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.