From time to time each of you may have heard me speak about Apostolic Succession. You may ask why it is important. I will also speak about "living metaphors" as well. What makes "living metaphors" real, and not just symbolic, is the real presence of God (the action of the Holy Spirit) in each of the Sacraments. This real presence comes about because at the time of Ordination, through the decent of the Holy Spirit on the Priest (through Apostolic Succession), that newly ordained Priest receives the authority from God, to convey that action of God to the people in the Sacraments. While this is a truly awesome responsibility, it is also the way that Jesus Christ, who initially brought the Sacraments to the Apostles, is able to continue to bring them to His people through his representative, the Priest - thus we have Apostolic Succession in action.

Each of us needs to work at improving our personal spiritual life, and trying to understand more clearly what is my relationship with God?

How can I seek this?

• Prayer
• Reading Holy Scripture (see the calendar for the daily reading of the Epistle and Gospel)
• Worshiping at every opportunity in Church with the Brothers and Sisters in Christ in our Faith Community
• Receiving Holy Communion regularly
• Offering a personal Confession of our sins to God on a regular basis
• Observing the ways in which God interacts wit us in this world

The Holy Church, given to us by Our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ, provides in her structure etc ways which tend to reinforce the personal internal work we need to do in our lives to help us to more perfectly imitate Christ in our daily living.