egypt, the foul odor of our slavery to sin from our souls then we can truly, as one Body, rejoice in the glory of Your Resurrection in the hope that we will share in it one day.
Unless we are cleansed of our grave sins we cannot partake of the true manna from Heaven - Your Body and Blood. Without this Eucharistic food, we will wither and die and will be cut off from the Vine eternally.
But if we remain in You, Lord, and You remain in us, we will be fed by You, nourished by You, given life in You, and taste the joys of the Kingdom of Heaven even while we are here on earth.
2 CORINTHIANS 5:17-21 ©
My Soul's Beloved,
We are so grateful to Holy Mother Church for this wonderful season of Lent. Of the 12 months given to us each year, we have 40 days devoted to reflecting anew God's unfathomable love for us.
St. Paul's letter to the people of Corinth and to us reminds us that our old sinful lives are crucified with You and we have now received new life in You. Your Sacrifice reconciles us to the Father. You restored what our first parents lost forever. The Father loves His sinful children so the Sinless One became the means through which we now belong to the family of God.
As children of God, we are each assigned the mission and the responsibility to spread the Good News of salvation. Unless the world knows that they have a Redeemer, a Savior, a Messiah, who has reconciled them to God how can they be saved? We are Your ambassadors, weak, sinful, frail, but these clay vessels contain Your power and through this power, we are able to witness to the Gospel that saves.
LUKE 15:1-3,11-32 ©
My Soul's Beloved,
If You didn't eat with sinners where would I go? You came for me. I have hope of salvation because You came to seek and save the lost. Thank You!
The Eternal Son of the Living God is able to reveal the prodigal love of the Father only because You know Him. He and You are one.
The people of the world are either like the younger son or the older one. We are either profligate sinners who have no regard for the things that are holy and have neither love nor respect for God or we are sanctimonious, pious, prigs like the older son. Only when we personally encounter God's prodigious love for us can we humbly accept how little we deserve it.
The character of the father in this parable is a revelation, his exultant joy at the return of his repentant son, even though his reasons for doing so are suspect, still the father cannot wait to restore to him all that he had so callously turned his back on. The son discovers with wonder and awe that his father had never stopped loving him.
Reflecting on the attitude of the older son it is clear that neither son knew their father because they deliberately chose to exist outside their father's heart. They were both interested in what they could get not what they could give.
At the end of the parable, Beloved, you draw us into this glorious secret - God our Father will always run to meet us no matter what bedraggled state of sin our soul is, and He will forgive and welcome us home.
‘The father said,
“My son, you are with me always and all I have is yours. But it was only right we should celebrate and rejoice, because your brother here was dead and has come to life; he was lost and is found.”’
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