”A holy day has dawned upon us. Come, you nations and adore the Lord. Today a great light has come upon the earth”

Today at Holy Mass we hear in the Gospel from St Luke about a simple woman…Her name is Anna and St Luke tells us a portion of the story, which is contained in the fourth Joyful Mystery of the Rosary - The Presentation of Our Lord in the Temple….Anna was an "everyday person", however she dedicated her life to God…And God gave her insight into the mysteries of heaven as a result…..”She never left the temple, but worshiped night and day with fasting and prayer”…..Once again, the “formula” is revealed to us…”Fasting and Prayer”…..Fasting sharpens our senses and makes us feel our mortality and as a result, it opens us up to the voice of God…Prayer is nothing more then a conversation with a friend…We speak to God in the silence and He speaks to us deep within our heart…..These two “tools” - Fasting and Prayer were Anna’s secret…And because she was faithful to these “tools” on a daily basis, she grew very close to God….And so can we

“She spoke about the child to all who were awaiting the redemption of Jerusalem”

Why would one want to grew close to God?…..That is a fair question….The closer we grow to God the more we discover who we really are…Why we were created and what we are supposed to do in the here and now…Also in practical terms…People who are very close to God are joyful….That is a sign if you really want to know if someone of close to God - Is that person joyful?…There is no such thing as a miserable saint……Jesus came to give us life in the here and now!…..Conversely, St John tells us very clearly in Scripture that - “If we do not eat his flesh and drink his blood, we have no life within us”…..Not my words, so don't shoot the messenger……The very Body and Blood of Christ received at Mass animates our life when we receive it in the state of grace…And it shows….Don’t believe me?…..Speak to a very holy person and tell me they are not full of joy….Tell me there is not “something special” about them…If you doubt what I say…Reach out to me and I am happy to direct you to someone I am describing…….It was Good Friday and I was in the Bronx for the afternoon service…..As always, I was running around like a chicken without its head…The mid-day service was about to begin, the Church was getting crowded and I had to go to the bathroom, so I went to the basement where the bathroom was located…As I was running back up the stairs some nuns were entering the Church….I know this because as I was running I almost knocked one of them over….Just before I ran into this one nun, I stood face to face with her…This sister was very old…Her body was bent over…However…Her eyes were on fire!!!!…They were like headlights of a car….And she had such a gentle smile…..The look on her face literally stopped me in my tracks - Literally!…..This is what I am talking about…This is what holiness looks like…The result of prayer and fasting…The result of being close to God…..This should be our primary goal in life….When we grow closer to God…We are fully alive!…..This is the life that Christ promised us - In the here and now!…Why would we trade that for a “box of cracker-jacks”? - For the “things of this world” that are so temporary!….......”Things” fade and pass away - Even "good things"…....Again, Jesus said…”I have come to give you life and give it to you in abundance”…That is in the here and now - God takes nothing from us - He olny gives!

“From his fullness we have all received grace upon grace”

Anna in today’s Gospel from Mass understood why one should pray and fast….Because to know God is to know ourself…To be close to God is to have joy and peace….The Catholic Church gives us all the “tools” we need to acquire this state of being…Do we utilize these “tools”?…And if not, why not?….Maybe its because we do not believe in the possibility of us ever becoming holy…Maybe we have never met a holy person….Ok, so here is an idea…Why not seek people like that out? - Seeing is believing - Right?…Prove me wrong!….I bet if you do, you too will be frozen in your tracks as I was when I looked into the face of that old nun on Good Friday and saw joy deep within her eyes.......This nun while her body was old, she had the eyes of a child…..I left out a part of this story…As the Good Friday Service began, I continued to watch this nun…It came time to process up the aisle of the Church to venerate the cross, which is a Good Friday custom across the Universal Catholic world….As I watched this very old sister struggle to walk up the aisle and venerate the cross…I began to cry…..God is real…We find him through fasting and prayer…And when we find him we know it…..Still don’t believe me?……God comes to us in the “ordinary” people and places of the world…Like Anna in our story today from Mass…She was about as “ordinary” as they come…So was that old nun I encountered on Good Friday in the Bronx…But its in the ordinary that we encounter the extraordinary…..It’s there - Do you see it?….”A holy day has dawned upon us. Come, you nations and adore the Lord. Today a great light has come upon the earth”