In Genesis 12:v.1 - The Lord said to Abram: "Go forth from the land of your kinfolk and your father’s house to a land that I will show you." What would you do if God asked you to pick up and leave everything and everyone behind and go where He leads you? It’s a rather frightening thought.

Rev. David Cregan in his homily asked us to reflect on this scripture verse and ask ourselves "What is God asking us to leave behind?"

Spring is a good time for spiritual housecleaning, a time to retreat and ask ourselves the hard questions. Are our hearts cluttered with self-righteousness, pride, prejudices, greed, lust, and seeing the speck in our brother’s eye rather than focusing on the plank in our own eye?

Now is the time to reflect on our relationship with God and people. We are mere pilgrims on this earth. Our true life is in eternity. Yet we get so caught up in the routine of life it is easy to forget that God is the source of life. We don’t know the moment or the hour when God will call us home. When that moment comes and we’re standing before God, we won’t be able to go back and get our spiritual house in order.

Our lamps will be empty. We won’t have our cell phones, BlackBerry, iPad and computers. We won’t have our bank accounts, credit cards, country club, vacation home, or our friends and family. We will only have our acts of kindness, love, thoughtfulness, and generosity and the graces we receive from Masses, Rosaries, Adorations and whatever other virtues we deposited into our spiritual bank account. We will be standing alone before the face of God. As we judged others so shall He judge us? If we welcomed Christ into our heart during our lifetime, we will rejoice when we meet Him face to face in eternity.

Now is the time to retreat into our heart and take our spiritual temperature. Mercy Sunday is the week after Easter. It is a good time to renew our relationship with the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Ask Jesus what you need to leave behind in order to grow closer to Him and His mother. He will show you the way

Spring 2011