Homily given at the 12:00 noon Mass on Wednesday, February 13, 2013, Ash Wednesday, by Fr. Ed Fride, Pastor, Christ the King Catholic Church. As we begin the holy season of Lent, Fr. Ed reminds us that the whole purpose of Lent is to fall more deeply in love with Jesus.

Key words: Lent, love, Jesus

Homily given at the 11:30 Mass on Sunday, February 10, 2013, the Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, by Fr. Pat Egan. Fr. Pat notes that the first reading and the Gospel today talk to us about coming deep into the presence of God and the lessons we can draw from Isaiah's and Peter's experiences.

Key words: holiness, sinfulness, Lent, obedience

Homily given at the 11:30 a.m. Mass on Sunday, February 3, 2013, the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time and the World Day of Prayer for Consecrated Life, by Fr. Ed Fride, Pastor, Christ the King Catholic Church. Fr. Ed notes that love is necessary in order to adequately serve the King of Kings. Those who are consecrated to Him, such as the members of the Servants of God's Love who attended this Mass, give the rest of the Church a wonderful example of this love.

Key words: love, consecrated life

The fifth talk in the Fundamentals of Catholic Living seminar, given by Deacon Dan Foley on Friday, February 15, 2013, at Christ the King Catholic Church as part of the Upper Room Ministry. This talk expands on the previous week's talk by discussing what is "the flesh," in the Scriptural sense of the term, and the choices we need to make in order to overcome it and live in the freedom that Jesus intends for us.

Key words: Fall, original sin, concupiscence, "the flesh," freedom, Fundamentals, Upper Room

The third talk in the Fundamentals of Catholic Living seminar, given by Deacon Dan Foley on Friday, February 1, 2013, at Christ the King Catholic Church as part of the Upper Room Ministry. This talk addresses the topics of faith and guidance: what they are and how they operate in our lives.

Key words: Catholic, faith, guidance, Fundamentals, Upper Room

On January 30, 2013, Brad Schmidt gave a presentation to parents of 6-12 grade students about the issue of sexual purity among teens, and how parents can better equip their sons and daughters to deal with temptation in a healthy way. This is an updated version of the talk originally given in May of 2011.

The handout, listing online resources for parents and teens, as well as some guidance about how and when to address these issues is online at http://www.rc.net/lansing/ctk/lifeteen/parent_resources.pdf.  This handout also includes things to look for to help identify if this is an issue in your family.

Homily given at the 4:30 p.m. Mass on Saturday, January 26, 2013, the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, by Fr. Ed Fride, Pastor, Christ the King Catholic Church. Fr. Ed reminds us that Pope John Paul the Great made it clear that the Christian's spiritual life is supposed to be contemplative, charismatic, Marian, and Eucharistic. All four elements should be present in every Christian's life.

Key words: Eucharist, Mary, contemplation, charismatic, spirituality