The nation was inspired last week by the efforts of thousands of volunteers to hold back the record flood waters of the Red River in North Dakota. Anyone who has labored to fill and carry one sandbag knows that it took a heroic, united effort to fill what news reports estimated as a million of them along the Red.

There is another river waiting to flood us at any time, and especially during this Holy Week. It is the river of God’s grace. Yet, we’ve gotten pretty good at holding that mightiest of rivers back too, haven’t we?

The river of grace flows during the beautiful liturgies of this week, but if we opt for television or other diversions, that’s a sandbag. If there is someone we should forgive, but we hold on to bitterness, that’s a sandbag. God is waiting to forgive us, but if we put off the sacrament of reconciliation, that’s a sandbag.

You get the idea.

What kinds of sandbags have we piled up to block the river of grace that flows from Calvary? This Holy Week is the perfect time to take them down, one by one, and let the river wash over us. For these waters only destroy what needs to be swept from our lives, and cleanse and heal the rest. — Thomas J. Dermody, editor-in-chief, The Catholic Post