Looking Forward – Excerpts from Fr. Mark Goring’s Homily (March 12, 2026)
How do we look forward? We look forward with hope and faith.
But this command I gave them, ‘Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people; and walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.’ But they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and the stubbornness of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward.
Jeremiah 7:23-24
This is an important principle of spiritual warfare. We have to keep looking forward. Do not get stuck looking backwards. The devil wants us to get stuck looking backwards. The Lord wants us to have hope and faith. Hope and faith points to how God is always up to something good in our lives, and that the Holy Spirit always has the next inspiration for us. The Holy Spirit is always up to something good.
There are some things we can look back on. For example, we can look back on all the blessings, on the wonders, and the works of the Lord in our lives—all those wonderful things. And we can also look back on the ways we’ve offended the Lord that we haven’t repented of yet. We need to remember those and go to confession, and then forget them. The Lord says, “Your sins, I remember no more.”
The basic principle is that as children of God, we fix our gaze forward.
Let your eyes look directly forward,
Proverbs 4:25-27
and your gaze be straight before you.
Take heed to the path of your feet,
then all your ways will be sure.
Do not swerve to the right or to the left;
turn your foot away from evil.
The Lord has a plan for your life. He has wonderful things ahead of you. Do you believe that? The Holy Spirit is excited about your future. When the Holy Spirit gives us inspirations, it’s with great delight, and what the Father has planned for us is ultimately wonderful.
Obviously, the Lord puts us through trials and challenges. It doesn’t mean that everything’s going to be hunky-dory. A person of faith, even as they’re going through the struggles of life, has this sense that God is up to something good in their life.
Throughout the day, we can say to the Lord, “Lord, say something to me.” The Lord commands us to hear his voice. He’s speaking to us in his own mysterious way in the stillness of our hearts to his still small voice.
The recommended exercise is to take an extra prayer time during the day, and with a pen and paper, or using your phone, make a Look Forward list. Ask the Holy Spirit and say, “Lord, tell me something. Show me. Speak to me. What am I supposed to be excited about? What are you doing in my life? What should I be hoping for? What should I be dreaming about? Put into my heart a sense of what you’re calling me to and what you’re planning on doing in my life. What should I be working towards?”
If today you hear God’s voice, harden not your hearts.
Stealing Joy – Excerpts from Fr. Mike Schmitz’s Homily (March 15, 2026)
What should we look for? We have to look for joy.
And every place we find it, we have to steal joy. We have to steal it for ourselves. We have to steal it for the people around us. We have to steal it for the Lord. We have to steal it because our story is actually meant to be a story where we look for joy and then steal joy at every opportunity we have.
And the reality, of course, is that we could lose. We could get our hopes up. We could try to find joy in a place. We could look for joy. We could not find it. We could find joy and celebrate it, rejoice over it, steal it, and lose it again. But that’s what we’re called to be.
And he arose and came to his father. But while he was yet at a distance, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.
Luke 15:20,32
It was fitting to make merry and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.
In this whole parable, the Prodigal Son, ultimately, this Lent and in our lives, we’re not called to stay as the younger son who gets welcomed back. We’re not called to stay as the older son who’s invited in. We’re actually called to be the father.
The younger son who came home was celebrated. He has to become the one who welcomes and celebrates others. We’re called to be the father.
The older son, who was angry and resentful, was pursued and invited into joy. He has to become the one who can face the anger and the resentment of other people and invite them into joy.
This story doesn’t end with us being the ones rejoiced over. It ends with us being the kind of people who can look like the father and steal joy wherever we find it. We are called to become the kind of person who’s like the father, who’s courageous enough to look for hope, who’s courageous enough to look for joy, and to steal every opportunity for joy.
Every life is a story. Every person is an author. The only question is, who will you and I become at the end of our story? And who we become is dependent on what we pay attention to. Who we become is dependent on what we see, and what we see is dependent upon what we look for.
So, we look for joy. And like the father, we steal it every chance we get.