4/10/2014 – Thursday of 5th week in Lent – John 8:51-59

       “Amen, I say to you: whoever keeps my word will never see death.”  The Jewish people of Ancient Israel don’t understand the truth that is contained in these words of Jesus.  Didn’t Abraham and their ancestors die?

       Sometimes we don’t understand the ways of the Lord.  Sometimes what happens in our lives doesn’t see to make a lot of sense.  But God is there.  We can find meaning even in tragedy and struggle.   One of the saints we celebrate this week is a Carmelite nun named Teresa of the Andes.  Teresa was the first saint canonized for the country of Chile – a very traditional Catholic country in South America.  Teresa felt the call of God in her life as she grew up in a prominent Chilean family – she joined the very poor Carmelite convent of Los Andes in Chile when she was still a youth. Unfortunately, she was not there long – she died of typhus in 1920, three months short of her 20^th birthday.  Teresa was named one of the patron saints of the youth when she was canonized by John Paul II in 1993.  Her joyful faith and love of life still speaks to us today, even though she did not live a very long life here on earth. She once said in one of her letters to her family – “"I am the happiest creature. I don't desire anything more because my whole being is satiated by God who is Love.” May the joy of our faith permeate our lives, and may it lead us on our journey of faith. 

3/21/2013 – Thursday of 5th week Lent – Genesis 17:3-9; Psalm 105:4-9

         Holy Week starts in just a few days.  Our reading today from the Book of Genesis tells us about the covenant God made with Abraham.  In this covenant, God promises to be faithful to Abraham and to his descendants; he promises to make Abraham the father of a great nation. We hear about covenants during Lent because Jesus is our new covenant, because the salvation Jesus brings us through his death and resurrection is our new covenant. 

         “The Lord remembers his covenant forever” – the psalmist expresses great confidence in this statement made in Psalm 105.  I remember that in some of my darkest moments as a missionary, both in Ecuador and in Canada, I took things one day at a time, I walked by faith each step of the way.  Sometimes we need to take it one day at a time in the midst of our struggles and sufferings.  Sometimes that is the best we can do.  But God never forgets the covenant He makes with his people.  God never forgets the covenant that He makes with us. 

         Our psalm states: “Seek the LORD and his strength, seek his presence continually”.  May we the members of the faithful truly believe the words of our psalm today, placing our trust in our Lord.