These reflections are a result of more than 40 years of ministry as a Roman Catholic priest. Most of these years I spent in the Diocese of Charlotte which covers Western North Carolina. Now I am retired, and live in Medellín, Colombia where I continue to serve as a priest in the Archdiocese of Medellín.

Saturday of the Blessed Virgin Mary, August 17

Cast away from you all the crimes you have committed, and make for yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. Why should you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies, says the Lord GOD. Return and live! (Ez 18:1-19, 13b, 30-32)
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/081724.cfm
“Return and live!” God’s invitation calls us to hope in mercy and to see ourselves as being able to change. A new heart and a new spirit is possible because it is God who opens the way for us.  Even in the face of death, God promises resurrection. And as the Blessed Virgin Mary reminds us, with God all things are possible.