From the Pastor's Pen - 3rd Sunday of Lent

This Sunday we begin the three greatest Conversion Stories in the Bible. We only get them in Cycle A of the three-year rotation of Sunday readings (though these stories can be used any Lent especially with unbaptized catechumens). The Woman at the Well, the Man Born Blind, and the Raising of Lazarus are amazing for the transformations of the characters, and general human insight. This week a woman, tired from work and bored in relationships, finds new life talking to a stranger who asks her for a drink. She goes on to become, as Sr. Emily said, the young church’s greatest evangelizer. We’ll use a dialogue method at our Masses to bring out the rich interactions.  While we don’t have any  unbaptized to walk with this year, David Salvatierra of our parish is preparing enter the Catholic Church at Easter. Let us pray for him and be converted anew like him.

We have another chance to hear an excellent talk on good reflective prayer with Scripture. Our presenter, Shane Van Diest, had to postpone last week’s second session, so it will be presented this Wednesday, at 7 in church. He began to open up methods for a generous practice of prayer in the first session, but this will stand alone.

With all in our diocese and churches everywhere, we’ve implemented a few hygiene practices not normally needed, due of course to the worldwide (and local) spread of the Covid 19 Virus.  The threat is real, as we’ve seen; we wouldn’t want to be identified as a community that was careless in the face of this event and caused further infection. While the methods we’ve been instructed to use don’t provide 100% protection, of course, they enable us to continue to gather in a group to pray, which people in some areas of the world now can’t do. Let’s be grateful that we can, and do these adaptations in a spirit of cooperation with everyone in the human race.

Come to think of it, that’s a good description of Lent.