“When I was a little boy, my grandmother kept a record of my growth on the door frame of her closet. On every visit, I’d stand very straight against the door frame and Nana would take a pencil and mark my new height on the wood,” said Father Jerry.

“Then she would take a yardstick and tell me exactly how tall I was, and how many inches I’d grown since my last visit. This was always accompanied with her enthusiastic comment, ‘My would a big boy you’re getting to be. I’m so proud of you!’ Well, I have a feeling that God takes that same kind of delight in our growing up, too,” Father added.

“God wants us to keep growing, but not taller. God wants our hearts to grow bigger and bigger. So that our hearts will become more like the heart of Jesus, His Son. And how will this happen? Well, praying for one thing; talking to Jesus,” says Father Jerry, “Because the more you talk to someone, the better you get to know them. And the better you get to know someone, the more likely you are to begin to imitate them in some way or another.”

We can do the kinds of things that Jesus did, and say the kinds of things that Jesus said. Are these things easy to do and say? Absolutely not! That’s why Jesus helps us by giving us a special high-energy food: His own body and blood. At each and every Mass if we receive the Body of Christ with hearts that are open, with hearts that have let go of the hurtful and loveless things of the past, then our hearts will grow a little more like the heart of Jesus.