Remembering and keeping memories alive

As a nation, we celebrate Memorial Day this weekend. We gather to pray and give thanks for the women and men who gave their life for our freedoms. We have parades; we lay wreaths and shoot volleys of shots to remember them.

However, the best way to remember is to try and imitate their virtues and keep alive their memories for future generations. It is not enough to have their names on stones in parks and cemeteries and even to decorate them with our flag. We need to keep their lives and values alive in our hearts and in the minds and hearts of future generations.

Take some time to talk about some of the veterans that you have known and what you best remember about them; just quietly praying and reflecting on the time and talent they gave for years for the rest of us. To be who we are and able to study and do what we do is a great sacrifice, and a huge reason for gratitude.

Jesus, on the crucifix, stands as high priest and intercessor, with arms stretched between heaven and earth, the sign of God’s covenant of love and care for us. As we look upon Him, He challenges us to pick up our cross and follow and to share in the sufferings of Jesus as we gather to pray together.

We must find strength this weekend in the very realization that in this Gospel, Jesus is praying for each one of us. He states, “the ones you have given me… are yours, and everything of mine is yours and everything of yours is mine.”

The awareness we are to have of the intimate and personal love Jesus has for each one of us is to give us the courage, strength and deeper faith to offer that to one another. In these final days of May, we must take the example of Mary, the Mother of Jesus and Our Mother, and join with her in prayer as we reflect on the Mysteries of the Rosary and how we can imitate the love of Jesus Christ.

Imitation is the highest form of flattery. We have no idea of how much money, time and even lives are lost trying to impress others. Yet, the real challenge of life is love and let that be the guiding light and reason for life. It was for those who gave their lives for our nation.

Love is making each other a priority in life. It is not how successful we have been in our career, or our salary, or amount of savings, but how we use our time, talents and treasures in sharing life and love with one another.

We need much love to forgive and to ask for forgiveness, and both require great humility. This humility we see in the Christ on the Crucifix. It is possible to imitate Him, if we truly believe our Responsorial Psalm, “I believe that I shall see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living.” Not in this life, but in all that I do and hope to gain eternal life!

This is the week of Prayer to the Holy Spirit to ask that the Spirit of God might come upon us and be part of our choices in what we do and say.

In the early church, they gathered for these nine days for a Novena to the Holy Spirit to ask that the gifts of the Spirit would be poured out on the Church.

May we take time to pray and ask for the same during this time of Pastoral Planning and change.