Living Water

03-12-2023Weekly ReflectionFr. Aruldoss

Dear People of God,

I wish and pray that our God may grant you all ‘Good health, good luck and happiness for today and every day’!

Our Bishop Callahan has asked me to share with you about the decree pertaining to St. Patrick’s Day, Fri, Mar 17.

“The disciplinary practice of abstaining from meat on the Fridays in the Lent is an important dimension of the penitential nature of the season. This year, the feast of St. Patrick, Fri, Mar 17, falls on Friday in Lent. Given the many celebrations that occurs on this day in accord with the norm of law, I here with grant to all Catholics of the Diocese of La Crosse as well as all present here that day, a dispensation from abstinence from meat and meat products. I encourage all who make use of this dispensation to engage in another sacrificial or Charitable act that day”. - by Most Reverend Willian Patrick Callahan. Still if we want, we can be abstaining from meat on that day. The point here is that a special provision is available on that Friday.

There is going to be a healing Mass on coming Saturday at St. Boniface, Waumandee at 4:30pm Mass. There will be anointing after the Homily. You are all welcome.

On this third Sunday of Lent, the liturgy of the word of God calls us to come to Christ the Eternal Living Water. It calls us to break all barriers and prejudices in order to let the eternal living water flow into our hearts.

The first reading of today tells us the painful experiences of the Israelites in the wilderness. After four hundred and thirty years of slavery in Egypt, God came to deliver them Yet, they grumbled against Moses, and God because they were thirsty. God instructed Moses to strike the rock. From it, the water came forth. The Israelites drank, and were satisfied.

Both, the rock Moses struck, and the water that gushed out from it metaphorically prefigure Christ. In today’s gospel, Jesus also presents himself to the Samaritan woman as the Eternal Living Water. Jesus is both the rock of our salvation, and our eternal living water. We also need a spiritual drink from the living water that flows from Christ, the Rock of Ages. Hence, we must: “Draw water from the well of salvation” (Is 12:3) in order to quench our spiritual thirst. The message here is, like the Samaritan woman, this is our day to encounter Jesus at the Eucharist, leading us through our self-scrutiny, conversion and transformation.

Have a Happy and Blesses Sunday!

Yours in Jesus
Fr. Doss