In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen.

My Lord and my God, I firmly believe that you are here, that you see me, that you hear me.

I adore you with profound reverence.

I ask your pardon for my sins and the grace to make this time of prayer fruitful.

My immaculate Mother St. Joseph, my father and Lord, my guardian angel, into seed form.

With your permission, Lord Jesus Christ, truly present with us in the blessed sacrament,

and our topic of conversation with our Lord is on repentance,

and specifically it's on that very special encounter, literally,

because every sacrament is an encounter literally with Christ,

every sacrament is about true presence.

The Blessed Sacrament is the full presence of the resurrected Christ,

but in the other sacraments, that resurrected Christ does encounter us with a specific aim.

And in the sacrament of confession or reconciliation, that parable of the prodigal son comes to life.

And we are that prodigal son, and our Lord is that father who gives us a sacramental embrace. Part of this quest to be centered on Jesus requires a first step,

and we see that first step as one of the common threads

running through the different vignettes of Jesus' public life.

His infancy, all the characters are into plan A, as it were.

Jesus is the protagonist, and he happens to be God,

so that's an impossible to act to follow.

His mother is also impossible to follow

because she's immacally conceived,

so she has an advantage over us.

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