We are temples of the Holy Spirit.  Christ cleanses the physical temple in Jerusalem of all that is not leading people to God.  We ourselves must be cleansed of all that does not lead us to God.

The first reading today is from the Book of Exodus.  I, the Lord, am your God.  You shall not have other gods besides me. God delivered these commandments.  Knowing the commandments of the Lord we can now strive to live them out in our lives.  These commandments are ways of showing our love for God.  We cannot achieve our own salvation, but we can strive to cooperate with what God is asking of us and has asked of His People throughout the ages.  The Book of Exodus makes it clear that God loves us, each one of us.  He wants us to love in return.  God has given us the gift of life and everything that is needed to sustain it.  This earth in all its beauty, the sun that warms and gives life, the air that we breathe and the stars that seem to be without end that light the night.  All that God is asking of His People is to say thank you.  We do this by the life that we live.  The commandments are our opportunity to say thank you and to show our love back by being obedient.  We have the gift of free will. God will honor our free will even if we decide to choose worldly things over God.  God will honor our choice to turn away, choose a life without God or choosing Hell (knowing what you could have had and that it is too late) or chose eternal happiness. 

What kind of love do we have?  Many kinds, love of parents, of spouse, children, job etc.  What kind of love do you have for God, Jesus asked his disciples do you love me, Peter said yes, I love you three times but with the love of a brother?  Jesus is asking us to love him as he loves us.  This leads us to salvation and assures us that God is always there striving to love us and draw us to Himself. Do you love God so much that you fear God?  To love someone so much that you fear disappointing them.  Are you a giver or a taker?  Givers give life and takers use up.

Lent is a wonderful time to reflect on our own responses to God’s love.  First, we can always ask ourselves:  Do I really believe that God loves me, just as I am right now?  Do I believe that Jesus is my partner in seeking to cleanse my life of all that hinders my relationship with God?  Do I really trust the love of the God of creation, who never turns away from us but who always wants us to share eternity in heaven? 

The second reading is from the First Letter to the Corinthians.  Saint Paul is clear that he proclaims Christ was crucified and this is was a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles. I can imagine how odd it must have sounded to people of the time of Saint Paul to say that a Savior had come and died, that the Crucified One was and is God!  Even today people find it exceedingly difficult to believe that Jesus is Lord and God.  I can understand why people of their time would reject this idea that God was killed. But that is the heart of our Christian proclamation.  We believe that Jesus is fully human and fully God, that Jesus lived among us, that Jesus was crucified for us, that Jesus rose from the dead, for us.  That we are not alone, that this God loves us so much. We are proclaiming that God can do anything that God wants to do.  God is God and no other. We proclaim this when receiving the Body and blood of Christ.

This is unbelievable Good News:  Christ rose from the dead!  Christ is risen!  He died for us, but He rose for us as well, to show us that there is another life and that there is life after death and that we are all invited to share in this Divine Life.

Today’s section of the Gospel of Saint John reflects on the cleansing of the temple and shows Jesus telling those who doubt Him: “Destroy this temple and I shall raise it up in three days.”  Those around Him did not understand until after the Resurrection.  Jesus spoke to His followers and to others with clarity, even when they could not yet understand what He was saying.  We have the advantage of looking back at history.

Do we listen to the Lord?  Can we believe His words?  Lent prepares us to celebrate the death and resurrection of our Lord. Let us walk in the way of the Lord. Cleansing the temple of God within us.  Proclaiming the good news by the life we live.
 

     Virginia Evers, the creator of Precious Feet" died just 2 months shy of her 100th Birthday.  Mrs. Evers died in Chandler, AZ, July 17th.  "She spread the pro-life message until her last breath," said her daughter, Dinah Monahan.  
     Virginia, a devout Catholic, and her husband, Ellis, founded heritage House 76, a company that distributed patriotic jewelry and materials, and were involved in pro-life efforts.
     When Mrs. Evers saw Dr. Sacco's photo (it was the 1st anniversary of Roe v. Wade, when Virginia Evers opened the San Diego Union to find a full-page ad showing a photo of a man's fingers grasping the tiny, perfectly formed feet of a baby aborted at 10 weeks.  The photo was taken 4 years earlier by a young physician in Oregon, Dr. Russell Sacco, whose colleague had shown him the remains of aborted babies).
     'The picutre haunted me," Virginia Evers recalled later in explaining what let her to create the Precious Feet pin that became the international symbol of the pro-life movement.  When Mrs. Evers saw Dr. Sacco's photo she was moved to create a lapel pin of those feet.  Through Heritage House, tens of millions of Precious Feet have been distributed around the world, becoming the international symbol of the pro-life movement.
     In the late 1980s, Fr. Frank Pavone was a priest at St. Charles Church in Staten Island, and Janet Morana was one of his parishioners, they began ordering the Precious Fee for all their pro-life events.
     Fr. Pavone became national director of Priests for Life in 1993.  Fr. Pavone became a very good customer of Heritage House and met the Evers and Monahans then.  Heritage house created various versions of the Precious Fee pin, including one with pink and blue ribbons, an idea Janet developed at St. Charles.
     Brandon Monahan runs Heritage House.  The precious feet are still available but Mrs. Monahan worries that younger generations of pro-lifers haven't fully grasped the importance of this heartbreaking and tangible reminder of the humanity of abortion victims.
     "The Precious Feet are due for a resurgence," she said.

To order Precious Feet go to Heritge house at www.HH76.org.

The information was taken from "Priests For Life" Newsletter, September 2020, Vol. 30 Number 5.  The newsletter and other pro-life information and inspiration is available by email.  Subscribe free of charge at subscribe@priestsforlife.org.

For more information visit website www.priestsforlife.org.  
 

     Jean Woods has joined the Catholic Charities of North Louisiana Shreveport as their new Case Manager.
     Jean has been in social work since she started at St. Vincent de Paul disaster services.  She worked as a Case manager and then was promoted to Office Manager assisting people throughout Shreveport, Bossier, Natchitoches, and Monroe.  Their mission assisted with damages to homes due to the flood of 2016, food, clothing, utilities, and helping others achieve their GED, as well as home visits for the elderly and physically challenged.  In 2019, when the program closed, she participated in several volunteer projects at Sacred Heart of Jesus CatholicChurch.  She worked on the Parish Directory, Catholic Black History Program, and the St. Vincent de Paul conference.
Jean is working to assist clients in achieving financial stability.  She is also responsible for interviewing clients for emergency assistance and teaching Money School financial management classes for Catholic Charities of North Louisiana.  Her mother instilled in her to "Be happy, make a difference, and always remember to help someone along the way."
     Look for Jean in the Catholic Connection.

Fr. Francis becomes a United States Citizen, June 12, 2020..  We are very happy to have you as a new American.  Congratulations on your new citizenship.

Raney was ordained to the Sacred Order of Deacon through the imposition of hand and the invocation of the Holy Spirit by his excellency Most Reverend Francis I. Malone, Bishop of Shreveport on Saturday, June 27, 2020 at 10:00 a.m. in the morning at St. Mary of the Pines Catholic Church, 1050 Bert Kouns Industrial Loop, Shreveport, LA 71118.  

PLEASE READ THESE TWO THANK YOU NOTES FROM RANEY AND FROM HIS MOM BONNIE:

TO:         Black History Committee of Sacred Heart &
               Parishioners
FROM:   Deacon Raney Johnson
 
     I want to thank you all for honoring me at the Black History Celebration at your church on February 9th. I was humbled by the entire experience.  The kindness that you all showed me will forever be remembered in my heart.  Please extend my thanks to all of the parishioners who go to Sacred Heart.  I also want to thank the children’s choir.  They did an amazing job.  I especially want to thank all of you, the members of this great committee, for inviting me to attend and putting on an excellent program.  I have shared with many here at the seminary how impressed I was with everything.
     I encourage you all to please do the program again next year.  However, this time there will be no need to honor me, a simple invitation will work.  I would even love to help you all plan it.
     Again, I want to express my deepest gratitude.  There is no way that I can return sufficient thanks for all the generosity you all showed to me.  Thank you for your material, financial, and spiritual gifts that you gave to me. You all will be in my daily prayers.  Please continue to pray for me.
 
In Christ through Mary,
 
Raney Johnson
 
 
TO:        Fr. Mike, Deacon Nash and & All
              Committee Members
FROM:  Bonnie Johnson
 
So many ways to do the job, To earn the Priase . . . .
To play the role,
To be the rock,
To share the care
To walk the Talk . . . .
To take the time
To know what’s BEST. . . . . .
And shows the LOVE,
With a Shining Light!
 
Thank you!,  Thank you!,   Thank you!
Thanks so much, to the “Little Church with the BIG HEART.”
 
Love, Bonnie Johnson