Holiness. Delving deeper into the holiness of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. How do we go deeper into the faith that we were given? Desire. We must desire Christ first. We must place Christ first in all things. When we make this decision an important part of our life on a daily basis, we are no longer the same. We are one in Him. And a newfound journey begins in us through that relationship. We begin spiritual instruction with Christ himself. And our desire increases greatly in knowing him, loving him, and desiring to be in this most important relationship. Nothing. Nothing compares to Christ. Nothing compares to what is yet to come by choosing Christ as a priority in your life. Christ reveals himself alive today as he was revealed to the twelve apostles, to his mother Mary, to Mary Magdeline, to all his people thousands of years ago. Christ lives within us. Christ stirs all hearts consumed by his love. Christ leads all souls to himself through the power of the holy eucharist. Through the power of living a good and holy life. How do we obtain his goodness? We begin with our Baptism. The very first sacrament he gave to us through our parents who brought us to be blessed just weeks after our birth. We were blessed on our foreheads as priests, prophets, and kings. We were meant to go out and preach the gospel of Christ. beginning in our homes. We were meant to receive the second sacrament, the sacrament of confirmation. And when the holy spirit came upon us an awareness of his life and love became a great part of our lives as young adults. And in between both of those sacraments we received our first holy communion and before that we learned the importance of cleansing our conscience of any past sin. We could not understand it at the time, sin was foreign to us because we were so pure in Christ, and sin was not something a seven year old could do or comprehend. Our beautiful faith leads us properly to Christ all the way to the next sacrament called Marriage. And that promises to remain in a covenant relationship with Christ at the center of married life. And for many who are called to the priesthood they vow to be true to Christ for the rest of their lives. Even those women called to become sisters in the church, the greatest of all servants, devoted to prayer, service of Christ in the church, their role is critical in teaching the faith by example to every Christian. And the last sacrament we receive is at death, the church is there to bless us with a holy mass, a final farewell to a life lived in Christ. The body receives the blessing of holy water, and the waters break a second time,(according to Father O'Doherty) once in our mothers womb, and a second time at the baptismal font as the priest blesses the body with holy water, and we enter into the church one last and final time, with our priest processing toward the holy altar, and we follow him into the church for the final mass of the deceased. The priest is actually leading all of us to the altar to hear the word of Christ, and to reflect upon the word, and receive the soul of the faithful departed, with one more blessing at the end of the mass with holy incense and burial. Yes our bodies die. But our soul remains forever in the presence of our Lord. We go back to our creator, not in body, but in soul. We are reveared as special in the eyes of all creation. Created in the image and in the likeness of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
