Our Lady of Lourdes

It's been a rather crazy week for me. I'm kind of exhausted from it all. I won't go into it all, or maybe I will at my other blog if I can find the energy to. Don't expect anything soon though.

Week 5 finds our group at Our Lady of Lourdes (2110 S. 32nd Ave.)
I think the one thing that struck me most about the church is how TALL inside it feels.
As you can tell I didn't really take many pictures again. I just haven't been taking the time to take proper pictures. Most of mine are a blurry mess.

This week's Gospel is John (14:23-29). It is one of those passages with a challenge that is left to us. Jesus lets his disciples know he is leaving again, and that we should be happy because he is leaving them to be with the Father. The real challenge isn't that, but comes from what he speaks about first:

“Whoever loves me will keep my word,

and my Father will love him,

and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.

Whoever does not love me does not keep my words;

yet the word you hear is not mine

but that of the Father who sent me."

In case you hadn't noticed, Jesus is awesome. And up to this point has only continued to grow in awesomeness. He hasn't just performed miracles, spoken truths, and given us a model of how we should be; He also died for our sins and rose from the dead! So, now that we all want to be like Him, He points out that it's not Him that we should strive to be with, but the Father since it was actually the Father that sent Jesus to us.

In faith it is easy to let the semantics get the best of us, but part of what makes Jesus so relevant to us even now is that He is INclusive. He acknowledges the past and marks how it is important, but He also wraps ideas up into the simple package that we all can see: Jesus commands us to love others as He has loved us. Now, love Jesus = love the Father. Now, I don't know how you feel, but if Jesus wants to be with the Father that's where I want to be too.

-Frank