Palm Sunday is a beautiful celebration. This Sunday we celebrate the entrance of our King Jesus coming into Jerusalem on a donkey. Palm Sunday is mentioned in all four Gospels because God wants us to understand the importance of this message. This is the beginning of Holy Week, otherwise known as Passion Sunday. The Latin word passion is “pati” meaning to suffer.

Right before His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, Jesus he heals a blind man. To understand this passage is to understand what spiritual blindness is. Without God we are spiritually blind; yes we see but we see is what the world wants us to see. If you see with spiritual eyes you know the difference and truth comes to light. When you have the Lord you no longer have anger for things you have no control of. We pray and know that it is not in our hands but in the hands of God. For years I was spiritually blind and into the things of the world; thinking that as long as I was good person and did no harm to anyone I was fine. Something happened along the way, and just as Paul was struck by a light from heaven (Acts 9), I too saw the light. Not as dramatic as Paul but nonetheless as powerful. My conversion experience is my own, and it has a purpose: to gently reach out to others and tell them what  changes it has done for me. My only desire is to serve God, because nothing brings me more pleasure.

What this holy season means to me is hope. I have failed miserably at keeping my Lent promises. I gave up bread and sweets but it has been challenging to keep the commitment. I don’t beat myself up about it, I just jump on the holy wagon the next morning and pray for a better day. God knows all my weaknesses and one day I will have better control.

We leave Monday for Jerusalem and invite you to send your prayer requests. Please pray for us as we pray for you. Look for us on Good Friday, and the media does a pretty decent job of covering our Passion as we reenact the Stations of the Cross in the Old City of Jerusalem. You cannot fake this news coverage.

My Prayer:

Dear Lord, so many are blinded by the things of the world, that they see things as they are not. I pray for you to remove the scales from their eyes and give them a new vision to see things as You see them. Lord, only You can fix this world and we look to You because You are our only hope. Heavenly Father, we need unity and this can only come with the change of hearts, so we trust in You and call out to You to guide the spiritually blind to the foot of your Cross for Your nail-scarred hands to touch and heal their eyes. Lord, during this  Holy Week, Your Passion, we ask You to bring us to all humility, just as You rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. Make us all humble as You are humble. Your servants sing “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the Kingdom of Your father David that comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the Highest!” (Mark 11:9-10)

In preparation for Easter, the greatest of all holy days in the  Judeo-Christian calendar, we are to participate in the three acts in Lent: fasting, almsgiving, and prayer.

Prayer is personal time set aside to talk to God, but before we do this, it should be done with a pure and contrite heart. Lent is a time to  examine and reflect on our spiritual walk. In order for God to answer our prayers we must first purge ourselves of any indiscretions.

When my grandchildren fight I make them apologize to one another. If the wound involves tears, forgiveness is more of a challenge, but eventually they will forget their transgressions and continue playing. If we shared the same attitude as that of a child  with forgiveness, we could live more peacefully.

The two words “I’m sorry” are simple little words that can change the atmosphere, but yet we struggle with them passing though our lips. Ephesian 4:26-27 states: “Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.” This means that not all anger is sinful or harmful. Sometimes when you are unfairly attacked you have the right to be angry; in this case we must make every effort  to reconcile with the offender before the end of the day, or the anger will turn into bitterness.  When we allow the sun to go down on our anger we are turning it into something that consumes us. When anger takes over our mind it all downhill from there. You become a slave to your injustice and it takes hold of your every thought. Sometimes for the sake of peace, the words “I’m sorry” are all it takes. Not “I’m sorry” with an explanation, but  just “I’m sorry “will restore peace. “I’m sorry”  means not to look back, not to replay the offense in your head, but to leave it at the foot of the Cross. We never need to defend ourselves because God is our best defense.

Our ministry is an almsgiving one and for the past 20 years we have served the homeless on Skid Row in Los Angeles. We continue our efforts during Lent only with the understanding that we are entering the holy season. I make every effort to speak of the Resurrection and the forgiveness of sins. This subject matter to someone who is homeless is received with a hot or cold attitude, there are no lukewarm homeless people. We cannot change the circumstances of the homeless but we can restore faith and offer hope. Many of the homeless community are wounded souls with the inability to forgive. We only have a few minutes to make a difference in their hearts; we plant seed and God cultivates.

Prayer comes natural to me, and if someone ask me to pray for them I will do it until the Lord releases me from that obligation. What I struggle with is fasting. Several years ago it was effortless for me to fast for 10 days on just a protein drink, but now that I’m older it is not so easy. My fast for Lent is omitting sweets and white flour, the two food groups that I love, so this is a huge sacrifice.

Lenten Payer of St. Ephrem the Syrian

O Lord and Master of my life, keep from me the spirit of indifference and discouragement, lust of power and idle chatter. Instead, grant to me, Your servant, the spirit of wholeness of being, humble-mindedness, patience, and love, O Lord and King, grant me the grace to be aware of my sins and not to judge my brother; for You are blessed now and ever and forever, Amen

We both arrived in Pheonix at the same time. I was coming from Orange County and my sister Jo from New Orleans. We were getting together to celebrate the birthday of our youngest sister Norma, who lives in Mesa, AZ.

We picked up the rental car and headed east towards Mesa. Jo was in charge of navigation while I drove. What was to be a 30 minute drive turned out to be 2 ½ hours. Getting on and off the freeway several times, and reentering the address did not help either. Calling Norma just added to the confussion. I still do not understand two things: 1. How did we get lost? 2. How did we make it to Norma’s house?

Once we arrived we started the planning of our adventurous weekend. Norma had a great idea, that Jo should watch a mini series from Spain which had English subtitles. So going straight to Netflix,and it did not take long for Jo to get hooked. I had just finished season 3 the day before arriving, so I understood why Jo was so enthralled with “Velvet.” I rarely watch secular TV, but this is different, as I neglected  many of my daily obligations to binge on this Spanish love story. I got caught up in the romance of fast-talking Spaniards.

My sister Norma may as well run a petting zoo. She always has so many animals, consisting of two dogs, two cats and a rabbit. These pets usually end up in bed with you. Foof, the rabbit, suffered trauma by an overzealous playtime with Frankie, an American Bull Terrier. The poor bunny had to be put down. It was Bella, my 11 year-old niece, that discovered the wounded hare. In our entire family Bella can certainly rank top ten in the drama department, and after a trip to the vet she and her brother Jacob were inconsolable. Foof was mourned the two days while I was there and certainly many more. This was Bella’s pet and she loved her Foof.

The following day we went hiking and I racked up 7,000 steps on my Fitbit. The weather was beautiful and the scenery of the different types of cacti in this desert region was an education and new appreciation of this  group of plant species.