It was the love, not the nails, that held Him on the cross. Those are the opening words to a song that is perfect for today. As we begin our Lenten journey on this Ash Wednesday, we are reminded of Jesus Christ's sacrifice for us. His love was boundless and will not be outdone. Jesus hung on the cross to pay a ransom for us. Was it the only way? Probably not but the transgressions had created a gulf between God and His people. Out of His love, He sent His only Son to come to earth. After being arrested, humiliated, beaten, crucified, and buried, He was lifted up for our sins. Jesus Christ lives today and His life allows us to come to the Father. So what does your plan for the next forty days look like? Have you thought about what you will do to draw closer to God? Make it something big. Think about making an impact. Be bold! Think in the positive and focus on making the world a better place with your sacrifices. Remember how Jesus Christ was covered with stripes from the whips they used on Him. Remember how they stuck a crown of thorns into His head. Remember how He carried his own cross to his death. Our small sacrifices can never match His but they can draw us nearer to Him. So what does the world need right now? The Church needs to rise up. We need to pray our country back to spiritual health. Forget about the multiple distractions. Go to your favorite place and have a face-to-face conversation with Jesus Christ. Ask Him to help you in your journey. Ask Him to guide your sacrifice. Turn it over to Him. You cannot have a better Lenten season than by having Jesus Christ use you as His instrument. I am praying that you have a blessed Lenten journey.

It seems satan has recruited a new member in the attempt to bring down the Church that was founded by Jesus Christ. Nicki Minaj, who purports to be a singer, performed a song on the Grammy's Sunday night that quickly turned into a sacrilegious mess. She has been roundly criticized but responded on her Twitter account that she is not sorry and basically meant to offend people. We cannot print her response because it is also offensive to civil society. At a time when the president of the United States is pushing policies that are aimed point blank at Catholic beliefs based on the teachings of Jesus Christ, it seems that satan is working overtime to continue the assault against the Church. St. Bernard Clairvaux said that being a Christian in this time will be difficult. He notes that only the heroic will survive. Are you ready to be a hero for Jesus' Church? If you are, be aware that satan and his army will come against us. You must arm yourself appropriately and the best way is to receive the Eucharist. Having Jesus inside of you will make you strong enough to withstand the power of evil. St. Bernard tells us, "We are to love God for Himself, because of a twofold reason; nothing is more reasonable, nothing more profitable." Loving God requires us to be His church on earth. The attempts to destroy us by our enemies must be met with prayer and fasting. We must also respond to these attacks with love and the truth. We must be vigilant in our protection of what we hold deep in our hearts, namely our faith. It is what sustains us in life and allows us to hope for eternal life with God our Father. Before we were conceived, God knew us. Before our parents ever laid eyes on us, God loved us. Loving God, as St. Bernard said, is a profitable endeavor. We know that God will not be outdone. His love is endless. The depth of His love is immeasurable. We must return His love with our own inadequate love. Each day strive to love God more. But remember that we should respond to God not only in words but deeds. Loving God should take all of the forms of the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. I find that four spiritual works of mercy apply directly to the Minaj incident. They are namely: To counsel the doubtful; To admonish sinners; To bear wrongs patiently; and, To forgive offenses willingly. Let's go Prayer Warriors. Now is the time to be heroic.

The take-away message from a Vatican-backed symposium on clerical sex abuse was clear: Victims, truth and justice come first. And the church can no longer wait for a crisis to erupt before it begins to address the scandal of abuse. "We do not need to wait for a bomb to explode. Preventing it from exploding is the best response," said Philippine Archbishop Luis Tagle. The archbishop of Manila was one of more than 200 bishops, cardinals, priests, religious and laypeople who attended a landmark symposium February 6-9 in Rome. The conference aimed to inspire and educate bishops' conferences around the world as they seek to comply with a Vatican mandate to establish anti-abuse guidelines by May. U.S. Cardinal William J. Levada, prefect of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the office that issued the mandate, said more than 4,000 cases of sexual abuse have been reported to the doctrinal office the past decade. Those cases revealed that an exclusively canonical response to the crisis has been inadequate, he said, and that a multifaceted and more proactive approach by all bishops and religious orders is needed. Countries such as the United States, Canada, Australia and Germany are among those with the most comprehensive and binding guidelines or norms, Cardinal Levada said. "But in many cases such response came only in the wake of the revelation of scandalous behavior by priests in the public media," he added. Learning the hard way, after generations of children and vulnerable adults are harmed and traumatized, shouldn't be the norm, symposium participants said. "Does each country around the world have to go through this same agonizing process?" asked Monsignor Stephen Rossetti, clinical associate professor of pastoral studies at The Catholic University of America, Washington. Hard lessons over the decades have taught the church the essential elements of an effective child-protection program, Monsignor Rossetti said, but such standards need to be implemented today around the world. Not all bishops or superiors are fully on board, he said, as some believe that no abuse has happened or will happen under their watch. "It is kind of like moving a mountain," trying to convince everyone that addressing abuse with swift and effective programs is an urgent obligation. "It's not just changing a few policies, it's a change in the way people think about these issues, and that takes a cultural shift," he said. That kind of conversion did happen at the conference, he said, for church officials who had never heard a victim speak in person about his or her trauma and concerns. Marie Collins, an abuse survivor from Ireland, said having her abuser's superiors shift the blame onto her and fail to stop the perpetrator caused her more pain and shock than the abuse itself. At the symposium's start, Collins said that she wanted the church to listen and respect victims and take their accusations seriously. She said hearing a church leader ask for forgiveness for shielding abusers was critical to healing, and she wanted to make sure there would be consequences for anyone who did not adhere to church norms. It appeared that symposium attendees and organizers were listening. Canada's Cardinal Marc Ouellet, prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, and 10 other bishops led a solemn penitential service February 7, in which they asked forgiveness for failing to protect children and serving instead as an "instrument of evil against them." The bishops included Cardinal Sean Brady, primate of All Ireland, who two years ago apologized for having failed to report an abuser priest to the police in the 1970s. The Vatican's top investigator of clerical sex abuse, Monsignor Charles Scicluna, didn't leave any wiggle room when it comes to complying with church and civil laws. Everyone, especially the lay faithful, he said, needs to develop the confidence "to denounce the sin when it happens and to call it a crime -- because it is a crime -- and to do something about it." The "deadly culture of silence, or 'omerta,' is in itself wrong and unjust," Monsignor Scicluna said, and bishops have a duty to cooperate fully with civil authority when civil laws are broken. Experts, too, insisted that listening to victims and putting truth, justice and their safety must be the top concerns of all church leaders. Monsignor Rossetti said that if there had ever been any doubt about the Vatican's position, "those days are over." The pope and the Vatican are "all on the same page, and so that's a powerful message to every bishop in the world," he said.

Whether the rich-poor divide in the United States is a demographic statistic or a politician's talking point is irrelevant to the agencies that are simply trying to make sure the people on the poor side of the equation have a roof over their head and food on the table. They're too busy trying to figure out how to feed more people with less money. The growing gap between rich and poor in the United States is a key theme of the "occupy" movement around the country, with participants emphasizing that they represent the "99 percent," as opposed to the 1 percent who control the majority of financial resources in the world. People are definitely noticing the gap between rich and poor and consider it a problem, according to pollsters. Two-thirds of a sampling of Americans told the Pew Research Center in December that there are strong or very strong conflicts between rich and poor in this country, up from 47 percent who said that two years ago. More than twice as many people describe the conflict as "very strong" as did so in July 2009, said the Pew study released Jan. 11. And another survey released February 2 that was conducted by Public Religion Research Institute for Religion News Service found that the gap between rich and poor was cited by voters it polled as the third most critical issue facing the country. Just under half, (49 percent) cited the gap as important, behind "jobs and unemployment," cited by 83 percent, and the federal deficit, cited by 69 percent of the 1,005 voters polled. But out in the parish food pantries and social service agencies where people in need seek help, the question is not "is the rich-poor gap a political issue?" or even "is the gap getting bigger?" It's simply: "How do we take care of the people on the poor side of the line?" Candy Hill, senior vice president for social policy and government affairs for Catholic Charities USA, said that although there are signs the economy is improving, many people are seeking basic support from church agencies. "Demand hasn't leveled off yet," she said. Ed Wnorowski, executive director of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul of Louisville, Ky., said the number of calls to a regional clearinghouse for social services nearly doubled between 2008 and 2009, from 3,719 to 6,255. The figure has remained well above 6,200 the following two years. At the same time, donations to the society have been flat, meaning the same amount of money and donated goods has had to stretch further, Wnorowski said. Linda Romine, communications director for the Louisville organization, said the director of a St. Vincent de Paul conference at one of the city's most affluent parishes reported helping more upper middle-class and "solidly middle-class" families in economic crisis. The parish helps with mortgage payments and utility bills, Romine said in an email exchange with Catholic News Service. "They're proud and embarrassed to ask for assistance, but they are in desperate situations." She gave examples of one family hit by a medical crisis that left the husband disabled and unable to work, and another family headed by a small-business owner whose company failed. Wnorowski said the charity's main effort to be sure it can meet needs has involved raising the profile of St. Vincent de Paul and its work, both to be sure people in need know it's there and to attract donations. Agency-owned thrift stores around the region provide its main source of income.

God calls us to be a people of words and deeds. He gave us the Bible and the preaching of the apostles to guide our lives. Now He asks that we become a Church that not only hears the words but are does of the words. It is important to remember as Catholics that it is not enough to simply say "I believe", and then do nothing. The Bible says, "Not everyone who says Lord, Lord, will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but rather he who does the will of my Father" (Matthew 7:21) Therefore, it must be assumed that works are indeed a necessary component of one's faith. Too many people think that faith means giving God lip service only ("This generation honors me with their lips, while their heart is far from me", Matthew 15:18), rather than actually doing good deeds for others. A good place to start if you are looking for good deeds are the Beatitudes. The Gospel of Matthew (5:3-10) tells us "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are the meek: for they shall possess the land. Blessed are they who mourn: for they shall be comforted. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice: for they shall have their fill. Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the clean of heart: for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Just as important is avoiding the sin of omission. Taking a closer look at the beatitudes can help there as well. When you see someone who is hungry or thirsty and ignore the situation, that is a sin of omission. Justifying the slight by thinking that the person should get a job or that they may use the money you give them for something illegal is not an excuse either. We are not here to judge but to model what Jesus did while on earth. And just to make sure we didn't forget, He preached the beatitudes and instructed His apostles to preach it as well. Thankfully some of them even wrote it down. So let's start earning some blessings by being the hands and feet of Jesus on earth.