The first words of this weekend’s First Weekend are worth reflecting on: “Many signs and wonders were done among the people at the hands of the apostles.”

You see, they had received the Holy Spirit and were emboldened. They were inspired. They were strengthened.

These first followers answered the call of the Holy Spirit. And as they received the Spirit, it compelled them to pass it on. Those who truly receive the Spirit are unable to contain it. It must spill forth, overflow, and spread.

If you believe the sins of your past and/or present are too great for your future to be blessed by God...

If you believe your anger or hurt has made it so that you will never be able to trust the Lord again...

If you believe God is either cruel or uninterested...

If you want to change, but you just don’t know how to take that first step...

Palm Sunday is here—and with it, the holiest week of the year. It is time. Everything Jesus said and did was building up to this. His passion, death, and resurrection.

But there was one final thing he did before it began. He prayed. In fact, “he prayed so fervently that his sweat became like drops of blood.”

A condition called hematidrosis is a very rare medical condition that causes a person to sweat blood from the skin. Medical professionals have hypothesized it results from extreme “fight or flight” responses. And wouldn’t this make sense given what Jesus knew was waiting for him over the next several hours?

First—a quick reminder about the parish mission on Monday and Tuesday at 6:30pm. Please don’t miss out. And if we’ve never met, please find me and introduce yourself. It would be my honor to meet you.

This Sunday’s gospel is about the adulterous woman. And I often wonder about the men in the crowd who had been clamoring for her death. How many of them had committed adultery?

In my experience, I’ve found that people who have struggled with a particular sin fall into one of two categories: they are either the most compassionate... or the first to condemn.