A Letter from Fr. Paul - March 3, 2019

Lent is upon us! We have an Ash Wednesday service at 8 am, St. Bernard has a noon service, and Christ King has a service at 5:30 pm. The Lenten reflection booklet for adults and the activities booklet for families with children are available in the back of church and the parish office. And you can register for child care on our webpage for Tuesday evening, March 12, so that you can attend our Lenten Reflection Christianity as a Lifestyle at 7 pm in the church. I urge you to take advantage of these opportunities. 

Nominations are open for one trustee and four pastoral council members. Forms were sent with our newsletter, and can be found here on our website.

A theme of our readings this weekend is watch what we say. Our lesson starts in the first reading from Sirach where we hear: When a sieve is shaken, the husks appear; so do one's faults when one speaks and then Praise no one before he speaks, for it is then that people are tested. Our Gospel concludes with the following words, taken from near the end of Luke’s “Sermon on the Plain”: A good person out of the store of goodness in his heart produces good, but an evil person out of a store of evil produces evil; for from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks.

In other words, when I speak I reveal more about me than about the subject of my words. Am I kind and understanding or am I harsh and judging? Do I reveal a cranky complainer or a joyful, compassionate follower of Jesus? There is so much gossip, judging, condemning in our culture today. These things are NOT rooted in the Gospel and they reveal what is in our hearts. As both our readings indicate, “by their fruits you will know them,” and that is so true when we open our mouths.

Lent starts in three days. There can be no better resolution than to strive so that everything that comes out of our mouths builds up, rather than tears down. And let us support each other in prayer.

​-- Paul James Portland, SDS