Parish Bulletin for Sunday, March 5, 2006

1st SUNDAY OF LENT

Lent Is a Mirror

As we make our way through Lent toward the full reflection of our sin in the face of the crucified Christ, there will be many reflections of Jesus to prepare our way. This Sunday it is the tempted Christ who looks back at us and invites us to allow the mirror of his truthfulness to lead us to renewed goodness.

Mark tells us of Jesus' desert experience with a stinginess of words that does not elaborate or comment. Mark tells us only of the presence of the Spirit and Satan, of the wasteland, the wild beasts and the angels who attended Jesus. Mark does not even tell us how Jesus fared, leaving us to conclude for ourselves that he who emerged from the desert to proclaim the Good News had confronted the demons of he desert and overcome them.

In the starkness of his mirroring the tempted Jesus for us, Mark has provided a solid pattern for our own struggles with temptation. Where there are demons, we are assured, there is also the Spirit. Where there is wasteland, God's grace is also there to support and strengthen our efforts and resolve. And just as Jesus emerged from his desert trials with a mandate to preach the Good News, so also are we, who overcome trials and temptation for his sake, commissioned to promote the cause of the Gospel.

"Reform and believe," Jesus challenges us. As we see ourselves mirrored in his experience, we know that his challenge must form the agenda for our own lives. Lent is our time of self-discovery.

Because God has drawn near to humankind in Jesus, the only fitting responses to God's reign must be repentance and faith. We are called to recognize and welcome God's presence into our lives and into our world. Are we ready?

TUESDAY, March 7

Lenten Weekday

8:30 a.m. - † Carmen Spadafora

Requested by Gina Spadafora

WEDNESDAY, March 8

Lenten Weekday

8:30 a.m. - † Giuseppe Pierri

Requested by Frances Pierri

THURSDAY, March 9

Lenten Weekday

8:30 a.m. - † Alberto Deni

Requested by Nilda Deni

FRIDAY, March 10

Lenten Weekday

8:30 a.m. – Intention: Thanksgiving

Requested by Viegas family

Parish Bulletin for Sunday, March 12, 2006

2nd SUNDAY OF LENT

TRANSFIGURATION

MARK 9:2-10

Today we find Peter, James and John, three of the beloved disciples, taken apart from the others. They are witnesses to what we call the gospel of The Transfiguration. There is an interesting opportunity here to look at the experience of these three of Jesus' Transfiguration and their later experience of Jesus agonizing in the garden.

At the transfiguration, these disciples were gung ho for building three tents and basking in Jesus' transfigured glory for as long as possible; it was these same three who fell asleep following a great meal and were thus of little support to Jesus in his most desperate hour. Is it possible that Mark is challenging us, his readers?

What is our response to Jesus and the Gospel? When all is positive, encouraging and pleasant, when being a disciple brings with it the blessings and benefits we desire, it is not rather an easy task to follow the Lord? But when discipleship brings with it a share in the sufferings of Jesus, when rejection, humiliation and struggles come our way because of him, are tempted to "fall asleep" or to beat a hasty retreat because the cost of discipleship is too steep?

We are once again called to turn for strength and guidance to the divine voice that speaks from the cloud in order to clarify the significance of this moment and our response to it. "This is my Son, my beloved" identifies Jesus, as it did at his baptism as the beloved Son of a loving Father freely given into the hands of sinners. Jesus is both the Son of God who is God's agent of healing and the embodiment of his dazzling glory and the Son of Man who will be betrayed, tortured and crucified.

God says, "Listen to him." It is only through the eyes of faith springing from their experience of the risen Lord that the disciples truly hear and understand. We who stand on this side of the resurrection event are required and graced to do the same.

TUESDAY, March 14

Lenten Weekday

8:30 a.m. – Intentions: Thanksgiving

Requested by the Viegas family

WEDNESDAY, March 15

Lenten Weekday

8:30 a.m. - † Paul O'Neil

Requested by Patricia Kennedy

THURSDAY, March 16

Lenten Weekday

8:30 a.m. - † Samuel Johns

Requested by daughter

FRIDAY, March 17

Lenten Weekday

8:30 a.m. - † Barkev Kirijian and Anna-Astine and Paul Jalian

Requested by Janet Kirijian

Parish Bulletin for Sunday, March 19, 2006

THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT

THE WOMAN AT THE WELL

Time erased

By life-giving water,

Offered by a man who had no bucket,

Who knew me not, yet knew me well.

My past washed clean

In the spring that I became -

Flowing, flowing through me,

God's instrument,

Never again shall I thirst.

               – Judy Ritter

Once again, we welcome this story from John. This is a story of redemption and salvation. It is a story of missioning. It is a story for all of us. We have heard this story over and over again and each time the telling brings something new and different to our understanding of who God is and who we are.

The noonday sun beat down in oppressive waves as she made her way through the empty streets towards the well. Each step was heavy and laboured. She was burdened with far more than her clay water jugs. Shame, guilt, embarrassment, contempt . . . these were the weights around her neck, pulling her attention to the ground in front of her rather than to the eye level of those she may have encountered. Her reputation was well known in her community, marking her.

What thoughts would have been in her mind? How broken was the spirit? And then the voice of the stranger sitting at the well asks "Will you give me a drink?" She recognizes him as a Jew and does not hide her shock. Racial tensions were at an all time high – polite exchanges between Jew and Samaritan did not happen.

You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman, she says out loud, but in her mind, what was she thinking? And Jesus does not disappoint her but, instead, his answer confounds her. "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst."

This stranger then asks her to call her husband and come back. She is forced to admit to her lifestyle and Jesus reveals his understanding and knowledge of her indiscretions. She tries to divert the conversation into less challenging areas, but Jesus brings it back into her private life. She realizes he is interested in her and in the condition of her life. Perhaps she is beginning to recognize that this so-called chance encounter is a lot more than it seems. She starts to hope. She voices a long-held prophesy shared by both the Jews and the Samaritans and Jesus confirms that he is the one that is longed for. And then she knew! This was no mere man, no simple teacher, no ordinary prophet. This was the Christ, God's Holy Son. Her shame vanished and her guilt fled as she stood tall in the love of the Lord.

Leaving the scene, the woman ran back to town. Down the same path she had just crept quietly, hoping not to be seen, she now bounded wildly looking for people to tell. For the first time in years, she did not feel like a walking scandal. Instead, she had a new job: she was a messenger of Jesus Christ, the Messiah. She no longer hid; she now proclaimed the good news . . . and the people listened.

The woman at the well began with no hope and no purpose. Jesus changed that. He used a most unlikely messenger to transform the lives of many in Samaria and He began with the person who needed him the most.

Jesus' good news is to be shared and spread to all who will listen. The woman, her village, and we are called to enter into intimate relationship with Jesus. It is through this relationship that we become part of the worshipping community of faith. It is by this relationship that we are offered eternal life – water, the symbol of life.

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TUESDAY, March 21

Lenten Weekday

8:30 a.m. - † Agnes and Mary Watson

Requested by the Nora Watson

WEDNESDAY, March 22

Lenten Weekday

8:30 a.m. - † Rev. James Hayes

Requested by Nora Watson

THURSDAY, March 23

Lenten Weekday

8:30 a.m. - † Margaret Wixted

Requested by M.G. McCollam

FRIDAY, March 24

Lenten Weekday

8:30 a.m. - † John Drake

Requested by wife Rita

Parish Bulletin for Sunday, March 26, 2006

Fourth Sunday of Lent

"THE MAN BORN BLIND"
                  John 9:1-41

Recently, I read a news story reported in a teaching journal about a teacher faced with a class of new students. One of her students was completely blind; this student was completely at peace with himself and his own challenges, but her concern rested with a class of students who did not know him or had not experienced blindness at all.

This teacher wanted these other students to know and experience first hand the way in which their fellow classmate saw the world. For one full day, she asked her students to wear blindfolds. They needed to make their way through classes, lunch hour, recess and study period sharing in the darkness that enveloped their blind classmate.

Occasionally, he offered advice that helped them to adapt to a world without light to guide them. In our gospel story today, the blind man offers us a similar experience. He welcomes us to let ourselves be blindfolded – to enter his world. He invites us to listen to him as he willingly leads us by the hand from the darkness into the light of sight and faith in Jesus.

Jesus said: "I am the light of the world; anyone who follows me will not be walking in the dark. That one will have the light of life." The blind man in this story does indeed follow Jesus. He allowed the waters of Siloam to wash his mud-anointed eyes and then he affirmed Jesus as healer, as prophet, and, finally, as God-sent to bring light to the world.

This blind man's insight and faith only serve to underscore the complete lack of understanding and faith of the Pharisees. They had eyes but they did not see; they had the law, the prophets, and the other scriptural writings but they did not hear or heed the message; they, the holy ones of Israel, did not believe. The blind man's journey from darkness to light challenges us to follow toward the Lord Jesus while the mental and spiritual entrenchment of the Pharisees serve as warning to closing our hearts.

This story serves as a sign pointing to Jesus as light and sight giver. The blind man's darkness is a special venue for God's saving power and purpose. Healed and anointed and enlightened by Jesus, the blind man came to see and believe. We, too, are called to live in the light of faith, walk by the light of truth and follow Jesus who is the light of the world in all that we are, in all that we do, and in all that we say. We, too, have been washed and anointed at Baptism, entrance into the community of faith.

As we prepare to celebrate the great Paschal Mystery at Easter and to renew our own baptismal promises, let us reflect on the woman at the well and the blind man. As we prepare to witness the great waters of Baptism poured over the heads of our elect at that same Easter celebration, let us renew those promises with new eyes that see and new ears that hear the good news of our salvation.

TUESDAY, March 28

Lenten Weekday

8:30 a.m. - † William Jackson

Requested by Christina O'Sullivan

WEDNESDAY, March 29

Lenten Weekday

8:30 a.m. - † Lydia Arsenault

Requested by husband

THURSDAY, March 30

Lenten Weekday

8:30 a.m. - † Margaret Hammer

Requested by family

FRIDAY, March 31

Lenten Weekday

8:30 a.m. - † John Walter

Requested by wife Margaret and family