READINGS FOR THE WEEK
Monday: Dn 13:1-9, 15-17, 19-30, 33-62 [41c-62]; Ps 23:1-6; Jn 8:1-11
Tuesday: Nm 21:4-9; Ps 102:2-3, 16-21; Jn 8:21-30
Wednesday: Dn 3:14-20, 91-92, 95; Dn 3:52-56; Jn 8:31-42
Thursday: Gn 17:3-9; Ps 105:4-9: Jn 8:51-59
Friday: Jer 20:10-13; Ps 18:2-7; Jn 10:31-42
Saturday: Ez 37:21-28; Jer 31:10, 11-13; Jn 11:45-56
Sunday: Mt 21:1-11 (procession); Is 50:4-7; Ps 22:8-9, 17-20,
23-24; Phil 2:6-11; Mt 26:14 — 27:66 [27:11-54]
PRAYER LISTS
If you have anyone you want added to the following Pray Lists below or you can call the office at 916 452- 6866 or email us at info@immaculateconceptionsacramento.org. (Please remember to inform us know when the names should be removed).
PRAY FOR THE CHRONICALLY ILL
Beatrice Cisneros, Lilian Davila, Alex Piedra, Ron Sykes
-- NAMES --
PRAY FOR SPECIAL HEALTH INTENTIONS
Lucas Abella, Connie Bonilla, Noreen Crowley, Maria Elena Guitierrez, Mary Katherine Hernandez, Loretta Hocking, Minnie Jimenez, Marcos P. Lopez, Richard D. Nance, Jr., Mark Parshall, Jose Ramirez, Irene Rodriguez, Domingo Valdez, Nicolas Valdez, Dorothy Wanner, Regina Yañez
-- NAMES --
PRAY FOR SPECIAL INTENTIONS
Jacqueline Daste, Evelyn Borba, Socorro & Frank Godina
-- NAMES --
PRAY FOR SERVICE MEN AND WOMEN
Gabriel Granados, Michael Godina, Marco Mares Jr., Mariela del Carmen Mares
-- NAMES –
Fifth Sunday of Lent:
COME OUT OF THE TOMB
Msgr. Joseph A. Pellegrino
The gripping drama of the rising of Lazarus points towards Jesus as the Lord of Life and prepares us for the celebration of our sharing in His Life at Easter.
However, this gospel is more than this. It is a call for to consider if we are in a tomb. This gospel asks us to hear the voice of the Lord calling us to shore up our courage and to come out of our tombs. We are called to come into the Light. We are called to come to the Life. The gospel calls us to walk to the Lord.
We often put ourselves in tombs. There are times that we feel very dead, particularly dead to the Lord. When we are in this spiritual malaise, we do not want to reflect on our lives. We play a game with the Lord and ultimately with our eternal existence. The game is this: If we do not think about what we have done or are doing to ourselves, then we can attempt to overlook our situation. Only, we cannot really do that, can we? We can fool others into thinking that we are happy, but we cannot fool ourselves.
So, we get involved in things that are negative, nasty, and sinful. We tell others that we are happy with this life. We try to convince ourselves that we are happy with our lives. But we have a difficult time looking into the mirror. We have an even more difficult time walking into a church. And we have a horrible time taking God inside
of us, or simply sitting before Him in the Blessed Sacrament.
We try to blame others. We make believe that they have put us into the tomb. For example, others have said, “You don’t know what you are missing. Drink this. Take that. Do this. Do that. You will be happy. Loosen up! You are the only one at the party who is not drinking. Everybody is taking X now, why do you think you are so different? Of course we have sex; you’re the only one I know who doesn’t.” And with a group around us, with our defenses down perhaps due to various difficulties in our lives we say, “No big deal. I should try this. I should do that. Everybody else is.” Then, the next day, if not sooner, we feel rotten, dirty, even dead. We can blame others for putting us into the tomb, but ultimately, we did it to ourselves. We chose sin and suffer from it.
There are also times that we race into a tomb completely on our own, without the temptation of others. We convince ourselves that this or that is not going to hurt us so much. And we go places where a Christian does not belong, be those places in the world or within our own rooms, or we do things to ourselves that frustrate ourselves, and then we feel dead.
“Come out, Lazarus!”
Jesus is calling us. We are all Lazaruses. He is calling us to come out of the darkness, and come into His Light. He is calling us to come out of the place of death
and come into His Life. In his second book on Jesus, Pope Benedict XVI points out that the early Christians referred to themselves as The Living. That is what we are called to be, alive in an otherwise dead world.
Out of the tomb, into the light, out of the tomb, into His Life we experience indescribable joy. We are one with Jesus. We are at peace. We no longer view others as threats to our happiness. No, others become a road to happiness as we serve the presence of God within them. Out of the tomb, away from our sins, we see others as unique reflections of God, as people who can bring us to a deeper understanding of God’s love.
So, we ask ourselves today, “Am I happy with myself? Am I comfortable with my life? Am I happy with my relationship with God?” Those questions are just different ways of asking the same thing: “Am I alive, or am I dead?” Or, perhaps, “Is there something that is killing me?” Maybe, our relationship with others is pretty bad, and we tend to get nasty rather easily. Maybe we have friends that we try it impress by flaunting our sexuality, by joining them in drinking and drugs. We do our best to ignore the dying we feel within us, but the dying does not go away because we want it to go away. The way of death only goes away when we choose to walk away from it.
We ask ourselves today, “Where have I found joy? When has it been in my life that I have been truly happy? This leads us to focus on the times that our union with Jesus was so intense, so strong, that all we wanted to do was just relax in His Love.
Lazarus, come out!
We ask God today for the courage to walk away from that which is killing us and to walk towards the voice that is saying, “Leave this place of the dead and live in My Light, in My Love, in My Joy.
From John 3:17
God sent His Son into the world not to condemn the world but so that through Him the world may be saved; so that everyone who believes may have eternal life in Him.
This material is used with permission of its author, Rev. Msgr. Joseph A. Pellegrino, Diocese of St. Petersburg, FL
http://frjoeshomilies.net/03-29-20.html
INTERCESSIONS CONCERNING THE CORONAVIRUS
Lord Jesus, you healed those who were sick and cared for any who were suffering. Be with us now as we pray for all those who may be affected by the Coronavirus.
That our leaders may have the humility and wisdom to enact timely policies that embody compassion for all who will suffer from the coronavirus, especially those who can least afford to deal with its effects, we pray.
That we will not allow fear to rule our actions and reactions to the spread of this virus, we pray.
That health-care workers and others who, because of their work, come in contact with people who are infected with this illness may be protected from its effects, we pray.
That those throughout the world who have been infected may be blessed with a speedy and complete recovery, we pray.
That those who have died from the Coronavirus may be raised to new life in heaven, and that their loved ones may know comfort in their grief, we pray.
GIVE GLORY TO GOD
On the Fifth Sunday of Lent, just before we begin to enter Holy Week, we are summoned to Bethany. If we had been friends of Mary, Lazarus, and Martha, and found out that Lazarus was gravely ill, we probably would have dropped everything to be with them. This was what was so surprising about the behavior of Jesus. Although he was their close friend, he chose to stay away, that God’s glory would be manifested. This is a persistent theme in John’s Gospel. Right to the very end, Jesus’ works were meant to give glory to the Father. As our Lenten journey reaches a crescendo, let us be mindful that, as people who have “put on Christ” in baptism, we are also called, by our attitudes and actions, to give glory to God. Copyright © J. S. Paluch Co.