Today I listened to the Palm Sunday homily by Fr. Mike Schmitz. He did a great job of wrapping up the reflections of the past 5 weeks of Lent based on the book, “He Leadeth Me” by Fr. Walter Ciszek. The whole series is based on surrendering our lives to God. That includes acknowledging that every circumstance in our lives are from God and part of His Divine Plan. I have been trying to surrender and at the same time wondering exactly how to do that. Fr. Mike described 3 steps – Accept, Access, Action. First we must accept that our life right now is exactly as it should be and is part of God’s divine providence. In the reading of the Passion of Christ, Jesus asked God to take the suffering away that He knew He would face. He didn’t necessarily want to go through the upcoming pain and suffering. Yet, He surrendered to God, knowing that it would bring about salvation. We can enter into that story as we accept our circumstances and suffering. Next, we give God access to our lives, our souls, our hearts. When we surrender, we don’t give up, but we allow God to enter our pain, our sadness, our sorrow, our failures, so He can transform it. Then we have to take action. That is, making a conscious decision to unite our struggles to that of Jesus’ and join in carrying the cross. We are able to be a part of the story of salvation for ourselves and those around us. Deep thoughts and challenges, but encouraging at the same time as we enter Holy Week.

I Found God today in encouragement to unite my struggles with that of Jesus’.