Immaculate Heart of Mary, Pray For Us!

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat [or drink], or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you more important than they?” –Matthew 6:25-36

Praise the Lord! The Church is strong into Lent and already I can “feel the burn” in my soul…also my body, but I am loving it! We have such a beautiful time to really be brought closer to God, and even though it can be difficult, Lent is meant to be a season of Freedom [insert exclamation point…woooo!] Something that is such a prison for us is control; an unchristian desire for control fills us with anxiety, leads us away from others, and stifles our relationship with the Father. He [the Father] wants to give us everything, “He said to him, ‘My son, you are here with me always; everything I have is yours.” –Lk 15:31, but so often our gaze is fixed on what we want, the things we have to get done, how on earth we are going to make it through the next week, we miss the voice of our Father and all the blessings He wants for us. A great weapon against control is gratitude; I am so blessed to have my brothers and sisters on SPIRITUS who are filled with such a spirit of gratitude, they really call me on to a greater level of trust in the Father and a greater recognition of the many blessings I am receiving. Gratitude is so important to our relationship with the Father, in a sense gratitude feeds on trust and trust feeds on gratitude. This Lent specifically, I am talking the Lent of 2016…this year…right now, is such an appointed time to grow closer to the Father and grow in our identity as His Children. You and I are beloved Children of the Father, and Mary and Jesus want to teach us to enter deeper into our identity as Children of the Father, to be ever more His “little ones.” Mary is the perfect Model for us, as a true daughter of God she knew everything she had came from the Father, everything was a gift, and her Immaculate Heart was filled with trust and gratitude, so much so that she was completely given over to His Divine Will. My prayer for myself and the Church as we enter deeper into this time of Lent is for us to truly let go of control , to allow Mary and Jesus to teach us to be Children of the Father and to receive all He wants to give us one day at a time, to truly be His Children. Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us! Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us!

-Mitch