When
Jesus reminds us to "remain in me," he wants us to "stay in
touch" with him. But we know that we don’t have to move away to lose
touch. We continue going to church regularly, but lose touch with Christ when
we just go through the motions of religion, without our heart and mind being
fully in it. In fact, we are not "remaining" in him; his words don’t
nourish and direct us. We also lose touch with Christ when we partition our
lives into two parts; our coming to church being one small section, with the
rest of our lives forming a separated and out-of-touch-with-Christ part.
Instead our lives need to be more unified as we earnestly seek to remain
connected to Christ in both prayer and action. How we fashion our lives, what
we do and how we think, should not be disconnected from what we profess here at
worship.
Jesus
doesn’t spell out how we are to "remain" in him. Coming to church to
hear his Word and be nourished by his life-giving food constitutes one way.
Learning from the example of our sister and brother believers is another. There
are many more, daily religious practices that strengthen our ties with Christ.
We will have to choose one or two: reading and meditating on scriptures;
receiving the sacraments; praying the rosary with its focus on events in Jesus’
life; attending special church services; joining a reflection group, etc.
Activities
outside the usual religious settings are also practices that help us remain in Christ.
There we can try to put his love for people foremost in our daily lives,
especially his love for the poor, ill and outsider. The possibilities are many
and each of us will have to find our own way to "remain" in Christ.
These ways will also change over the years, so we need to be open to the new
possibilities the Spirit blows our way. We know one thing for sure: our
gathering here each week is a central way to keep the ties with Christ and his
other branches strong, so we do the best we can to participate fully.
(The
Preacher’s Exchange)
FIRST
HOLY COMMUNION – Congratulations to all those who made their first holy
communion last weekend. Thanks to Bev O’Grady for taking the classes.
CONFIRMATION
– April 30th – Students downstairs. Parents and sponsors upstairs. Fr. Damien
is coming back to preach.
SPRING
CONCERT - Tickets are on sale at the back of the church today and from the
office during the week.
The
concert is on May 12 at 7:30. Coro San Marco will be here to sing. This is a
parish fund-raiser.
Fr. Phil
