We hope that everyone enjoyed the Octave of Easter from Easter Sunday to Divine Mercy Sunday.

Prior to our Easter Break, Mike Tenney gave his sixth and final talk in our Lenten Series on Catholic Spirituality entitled "The Little Way & Opus Dei: Therese & Josemaria." Mike finished his Lenten Series with a couple of modern saints. He began by focusing on St. Therese, also known as the "Little Flower." She died at the end of the 19th Century and was canonized in 1925, some 28 years after her death. She lived for nine years as a cloistered Carmelite nun. Therese felt overwhelmed by the great saints, and by her own inability to be as holy as them, and so she found her "Little Way." Without the encouragement of her sister prioress to write her story, the world might never have found out about Therese and her Story of a Soul. Therese's spirituality is to remain little, and become less. Two principles are: 1) To think of your relationship to God as that of a small child to a loving parent, and 2) To do small acts of love that no one sees with great love. Therese was declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope John Paul II which, given her short and hidden life, speaks to the power a cloistered nun who focused on the little things can have on the world. St. Josemaria Escriva was born in Spain and lived in the first three quarters of the 20th Century. He was canonized in 2002 by Pope John Paul II. Josemaria founded Opus Dei in 1928 in his homeland of Spain. Mike spent some time discussing this large organization of priests and laity. (Please use the link above to access their website for further details). The two basic principles are:  1) The Unity of Life, the idea that our whole life serves the one purpose of holiness, and this "Plan of Life" is about making the activities of your day a prayer, and 2) Sanctification of Work - as you do your work, allow God to enter in with moments of contemplation, and do your work with cheerfulness. How does one pray as Therese and Josemaria? 1) Apart from time set aside specifically for prayer, bring God into the other parts of your life, "offer it up," invite God into the small tasks, and 2) Turn internal monologue into a conversation with God. Mike left us with a final assignment: Take all the types of prayer we have learned over the last six weeks, and select some that resonate with us into a "Plan of Life" so as to set our day up to be open to Grace. Also, think about hard things/tasks in life and take one or two and see about how to bring a spirit of contemplation and cheerfulness to them.