The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered to him. Mark 1:12-13

We begin the season of Lent by recalling how, immediately following His Baptism in the Jordan, Jesus Christ is lead out into the wilderness (or the desert). It is there that Christ spends forty days before He returns to Galilee to begin His ministry and call His disciples.

Lent is derived from the Middle English word lente, which means ‘springtime,’ which is descended from the Old English lencten. Often, we will hear the word Lenten, which means ‘of or relating to Lent’ and also ‘meatless.’ There is also another word that may be familiar to some used as a synonym for Lent – Quadragesima. This comes from the Latin quadragesimus, which means ‘fortieth.’

It is interesting that the root word of Lent should carry the meaning of springtime, given the image most closely associated with the Lenten season is that of Jesus alone in the desert. How could a desert, so dry, barren, and isolating, evoke any thought of springtime, when flowers blossom, trees regrow their leaves, and new life springs forth?

Well, there is a springtime in the desert. It is just not one that is visible. This springtime takes place internally, within the soul.

For forty days, we must venture out into the wilderness with Christ so that our souls can be purged from all that is holding us back in our spiritual life, in our relationship with God. We must be freed from all our vices, all that leads us into sin. Of course, as human beings who are subject to concupiscence and to falling again and again, it is unlikely that we will be completely purged of all vices and sin by the end of these forty days. But we can assuredly attain greater freedom from these obstacles in our spiritual life than we had at the outset of our journey into the wilderness and a deeper relationship with Our Lord.

And so, we must imitate Christ in His forty days of desert isolation. This does not mean we literally have to go out into the middle of a desert and sit there for forty days without food and water. What it means is that we must spend time over these forty days following the three pillars of Lent: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.

When Jesus came to the end of His forty days in the wilderness, Satan came to Him to tempt Him. Given Jesus had been fasting, Satan probably thought this was the best time to strike as He would be weak from not eating or drinking for forty days. He presented to Christ three temptations: turning stones into bread, bowing to him with the promise of bestowing on Christ the kingdoms of the world, and putting God to the test by jumping from the temple roof with the presumption that the angels would save Him.

Each of these three temptations are overcome by each of the three pillars.

The first temptation, transforming stones into bread, is the lust of the flesh. In this context, lust of the flesh does not refer simply to sexual sin, but to any bodily pleasure that tempts us to sin – in this case, desire for food, which could lead to gluttony.

The second temptation, where Satan offered Jesus all the kingdoms of the world if He bowed down to him and worshipped him, is the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. Satan promised to give Jesus the ‘glory’ of these kingdoms, which included all the things they contained within them, and ruling over the world clearly appeals to pride.

And the third temptation, whereby Satan suggested to Jesus that, since He was the Son of God, He should throw Himself off the temple and that the angels would save Him if He did, again goes to the pride of life, given the devil wanted Christ to exploit His divine authority. It also goes to the sin of presumption – that God will save us no matter what.

Here’s how the three pillars of Lent help us to overcome the three great temptations.

Pride of life is overcome by prayer. When we pray, we acknowledge our dependence on God. We acknowledge that we cannot do anything without Him. Often, when we try to do things on our own, we make a mess of them and end up finding ourselves crawling back to Him for help. Our recognition through prayer that we rely upon God and are dependent on Him increases the virtue of humility within us and helps us to ensure that we do not become prideful and turn away from His loving care.

Fasting helps us to overcome the lust of the flesh. When we fast, we deprive ourselves of all bodily pleasures. We might choose to give up certain foods or drinks that we like, things that would bring us fleeting pleasure. While many of us will abstain from meat on Fridays, we can take this further in various ways, whether it be abstaining from meat a few days of the week, or maybe even fasting throughout the day on a Friday until our evening meal.

But while fasting from food and drink is good, we can also fast from other things that lead us to sin. We might fast from watching television, or from social media and scrolling on our phones. We could fast from becoming angry with others, from losing our patience, from being judgmental, from becoming embittered. Our goal really should be to target those things which either cause us to sin or which are themselves sinful, so that we can at the very least reduce sources of temptation in our lives.

Fasting is important because it teaches us and increases within us the virtue of temperance. It becomes an avenue for control – as we grow more and more used to going without the pleasures that we are depriving ourselves of, we are able to gain a greater degree of control over them and our desire for them. When we fast, we strengthen our will, so that we can better resist temptation.

The lust of the eyes is overcome by almsgiving. When we engage in almsgiving, we are able to become increasingly detached from worldly objects. We can give charitably to those who are in need and reduce what we purchase ourselves to only those things which are essential. This does not mean solely just giving money to others, although this is certainly part of what almsgiving is. We can also give time to others to help them in any way they need.

When we engage in prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, we are better able to deal with temptations when they come. And they will come. Because when the devil sees us working to turn away from sin, to strengthen our wills so that we can repel it, to grow closer and deeper in our relationship with God, he will strike and attempt to bring us back down. It is when we are growing in holiness that the devil comes to tempt us. But don’t be put off by temptation. Because temptation means you’re doing something right. The devil does not need to tempt those who are already deep within sin and not seeking the forgiveness of God. He does not need to tempt those who are already his. He tempts those who are God’s in an effort to cause them to fall so that they may turn away from God. But through the practices we engage in during Lent, we can ensure we are better equipped to resist the suggestions Satan tempts us with and send him away with nothing.

Prayer is at the root of that. When Satan begins to tempt you and makes a suggestion, turn to prayer immediately so that you avoid contemplating the suggestion and purge it from your mind. It can be a prayer you make yourself, or you might pray an Our Father or a Hail Mary. Any prayer can help to prevent a temptation from progressing into sin.

When we observe the Lenten practices and make changes in our lives throughout the season, it truly can become a springtime for our souls, whereby the virtues can begin to bloom. But if we want them to continue to grow, we need to keep nourishing them. They are like flowers – without proper nourishment and maintenance they will begin to lose their colour, wilt, and die.

That is why, if we want to continue to grow in the virtues, in temperance, charity, humility, wisdom, fortitude, prudence, justice, chastity, faithfulness, patience and so forth, we need to make sure that what we practice during Lent continues after the season concludes.

Consider this: Jesus was born of the Immaculate Virgin Mary. His Blessed Mother was the Immaculate Conception. She was conceived without Original Sin. She had to be, as the Mother of the Lord, the Mother of the Saviour who would offer Himself up as the perfect sacrifice on what would become the new Tree of Life, had to be a perfect vessel with no impurity. Thereby, Jesus Himself, being the perfect, unblemished sacrifice, born of the Immaculate Conception, was also without Original Sin. Christ had no concupiscence, and so He never would have been tempted by what Satan offered Him.

You may wonder then: Why would Jesus put Himself through forty days of fasting and isolation in the desert if He could not be tempted anyway?

It all goes back to fulfilling the salvation of man, and also providing an example for us to imitate so that we can attain that salvation.

Jesus prayed constantly throughout His forty days in the desert. This period of isolation took place right before He was to call twelve men to follow Him, men who He would teach, instruct, and nourish before sending out to do the Will of the Father. Among other things, Jesus likely prayed for those He was going to call. In praying and fasting, He was showing us what we must do to avoid the temptations of this world and become more like Him.

But Jesus’ time in the wilderness is better understood in the context of salvation. In Mark’s short and sharp account of this part of the life of Christ, he writes of something that is unique to His Gospel: ‘he was with the wild beasts, and the angels ministered to him.’

While there are several accounts of individuals with wild beasts in the Old Testament, Mark’s account of Jesus with the wild beasts points us back to Genesis, to the very beginning, when Adam was in the Garden with the wild beasts. And this leads us to the Fall. In the Fall, Adam and Eve were tempted by Satan. They saw that which was forbidden to them by God, the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil (lust of the eyes), and they desired to eat of it (lust of the flesh) after Satan suggested to them that in eating of it they could become like God (pride of life). In the Fall, each of the three great temptations were put before man, and man succumbed to each, thereby condemning himself to the clutches of sin and death.

We know that Jesus is the ‘New Adam.’ So, just as Adam was tempted by Satan in the Garden and was overcome, it was necessary, in order to right Adam’s wrongs, for Christ to face those same three temptations and to overcome each of them.

Once we understand this section of the Gospel in the context of Genesis and the Fall of Man, we can see the greater purpose that Jesus Christ’s forty days in the desert serves.

During this Lenten season, let us spend time with Jesus in the wilderness, taking the time to reflect, to spend time in prayer, to give alms, and to fast, especially from those things which cause us to stumble. Let us hold fast to the pillars of Lent and purge ourselves from all that is holding us back from growing in virtue and in our relationship with God.

When Jesus concluded His time in the desert, He went into Galilee and began preaching the Gospel, telling the people of the town that the Kingdom of God is at hand.

When we conclude our time in the wilderness, let us do as Christ did. Let us go out into the world and share the Gospel with all others so that they may come to know God and to love Him. Let us use this time of Lent to prepare ourselves so that we can be faithful and effective disciples of Jesus Christ and make disciples of all the world. And may we continue to grow in the virtues and the graces of God.

This Sunday, we hear from Mark’s Gospel the account of Jesus and the leper. While we are all probably familiar with the healing of Christ and, when it comes to leprosy, His healing of the ten lepers, this healing is particularly profound for several reasons and carries a number of lessons that apply to the way we live in the modern day.

Having cast out a demon in the synagogue, healed Simon’s mother-in-law, and preached, healed, and cast out demons throughout Galilee, Jesus is now out, presumably in a place isolated from the town. A leper approaches Him seeking healing. Here is the full account from Mark’s Gospel:

And a leper came to him begging him, and kneeling said to him, “If you will, you can make me clean.” Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, “I will; be clean.” And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. And he sternly charged him, and sent him away at once, and said to him, “See that you say nothing to any one; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, for a proof to the people.” But he went out and began to talk freely about it, and to spread the news, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but was out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter. (Mark 1:40-45)

It’s a beautiful account of healing. To fully comprehend it, however, it is important to provide some background on leprosy.

In the Biblical times, leprosy accounted for a wide range of diseases of the skin. The context is therefore broad in just exactly what condition someone had when they were considered leprous. If we look back to the Old Testament, the first person to be afflicted with leprosy was actually Moses. In Exodus 4:6-9, when God is providing Moses with assistance for his mission to free the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, we see how Moses is provided with a sign for the people so that they might believe:

Again, the LORD said to him, “Put your hand into your bosom.” And he put his hand into his bosom; and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous, as white as snow. Then God said, “Put your hand back into your bosom.” So he put his hand back into his bosom; and when he took it out , behold, it was restored like the rest of his flesh. “If they will not believe you,” God said, “or heed the first sign, they may believe the latter sign. If they will not believe even these two signs or heed your voice, you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it upon the dry ground; and the water which you shall take from the Nile will become blood upon the dry ground.”

Moses did have leprosy, however he was healed by God so that the people would believe in the Lord and listen to Moses.

The next time we see leprosy is in the Book of Numbers (12:9-16), where Miriam is punished by God for speaking against Moses. Moses intercedes for her, asking the Lord to heal her, which He does, but not without punishment. Miriam is cast out and shut up outside the camp for seven days in isolation, and is then brought in again healed.

We also see a leper in Naaman, an army commander who we meet in the second Book of Kings. He learns from a maid of a prophet in Samaria who can heal him. He comes to the house of the prophet Elisha, likely expecting to see the prophet and be healed by him. However, Elisha sends a messenger to Naaman, who tells him to go and wash in the Jordan seven times. Naaman, in spite of his anger at the prophet not coming out to cure him in the name of the Lord, goes down and dips himself in the Jordan seven times, and his flesh is restored. He then returns to Elisha and gives thanks to him and to God, seeking to give the prophet a gift, which he refuses to take. However, Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, goes to Naaman and takes the gift for himself. When he returns to the prophet, Elisha punishes him by bringing upon Gehazi the leprosy of Naaman.

The final time we see a case of leprosy in the Old Testament is in the second Book of Chronicles (2 Chronicles 16-23), where King Uzziah enters the temple and burns incense on the altar of incense, something that only the priests were permitted to do. King Uzziah becomes angry when reproached by Azariah the priest and, upon becoming angry, leprosy breaks out on his forehead. He is then cast out and lives as a leper until his death, dwelling in a separate house.

In each of these manifestations of leprosy, it is either related to sin, or is used for the glory of God. In the cases of Moses and Naaman, their leprosy glorifies God by showing His gift of healing. In the cases of Miriam, Gehazi, and King Uzziah, leprosy is a punishment for their sinfulness.

In the Biblical times, leprosy was not just a disease. It was a sentence of punishment and isolation. The leper would lose his family, would be isolated from the community, and would not be able to enter the temple (ie. unable to go to church). It was more than just a physical disease. The psychological aspects were profound.

So when the leper approaches Jesus, he has likely undergone significant physical and psychological suffering. It is important to note how the leper approaches Jesus. We are told he kneels before Him. In Biblical times, particularly in the Old Testament, kneeling was something that was only done before God. It can thereby be inferred that the leper had faith that Jesus was God.

What is most profound are the words the leper speaks to Jesus:

“If you will, you can make me clean.”

If you will.

He does not demand that Jesus heal him. He does not say, “heal me.” He kneels before the Lord, with great humility and in what could be seen as an act of adoration of the Lord, and essentially surrenders himself to Jesus, putting it all in His hands, saying “if you will.”

He makes a request of the Lord, but he leaves it up to Jesus to choose to heal him.

Oftentimes we can get so caught up in our own will, in what we want, that we can begin to practically make demands of God. We can try to conform Him to our will, rather than surrendering to Him and allowing His Will to be done. The leper’s words are like a prayer in themselves. They echo the Our Father, when we say “Thy will be done.” But they also act as their own prayer, one that we can make our own:

“Lord, if you will, you can help me.”

“Lord, if you will, you can (insert request).”

We know that Jesus did will for the leper to be healed, and He has the power to Will our requests in prayer to be brought to fruition.

But we must take heed of what occurred after the leper was healed. Jesus sternly told the leper not to tell anyone but to go and present himself to the priest and follow the Mosaic Law. He tells him to do this because while Christ is not the Mosaic Law, but rather God Himself who makes clean and remains clean, He wants the people to follow the Law of the Covenant. He does not yet want to upset the priests, and He does not want to merely be seen as a healer-man, but wants the people to listen to and understand His preaching, His message.

The leper, however, did not do as the Lord asked, going and telling everyone what had happened. He may well have also broken the Mosaic Law. It is, in a sense, ironic, given that now Jesus would be viewed as unclean given He touched the leper in healing him. The leper was an outcast and has now been restored, but now Jesus, after having healed him, is an outcast Himself.

Many may wonder why we are told Jesus ‘sternly’ charges the leper not to tell anyone about his healing. There are only a few times where we see Jesus showing great emotion, becoming troubled – for example, in the Garden of Gethsemane. The most likely reason Jesus sternly charged the man is that He knows that what the man has asked for, God has delivered, but what God has asked for, the leper has not delivered. The leper’s actions following his healing contain echoes of the disobedience in the Garden of Eden, of sin. It is a demonstration of how, when we have our prayers answered and get what we wanted from God, we forget Him. We do not do His Will. We do not do as He asks.

While the leper acknowledges the providence and all-powerful Will of God, while he is a model of prayer for us, he does not end his story rightly.

We too can fail to do what is right. While leprosy is not so much a focus of the modern world, there is another kind of leprosy that is rife throughout the world. Biblically, leprosy was not just a physical disease, but also had a spiritual component – sin. That spiritual component is all too common today.

What we have now is a spiritual leprosy. When an individual contracted leprosy in Biblical times, they were cast out of their community. When we sin, we become isolated from God. Leprosy was a contagious disease. Sin also has a contagious effect. Leprosy as a disease affects the nerves, causing a loss of sensation. Likewise, the more we sin, the duller we become to sensation. Leprosy also disfigures the affected individual. So too does sin disfigure us, just not physically.

But there is healing for this spiritual leprosy. Just as in the old days of the Bible when lepers would be sent to the priest after healing, we too go to the priest for healing from our spiritual leprosy. This is not a physical healing, but a spiritual healing, a healing from sin, found in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. We are healed through the priest by the great High Priest Himself, Our Lord Jesus Christ. Just as He physically healed the leper, He wants to spiritually heal us.

But, just like the leper, only people who come to Jesus and meet Him can be healed.

Like the leper, we should also acknowledge the Will of God, falling on our knees in prayer if we have a request to make of Him. We should humble ourselves before Him. One of the most beautiful times to do this is in Eucharistic Adoration, when we are in the True Presence of Jesus Christ. As we humble ourselves before Him, we should, like the leper, in making our request, say those beautiful words to Him: “If you will.”

The Lord is all-powerful. He is Almighty, all great, all loving. He can do all things. We can do all things through Him. If we are seeking something, maybe certain graces or something else, He can Will for them to be granted to us. He can Will this for His glory, for the glory of His Kingdom.

But if God does give us something we ask for, when God gives us what He deems right for us, we must do what the leper failed to do and give thanks and praise to Him and follow His Will.

Like the leper, may we seek His Will.

Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, if You Will, let it be done.

In today’s reading from the Second Book of Samuel, we hear of how King David danced before the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark, a golden chest with cherubim on its cover, contained within it the manna from heaven that was given to the Israelites in the desert when they were complaining and asking for food during the Exodus, the two stone tablets upon which were written the Ten Commandments, and the Rod of Aaron. It is a precursor to the new Ark of the Covenant, Mary, the Holy Mother of God, who contained within her womb the Bread of Life, the Word of God made flesh, and the High Priest Himself.

The Ark of the Covenant could not be touched by human hands. When it was transported, it had to be lifted using rods that went through either side. If one was to touch the Ark, they would be struck down and die instantly.

In the reading today, we only hear from the point that King David went up to Obed-edom’s house to bring the Ark to the City of David. When those carrying the Ark had walked ‘six paces’ David takes on a priestly role, offering sacrifices, wearing a linen ephod (loincloth), and blessing the people. He dances before the Lord ‘with all his might.’ As David enters the city with the Ark, Michal, the daughter of Saul, looks out and sees David leaping and dancing before the Lord. David is clearly in a state of great joy and elation.

However, if we go back a little and take a look at what happened before David brought the ark from Obed-edom’s house to the City, we see how not everything was so rosy throughout the entire journey of transportation of the Ark. When David went to the house of Abinadab with all the chosen men of Israel, he brought the Ark out of the house with Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, driving the cart containing the Ark and all the men of Israel praising the Lord with songs and instruments. Everything was going well until the oxen leading the cart stumbled and Uzzah put his hand out to steady the Ark. As soon as he did this, he was struck down and died.

We read:

And David was angry because the Lord had broken forth upon Uzzah; and that place is called Perez-uzzah, to this day. And David was afraid of the Lord that day; and he said, “How can the ark of the Lord come to me?” So David was not willing to take the ark of the Lord into the city of David; but David took it aside to the house of Obed-edom the Gittite. And the ark of the Lord remained in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite three months; and the Lord blessed Obed-edom and all his household.

It was only after King David heard of how the Lord had blessed the household of Obed-edom that he went and took the Ark to the City of David.

One might wonder how David could have danced before the Lord given what happened to Uzzah.

While David demonstrated some anger and fear because of what had happened to Uzzah, he came to realise the glory of the Lord, and wanted to honour the Lord and bring Him into his City. David may have struggled to understand why Uzzah was struck down, and this no doubt contributed to his leaving the Ark in the house of Obed-edom. But the Lord once again helped him to see His great glory, and David and the people of Israel rejoiced in the Lord.

Like David, we all face difficult moments in our lives. At these times we can become upset, angry, fearful, anxious. We can experience times of desolation, times when we struggle to understand where the Lord is leading us or wonder if He can hear what we are saying to Him. It is at these times that we must stay close to the Lord and continue to bring our concerns to Him.

Even at such moments, we can demonstrate great faith and trust in the Lord and lean on Him, asking Him to take over and guide us. He may be using these moments as occasions on which to test us, to test our faith, and to bring us closer to Him.

We must remember, even in trying times, even when we don’t know what God is doing in our lives, when we are trying to discern where He is leading us, what He has planned for us, that God is good. And we should dance before the Lord with all our might, with all our joy. Like David, we should whirl around, leaping and dancing with great love for the Lord. God is so good, and He deserves all our praise. When we dance, it elicits great joy within us, even if we’re not great at it.

While the Ark of the Covenant is of old, and the Ark of the New Covenant, as well as the New Covenant Himself, both now sit enthroned in the Kingdom of Heaven, we can still dance before the Lord every day of our lives, and this is something that we should strive to do, even if we find ourselves in darkness. Because when we dance before the Lord like King David did in the days of old, the Lord will rejoice with us and illumine the darkness, even if it is just for a while.

So be like David and dance before the Lord. Rejoice in Him and be glad. For the Lord is good, and He will never abandon you. Even when you think He is not with you, He is right there beside you, watching over you. Dance for joy, honour and praise the Lord. For He will always lead us out of darkness into His great light.

May our hearts and souls dance before Him always. May our prayers be songs of praise to Him. And if it be the Lord’s Will, may our hearts and souls one day be entwined with another’s in an eternal dance of love before the Lord.

An act of surrender is probably one of the hardest things for a human being to do. There are a great deal of reasons for this, but a few come to the forefront. Our pride could be getting in the way, our desire to do everything ourselves as we want it to be done. We could be so caught up in trying to conform the wills of others to our own that we actually drive them away, disrespecting their own independence.

But I think the most profound reason for which we struggle to surrender is fear.

Surrendering the will is a beautiful thing, especially when we are surrendering it to God. God has given us the gift of free will. He is not a tyrant that is trying to rule over us and force us to do what He wants. He is not some puppeteer that is pulling the strings of our lives constantly, directing our lives like they are a piece of theatre. When God created us, He created us with the ability to choose. And how wonderful it is, how joyful He is, when we use our free will, the will that He has given to us, to choose Him.

While we have been given free will, which we can use however we like (albeit, not without consequences, which arise from all actions we choose, be they good or bad), we can make a conscious decision to give that will back to God. In giving our will back to Him we are not rejecting His gift – rather, we are perfecting it, we are showing Him how much we appreciate it, how much we love Him.

When we surrender our will to the Will of God, we are telling God that we have complete trust, faith, and confidence in Him. We are following the model of Our Blessed Mother Mary and St Joseph when they were asked to take on the greatest task of all – being the earthly parents of the Living God, the Word made flesh, the Saviour of the World, Our Lord Jesus Christ. Both were incredibly humble. Both demonstrated great faith, trust, and confidence in God. St Joseph in particular, who was going to leave Mary and move on with his life, surrendered his will to God’s Will when the Angel appeared to him in his dream. This great act of surrender brought St Joseph great rewards. His complete trust in God led to his being part of the life of Christ and being the spiritual father of us all. The Blessed Mother’s complete trust in God led her from a life as a humble handmaiden of the Lord to becoming Queen of Heaven and Earth, Mother of the Church, Mother of us all, and the most powerful intercessor we have in the Kingdom of Heaven.

But if surrendering our will to God’s Will is so wonderful, why do we struggle to do this?

Surrendering our will to God does not mean that we are giving up hope. And I think this is key in the discussion of why surrender can be so difficult.

We often struggle to surrender our entire will to the Will of God because our fears, our worries, our anxieties get in the way. Fear of the unknown is not uncommon. We often want to know what is going to happen next because it brings us some comfort. But this is not necessarily true comfort. True comfort is found in the Lord. And we can take great comfort in entrusting ourselves entirely to Him. Yes, it seems paradoxical, but I think we’ve come to learn by now that the ways in which God works tend to be as such.

I think that the prospect of surrendering our will to God’s Will scares us because we don’t know what God’s Will is. We worry that we are not going to get what we are hoping for, that the outcomes we wish for will not come into being. It can be incredibly daunting because we don’t have a guarantee of what might occur.

When we make an act of surrender to God, we are not just giving something that is holding us back and saying to Him, ‘here, take this, I don’t want it.’ We are giving Him everything, our entire will, all our worries, our anxieties, our concerns, our stress, our sorrows, our sadness, our joys, our heartaches, our hope, our love, our desires, our anguish, our feelings, our emotions, all of it. We lay it all down at His feet, and ask Him to take care of it all.

But God knows that we have hopes. And He assures us that when we surrender to Him these hopes are not destroyed.

One of the most beautiful prayers that Jesus has given to us is the Surrender Prayer. I discovered this prayer at the beginning of this year and I think we are truly blessed to have it.

The Surrender Prayer was given to a Neapolitan Priest, Father Dolindo Ruotolo. Fr Ruotolo had a great devotion to God and to the Blessed Mother Mary. He often called himself “the Madonna’s little old man” and the Holy Rosary was his constant prayer. The name ‘Dolindo’ means ‘pain,’ and this humble priest experienced much pain and suffering in his own life. He came from a family that had man financial struggles, and he suffered from several health conditions that made him weak. In the early years of his priesthood, accusations of heresy were brought against him, accusations which took years to clear. Yet no matter what trials this Servant of God faced, he surrendered himself to God, and Our Lord took care of him.

In private revelations, Jesus spoke to Father Ruotolo and gave him the words which he composed into the Surrender Prayer, a prayer we can pray as a Novena. In fact, Jesus said that “there is no other novena prayer more effective than this.”

Within the Surrender Prayer, Jesus tells us what we must do to surrender ourselves entirely to Him. He teaches us how we can stop worrying and thinking about all the problems we face and how to let go of trying to solve them all ourselves. He tells us how we should turn to Him, look at Him, and say to Him, “You take care of it.” He tells us how we need to close the eyes of our souls and rest in Him, surrendering completely to Him and trusting completely in Him. He says:

“If you say to Me truly, “Thy will be done,” which is the same as saying, “You take care of it,” I will intercede with all My power and I will resolve the most difficult situations.”

While the entire Surrender Prayer is so incredibly beautiful, I think one of the most striking parts is when Jesus says:

Close your eyes and let yourself be carried away on the flowing current of My grace. Close your eyes and do not think of the present, turning your thoughts away from the future, just as you would from any temptation. Rest in Me, believing in My goodness and I promise you by My love that if you say, “You take care of it,” I will take care of it all. I will console you, rescue you and guide you.

We can get so caught up in our worries, so battered and weighed down by our anxieties, that they can begin to take over our lives, even going so far as to overwhelm and incapacitate us. But Jesus wants us to surrender that to Him. Yes, He wants us to surrender our entire selves to Him, including our entire will to His own, but He promises us that He will take care of us. And Jesus has fulfilled every promise He has ever made. He fulfilled all the promises made to those in the Old Testament, and He continues to keep His promises to us to this very day.

The response to the Surrender Prayer sums up the disposition that Jesus wants us to have:

O Jesus, I surrender myself to You, take care of everything!

In surrendering to Him, we are giving ourselves entirely to Him. We are placing all our faith, trust, and confidence in Him, surrendering our will to His Will, His Divine Will. We may not know what that Will is, we may not know what to expect, what God has planned for us, but we trust that He will take care of us in every way, that He will guide us, that He will be there for us and never abandon us.

As mentioned earlier, this does not mean giving up the hopes that we have. Jesus tells us Himself:

Surrendering to Me does not mean to stress or to be upset, or lose hope.

We can still have hope that, in surrendering to God, in abandoning ourselves to Him, He will answer our prayers. If anything, I think we can take great comfort in knowing that Jesus Himself reassures us of this:

Why do you confuse yourselves by worrying? Leave the care of all your affairs to Me and everything will be so peaceful. I say to you in truth that every act of true, blind and complete surrender to Me will produce the effect that you desire and will resolve all your difficult situations.

Surrender yourself to the Lord, and He will work great wonders in your life. Give Him all you have, and He will give you His all in return.

God is so, so good.

(If you would like to pray the Surrender Prayer, here is a link to the prayer on Hallow: https://hallow.com/blog/how-to-pray-the-surrender-novena/. If you would like a physical copy of the prayer on a prayer card, you may be able to find some at your local Catholic church, or you can contact Mary’s Rosary Chain – http://www.marysrosarychain.org)

This weekend, we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family. By far, they are the greatest family in existence. If it were not for this beautiful family, mother, father and child, our world would be a much darker place than it is.

The Holy Family is one we must all do our best to emulate in our own lives. They are the perfection of what family is. Through them, Jesus Christ sanctified the family itself, making it beautiful and holy.

Family is so important. It is essential to our humanity, to who we are. Each one of us is only here, living and breathing, because two others committed to each other and decided to start a family. We are only here because of the love of two people who became one, our mother and father, and their mother and father before them, and so forth.

This is the beauty of marriage. It is not just a procedure we go through, a ceremony with a bunch of documents to sign for the sake of making things official in the eyes of the world. It is so much more than that. It is an incredibly special bond, a commitment of love between two people who have found in each other someone they are willing to give their entire selves to. The Sacrament of Holy Matrimony is that with Christ at the centre. The love that the two have for each other is expounded by their love for Christ and Christ’s love for them.

These individuals, once joined together in Holy Matrimony, are no longer individuals. They are one with each other. They commit to bringing new life into the world, and so bring forth children who they raise with love, care, and tenderness.

When Mary and Joseph were joined together, when they were betrothed to wed, everything was fine until the Angel Gabriel came to the Blessed Virgin to announce to her that she would bear a Son, the Emmanuel, the Light of the World, the Christ-child, the Son of God. She was told she would conceive of the Holy Spirit. Mary, with great faith and confidence in God, gave her fiat, humbly accepting the role with which the Father was charging her in the salvation of man.

When Mary told Joseph about this, he was likely struck with confusion and uncertainty. He was no longer certain that he could be with Mary, and was ready to end their relationship. Being a good and thoughtful man, he was going to divorce her privately so as to spare her from shame. But, just as he was preparing to do this, the Angel appeared to him and told him to take Mary as his wife and look after the child as his own. Joseph, again being a man of faith and placing his trust in God, gave his own fiat and did as he was asked.

Mary and Joseph both dedicated their lives to God and to raising His Only Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ. They went through a great many trials, but both did so humbly and with great trust in God. I think it goes without saying that they would have experienced the challenges that any family would face. Take, for example, when Jesus was missing from their care for three days as a child. When they found Him in the temple, they were struck with relief, but you can imagine the anxiety, the fear that they must have endured at that time that their child was missing. I think this is something that many parents would be able to relate to. It would likely be the greatest fear of many parents that their child goes missing. Many would probably assume the worst right away. That anguish you would experience if your child, or even your brother or sister, went missing, is one that Mary and Joseph would have experienced over 2000 years ago.

But while there are always going to be trials and, no doubt, anguish and worry, family also brings with it the joyous moments that we can all hold onto with great fervour when we need them most.

Jesus’ earthly parents had such a great love for Him. Joseph raised Him as if He were his own son. He taught Jesus everything he knew about carpentry. Mary devoted herself to Him as if there were nothing else that made her happy. She knew that she would experience terrible anguish, that a sword would pierce her own Immaculate Heart when her Son was to enter into His Passion, but she agreed to take on that pain, that suffering, regardless, to unite it with His. Because she knew that this great sacrifice would be one that would bring about salvation for all of us, all Her children.

The Holy Family is the pinnacle, the perfection of what a family should be.

It is a husband and wife dedicated to each other, to growing in their faith, love, and holiness together, to worshipping together, praising together, glorifying together, honouring together, praying together, serving together, adoring together. Just as Mary and Joseph adored our Lord, so too should each loving couple, each engaged couple, each married couple, adore our Lord together. They should attend a Holy Hour together, or even visit an Adoration Chapel and just spend time in front of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament together.

It is a mother and father raising their children to know, love, and serve the Lord. It is this mother and father devoting their lives to their children, loving them like they love the Lord, doing all they can to take care of them and ensure their salvation.

It is children showing great love and devotion to their parents. Just as our parents dedicate their lives to us, so too should we dedicate our lives to them. We should take care of them, respect them, show obedience unto them. We should pray with them, grow in our faith and love of the Lord with them. We must remember that our parents made the greatest commitment of all when they committed to bringing new life, to bringing us, into the world. And just as they raise us with great love and devotion, so too should we do the same when we get married and have children of our own.

Family is what makes us who we are. We may have differences at times. We may fight, argue, irritate, or upset one another. But it is important for each of us to remember that no matter what may happen, no matter what may come between us, no matter what challenges we may face, no matter what hardships we may be made to endure, family matters most. Our family is so much great than all of these things. Differences can be reconciled. Challenges and hardships are better faced together than alone.

There is no point alienating family, because they are one of the greatest treasures we have. We have each been given a great gift in our families. God has blessed us immensely with love, His love, shown to us through our parents and families.

Family may bring challenges, but it also brings with it great joys, happiness, and, ultimately, love.

God is so good to us. He is so good to have given us all a family.

Even if we do not have a family, if we are alone, we can take comfort in knowing that we are part of His family, the Holy Family, the family of God.

So, on this Feast of the Holy Family, tell your family you love them. Thank your parents for all they do for you. Reconcile differences you may have with members of your family. Do all you can to emulate the Holy Family. And pray for those who do not have an earthly family. Pray for those who do not see their families.

And, above all, thank God for the family you have, for the great gift He has given you.

May God Bless us all, and may the Holy Family always watch over us, protect us, and keep us safe.