Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”(Jn. 4:13-14) Most of us don't really know what it means to be “dying of thirst.” We may have used the expression before, but it usually was after a few hours in the humidity of a hot July afternoon. I would venture to say that there are very few of us who have gone entire day without something to drink, let alone a week. But to people living in the desert at the time of Jesus, water was something precious. Since rain storms were few and far in between, water had to be found by digging or collected for storage in cisterns. The idea of a “running … [Read more...]
Archives for March 2011
From the Pastor – March 20, 2011
Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And He was transfigured before them; His face shone like the sun and His clothes became white as light. (Mt. 17:1-2 ) The Transfiguration of Jesus is one of the mysteries of the life of Christ. In fact, when the Holy Father, (soon to be Blessed) John Paul II decided to propose five new mysteries of the Rosary, he included the Transfiguration in his “Luminous Mysteries,” among which are also the Baptism of Our Lord, the Wedding Feast at Cana, the Proclamation of the Kingdom, and the Institution of the Eucharist. So what does the Transfiguration mean? It's literally a “change in appearance” of Jesus. It's described as a brightness emanating from Him. But what is the mystery behind the event? … [Read more...]
From the Pastor – March 13, 2011
Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days, to be tempted by the devil. (Luke 4:1-2a) That little verse above is the reason behind the holy Season of Lent. And all I can say is thank God for Lent! I always look forward to Lent. And this year is no exception. Now that Lent is here, I'm happy to create my own little desert of calm by the Lenten disciplines of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. It's the perfect remedy for the last two weeks of noise, feasting and excess. One of the good disciplines of Lent is “giving something up.” When I was in seminary, I remember my rector giving up cigars during Lent. And then one Friday in Lent, I walked by his room and smelled cigar smoke. The next day I asked him about it, … [Read more...]
From the Pastor – March 6, 2011
And everyone who listens to these words of mine but does not act on them will be like a fool who built his house on sand. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. And it collapsed and was completely ruined. (Mt. 7:26-29) On Friday, the Lagniappe section of the Times Picayune had a question on the cover: “What vices are you giving up for Mardi Gras?” And then it listed a long list of “vices,” including among them “meat” and “alcohol.” Now it's certain that excessive drinking and obesity are unhealthy, but can we call meat and alcohol “vices”? Of course not. The word “vice” comes from the Latin word vitium, and it's commonly defined as “an immoral or evil habit or practice.” A vice is the opposite of a virtue. But if alcohol and meat are vices, … [Read more...]
