I was 16 years old on a youth group retreat in the mountains. One night, I opened my heart to the message being proclaimed: that God so loved the world that He sent His Son for us. Later, I lay under the pine trees and looked up at the countless stars. They seemed different. No longer cold, distant balls of chemical reactions, they appeared as an expression of God's love, as if He were giving those stars directly to me. The truth of God sending His Son changed how I saw the whole universe.

"He breathed on them and said to them, 'Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained." (John 20:22-23)

For those of us who go to confession regularly, there is often a familiar frustration: "Why do I keep confessing the same sins?" It can feel like a loop, cleansed but unchanged.

Happy Sunday!

Fr. Michael leaves this weekend for the parish pilgrimage to Ireland. Please keep them in prayer for safe travels and a fruitful pilgrimage! This week, on Monday, our school will celebrate the 8th grade graduation. It's hard to believe that another school year is drawing to a close. On Thursday, we'll have our kindergarten promotion and the last day of school for everyone will be on Friday. I want to offer a special word of gratitude to our principal, Mrs. Thompson, and her incredible faculty and staff. This was Mrs. Thompson's first year as principal, and she did a wonderful job.

Happy Sunday!

This Sunday in our second reading we hear from the first letter of St. Peter, "Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts. Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope, but do it with gentleness and reverence ... " This beautiful passage always strikes to the heart.

We generally approach life with the question, "What can this do for me?" We try a new workout, a low-carb diet, intermittent fasting, or a new career path, hoping it will make us healthier, stronger, happier. The assumption is that if I invest in this, I'll eventually reap some benefit, or I won't do it.

Happy Sunday!

This past weekend we celebrated the First Communion and Confirmation for a group of about 100 children and adults. Fr. Thielo Ramirez in Williams came to confer the Sacrament of Confirmation in his role as dean. I am so grateful to Cathy Carlsen and her amazing team who lead religious education for our children. Skyler Wilkie and Michael Vollmer prepared the teens and adults for Sacraments and I am grateful to them and their teams as well!

Happy Sunday!

As we continue the Easter season our parish prepares for our First Communion and Confirmation Mass this coming Saturday, April 25th. I am so grateful to Cathy Carlsen and her team in their preparations for this wonderful event. Of course it is not just an event, but has been two years of preparations, especially through Sunday Mass and catechism classes. We will also have some adults receiving their Sacraments this Saturday. Please keep candidates in prayer as they prepare for this special day.

Happy Divine Mercy Sunday!

Today is the last day of the Octave of Easter and Divine Mercy Sunday. St. John Paul II instituted this feast in 2000 at the canonization of St. Faustina Kowalska. Her diary, "Divine Mercy in My Soul" recounts her personal experiences of Jesus in prayer and his invitation to her to promote His mercy. She was given, by Jesus, the Chaplet of Divine Mercy to be spread throughout the world to encourage souls to trust in the mercy of God.

Our Collect prayer at the beginning of the Easter Mass prays thus, "O God, who on this day, through your Only Begotten Son, have conquered death and unlocked for us the path to eternity ... " The Easter celebration is a celebration of life and the victory over death. In 1 Corinthians 15 St. Paul famously wrote, "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

Happy Palm Sunday!

Today we begin Holy Week as we celebrate the entrance of the Lord Jesus into Jerusalem. As the crowds sing, "Hosanna to the Son of David!", we also experience an ominous feeling as we anticipate what will come in a few short days. One of the beautiful practices during Holy Week is to participate in the daily mass readings each day. Each day of readings leads to the next and helps prepare us for the sacred Triduum. If you are able to attend daily liturgies during this week I certainly recommend it.

Happy Sunday!

This weekend we celebrate the 5th Sunday of Lent and the Third and Final Scrutiny for our Elect preparing for baptism this Easter. It's amazing that Lent has flown so quickly. Please keep our Elect in prayer as they prepare in these final weeks for baptism. Keep an eye out for the Holy Week Schedule and the Easter Mass schedule. The Easter Sunday Mass schedule will be slightly different from our normal Sunday schedule as we attempt to accommodate the larger crowds.

If you are like me, it's easy to fixate on our shadows: failures, guilt, shame. Especially when we suffer, it is easy to want to blame ourselves or others. In this week's Gospel, Jesus' disciples ask about the blind man, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents?" (John 9:2) They, like us, focus on blame. But Jesus sees the entire situation differently: "Neither he nor his parents sinned; it is so that the works of God might be made visible through him."

Happy Sunday!

It is great to be back in Flagstaff! I can't believe how the time has flown. Thank you to everyone for the warm welcome back. It always feels good to be home. On my sabbatical I was able to spend the month of February in Honduras working on my Spanish, praying, and reading. I was very grateful that the Missioners of Christ opened their doors to me and welcomed me into their community.

When I sit down to answer emails or write a Gospel reflection or return a phone call, I sometimes wonder: Does any of this humdrum work matter? Maybe you ask the same thing about your daily labor. Today's Gospel, the Transfiguration, offers a surprising answer.

Jesus leads Peter, James, and John up a mountain. There, "his face shone like the sun face and his clothes become white as light" (Matthew 17:2). That detail regard- ing his clothes is worth considering.