Today we enter with our Lord into Jerusalem.  Today, He begins His final earthly week, the culmination of everything He came and was sent He for.  So begins the most intense and focussed week of the Lord’s life, and we too devoted and dedicated followers must allow today to begin a most intense time of preparation for us.  As a priest in residence at the Cathedral Church of St. Michael in the heart of Toronto, I am deeply moved by what would seem to me to be thousands of Catholics who make their way to the Cathedral (and other churches too) for confession; to be reconciled with the Lord.  Holy Week, the Passion of our Lord and especially the powerful liturgies we will experience this week call all of this to mind.

I encouraged our Associates (men in serious discernment) to reflect upon courage this week, because what this week was for our Lord was a test of strength and courage.  We know that this was not an easy week for Him especially.  I encouraged these men (and reflected and prayed on this myself) to enter Jerusalem with our Lord today: think of the areas in their own lives, and especially in their vocational discernment where they needed greater strength and courage.  We all need these things: is it to have the courage to tell our family or friends that we’re thinking of a religious vocation?  Is it to live our faith more extrinsically, not to show off but to give consistent witness to our faith in our lives?  Is it to simply discern in a more serious way our vocation?  Whatever it may be, the grace this week offers us is a more deliberate and serious examination of our faith and a firm purpose to live it.  May we all allow our entry with our Lord into Jerusalem be for each of us a reflection on the meaning and purpose of our faith; in this most beautiful and passionate week for Christ and for the Christian.  May God bless you.