This week's weather has been such a blessing! I pray that it has helped you see and acknowledge God's presence in your life, especially if you've had a ton of stuff to finish before spring break starts. Thank you Lord, for the beauty of your creation.

Last week, Fr. Peter led a talk and discussion about what we can do to fully repent this Lent and make intentional changes that bring us closer to God, breaking down the biggest barriers that are keeping us apart from Him. Today, instead of BCM, we will join together at 8:00pm in the church for a night of meditative prayer and small group discussion at Boiler Catholic Everybody (BCE) with all the men and women of the Boiler Catholics community. The meditation is inspired by Jesus's painful and passionate prayer to his Father in the Garden of Gethsemane the Thursday before his crucifixion and will start with adoration in the church. Then, we will gather for small group reflections led by some of the Ignite leaders, who each lead faith-sharing groups that meet every week around Purdue's campus. It'll be an awesome way to dive even deeper into your relationship with God this Lent by opening your heart to share in Jesus's profound suffering.

Also, the Bacon Boys tradition will continue this week at Mad Mushroom, where we'll meet to hang out and crush some super sized pizzas for dinner before the other events tonight. Meet us tonight in the gathering space after the 5:30pm daily Mass (about 6:05pm). All guys are welcome to join, and you can always meet us at the restaurant if you can't be there at St. Tom's when we walk over.

Speaking of other events, Br. Jacob is leading a course on the power of the Holy Spirit at 7:00pm, which fits in right after pizza at Mad Mush and right before BCE at 8. Today's installment is about how the Holy Spirit helps us become saints. Anyone can come to any of the meetings, and it's a really cool way to hear and talk about the Holy Spirit in a more transformative way than we usually do.

I hope to see you at any or all of these events tonight! Remember that all men (Catholic or not) in any stage of their spiritual or college journey are always welcome at BCM, so invite your friends! Every meeting is different, so if you haven't been before or feel like you're too busy to go to all of them, us leaders would love to have you whenever you can make it.

Other Announcements:

On Friday, we will resume our weekly visits to the St. Francis Perpetual Adoration Chapel in Lafayette. It'll be a beautiful opportunity to center ourselves around God before we all go off to break. Meet in the gathering space of St. Tom's at about 5:45pm so we can leave for the chapel by 6pm, and join us to get dinner after as a group.

With spring break coming up, it's probably a good idea to mention that all BCM events are cancelled for next week. That means no Rosary Walk, BCM meeting, or Friday adoration visit until the week after break. We're praying for all your safe travels, and remember to continue to turn toward God in prayer every day!

For a long time, I never knew what real prayer was. I was taught that prayer is having a conversation with God, but no one ever really explained to me what that meant. I got the idea that prayer was just one of those things that you do because people tell you that you should as a Catholic. It helps you build up your case for Heaven, because the more you pray the holier you are. Sure, maybe God is present when you pray to him, but you'd never know it because he's not going to do anything to tell you.

When I started to take ownership of my faith in college, I prayed more because I wanted to be holier. Sometimes I spent time listening to reflections, reading Scripture, and meditating on it, because I knew that if prayer is a conversation, then listening must be an important part of it. But nothing managed to bear as much fruit as I thought it should. For a while, I got into a cycle of trying to pray a lot, then falling away because I could never get past the surface level of "conversation". That is, until recently. I had a lot of things happen to me within a few weeks that revealed to me how much I was missing. I realized that I had been looking at my relationship with God through a keyhole, and God (slowly but surely) opened up the door.

God calls us into so much more than a conversation. He wants a relationship with us that won't just be the most important relationship in our lives, but the deepest. For this, we need to open ourselves up to God, to turn to Him in utter dependence and faith, so He can pour out His grace on us. Jesus, our ultimate example, knew this better than anyone. I'd bet that His prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane was the deepest ever prayed by any man. Even though He is God, He turns to His Father in utter vulnerability, and He bares to His Father the fear, sorrow, and agony that reside in the depths of His heart. He asks that the cup might pass from Him; it's such a human thing, to ask not to suffer. But He offers His intense agony over to the Father, saying, "Not my will but yours be done," because more important than anything to Jesus is doing His Father's will. The Father didn't let the cup pass from Jesus, no matter how passionately Jesus prayed. But that doesn't mean that His prayer went unanswered. In opening himself up to the Father so fully, He allowed the Father's love to enter in and give Him the strength to fulfill His plan. Jesus's prayerful relationship with the Father was the key to His mission, and it's the key to our mission too.

In my conversion, I came to realize that God didn't just want me to give Him things or to do things for Him; most of all, He wanted me and all of me, especially all the insecurities and vulnerabilities I was afraid to admit I even had. When I finally let Him in through prayer, He poured his love into me and transformed my life in lots of small but meaningful ways. The unique fulfillment from my encounter with God's love in prayer has helped me let go of distractions that I thought would make me happy, like TV and my phone. I live out my faith more confidently and seek more to share God with others, especially those who haven't experienced His love in the faith. And I'm more aware of the ways God is at work in me and in everything around me because I've come to know Him so much better.

I encourage you to seek an ever-deepening relationship with the Lord in prayer this Lent. If you haven't added some form of prayer to your Lenten routine, start small- a daily meditation, or a Rosary, or 15 minutes in silence every day. And when praying to Jesus, remember that He understands our experience of prayer because He went through it. Jesus shows us how to pray, and when we pray we join with Jesus in growing ever closer to our Heavenly Father, who loves us as sons more than we can ever imagine and for whom all things are possible.

Hope to see you all tonight!
Praying for each and every one of you!

St. Benedict, pray for us.

- BCM Leaders