With Palm Sunday we begin our final week of Lent. This is such a beautiful season in our faith; a time to grow, a time to reconcile, a time to fast and to pray. Preparing ourselves to receive Christ and ALL the blessings following him brings to our lives.

This past Sunday we celebrated our youngest son’s First Communion. It was so fun to watch his excitement grow over the past few months as he learned more and more about our faith and prepared for this wonderful experience. I appreciate learning about our faith through our children. They have such simple ways of applying their Faith to their daily lives. We can learn a great deal from them. 

Wednesday, I lead our third through fifth grade Faith Formation classes at church through the Stations of the Cross. As we read and prayed, the emotions began building. I couldn’t see it so much in the younger kids, but I noticed the looks on the faces of the older students at times seemed quite somber. When we finished and returned to our classroom, I asked my students what their thoughts were. The overwhelming consensus was “sadness”. They made comments like, “How could those guards drive nails through another person’s hands and feet?” To these young people this wasn’t just a story, this was history and the person those guards were torturing was a REAL MAN, their friend and their savior, this was quite personal. It touched me that the students understood that this was real, this wasn’t a movie or a video game, this was something that actually happened. Their emotion was quite moving. 

For me, as a mother, Station Four is always the most difficult. “The Mother of God was pale, her eyes were red with weeping, and she was closely wrapped in a cloak of a bluish-grey colour. The clamour and insulting speeches of the enraged multitude might be plainly heard; and a herald at that moment proclaimed in a loud voice, that three criminals were about to be crucified. The servant opened the door; the dreadful sounds became more distinct every moment; and Mary threw herself on her knees.” The Grace and Faith that Mary possessed are remarkable examples to us. Knowing her son was to be put to death and having the Grace to not lash out to God or the crowd shows what a beautiful faithful mother she was. I turn to Mary often for guidance.

This coming week we prepare for many celebrations and it is vital that we examine our hearts, our minds and our lives. To fully receive the blessings God’s Kingdom brings, we must prepare. Life is an ongoing journey, full of lessons, obstacles, adventures, triumphs, devastation, & joy. It is up to us to embrace the lessons we have learned through Christ’s time on earth and apply them to our daily living. Little choices we make every day have big impact on our character, our hearts, & our legacy that we pass along to our family. Our Faith Legacy has a tremendous effect on our world as a whole, so I pray that you will embrace that and share it with others. 

This Easter, I pray that I will grow my Faith and have the Grace and Wisdom to share the lessons I have learned with my loved ones, friends, colleagues, and students. I wish you all a Blessed Easter and pray our world will find the Peace, Faith and Grace of Mary to pass along. 

Blessings!