This Sunday we honor mothers on Mother’s Day and we are also celebrating the Ascension. Mothers are essential to our wellbeing and to the wellbeing of family and society. A mother’s role is often underrated or undervalued by a culture that values more money, status and power. A mother’s role is essentially service, service to her children, which is often a hidden and thankless task. There is really nothing more important in the world than a mother, because they care for and form the little people and forming them to be people of faith and responsibility. I am personally very grateful for the mother that God gave to me. She was the first teacher and example of the faith.

We are coming towards the end of the Easter Season with the Feast of the Ascension. We have been enjoying during this time joy of the Risen Lord and looking forward to the eternal life he has prepared for us.

 

Our Lord, with this Feast of the Ascension, goes to prepare a place for us in his Father’s house. When he has gone we hope to follow. In the Ascension we find the completion of Christ’s earthly mission – our redemption is accomplished. Today Our Lord is raised up in glory, opening the path into the heavenly sanctuary. The Ascension is the goal to which our personal and universal history is hastening, heavenly glory. We are indeed bound for heaven, and the Ascension reminds us that our gaze is to be fixed on Christ in glory even as we labor tirelessly for him in the present age.

I will be out of town this coming week at the annual priest retreat. The Bishop and all the priests of the Diocese will be gathering at the Immaculate Heart Retreat Center. The retreat director is a priest from Ohio. The retreat will focus on how God speaks to us through our lives, being attentive to the presence of God in all aspects of our lives and allowing him to speak to us with his grace. We are to become who God meant us to be as men of God and priests. It is through the events in our lives all along the way that God is leading us to become the persons and priests God has called us to be. Please pray for all the priests of our diocese on this retreat that this retreat will be a renewing and enriching time for all.