“Out of the good treasure of the heart, the good person produces good, and out of evil treasure, the evil person produces evil.” Lk 6,45

Dear parishioners,

We all know that these words from today’s gospel are true, and we all want to have goodness in our hearts, out of which proceeds good actions. But the problem is, we have very little control over the extent of good and evil that lurks in our hearts. So much is independent of our control, so much is the effect of what we have inherited, of the events of our lives that have sometimes molded goodness into our hearts, but sometimes, hardened our hearts. Add to this the reality that hearts are like clay. The older they get, the less malleable they are. So what are we to do? My solution is ever the same. When I’m in the presence of a desirable outcome that can only come from God, I turn to God. Let us pray that God will pour goodness into our hearts, so much of it that the remnants of evil that are in our hearts will be crowded out. Let us ask God to mold our hearts into the likeness of his own.  God can do this. Maybe he’s only waiting for our prayer.

We are still hoping that someone will come forward as keyboard player for the Sunday 1:00 p.m. choir. If this is something you’d be prepared to do, or if you know someone who you think would be interested, please contact the 1:00 pm choir director, Rosa Kang, at [email protected].

Just a reminder of the schedule for this week’s Ash Wednesday services. There will be distribution of ashes at all of the following masses, and all are welcome at all masses. There will be a PREP Ash Tuesday mass on Tuesday March 1, at 6:30 pm. On Ash Wednesday, March 2, there will be masses at 8:00, 9:30 am, and at 5:30 and 7:30 pm. There will be distribution of ashes from 2:30 till 4:00 pm on Wednesday afternoon. And finally, since we are anticipating a large turn-out at Manny Mendoza’s funeral at 11:00 am on Wednesday, we will be distributing ashes at the end of the funeral mass. Hopefully, in this way, we will be able to avoid excessively large crowds at any given mass. Remember, we are still restricted to half of capacity.

Finally, Ash Wednesday marks, of course, the beginning of Lent. If Lent is about anything, it’s about listening for some kind of new enlightenment about God, Jesus, the gospel, the Church. We all know that if we’re really serious about learning something new, we need to be in listening mode, because of the way God is. He is extremely discreet. He doesn’t compete with other voices, other noises. He is much like the stars and the moon that are visible to us only went the light of the sun is taken from us. So this means, creating the conditions under which God has a chance of getting through to us. It means creating places and times of silence, of stillness, of emptiness. There are a million ways of doing this. I think I need not provide examples. I simply want to remind us all of the necessity of creating these times and places, in the absence of which the probability of hearing something of God, of the things of God, is very slim. I conclude with a prayer. By the grace of God, may we be lead to these places and times of silence, of stillness, of emptiness, wherein God will be able to get a word in edgewise.

As an aid to your Lenten journey, we are providing four booklets for Lenten inspiration. One is collection of quotes from Henri Nouwen, one is the Magnificat booklet with which you are already familiar, one is the “little black book” like the one we distributed last year, and one is a book for children. Apparently it’s really good! Please help yourself to one or more of these on your way out of mass this Sunday.

To you all, a great Lent. Keep safe, and God bless. 

Fr. Guy