Sunday Reflection by Fr. John

We have just completed our Lenten Retreat, Our God’s Healing Touch. This retreat provided us the opportunity to bring ourselves into the very life of Our Gracious God Who offered us a way for more intense personal renewal. A retreat gives us shared moments as a community of faith to ready ourselves for transformation as we can gain confidence through our Hope in Christ Jesus, to experience His Healing touch in our lives to restore us to physical, mental health and/or spiritual wholeness and ultimately to receive His Peace.
 
What gives us hope for the future?  As we move forward in our Lenten journey, we need a foundation of hope in the life that God has gifted to us. Moving forward is, in itself, a journey of hope as we trust in the Lord His love. At the pinnacle of our Lenten journey is the Resurrection. Jesus’ Resurrection is the most important event in our human history. During His ministry, Jesus promised that if we followed Him we would have eternal life. During Holy Week we enter more deeply into the Paschal Mystery of Christ’s life, passion, death and resurrection. We move forward to Easter, toward Hope, true Healing and Peace. The RESURRECTION gives us Hope. “By His death, Christ liberates us from sin; by His Resurrection, He opens for us the way to New Life,”
(Catechism of the Catholic Church, #654).
 
Let us prepare ourselves to continue on our Lenten journey as we move forward on our path of holiness to Holy Week beginning Palm Sunday on April 10, 2022.  To prepare for this Sacred Week, let us pray  for . . .
 
HOPE
Heavenly Father, I am your humble servant,  I come before you today in need of hope. There are times when I feel helpless, there are times when I feel weak. I pray for hope.   I need hope for a better future. I need hope for a better life. I need hope for love and comfort. Some say that the sky is at its  darkest just before the light. I need your light, Lord, in every way. I pray to be filled with your light from within my whole being.  Help me to hope in Your promises if I turn away from the ways of the world and follow You. Guide me by Your light and lift me up in hope. Help me to live my life in faith, to trust in Your goodness and have confidence in Your love and mercy. In your name and hope in You, lead me to your peace, AMEN

HEALING
I know You are the Creator of all things and bring all things to goodness. I know and  believe that You Sent Your Son, the Resurrection and the Life, to recreate us so we may remain in Your image. You created me and know my every need (Psalm 139:14-16). My heart is full of desires for healing, and today, I come before You and I trust You completely with those desires. Open my eyes to see the healing that You are already  working within my life and the lives of my loved ones. You work in mighty ways.  I pray that Your Healing love, Your Holy Spirit, is at work bringing me and all those that I pray for to wholeness of health in mind, body and spirit, AMEN.

PEACE
Hail Holy Mary, Queen of Peace, be my refuge and help me along my way to God! As a pilgrim of Light and Hope, I give thanks to God the Father, who in every time and place is at work in human history; As a pilgrim of Healing, I give praise to Christ, our surest path to wholeness; As a pilgrim of Peace,  I  open myself to the Spirit Who awakens and pours forth comfort and loving support.
 
Hail, Mother of Mercy, Queen of Peace, with my hands lifted in prayer to the Lord, draw all people together into one human family, together united in God’s love. Dear Mother, Our Mother, provide aid in my following the path of Your Son. Give me strength along my pilgrim way; to walk in His goodness and be bathed in the Healing Light of God.
 
Bring me HOPE, bring me HEALING, and at last, enveloped in the Light that comes from Our Lord, may I be brought to wholeness of life, may I have PEACE, through the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit,  now and  forever, AMEN.