​The Holy and Joyful Season of Lent is approaching. “Return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning. Rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the Lord, your God, For he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love.”     Joel 2:12-13
 
For the Christian, Lent is above all, a journey, a journey of repentance. It is important to stress that repentance is different from regret or remorse. The truth is many people can live their whole lives tormented about remorse without changing anything about themselves. Repentance is responding to God’s call through Jesus Christ our Lord. We turn to God, who heals us from sin and its destructive effects.
 
How do we repent of our sins?
 
1. Confession: Well, the Sacrament of Confession is one of the greatest graces we have as believers, where sacramentally the Lord absolves and frees us from the sins which create an obstacle between us and God.
 
The Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us: "God created us without us: but he did not will to save us without us. To receive his mercy, we must admit our faults. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” And the Apostle John writes: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 8:9). Lent can be a turning point for us. The disciplines of Lent help us to leave behind old habits and the lazy addiction to the evil that deceives and ensnares us.
 
2. Practicing Self Denial:  The Scriptures and the Church have always encouraged us to “practice” repentance. How do we do this? By removing some things from our lives during Lent, like certain foods, or activities on which we relied for comfort. This helps us to realize how spoiled we have become, how much we cling to worldly things. Giving up certain foods, candy, entertainments, etc. all help us to intensify our spiritual journey. These practices help us to acknowledge that God is the only true source of peace and happiness. Do something that hurts – make sacrifice, fast and give alms. Don’t make it a token act out of obligation – pray and ask the Lord how we can really sacrifice ourselves and unite ourselves to the cross. No true self-denial is real without this dimension of penance. We should be distrustful of a something that costs nothing and does not hurt.
 
3. Works of Charity: It’s not however, just about what we take out, but it is just as much about what we put into our lives this Lent. Sadly in the Western world, we seem to be moving more and more toward self-indulgence and selfishness. It is our fallen human nature that calls to us – to be anxious, to worry, to be fearful, and to try to fulfill all our wants and desires. This too is so harmful to the spiritual life. Lent is leading us on a journey to learn to trust God, for He alone can provide us with what we need. Only the Creator, not the creature, can offer us what we really need.
 
3. Almsgiving: One specific act of charity is to give alms, to help our brothers and sisters in need. It is clear in Scripture that God desires us to focus our attention on the needs of our brothers and sisters. Scripture speaks clearly to the fact that if we ignore the poor, we endanger our spiritual lives. We fill ourselves with heavenly treasure when we empty our pockets for the poor and needy. In the Catechism (#2443) it says: “God blesses those who come to the aid of the poor and rebukes those who turn away from them: “Give to him who begs from you, do not refuse him who would borrow from you.” (Matt 5:42) “The Church's love for the poor is a part of her constant tradition."  (#2444)
 
4. Prayer: Prayer is not distinct to the Lenten season. But what the Lord asks us is to intensify our prayer life. There are many ways to do this. Stopping for a few moments throughout the day, at lunch time, in the car, early in the morning before we begin the day, and to pray and recollect ourselves, asking for God’s grace and taking time to listen to Him. Another profitable way to pray is to use the Scriptures. The goal of prayer is to dispose ourselves so that the Lord can make our hearts like His. “Fac cor nostrum secundum cor tuum” translated: “Make our hearts like yours”  (Litany of the Sacred Heart of Jesus). In this way we will receive a heart which is firm and merciful, attentive and generous.
 
Pope Francis writes: In the face of so many wounds that hurt us and could harden our hearts, we are called to dive into the sea of prayer, which is the sea of God’s boundless love, to taste his tenderness. Lent is a time of prayer, of more intense prayer, more prolonged, more assiduous, more able to take on the needs of the brethren; intercessory prayer, to intercede before God for the many situations of poverty and suffering.”
 
“It’s hard to get in shape spiritually if you only work out on Sunday”
 
God Bless, Fr. Dennis

​This Wednesday, February 19th, Bishop Boyea will give the Sacrament of Confirmation to thirty high school students here at Most Holy Trinity. This is an exciting day for our parish and the students being Confirmed! It is always great to have our bishop visit. Please come to the 7:00pm Mass that evening if you can!
 
Also, because Confirmation is this week, I wanted to take this opportunity to talk about a common misconception surrounding this sacrament and to clarify some of the changes we’ve made to Confirmation preparation in light of that.
 
Over the past couple of years I was on an advisory committee at the diocese that focused on making changes to how we prepare students for Confirmation in order to address the growing reality of more and more Catholics leaving the faith after they received Confirmation as teenagers. Being a part of that group encouraged me to focus on what the Church teaches about Confirmation and let that be my starting place for what preparation for this sacrament should look like. Ultimately, going back to the Catechism forced me to see that I had some false assumptions about Confirmation and that we needed a dramatic shift in how we prepare students for this sacrament.
 
The Catechism says that Confirmation is the "sacrament of Christian maturity.” I was raised to believe that this meant Confirmation is a kind of “rite of passage,” a sacred ritual where someone accepts the faith for themselves and commits to the responsibilities of being an adult Catholic. In this way the student is “confirming” their own faith. That understanding of Confirmation is, and has been, very widespread and has led to most preparation programs becoming sacrament conveyor belts. What that has looked like here at MHT is that when a student reached a particular grade they started Confirmation preparation and were, for the most part, expected to receive the sacrament along with everyone in that grade.
 
However, that is not at all what the Church believes about Confirmation. When the Catechism calls this the sacrament of Christian maturity it means that God is maturing the person receiving Confirmation by giving them more of what they already received at Baptism. An authentic understanding of Confirmation is that it’s the completion of a person’s baptism and a continuation of Pentecost.
 
The Catechism says “the sacrament of Confirmation is the special outpouring of the Holy Spirit as once granted to the apostles on the day of Pentecost.” And then goes on to list the effects of this sacrament on the recipient:
 
- brings an increase and deepening of baptismal grace
- it roots us more deeply in the divine filiation which makes us cry, "Abba! Father!”
- it unites us more firmly to Christ;
- it increases the gifts of the Holy Spirit in us;
- it renders our bond with the Church more perfect;
- it gives us a special strength of the Holy Spirit to spread and defend the faith by word and action as true witnesses of Christ, to confess the name of Christ boldly, and never to be ashamed of the Cross
Notice the “more than” language here. The person being confirmed already has baptismal grace, is already a child of God, is already united to Christ, etc. All these things happened at their Baptism. However, what God planted at Baptism He brings to maturity in Confirmation. God is the one “confirming” the candidate in their identity as His beloved son or daughter.
 
It is from this perspective that we have made the recent changes to Confirmation preparation. This sacrament is something that is personally discerned depending on the desire and disposition of the individual wanting to receive it. It is not a rite of passage. Neither is it the decision of a candidate’s parents or family. There are only two people that discern the readiness of a candidate to receive Confirmation: the person themselves and the Church.
 
What that looks like here then is that anytime after a student finishes 8th grade, if they desire to be Confirmed, they will meet with Corey or me for an initial interview. At that interview we will discern that student’s desire and disposition for this sacrament based on the Church’s guidelines that include a candidate’s prayer life, sacramental life, parish life, moral life, and their ongoing catechesis. Based on that interview we will give each student a preparation program tailored to them that could include recommendations for daily prayer, retreats, catechesis, Mass, Confession, etc. These recommendations are their Confirmation requirements and each student’s recommendations will look different. We will follow up with each student throughout the year and when they are ready for Confirmation they will attend a two-day Confirmation retreat and will be able to be Confirmed at the next Confirmation Mass with the bishop.
 
It has only been a few months since we have implemented this new process and we are already seeing the fruit. The personal interviews focused on helping students articulate their relationship with God now and where they want it to grow have been invaluable. These meetings have already caused Corey and I to adjust our other events in order to meet the needs that we hear being expressed in the interviews. This new program also empowers students to see their faith life as their own rather than just their family's, allowing them to invest personally in their relationship with the Lord. It puts the decision of whether or not to be confirmed and when to be confirmed more into their hands rather than the sacrament being an automatic thing because they reached a certain age. 
 
Because we are in a transition year where the high school sophomores are going through the old preparation program while the freshman are going through the new process I want to address some potential confusion. This Wednesday it is only sophomores being Confirmed. In future years we will begin to see students across grades being Confirmed, and the only reason freshman are not being Confirmed this week is because we haven’t been able to meet with them more than once for their interviews. If you have any questions at all about Confirmation preparation please don’t hesitate to reach out to me.
 
Finally, I would like to encourage you to pray for these Confirmation candidates in a way perhaps you haven’t before. As I said above, the Church teaches that someone receiving Confirmation is receiving the same outpouring of the Holy Spirit that the Apostles did at Pentecost. With that in mind, please pray for these candidates specifically that they will be filled with the Holy Spirit as the Apostles were. Pray that the Spirit will reveal Himself personally to them. Pray that they will be empowered to perform signs and wonders. Pray that they will have a renewed relationship with the Holy Spirit and, like Mary, hear His voice and respond to His promptings throughout their entire life. 
 
God Bless,
Paul

​Personally, this time of year is always kind of crazy for me. I get a little caught up in planning mode and get semi-overwhelmed, and then kind of zero in on what is important for just me. Our youth ministry has a lot on the schedule for this spring. There’s the Mission: Wixom coming up, the Spring Break trip, 8th grade weekend retreat, then after that is Steubenville already. Having four big events in a matter of four months ends up putting me in a place (sometimes) of just living and breathing the plans and the details. Planning is a good thing and it is important, but there are different times when I am planning these things without the mind of Christ, and I get stuck in just what I am doing.
 
When my mind is so inwardly focused like this, I end up forgetting and not being totally mindful of the busyness of all the lives of people around me. Whether it’s the parents of kids that I have in my youth group or the high schoolers that I work with, everyone is absolutely so so BUSY. Between school, work, practices, sports, appointments, etc., there is sometimes no space in our lives to think about anything else. We just end up living and breathing the plans and details, right? Like I said before, planning isn’t a bad thing, but if it isn’t balanced by an overall bigger perspective or direction for our life, then what does it do for us? If we don’t have that balance then usually, from what I have perceived from the kids I work with, I think it just creates anxiety. When we don’t know who we are or what direction we are meant to go then planning is kind of pointless right? 
 
The readings for this weekend give us a clear direction for our planning. “Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.” We are made to be lights to the world! We are made to draw people into Christ and glorify the Father just by being that light! The mission of all of our youth ministry is to help kids realize the light that God has made them into and then take that light to the dark parts of the world. Most of our retreats are built around building the kids up as lights to the world, but especially our Spring Break trip coming up is one where some of our youth will actually get to go be a light in a place that really needs it, which happens to be in Appalachia. 
 
The people in the Appalachian mountains have had the darkness of poverty around them for a long time, and this year I am very excited that MHT and St. Mary’s will be able to partner with Christian Appalachian Project. This organization will put us to work in different impoverished areas of Kentucky that need home repairs. We will get to know the families we are working for and give them our light of help and hope. Like I said before, it’s really easy to get caught up in our own lives/planning, but it’s in the core of our identity to be able to bring God to people. Now, not all of us can take time off and dedicate a whole week to helping others but I’m hoping some of you will be willing to help our young people be a light with the work we do.
 
If there is anyone who has been feeling personally called to help those in poverty, please reach out to me through email, or if you have been feeling more called to financially help the youth or those in poverty then please consider partnering with us on this mission! 
 
~Corey Luna