Divine Mercy.

 
We are in Holy Week and about to enter the church’s most holy days: Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter.

If only we could understand God’s tremendous love for us. Who can imagine the incomprehensible suffering of Our Lord’s Passion? … And He would have suffered it for each one of us, even if we were the only one.

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, mind, and strength. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

We muddle along, judging others, criticizing, complaining, and hurting others in our words and actions and neglect. He forgives us over and over again!
 

If we could truly understand this unbelievable gift, our only response can be a heart full of thanksgiving and a desire to pass this gift to others. With hearts full of gratitude, we respond to the ABC’s of Divine Mercy:

Ask for His Mercy. God wants us to approach Him in prayer constantly.

Be Merciful. God wants us to receive His Mercy and let it flow through us to others.

Completely trust in Jesus. God wants us to know that the graces of His Mercy are dependent upon our trust.

This is a special time of grace for all of us. Our Lord chose St. Faustina to be His special apostle to help us understand His gift. She lived in the first part of the 1900s, and she was the first person to be canonized in our twenty-first century.

Please consider praying a special Novena: the Divine Mercy Novena, which begins on Good Friday and ends with Divine Mercy Sunday. Pope John Paul II established Divine Mercy Sunday to always fall on the Sunday after Easter. (Coincidentally, he died on the evening of April 2, 2005 – a first Saturday and after the evening Mass in celebration of Divine Mercy Sunday.) So many graces are associated with this Novena and this Holy Day.

Click here to see the Divine Mercy Chaplet

Please come to Good Shepherd’s celebration of Divine Mercy Sunday from 2 to 3 PM on April 7^th for a Holy Hour with Adoration and Exposition and Benediction and please pass the invitation on to others.

Trust in Him always!

Eli's Story

Eli was a 15 year old student who attended Colleyville Heritage High School and was a member of Good Shepherd Catholic Church of Colleyville. Eli's warmth was in his smile and his gift to was the light in his eyes and the beauty and grace in his laugh. During his brief but blessed life he loved puzzles, cards, books, games, trains and videos. His heart glowed while swimming and going for walks with his family while he pulled his wagon. He loved everyone he met and his love was contagious.   Eli passed away on Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2012.  Please read how Eli impacted a very special student, Sarah, who wrote the following essay as a gift to Eli.

 

 

It’s extraordinarily easy to walk down my school’s hallways and not really see the kids I pass, not to see their struggles, their dreams and hopes for the future. It’s much easier to turn to the newspaper or Internet to find role models there. But they’re just ink on paper or pixels on a screen. No, it’s much harder to look around you and find real strength among your peer. Especially one in a helmet to keep him safe from violent seizures that claim his body.

                Eli walked the halls after everyone had gone to class so he wouldn’t get hurt in the rush of bodies. He walked with a smile on his face and happy words pouring from his mouth. I watched students avoid him, be scared of his strange mannerisms and, and not understand that he was badly brain injured. He would sometimes yell out, and thrash from his aide’s guiding hands. I watched this boy struggle to control his body, and suddenly my problems weren’t so big.

                I tried every time I saw him to smile, wave, or say hello. He usually stared vacantly at me, and occasionally waved back. His aide looked like she expected me to make jokes at his expense. I didn’t realize why until I watched a sixth grader point and laugh at him. I felt sick inside.

                Eli was one of the most innocent people I’ve ever met. He was in a bad situation, one he couldn’t escape, and still he was positive. He seemed to laugh a lot more than he was unhappy. He didn’t acknowledge the cruelty of others, let alone allow it affect his sunny mood. Seeing him was the bright point of my day. He was a genuine as it is possible to be. I admired him for his courage and his determination to find joy in life.

                If we all lived like Eli, we would be better off for it. He didn’t live with regrets. He lived in the moment and always was amazed when time turned, and a new moment came. He didn’t let the words of others bring him down: he was happy being himself, comfortable in his skin, and loved by the people who knew him. So maybe Eli was the perfect one, despite his physical disabilities. Does that make us the ones who are imperfect, flawed?

Maybe his handicap was what made him the way he was. It says a lot about our society that we can overlook the truly perfect souls to focus on our own selfish problems, our own flaws. Someday, if I’m lucky, I hope I can be half as good a person as Eli was.

                When I heard that he’d died in his sleep, probably from a seizure, I had to excuse myself from the classroom to cry. The thought that he had passed away, unnoticed by most of my classmates, made my heart sink and my stomach churn.

                                We had managed to be in school with him for three years and most of the other kids never noticed him. Maybe they never saw him walking the halls, or maybe they looked through him, or maybe they just didn’t look. Maybe it was easier to pretend he wasn’t there. What does it say about us that we can make another human being invisible? But it makes that invisible kid even more of a hero to me.

                To me, Eli represented so many things that were pure and good in the world. He was a pillar of perspective in a world full of people trying to tear him down. And yet he stood strong, he held fast to joy, perhaps without even knowing what he stood against. I refuse to let myself forget him, refuse to become just another student who has already dismissed his life.

                I never even knew his last name.

I guess in a lot of ways I'm more like my classmates than I wish I was, than I hope to become.  Eli, I hope you know how much you've changed my life for the better.  Goodbye. May you rest in peace, may your legacy never be erased from my heart.  

Stations of the Cross

Growing up in Kansas City, Missouri my sisters and I attended St. Bernadette’s Catholic School. Just like thousands of other students, we said the Stations of the Cross each Friday during Lent.  This was a normal Lenten practice for all of us. 

Fast forward some years, and for a long time, I would find myself too busy or tired from a long day at work to even think about attending The Stations.  The actual journey to the Cross was something I would only focus on for Good Friday.  Due to that day’s schedule, it may have limited it only to a short prayer between meetings or phone calls.  Somewhere along the way, the opportunity to spend time with the Stations represented itself to me, and each year since, it has enhanced my Lenten journey.  God is so good!

Tradition traces this loving tribute to our Lord back to the Blessed Mother’s retracing her son’s steps along what became known as the Via Dolorosa (the Sorrowful Way) on His way to His Crucifixion at Calvary in Jerusalem.  Pilgrims to the Holy Land commemorated Christ’s Passion in a similar manner as early as the 4^th century.  Later it became a way of allowing those who could not make the long, expensive journey to Jerusalem a way to make a pilgrimage of prayer.  Today, we have 14 Stations, these are meant to be “stopping points of reflection” along the way for prayer and meditation.

 

1.   Jesus is condemned to death.

 

2.   Jesus carries His cross.

3.   Jesus falls for the first time under His cross.

4.   Jesus meets His sorrowful Mother.

5.   Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus to carry His cross.

6.   Veronica wipes the face of Jesus.

7.   Jesus falls for the second time.

8.   The women of Jerusalem weep over Jesus.

9.   Jesus falls for the third time.

10. Jesus is stripped of His garments.

11. Jesus is nailed to the cross.

12. Jesus dies on the cross.

13. Jesus is taken down from the cross.

14. Jesus is laid in the Sepulcher (the Tomb).

This year the Station that is extremely powerful to me personally is Station #11 - Jesus is nailed to the Cross.  I find myself reflecting on this often.  I see the ugliness of my sinfulness, and can see each one of my sins nailed to His cross.  What added weight He must have felt.   Thoughts of my own pettiness,  wrongful pride, being small minded, unkind thoughts or actions, lack of willingness to forgive, these and so many others caused my Lord so much pain.  Yet He endured it, for you and me, so that we can have our sins forgiven and eternal life in Heaven. 

If you have never been before, now is the time to participate before your Lenten journey ends.  Don’t be anxious on how to participate, you will be given a pamphlet to follow.  To give you an idea of what you will experience, here is how it typically is presented:   

Ø  There is a beginning prayer with a response.

Ø  Each station will be announced and there is a response exchanged between the reader and the attendees

Ø  A reading of the Holy Gospels is presented that  goes along with the Station

Ø  The reader provides a short reflection

Ø  Other prayers are said during the Stations – the Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be will also be prayed.

I hope this article peaks your interest to attend the Stations of the Cross, especially if you have never had the opportunity before in the past.   I pray that it will enhance your Lenten journey and allow you to become closer to our Lord during his sorrowful Passion.   May God bless you now and always.

Less than a Servant's Heart

Often times we find ourselves venturing into service opportunities with less than a servant’s heart.  Perhaps we are “required” to perform a certain number of hours of community service as a school requirement or maybe we agreed to participate in a community service activity during lent.  Whatever reason brought us to the service opportunity, we usually have a different perspective upon completion.  Case in point, our Parish Service day on February 28.  At 8:30 a.m. on a cold and windy February day, our 90+ volunteers were preparing to spend time outside raking mounds of leaves or sorting through clothes in a cold warehouse.  Some were a little more enthusiastic about the task at hand than others.  Being a Jesus-style servant is not easy and, like many of you, I’d really like to be better at it.  I’ve volunteered on my share of committees and ministries over the years, but there is always some kind of reward or recognition.  If nothing else, I feel pretty good about myself for being so selfless! Having a servant’s heart means to not only place other’s needs ahead of my own, but to serve with the right motivation—and that is to put God’s will first.  Often times we complete the work we are assigned to do and don’t realize the impact it has on those we have come to serve.  Though gratitude should not motivate us to serve, I think it provides us with a different perspective, the perspective of the recipient.  Therefore, I wanted to share a letter we received from a grateful recipient of the service we provided on our Parish Service Day.

I am 88 years old and had the pleasure of getting yard work done by a super nice group.  I truly appreciate the work.  I used to be able to do my yard work for years and I enjoyed doing it, but can no longer do it.  Today a nice group of people from your church with children of different ages did a super job.  I know they will be rewarded for it by our maker.  You will always be in my heart and give me reason to believe that there are good people in this world.  

 

The gratefulness of this elderly woman shows us that small acts can have huge impacts!  My prayer for this lent is that God uses me as His hands and feet to make a difference for His kingdom and may my only motivation be God-centered.

 

Blessed are those servants whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival. Amen, I say to you, he will gird himself, have them recline at table, and proceed to wait on them. Luke 12:37

By Sarah L

Raising Little Catholics

It would be much easier if kids came with an instruction manual.  It would be nice if I had a question or a problem, that there was a 1-800 number to call and the expert on the other end of the phone would help me fix my kid right over the phone, similar to tech support on a computer.  But, no.  God sends us these beautiful gifts and then…nothing but a dial tone.  Or is it?

I don’t want too much for my girls.  I want them to be confident, independent, well-mannered, and nice to everyone and above all: Catholics—for life.  It is tough.  Everything I do, they do.  They are like little recorders.  They repeat what I say and do what I do.  It keeps me on my toes.  From what I say, to where I go, to what I watch on TV or what I listen to on the radio, they are watching and listening. 

I like today’s music, but when you hear a three year singing the lyrics to a song on the radio, “I cross my heart and hope to die.  But I’ll only stay with you one more night.” OH WOW!  Is that what they said?! And then you think, “Hmmmmm, maybe I shouldn’t be listening to that.”  These are the times I think God teaches me more through them then I can teach them about God.

How do we raise Catholics for life?  I don’t know. I try to be an example and teach them how to act and how to behave, but end up saying, “No, don’t do that.” And, “No, don’t say that.” And, “NO, NO, NO.” I feel like I am too negative.  And then feel guilty.  Is this going to drive them away?  Church is something that I look forward to every week, but some Sunday mornings trying to get all of us out the door…heck, I am ready to lose MY religion.  Is it worth it? Will this change their mind about being Catholic?  I do love that my children see Good Shepherd as another home.  I say that I am headed to the church for a meeting or whatever and they say, “Can I go with you?”  I guess that is a start.  What about the people that are in their lives: friends, teachers, babysitters, relatives.  Will this help or hurt?

Bottom line is I have no control over this.  I have to do the best I can.  I have to pray for guidance and listen to the Holy Spirit.  I have to have FAITH!  I need to have faith.  I cannot worry about it, because worrying is a sin in itself!  I think about my life and how my parents raised me.  I didn’t start out as a Catholic, but got here as fast as I could…that should be a bumper sticker!  Seriously, my parents raised me to be confident, independent, well-mannered, and nice to everyone and to put God as number one.  I have fallen several times, but He has always been right there when I come back.  Shoot, He was there with me when I was falling, I just chose to ignore it.  I am fortunate to be surrounded by a loving husband, family, and friends.  This support system is what God has put in my life to help me raise my little Catholics.  I continue to thank Him for the blessings that He has given me and to honor Him by raising future Catholics to do His work.

Bio:  I am a wife and a mother to three beautiful girls (ages: 6, 5 and 3) and another girl due in May.  I am blessed that I am able to stay at home with them.  We live in Fort Worth but happily travel the distance to Good Shepherd.