 Welcome to Guardian Angels
Catholic Church
Mead, Colorado
Dear Friends and Families of Guardian Angels Parish,
The parish is very grateful for the Women's Group and our youth who prepared and served the Chili Bingo Supper. The soups were great, in case you missed the evening, we're sad. The bingo was lots of fun; I think even before I left almost everyone had won something. Thank you, Pat, for picking all the right numbers and calling them out. I hope everyone had as fine an evening as I did; even I won a gift card! It is always good for us to get together and celebrate and socialize. I can't tell you how much I'm missed the Sunday morning folks, so I'm happy to be at Guardian Angels for two weekends in a row.
Lent begins this Wednesday with ashes being distributed at a 7:00 a.m. Mass Wednesday morning. Then we will have the six Fridays of Lent for Way of the Cross and time until 8 pm to enrich our faith and observance of Lent. This year we're going to use a fifteen minute video series on the seven deadly sins, which seems appropriate to the season of Lent, and may provide you with a fine way to prepare for the Sacrament of Reconciliation this Lent. Remember that I'm there at 4:30 and on every Saturday to hear confessions. You are also welcome to make an appointment with me to meet at other times, and even at my office at Naropa University. I'm very easy to find there.
The Sacrament of Reconciliation is a profound expression of God's love for us, made more real because it is with an ordained priest. In the gospel this Sunday Jesus forgives sins, and as always in the gospel, he does so in a personal, real human encounter. God does this because God wants us to know that God is always with us. Sin and forgiveness are not some abstract, ephemeral thing we do alone and intellectually. Nor is sin and forgiveness ever just private. There's a kind of thinking out there that runs something like this, "Well, I did this thing, but it did not involve anyone else and no one got hurt. It was private." In the grand scheme of things there's no such thing as an isolated or completely private human act. Nor is forgiveness and reconciliation merely private matters. Indeed all the sacraments of the Church are very public.
The Catechism teaches us (#1484): “Individual, integral confession and absolution remain the only ordinary way for the faithful to reconcile themselves with God and the Church, unless physical or moral impossibility excuses from this kind of confession. There are profound reasons for this, Christ is at work in each of the sacraments. He personally addresses every sinner: “My son, your sins are forgiven.” He is the physician tending each one of the sick who need him to cure them. He raises them up and reintegrates them into fraternal communion. Personal confession is thus the form most expressive of reconciliation with God and with the Church.”
So the focus of this story in the gospel of Mark is not at all the miracle, but the intimate and person way that Jesus and the Church following his example minister the sacraments personally with presence.
That God forgives there can be no doubt; that is the point of the first reading from the prophet Isaiah to remind us of God’s unwavering love and commitment to us, inviting from us a reciprocal commitment to God. The Church invites all of us during this time of Lent to experience God’s reconciling love in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
It is from the second reading, II Corinthians 1,22 that the Church has received its understanding and teaching of the “seal” of God upon us in Baptism and Confirmation that is permanent and prepares us for heaven. I remember that we used to call this an indelible mark on our souls. This is a beautiful reminder of something new that has changed us and made us children of God.
I hope you remember your fundamental baptismal character, and then empowered by this seal of God, that we should act accordingly and consistently with the commandment to love. And that even when we fail and fall short, our God is there to save us from ourselves and forgive us all our sins. In the sure and certain knowledge of our faith handed on to us in our Catholic tradition let us stand firm in this faith always.
Finally the parish is very grateful for Laura Gillett in her liturgical and musical leadership, most recently preparing an in-pew guide to the Masses
Peace and every blessing,
Fr. Alan
02/19/2012
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