I hope you’ll join me on this journey and invite your family and friends to share in the adventure, too. Please don’t forget to let me know your prayer intentions so that I can pray for you and those you care about. And, please pray for me as I hit the road to the National Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
I’ll be visiting the National Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help on June 23. It’s the only Marian apparition site in the United States and I’m inviting you to come along!
Author Jean M. Heimann has written a marvelous book that documents the apparitions, their messages, meaning, and impact on the Church. In Fatima: The Apparition that Changed the World (Tan Books, 2017), she describes the Fatima happenings in colorful detail and shares many little-known facts about Fatima, including saints and popes who have been deeply influenced by it plus much more.
Each Sunday as I say my prayer of thanksgiving after Mass, I try to take one point from the Readings or homily and form it into a motto or resolution that will carry me through the week. I’ve found this to be a very fruitful spiritual exercise. Now, I’m sharing my reflections with you.
If you want to have a great relationship with someone, get to know them on a personal level.
That’s true about people, and it’s also true about the saints. In particular, I’m thinking about the Blessed Virgin Mary.
I’m not much for fishing. But, there is one time that I actually get a hankering to go fishing and that’s whenever I hear today’s Gospel Reading.
We can tend to paint parents of “ideal” families as heroes, looking up to them as if they are all that we are not and as though we should feel guilty about it. Perhaps we did mess up in spots, and its normal to have regrets about that. Then we pray, surrender to Christ, and do what we can to set things right.
As you make your way along the Way of the Cross this Good Friday, stop to consider the weeping women and our Lord’s words to them.