must decrease," seems not to be a death threat, but beautiful.  To live in obedience to the Word of God, to the moral life as founded in Scripture and the Catholic Church's wisdom, and to you, the people of God, as a servant, generously offering the sacraments, prayer, and my time and energy as requests are made, are ways I endeavor to live out the virtue and sacrifice of obedience today.  I am praying to get better at it.  Jesus and the saints are models:  "For just as through the disobedience of one person the many were made sinners, so through the obedience of one the many will be made righteous" (Romans 5:19).  Palm Sunday, today, we read from Matthew's Gospel, and we find in Christ's passion, the greatest act of love: the offering of his life to the Father, "obedience as love," so that we might learn the "love of obedience."

-- Fr. Michael

School News&
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Youth Newz&
YOUTH MEXICO MISSION
June 23-July 1
Open to current year 10-12th graders.  Call Rick Craig, (763) 754-7666 for more information.

From the Associate&

    Jesus Christ, "Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered; and when he was made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him" (Hebrews 5:8-9).  Obedience as a concept and ideal often get a bad rap in today's culture.  It seems utterly antithetical to American prized values such as private judgment, free choice and personal rights.  Yet Christian tradition has always held and taught that obedience is the truth path to freedom and divine love!  It does not lead to the annihilation of self, as many would initially fear, rather, to inner peace and the true discovery of self:  made in the image of God, with an eternal goal of nuptual union with the Divine.  "Obedience is a requisite for holiness, and joy for any child of God whose life is abandoned to Divine providence" echoes the voices of all the saints.  If our prayer life in uninspiring, it may be because we are going through a difficult time in our life, e.g. of suffering ( as one theologian might say, "a dark night of the soul"); on the other hand, it may be a result of disobedience, even just at the level of the heart, because it is only the "pure of heart who see God" (Matthew 5:8).  If we do not give ourselves wholeheartedly to God, then our experience of divine love will be minimal.  Jesus is our model for obedience, revealing to us that it is first and foremost an expression of love towards the Father.  It is only because of, and in the context of, love that obedience finds its greatest fulfillment.
    "My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to finish his work" (John 4:34).
    "I cannot do anything on my own; I judge as I hear, and my judgment is just, because I do not seek my own will but the will of the one who sent me" (John 5:30).
    "He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart" (Luke 2:51).
    "Abba, Father, all things are possible to you.  Take this cup away from me, but not what I will but what you will" (Mark 14:36).
    "He humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross" (Phil. 2:8).
    A recent meditation on the Paschal Mystery asks this question, "Was it the nails which held Jesus to the cross?"  "No," it answers, "it was humility which kept his feet; it was obedience and love which kept his hands."
    In my own life, I have to admit that at times obedience has been very difficult, and that's because I am a prideful man.  Discovering and following my own vocation to the priesthood was once a very hard choice.  My critical tongue and attitudes toward the Catholic Church, for a couple years in college, revealed more arrogance than insight.  Submitting my life to the moderator of my community, the Companions of Christ, tasted very displeasing when I first joined.  And my parents, I'm sure, put up with a lot of hassles throughout my independent teenage years.  Today, after a certain amount of pain, I am slowly discovering that it is a great joy to lose oneself, in love for the Trinity.  The maxim of St. John the Baptist, "He must increase, while I