Courageous Students Demand Change After Horrific School Shooting in Florida

It was suppose to be a day to celebrate love-Valentine's Day and also it was Ash Wednesday 2018 and the beginning of Lent. After returning from Mass that afternoon, with a large ash cross on my forehead, I soon realized this was going to be a very sad day. It would be a Lent from hell for some families from Parkland, Florida, who heard the unthinkable and tragic news that day. Their precious children and some adults would be gunned down in what should be a safe place, their high school.
That a deranged and hate-filled teenager could buy an assault rifle so easily even though he had clear mental issues is a disgrace.
And now the students say, "enough is enough." Adults in power have failed them. They want to be the voice of the dead, who can no longer speak for themselves. Those who have no voice now should not have died a violent death in vain. Their friends and fellow students are demanding change. And lots of people are behind them.
Today, a week from that dreadful day, President Trump had a listening session at the White House and he heard from distraught parents who have lost children in deadly school shootings and students who witnessed them. Let's hope he acts wisely.
Where is the hope? The hope is that students across America want change and are demanding change. They want sensible gun laws and more serious background checks for those who want to buy guns.
I'm hopeful that, over time, they will make a difference. They're eloquent and brave and are impressing a lot of people, including me. My prayers are with them.
NJA

Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past, let us accept our own responsibility for the future. 
President John F. Kennedy (1917-1963)

Lent 2018 Begins on Ash Wednesday and Valentine's Day

The holy season of Lent begins on Ash Wednesday which also falls on Valentine's Day in 2018. Interesting. The greatest love story of all time,  the remarkable story of how much the Creator is in love with His Creation, how God loves each of us unconditionally and knows us personally,  how the Son of God gave his life for each of us, how we are baptized into the Divine life of the Trinity at baptism, all because of love.
So in Christianity, it always comes back to love.
God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, that everyone who has faith in him may not die but have eternal life. It was not to judge the world that God sent his Son into the world, but that through him the world might be saved. (John 3: 16-17)
It always comes back to love.
The whole New Testament could be summed up in one word- "love."
The Great Commandment, a call to love-"Love God with your whole heart, mind and soul and love your neighbor as you love yourself."
The saints tell us that God loves each of us,  as if there were no other soul but us. It's very personal. It's very intimate. That's how God loves us. An amazing and remarkable truth, that is difficult for the human mind to grasp.
NJA