From Our Pastor: 3rd Sunday of Lent

Now that we are firmly in the desert, we are thirsty. Both the first reading and the Gospel are focused on water and thirst. In these 40 days the desert of Lent will start to make us hungry and thirsty. The questions are will we grumble against the Lord in these days like the Israelites or will we trust the Lord that He will provide? And what are we going to fulfill that hunger and thirst with? The world? Or the Lord? The Israelites grumble against asking why God made them leave Egypt. We do the same when we grumble about the Lord ridding us of our sins, especially those ones we think are fun or enjoyable. Allow the Lord to pull your sins out of you by taking you to a new place, but the new place is one of abundance of good things and abundance of joy instead of enough of things that aren’t good for us and prevalence of sin. Use these days to allow the Lord to lead you to the promise Land, but we must leave where we are comfortable to get there. In the gospel Jesus encounters the woman at the well. This is the story of Jesus finding YOU where YOU are. Finding us in our mess of sin and calling us out of it through the offering of eternal life-giving water. See your baptism as a call to change. See your baptism as an offering of salvation. See that life-giving water He pours into you in your baptism renewed in confession and the Eucharist. Go, like this woman, and tell the whole world.

We have been having this opportunity for adoration during the day, on Wednesdays, after school mass until 5:00 p.m. To make this prayer opportunity possible for our students we need you to sign up for a slot. Many, many, many are coming and praying, but most won’t take a slot. I know it’s a commitment, but without the sign ups it’s not possi- ble to offer this to our children or the rest of the community. What you must realize is that the Lord exposed in the Blessed Sacrament can NOT be left unattended ever. This is why we need two people for each slot. In case one is late, or someone needs to use the restroom or if someone wouldn’t show we hope their partner in that time would. What you must realize is if you are the scheduled adorers, you can NOT leave until the next scheduled adorer shows. Just because someone is in the Church doesn’t mean that you may leave because if they are not scheduled, they may not be aware of the necessity of someone remaining with Jesus and leave and the scheduled adorers may not be
present, and Jesus gets left unattended. So, to rectify this we need to come up with a system for someone to know who the other adorer is. I think the easiest is to set up two of the handicap comfy chairs closer to the main aisle and then everyone will know who the scheduled adorers are and switch out with them. I know this means you may not get to adore in your spot you’re used to, but this will get us a system (if this doesn’t work, we will try something else) to make sure Jesus is never left without someone there to be with Him. If you’re next scheduled people do not Arrive, one of the scheduled adorers needs to notify the office, but with someone still in the church adoring. We never want to take the opportunity that someone will steal the monstrance with Jesus in it. Please never leave Jesus unattended even for a moment. Thank you for making this possible for our community, but most especially for our school children, by signing up for those slots!

One last thing, please pray for Cursillo 359. I am the spiritual director March 23-26. Men of the parish, please also consider going on Cursillo with me if you have never been! And if I personally asked you to consider going, please trust the Lord is calling you to life-giving water and have the courage to say yes. It is going to be a wonderful weekend and I would thoroughly enjoy you joining us. Let me know if you are interested or talk to any of the deacons. I would appreciate your prayers for the weekend.

-Rev. Steven Arisman