Happy Easter. We've had an amazing journey through Lent. Now, let's be more intentional about going out into our day-to-day lives and being God's presence in the world. 20 years ago, we had an incredible dream. We asked ourselves, how would the church be transformed if everybody read a copy of Rediscover Catholicism? And we set out to try and put a copy of Rediscover Catholicism in the hands of every Catholic in America. Out of that came the Christmas Book Program and the Easter Book Program, and so many of you have benefited from that. So many of you have shared that with other people. In the beginning of the year, Pope Leo was asked the question: what book would you want every Catholic to read? And as soon as we heard he'd been asked the question, we were fascinated. He's answered that question, The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence. It's a simple book. It's a small book. It's a powerful book. He said that if you really want to understand His spirituality, you should read that book, The Practice of the Presence of God. It had been a few years since I read the book, so I got my copy out and I gave it another read and I thought, very powerful.

And then we thought to ourselves, okay, if this is the book Pope would like every person to read. Let's create a copy. Let's make a copy. Let's make it available to people. Let's share it with the world. And so that's what we've done. There's a beautiful humility to this book, the author, Brother Lawrence. He doesn't even put his last name on the book. And how powerful is that unto itself? But what is the essence of the message? The essence of the message is to be mindful of God's presence at all times, in all events, in all circumstances, in all activities. I could go to a meeting and be mindful of the presence of God, or I can go to a meeting and not be mindful of the presence of God. It's exactly the same meeting. But how I am aware of God's presence completely changes my experience of that meeting and completely changes the way I approach people and circumstances and situations. Same thing, any ordinary chore around the house: can mow the lawn, can hang a painting, can paint a room. We can do these things mindful of God's presence or ignorant to God's presence. The same activity, but it's completely transformed just by being aware that God is with us. He's at our side. And so this Easter, I want to encourage you to be mindful of God's presence, not only today on the Day of Resurrection, an incredible Day of Resurrection, and Jesus burst forth into life, overcoming death. It's just an amazing experience to meditate on the resurrection. But then let's take Jesus, His presence in the world, with us into every ordinary activity of our lives. That is the essence of this small, beautiful, powerful book. I mean, it packs a punch. It's extraordinary. And 350 years later, people are reading it, and I thought it was brilliant for the Pope to come up and share that insight with us and with the world.

I hope you have had an incredible Lent. I hope you have a fantastic Easter. I hope that the invitation to surrender has been powerful and that you start to see the moments in your life where you are surrendered and can celebrate those, when you're not surrendered, and can accept the challenge to surrender more and more to God each day. Have a wonderful Easter. Thank you for journeying with us again this Lent. God bless you and remember, Be Bold, Be Catholic.