Recently, I gave an in-depth tour of our church to members of RCIA and their families. They learned why the baptismal font is in the back of the church, the significance of the placement of our saint statues, that Catholic Churches are baptized, the definition of terms like narthex, nave, and sacrarium, and so much more. (I’d be happy to do the same for other parishioners if there is a demand.)

One of my favorite moments of the tour (spoiler alert!) is when I share a factoid from the “About Our Parish” section of our website: “Parishioners pooled resources to purchase 10 Acres of land toward building of a parish church and campus. Ironically, the land purchased to build our parish in Carefree had been used for some years as an official ‘dump.’”

You read that right. The most beautiful church campus I’ve ever seen... is built on an old dump.

It’s funny. I have been a Director of Faith Formation for about six years, and a Coordinator of Youth and Young Adults for 18 years before that—and yet—I tend toward skepticism.

A few years ago, I was on the phone with a woman regarding an upcoming event we were planning for Our Lady of Joy. The signal was unclear and we found ourselves repeating the advertising catchphrase, “Can you hear me now?”

Suddenly, the lady said, “David? This retreat is too important for any miscommunication. Let’s pray.” She proceeded to pray for a clear signal so that we could complete our work for His glory. I’m ashamed to say I clearly recall being tempted to roll my eyes. Doesn’t God have bigger fish to fry than our little conversation?

In today’s Gospel, Jesus takes his inner circle up a mountain to pray. Jesus and I have that in common—we LOVE heading up into mountains for prayer. In fact, I regularly remind God that if He sees fit to make it possible for me to have a small cabin one day, I’d be a VERY happy camper. Thus far, He sees fit to make me wait. Fair enough. Back to the mountain.

Jesus leads them in a prayer marathon of sorts. Everyone but Jesus gets pretty sleepy until the transfiguration occurs, Moses and Elijah appear, and the whole scene becomes pretty amazing.

Peter says, “Master, it is good we are here; let us make three tents, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”

1. GRATITUDE: Begin by thanking God in a personal dialogue for whatever you are most grateful for today.
2. AWARENESS: Revisit the times in the past twenty-four hours when you were and were not the-best-version-of-yourself. Talk to God about these situations and what you learned from them.
3. SIGNIFICANT MOMENTS: Identify something you experienced today and explore what God might be trying to say to you through that event (or person).
Continue

If you are reading this, I have two things I need to say.

1. Thank you for taking a moment to reflect with me on a weekly basis. It is truly humbling.

2. Happy Lent! It is upon us and this week’s Gospel is the perfect starting point for significant reflection if we examine the three ways the devil tempted Jesus.

First, he watched Jesus and knew he’d been fasting for 40 days, so he tempted him with food. Pleasure of the flesh.