Manere in Christo: Sticking with Jesus

We are well into Lent at this point, and if you are like me, you have hit some bumps in the road during this Lenten journey.  It is not always easy to keep up our Lenten promises.  I will be the first to admit that I sometimes find it very difficult to stick with the sacrifices I promised to make during Lent, and I have a feeling that I am not the only one in that situation.  However, we know from Sunday’s readings that the Lord is close to us in our struggles.  He hears our prayers and calls us to come back to Him. Coming back to God.  That is what Lent is about.  Lent is the time each year when God calls us back to Him.  He calls us to repentance.  He calls us to reorient our lives towards Him.  God knows that this is a radical call, and He is patient with us.  He knows that we will often fall and struggle.  As we hear in the first reading, God comes to us in our struggles and difficulties.  When the Israelites were b...

                “Blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD,” is the easiest way to summarize the first half of Sunday’s readings (Jer 17:7).   However, it leaves us wondering, “why?”   Why should we trust in the Lord?   Why should all of our hope rest in Him?   Thankfully, the Gospel Acclamation tells us why!   “Rejoice and be glad; your reward will be great in heaven!” (Lk 6:23).   If we trust fully in the Lord, we will be rewarded immensely in heaven.                 In the reading from the Prophet Jeremiah, the differences between the one who trusts in himself and the one who trusts in God is clearly laid out.   We hear that the man who trust in himself, in the world, is closed off from God.   His “… heart turns away from the Lord,” and he is focused not on God but on himself (Jer 17:5). ...