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FROM YOUR STATE CHAPLAIN

Isn’t it amazing how time flies when you are having a Lenten journey? By the time you read this we may well have already celebrated Palm Sunday the beginning of Holy Week! In the couple of weeks prior to this we celebrated Laetare Sunday the Fourth Sunday of Lent. We rejoiced as we looked forward, in a special way, to our Easter joy. We were allowed to decorate our sanctuaries with flowers and wear rose colored vestments.
Our Gospel reading was the story of the Prodigal Son. We know this parable well and may well be tempted to think that we know everything that we need to know about it. Let’s not fall into that trap. It is a story that shines a light on the messiness of family life. It challenges us to confront how we live our lives as family: as community. In the two ‘lost and found” parables that precede the Prodigal Son, the shep-herd that leaves the 99 and the woman who finds her coin, we can easily see them as Christ figures. In the Prodigal Son it is harder to tell if the father represents Christ or God the Father. We know that he rep-resents the forgiveness of God par excellence. I would imagine that in most of our lives we have been like both of the sons at different times. The challenge is to be like the father in this story and live the for-giveness and mercy of God.... DOWNLOAD FULL PDF NEWSLETTER 

Vivat Jesus
Fr. Louie Shea