As Lent begins, we continue in this Jubilee year of hope to celebrate, pray, bless, learn, inspire, and challenge.

God tells Moses: “I am who am”—I AM, for short. God needs no point of reference, no proof. God is, period. We either accept it or we don’t.

In churches around the world this week the Elect will be presented with the Creed. It's a short document, but as the presider says at the presentation, "The words are few, but the mysteries they contain are great."

Friends of mine generously let me use their home with a pool in Florida when they traveled to Australia to visit their family. Grateful for the grand time I had, I bought them a small fig tree as a thank you gift, figuring it would prosper in their Florida sun. 

When I was a college student I visited Ireland, the land of my ancestors. The spiritual highlight of my trip was when my Irish cousins brought me to the town of Raer Cross to stand among the ruins of a stone hut where my grandmother was born.

As we begin the remembrance of our Lord’s Passion, we call to mind the failures and sins and so prepare ourselves to celebrate the sacred mysteries.

If you tell me that you desire a fig, I answer that there must be time. Let it first blossom, then bear fruit, then ripen.

Browse our library for additional Third Sunday of Lent, Cycle C material.