March 22, 2026: Fifth Sunday of Lent

As we near the Triduum and the commemoration of Christ's Death and Resurrection, we hear important words by which God promises the Resurrection means new life for us.

We don't have to wait for the End of Time when the dead are raised, because Jesus has come to us and made the Resurreciton a reality now.

Even when we feel like we're dead in sin, God works great power to raise us up.  He sustains abundant Life in us through the Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead.

And so even though we experience death in our lives and our mortal bodies, we have great hope in the promise that we will live by professing belief in Jesus Christ, Who is the Resurrection and the Life.

This promise sustains us now to embrace the ways we can rise up as we hear Christ call us, and summon the Church to come alongside us and help free us from what binds us to sin and death so we can live the Abundant Life that emerges from the Resurrection.

As the Earth in the Northern Hemisphere emerges into springtime, so we have hope, based on Christ's promises, that we will rise above death into newness of Life.

March 19, 2026: Feast of St. Joseph

God has marvelously unfolded His plan of salvation throughout history.

St. Joseph played an important role as the guardian of the Son of God on Earth.

The angel who came to him in a dream addressed St. Joseph as "Son of David".  Clearly, what God was asking of St. Joseph was in line with the unfolding of this plan.

St. Joseph was obedient, trusting in God's faithfulness.

We open ourselves to the wonders God is doing in our own day when we trust in His faithfulness that He has manifested throughout the centuries down to our own time.

March 15, 2026: Fourth Sunday of Lent/Laetare Sunday

We rejoice at the midpoint of Lent that God has brought into our darkness great Light.

This Light calls us to a new way of living, because we see as God sees.

Like God told the prophet Samuel, He sees into the heart, and works there to transform us.

The blind man healed by Jesus progressed from calling Him a prophet to worshipping Him.

This progression reveals how we are brought alive, as the Spirit brings us to new life, as I saw yesterday at the Confirmation Masses at Ascension Parish.

We rejoice that we are given a new lease on life in God's light by the Spirit.

March 8, 2026: Third Sunday of Lent

We get physically thirsty as humans, but we also have deeper spiritual thirsts that only God can satisfy.

The Hebrews got thirsty during their desert journey, and their complaining showed their lack of trust in God and a deeper spiritual thirst.

The woman came to the well to get water, but had deeper spiritual thirsts as revealed when she told Jesus she had no husband.

It's telling that Jesus was physically thirsty and asked the woman for a drink of water.  Yet He also thirsts for us to come to Him and have our deeper spiritual thirsts satisfied by His endless well of life-giving water.

While we might try to satisfy our thirsts in other ways, only water meets our bodies' need in the fullest way, and God alone offers us living water that can keep us whole. It's similar to how we don't just feed on bread alone but on God's Word.

We turn to Him because when we were sinners, Christ died for us, and from His death and Resurrection, He has poured out the Holy Spirit into our hearts so we can constantly be in touch with living waters that invigorate our souls.

I recall being at St. Augustine Mission, founded by St. Mother Katharine Drexel, 13 years ago on the 3rd Sunday of Lent.  She saw great need among the African Americans and Native Americans, and thirsted for someone to meet it.  Pope Leo XIII told her to be the missionary to them.

Her thirst drove her to find her purpose in life, and then to work in fulfilling the thirst of the needy, just as we can do when we draw constantly on the living water of God.

March 1, 2026: Second Sunday of Lent

This journey in a spirit of penance and great intentionality through Lent gives us a new perspective on life.

Abram gains a new lease on life when God calls him to go forth to a new land, and in this new way, God will bless him and then Abram's descendants will be a blessing in all the world.

Jesus offers a new perspective to three of the Apostles.  Up to this point, He has talked about His Passion.  Then He leads three Apostles up a high mountain, and gives them a glimpse of His glory when He is transfigured.

They saw the glory that would come when Jesus was raised from the dead, just as we're reminded of where we're headed during this Lenten journey.

Even as much as St. Peter talked about staying in that glory, much like we might want to, we descend the mountain, and follow the way of Christ, as God commands us.

Christ is truly the Beloved Son of God, sent to fulfill God's will, to bring about a greater good, and a greater glory.

So we can be courageous in following the way of Christ as His disciples, bearing hardship, yet with great reassurance that we are bound for glory, as we open ourselves to the transformation God works in us to unveil His glory.

As I celebrate Nebraska's birthday today, I recall how 13 years ago this week, I went forth with a group for a service trip at St. Augustine Mission in Winnebago, NE, a week that gave me new perspective and glimpses of Heaven, and truly transformed me, in the spirit of St. Mother Katharine Drexel, who went forth, devoted herself to God as a religious sister, and making an impact by serving.

February 22, 2026: First Sunday of Lent

Adam and Eve experienced the goodness of God.  But then a doubt planted by the cunning serpent caused them to turn away from God, and the effects harmed teh succeeding generations of humanity.

Then Jesus came and reversed the curse of sin.  He also showed what faithfulness and obedience look like.  In comparison to the Hebrews, who were unfaithful in their desert journey, Jesus, led by the Spirit, contended with the devil in the desert and showed obedience in three different temptations, drawing from the Word of God to show what it means to be in a relationship with God.

So when the transgressions of Adam and Eve unleashed the fury of sin and death upon the world, Christ, by His obedience, offered us the gift of forgiveness and life, which was a truly great gift.

We are called during this Lenten season to turn away from our own desires and more deeply embrace God and His grace that is truly life-giving because it enables us to live obediently to the One True God.

Because He saved us in Christ, we look to Him as the One worthy of worship.

Normally, February 22 is the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter.  In the Gospel reading for that Feast, we read how St. Peter declares Jesus to be the Messiah, the Son of the living God.  This Feast speaks to our Lenten journey as we are called to honor God and live His way, proclaiming Who He is.

It's also the birthday of George Washington, another example of leadership, and as he contributed to starting a new nation, he had a sense of noble principles which to strive for and realize for the flourishing of all people.

When we live as God calls us to, seeking a relationship with Him, Who is the Truth, we find true freedom, acclaiming God as God alone, Who rules the world.

February 18, 2026: Ash Wednesday

We are called to repent, changing the focus of our lives.

We are reminded that we have come from dust and we will return to dust.

Yet even with this world broken by sin, God provides a way for us to return to Him, through the Gospel.

So we turn anew to the Gospel to believe the Good News it proclaims and live the reality of being reconciled back to God.

We do so with hearts that seek to be pleasing not to people but ultimately to God, Who provides the way of salvation for us out of sin and into Eternal Life.