Photo: Blue and White

 

Poem: “The Further Thirst” by Flor McCarthy, SDB

            There is a thirst in every human heart.

Each of us is like that lonely Samaritan woman.

We are thirsting for something, 

something that will satisfy all our longings.

But often we search in the wrong places. 

We draw water from many wells: 

the water of praise to quench our thirst for self-esteem; 

the water of success to quench our thirst for importance; 

the water of pleasure to quench our thirst for joy ….

But we still get thirsty.

Only God can give us what we are looking for.

God alone can cause a spring to well up inside us.

The water from this spring will sustain us 

in our journey to the Promised Land of eternal life.

Photo: the Chapel of Christ the Priest

 

Poem: “Service” by Edgar A. Guest

I have no wealth of gold to give away,

But I can pledge to worthy causes these:

I’ll give my strength, my days and hours of ease,

My finest thought and courage when I may,

And take some deed accomplished for my pay.

I cannot offer much in silver fees,

But I can serve when richer persons play,

And with my presence fill some vacancies.

There are some things beyond the gift of gold,

A richer treasure’s needed now and then;

Some joys life needs which are not bought or sold – 

The high occasion calls for men.

Some for release from service give their pelf,

But he gives most who freely gives himself.

  

Spirituality: Rainbow in the Cloud, The Wisdom and Spirit of Maya Angelou

I’ve had so many rainbows in my clouds

I had a lot of clouds
So I don’t ever feel
I have no help

I’ve had rainbows in my clouds

And the thing to do it seems to me
Is to prepare yourself
So that you can be a rainbow
In somebody else’s cloud

Spirituality: Macrina Wiederkehr in Walk in a Relaxed Way

If I am slavishly attached to the previous moment

Or if I'm already living
tomorrow's moments,
Then I am not free for
the moment of the eternal now

Photo: Snow and Sleet, Bless the Lord

 

Poem: Mary Oliver, Loneliness

I too have known loneliness. I too have known what it is to feel misunderstood, rejected, and suddenly not at all beautiful. Oh, mother earth, your comfort is great, your arms never withhold. It has saved my life to know this. Your rivers flowing, your roses opening in the morning. Oh, motions of tenderness!

Poem: "Flickering Mind," Denise Levertov

                               Lord, not you,

it is I who am absent.
At first
belief was a joy I kept in secret,
stealing alone
into sacred places:
a quick glance, and away—and back,
circling.
I have long since uttered your name
but now
I elude your presence.
I stop
to think about you, and my mind
at once
like a minnow darts away,
darts
into the shadows, into gleams that fret
unceasing over
the river's purling and passing.
Not for one second
will my self hold still, but wanders
anywhere,
everywhere it can turn. Not you,
it is I who am absent.
You are the stream, the fish, the light,
the pulsing shadow,
you the unchanging presence, in whom all
moves and changes.
How can I focus my flickering, perceive
at the fountain's heart
the sapphire I know is there?

Leaving our Water Jars Behind: The Third Sunday in Lent 2026

                                                Leaving our Water Jars Behind:

The Third Sunday in Lent 2026 

March 8, 2026

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Exodus 17:3-7; Psalm 95; Romans 5:1-8; John 4:5-42

 

The overwhelming theme in this passage is that we thirst and that God is the only reality that quenches our real thirst. Moses deals with the grumbling Israelites as they stumble through the parched desert. God provides a supply of water from a rock to settle their physical thirst. We are not in our right minds if we are thirsty, and many of us do not hydrate well enough. The Israelites hardened their hearts of Meribah and Massah and they doubted God’s care.

 

The woman at the well was spiritually thirsty and the encounter with Jesus revealed the depth of her desires for God and for liberation. The conversation with Jesus reveals her identity, her mission, and her redemption. She becomes the person she was designed to be from the beginning without shame, without regret, and with great courage. Jesus also becomes the person he was designed to be when he lay on the cross and yelled, “I thirst.” 

 

A detail in the Gospel that strikes me as important is that this woman left behind her water jar. She was full, full of her restored personhood. She was spiritually filled. Her conversion was complete through that encounter with Jesus. This is the invitation for Lent for us because we fill ourselves with so many things that do not satisfy. We remain thirsty until we have this needed encounter with Christ. 

 

We consume in order to be nourished, and we miss the mark. We thirst because our needs are not met. What are some of those things that we seek? Affirmation and acceptance, the pursuit of success and a sense of belonging, positive regard and respect from others, control over people and situations, intimacy and meaningful relationships, and so much more. We thirst for many needs that remain unmet. We have been trying to drink many things that are not God, and we remain restless. We try to pray, we fast, we do good works, and we have to let “thirst” become our prayer because only God can provide this living water. 

 

The woman at the well had to stay in conversation and her sarcasm moved to sincerity. That’s what we want. Authenticity. To be seen and known. To be valued. To be embraced at our core. The living water that we seek is a real encounter with God that moves us to stay in the conversation. We want a meaningful relationship with God in which we can relate comfortably and often. We want to feel the presence of God so we know we are on the right track. We need to stay open enough to receive what God wants to generously give to us. God’s grace is a gift to us. Jesus reminds the woman, and us, If you knew the gift of God…” All we have to do is ask. 

 

Our work is to believe in these words of the Gospel: Jesus said to her,
“I am he, the one speaking with you.” Our belief helps us to worship in spirit and in truth, and we can be like the faithful woman at the well. We can leave our water jars behind. 

 

Scripture for Daily Mass

Monday: (2 Kings 5) Naaman, the king of Aram, contracted leprosy. A captured girl wanted him to present himself to the prophet in Samaria. Naaman was instructed to wash seven times in the Jordan River and his flesh became again like the flesh of a little child.

 

Tuesday: (Daniel 3) Azariah asked for the Lord’s deliverance. He asked that the Lord deal with them in kindness and with great mercy.

 

Wednesday: (Deuteronomy 4) Moses spoke to the people asking them to hear and heed the statutes and decrees he received from the Lord. Do not forget the things the Lord has done.

 

Thursday: (Jeremiah 7) They walked in the hardness of their evil hearts and turned their backs, not their faces, to me.  

 

Friday: (Hosea 14) Return to God, who forgives all iniquity. The Lord will heal their defection and love them freely for his wrath is turned away from them.  

 

Saturday: (Hosea 6) Come, let us return to the Lord. It is love that I desire, not sacrificed, and knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.  

 

Gospel: 

Monday: (Luke 4) Jesus reminded people that a prophet is without honor in his own land and he called the mind the story of Naaman, the foreigner from Syria, who was cured.

 

Tuesday: (Matthew 18) Peter asked Jesus about forgiveness. He said to forgiven seventy-seven time because unless each person forgives from the heart, he will not be forgiven. 

 

Wednesday: (Matthew 5) Jesus did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it. Each commandment is to be observed; the one who does it will be the greatest in the Kingdom.

 

Thursday: (Luke 11) Jesus drove out a demon that was mute and was then accused of being in league with Beelzebul. Jesus explained to them how that does not make much sense. 

 

Friday: (Mark 12) A scribe asked Jesus to declare which is the first commandment. Love the God with you whole soul and your neighbor like yourself. The scribe was well pleased.  

 

Saturday: (Luke 18) Jesus told a parable about prayer to those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else. The one who is humble is favored by God.  

 

Saints of the Week

 

March 8: John of God (1495-1550), was a Portuguese soldier of fortune who was brought to Spain as a child. He was a slave master, shepherd, crusader, bodyguard and peddler. As he realized that he frittered away his life, he sought counsel from John of Avila. He then dedicated his life to care for the sick and the poor. He formed the Order of Brothers Hospitallers and is the patron saint of hospitals and the sick.

 

March 9: Frances of Rome (1384-1440), was born into a wealthy Roman family and was married at age 13. She bore six children and when two died in infancy, she worked to bring the needs of the less fortunate to others. She took food to the poor, visited the sick, cared for the needy in their homes. When other women joined in her mission, they became Benedictine oblates. She founded a monastery for them after her husband's death.

 

This Week in Jesuit History

 

• March 8, 1773. At Centi, in the diocese of Bologna, Cardinal Malvezzi paid a surprise visit to the Jesuit house, demanding to inspect their accounting books. 
• March 9, 1764. In France, all Jesuits who refused to abjure the Society were ordered by Parliament to leave the realm within a month. Out of 4,000 members only five priests, two scholastics, and eight brothers took the required oath; the others were driven into exile. 
• March 10, 1615. The martyrdom in Glasgow, Scotland, of St John Ogilvie. 
• Mar 11, 1848. In Naples, Italy, during the 1848 revolution, 114 Jesuits, after much suffering, were put into carts and driven ignominiously out of the city and the kingdom. 
• March 12, 1622. Pope Gregory XV canonized Sts Ignatius, Francis Xavier, Teresa of Avila, and Philip Neri. 
• March 13, 1568. John Segura and five companions set sail from Spain for Florida, a fertile field of martyrs. (Nine Jesuits were killed there between 1566 and 1571.) 
• March 14, 1535. Ignatius received his degree from the University of Paris.