A Parish Mission : A Great Way to Prepare Him Room

Tonite, my wife and I attended the first evening of a parish mission being held at a nearby parish in Orefield PA. The speaker for the week is Father Larry Richards from Erie, PA who described himself as an "ultra-conservative" priest and has been told by the bishop of Erie that he is "to the right of Trent!" (This basically means he is orthodox (vs heterodox) and believes all the Church's teachings and is faithful to the magisterium) He has spoken in Catholic Churches all over the country as well as at Promise Keeper's stadium events.
He gave a two hour talk punctuated by great anectdotes and lots of humor thrown in as well. His message was basically a call to prayer and he emphasized the necessity of putting Jesus first in everything we do.

He asked these questions:
Is Jesus everything to you?
Is He the most important person in your life?
Do you know Jesus?
You can talk about Him but do you really know Him?
What is the meaning of Life? The meaning of life is to know God.
If you were to die tonite and God asked you "why should I let you into heaven," what would your answer be?
If you said "Because I went to church each Sunday" God would say nope!"
If Mother Theresa said, because "I'm a saint", God would say "nope, can't come in!"
If John Paul 2 said, "I was the Pope", God would say "nope! can't come in!"

If you said "I believe that Jesus died for my sins," God would say Yes!, now let me see how you proved it by the way you lived! Faith working itself out in love! (All the faith in the world without love will get you nothing, my translation)

At the end of the evening he asked us all to commit to prayer just 5 minutes a day and do three things when we pray:
1) Tell God your sorry.
2) Surrender to Him.
3) Ask Him to hold you in His arms, as St. John did at the last Supper.

Wow! What a great way to start Advent. Prepare Him Room!