#MyMassTakeaway: Proclaim Your Sinfulness

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#MyMassTakeaway – proclaim your sinfulness. . In the first reading, the lepers have to proclaim their sickness. "Unclean! Unclean!" Sickness and disease were Old Testament signs of sinfulness. . Like the lepers, we proclaim our sinfulness at Mass every week during the penitential rite. We say "I confess" before God and the entire parish gathered together. . We take threefold responsibility for our sins "through my fault… my fault… my most grievous fault." . And we beg for prayers from the entire communion of saints "pray for me to the Lord or God." . If we don't sleepwalk through this prayer, it's a very humbling moment. It's a reminder of our guilt. And the awareness of that guilt opens the door for hope and healing. . If we deny our sin, we have no motivation to change. Instead, we proclaim our sins. We seek repentance and conversion. And then, Jesus can enter in. He makes us clean and sets us free. . Lord Jesus, if You will it, You can make me clean. Amen.

A post shared by Sara Estabrooks (@tojesussincerely) on Feb 11, 2018 at 8:24am PST

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The Gospel this weekend is Jesus touching a leper and healing him. At Vigil Mass today, our deacon talked about the power of touch in his homily. There’s so many ways to touch someone’s life! Jesus reaches out to touch us…but as our deacon reminds us, we have to meet him halfway. Are we meeting him halfway? Are we open to His healing touch? That’s an important thing to think about as we prepare to enter the Lenten season… #mymasstakeaway with @tojesussincerely ⛪️📚 Here are some of our favorite books to take to Mass! The kids love following along with their books, and we’ve been using @everysacredsunday to read the readings together as a couple each week. It’s become such a special time for our prayer lives and our marriage.

A post shared by Jen & Logan (@surprisedbymarriage) on Feb 10, 2018 at 5:49pm PST

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I don't think I fully understood the meaning of today's gospel until I became a mother. 1. Jesus gives the healed leper a clear direction 2. The man ignores him and does the exact opposite of what Jesus said 3. Jesus then finds it impossible to go anywhere by himself: "he remained outside in the desert places, and people kept coming to him from everywhere." If that's not motherhood in a nutshell, I'm not sure what is 😉 #MyMassTakeaway #MySundayBest

A post shared by Ginny Kochis •Not So Formulaic (@ginnykochis) on Feb 11, 2018 at 11:23am PST

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"Brothers and sisters, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God." Today my pastor preached on availability, both our availability to God and our availability to others. To pause and make ourselves totally available to God, like the leper in the Gospel, shows humility and faith in Someone greater. To make ourselves available to others can radically change the world and bring glory to God. As I'm walking towards Lent this week, I'll be praying about what it really means to be available and how I can live out this call each day. How about you- how do you want to challenge yourself to be more available during Lent? . . . #JMJ #sundayreadingsscripturedoodle #katieletters #1corinthians10 #glorifyGod #scripturedoodle #mymasstakeaway #catholicwomen #bissisterhood #lent

A post shared by Katie Bogner (@katherine.bogner) on Feb 11, 2018 at 11:43am PST

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One of my favorite parts of traveling is visiting different churches. The boys each got three wishes, and I loved looking at the stained glass windows and statues. It always feels comforting to see some familiar faces on the statues in an unfamiliar place. St. Francis was standing there waiting for us when we pulled up just a couple minutes late for Mass and climbed the steps in the rain. The priest spoke about Ordinary Time and encouraged us to see this time as the school days in our lives, a time to focus on learning more about Jesus’ teaching. Our visit to the church wasn’t at all ordinary, of course. And I used up my three wishes hoping for good Mass behavior. I always do. #ordinarytime #extraordinarytime #stfrancisprayforus #catholic #mymasstakeaway

A post shared by Rita Buettner (@ritaatopenwindow) on Feb 11, 2018 at 11:36am PST

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#mymasstakeaway First off, I went to mass ALONE! We are potty training E and we’re seeing small progress so we didn’t want to take her to mass and put pants on her 🤣🤣🤦🏼‍♀️. So last week I took lj to mass and B stayed home but this week I went alone to mass and B is there now with lj so we can keep the tiny human nakey and making potty training progress. So because of my solo adventure I got to actually… pay… attention! Here’s my take today. First thought was WHAT in the world does this OT reading have to do with life now-days?? “Go to the priest and proclaim you’re unclean and he’ll just tell you to shout it from the rooftops and banish you bc you’re so unclean” – sounds real Christian? Not… But then like all things in the Old Testament – reading it in context with the new (in the Gospel) brings forth the real teaching. What I read is that same leper who would have been banished in the old covenant with all the rules and Mosaic laws humbled himself before God and BEGGED him to make him clean. Jesus touched him and made him clean out of love and pity at his humility. When is the last time you knelt down in humility and begged God to fix all the things. The little and the big? It’s not until we humble ourselves and ask that God will do the things in our life to make us better. Sometimes those things he does we don’t understand but He is making us clean and making us more like Jesus. Go, confess your transgression, your imperfections, your “please God fix my anger, my impatience…” and let Him work on you! He will make you clean! 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙋🏼‍♀️

A post shared by Heather (@heather_yarr) on Feb 11, 2018 at 8:24am PST

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Living a life in Christ calls us to live radically. We may not be called to serve lepers like St. Damien of Moloka’i and St. Marianne Cope. But, we are called to serve our families, our neighbors, and our communities in a radical manner. . . . How will you live radically in Christ, and allow your Faith to lead you closer to Christ this Lent? . . . #mymasstakeaway w/ @tojesussincerely #catholicblogger #christianblogger #radicalchristian #proudcatholic #catholicsonline #faith #prayer #faithintoaction

A post shared by Anni Harry (@beautifulcamouflagedmess) on Feb 11, 2018 at 9:25am PST

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#mymasstakeaway how are you living in discomfort with your faith? If you’re going to fancy dinners regularly, splurging on the best phones, the best cars and most luxurious homes, how are you experiencing discomfort? God wants us to enjoy the good that the world has to offer, but let us not fall into a spiritual leprosy, when we grow comfortable in the luxuries of our life. #bissisterhood

A post shared by Diane Kulseth (@dianekulseth) on Feb 11, 2018 at 9:25am PST

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Once again the reading from Psalm struck me. Moving through the liturgy towards Lent and Easter has been very poignant. Preparing for your first confession is sobering. It is on the minds of all my children as well. We’ve had some fantastic discussions about taking a candid look at your past and reflecting on what you find there. Wondering how you will present it to the Lord; I’ve found myself thinking of ways to pass the blame to another; looking for that out that makes me not responsible for my own actions. As a protestant I never sat down and made an inventory about the seriousness of past sins – always considering that all things were “under the blood.” It seems so foolish now this idea that I was somehow going to leave out or ignore those things and continue in Christ with out properly facing and confessing them. This examen of conscious has been painful, embarrassing, and sobering. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find there was also a positive side to this reflection. I was able for the first time to reflect on what sins I’ve conquered and ways I’ve grown and become “less a sinner” than before. It has brought such encouragement. It feels good to come out from the garden, to remove the fig leaves from my soul, and meet the Lord with openness and honesty. Pray for our family as we approach our first confession next month. #mymasstakeaway #firstconfession #catholic #catholicconvert #grace #mercy #JesusItrustinyou #stickyrosary

A post shared by 📿⚒Sticky Rosary⚒📿 (@stickyrosary) on Feb 11, 2018 at 10:37am PST

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#mymasstakeaway today – it’s time to practice more compassion and mercy, as Jesus did. He was full of compassion for the many he met along His path, and freely gave them His mercy. This is the second time this week I’ve come across this message and it’s something I really struggle with; I’m NOT a very compassionate person. I will be looking for ways to be more compassionate and to show more mercy in my life, starting in my own home. @tojesussincerely

A post shared by Courtney Pomietto (@cpomietto) on Feb 11, 2018 at 11:39am PST

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"If I speak in human and angelic tongues, but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal." (1 Corinthians 13:1) . "Men may be charitable, merciful, and self-sacrificing, yet not kind. Kindness, as a grace, is not always sufficiently cultivated even among some devout people. Many devout people are unkind." — Fr. Lawrence G. Lovasik, The Hidden Power of Kindness . #mysundaybest #mymasstakeaway

A post shared by Rosie Hill (@rosiehill425) on Feb 11, 2018 at 11:49am PST

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Today I was honored to have Zelie blessed by our new bishop and sponsor a lovely young lady very dear to me as she was confirmed. . Bishop Perez talked to the confirmandi about how we always think of the great necessity of food and water to live, but we don’t as consciously think about the air we breathe, without which we would expire in minutes. . Just so, the breath of God’s life in our souls is absolutely everything, and without that life we simply couldn’t survive. . May I never take for granted God’s gracious gift of life, and having received the Holy Ghost in Confirmation!. . Also, a shoutout to @hillyanne_t for her post from last month on how to properly address clergy, I felt less nervous meeting our new bishop! . #mysundaybest with @rosiehill425 . #mymasstakeaway with @tojesussincerely . #babywearing #babywearingletsme #babygoals #Catholicbaby #Catholicsofinstagram #confirmation #scramentallife #Quinquegesema #Latinrite

A post shared by Mariette 💕 (@thenaturalcatholicmom) on Feb 11, 2018 at 3:26pm PST

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It’s the last Sunday before Lent! I have a list of the top 7 misconceptions I’ve heard about Lent (just this past week) #ontheblog today. Go check that out, but first some thoughts on today’s Gospel! Today we heard the story of a leper healed by Jesus. We had a fabulous homily about how the man’s leprosy could be interpreted as representing our sins, which separate us from God and each other. But I’m struck by the consequences of the man not heeding Jesus’ instruction to “tell no one” that he had been healed by Jesus. It’s good news! It’s truth! Why shouldn’t we tell everyone all the time? Because it made it more difficult for Jesus to approach others. The man’s spread of his story far and wide, in direct disobedience of his instruction from Jesus, made it impossible for Jesus to enter the cities. Some still came to the desert where Jesus was, but what about those who could not, or would not, meet Jesus in the desert? Who might we from keeping from truth in our pursuit, of good things but, things that go against what God is asking of us? #mymasstakeaway with @tojesussincerely and #mysundaybest with @rosiehill425

A post shared by Kirby Hoberg (@underthyroof) on Feb 11, 2018 at 2:39pm PST