• Thursday after the Third Sunday after Lent

  The preaching of the Samaritan woman The woman therefore left her water-pot, and went her way into the city.–John iv. 28.

  This woman, once Christ had instructed her, became an apostle. There are three things which we can gather from what she said and what she did. 1. The entirety of her surrender to Our Lord. This is shown: (i) From the fact that she left lying there, almost as if forgotten, that for which she had come to the well, the water and the water-pot. So great was her absorption. Hence it is said, The woman left her water-pot and went away into the city, went away to announce the wonderful works of Christ. She cared no longer for the bodily comforts in view of the usefulness of better things, following in this the example of the Apostles of whom it is said that, Leaving their nets they followed the Lord (Mark 1. 18). The water-pot stands for fashionable desire, by means of which men draw up pleasures from those depths of darkness signified by the well, that is, from practices which are of the earth earthy. Those who abandon such desires for the sake of God are like the woman who left her water-pot. (ii) From the multitude of people to whom she tells the news, not to one nor to two or three but to a whole city. This is why she went away into the city. 2. A method of preaching. She saith to the men there: Come, and see a man who has told me all things whatsoever I have done. Is not He the Christ?–John iv. 29. (i) She invites them to look upon Christ: Come, and see a man–she did not straightway say that they should give themselves to Christ, for that might have been for them an occasion for blasphemy, but, to begin with, she told them things about Christ which were believable and open to observation. She told them He was a man. Nor did she say, Believe, but come and see, for she knew that if they, too, tasted of that well, looking that is upon Our Lord, they, too, would feel all she had felt. And she follows the example of a true preacher in that she attracts the men not to herself but to Christ. (ii) She gives them a hint that Christ is God when she says, A man who has told me all things whatsoever I have done, that is to say, how many husbands she had had. She is not ashamed to bring up things that make for her own confusion, because the soul, once it is lighted up with the divine fire, in no way looks to earthly values and standards, cares neither for its own glory nor its shame, but only for that flame which holds and consumes it. (iii) She suggests that this proves the majesty of Christ, saying, Is not he the Christ? She does not dare to assert that He is the Christ, lest she have the appearance of wishing to teach others, and the others, irritated thereat, refuse to go out to Him. Nor, on the other hand, does she leave the matter in silence, but she puts it before them questioningly, as though she left it to their own judgment. For this is the easiest of all ways of persuasion. 3. The Fruit of Preaching. They therefore went out of the city and came unto Christ.–John iv. 30. Hereby it is made clear to us that if we would come to Christ, we too must go out of the city, which is to say, we must lay aside all love of bodily delights. Let us go forth therefore to Him without the camp (Heb. xiii. 13).

Saint for the Day

• March 13 – St. Euphrasia

  March 13

  St. Euphrasia

                Euphrasia was the daughter of pious and noble parents.  After the death of her father his widow withdrew privately with her little daughter into Egypt, where she was possessed of a very large estate.  In that country she fixed her abode near a holy monastery of one hundred and thirty nuns.  The young Euphrasia at seven years of age, begged that she might be permitted to serve God in this monastery.  The pious mother on hearing this wept for joy, and not long after presented her child to the abbess, who, taking up an image of Christ, gave it to Euphrasia.  The tender virgin kissed it, saying, “By vow I consecrate myself to Christ.”  Then the mother led her before an image of Our Redeemer, and lifting up her hands to heaven said, ‘Lord Jesus Christ, receive this child under your special protection.  You alone doth she love and seek: to you doth she recommend herself.”  Then leaving her in the hands of the abbess, she went out of the monastery weeping.  Sometime after this the good mother fell sick, and soon slept in peace.   Upon the news of her death the Emperor Theodosius sent for the noble virgin to come to court, having promised her in marriage to a favorite young senator.  But the virgin wrote him refusing the alliance, repeating her vow of virginity, and requesting that her estates should be sold and divided among the poor, and all her slaves set at liberty.  The emperor punctually executed all she desired, a little before his death in 395.

  St. Euphrasia was a perfect pattern of humility, meekness, and charity. If she found herself assaulted by any temptation, she immediately sought the advice of the abbess, who often enjoined her on such occasions some humbling and painful penitential labor, as sometimes to carry great stones from one place to another, which employment she once, under an obstinate assault, continued thirty days together with wonderful simplicity, till the devil, being vanquished by her humble obedience and chastisement of her body, left her in peace.  She was favored with miracles both before and after her death, which happened in the year 410, the thirtieth of her age.

  Taken from the “Pictorial Lives of the Saints: with Reflections for Everyday in the year

Sunday Sermon

• Third Sunday in Lent ~ Every Kingdom divided…

  Every kingdom divided against itself
  shall be brought to desolation.
  —St. Luke xi. 17.

  We can see at once how true the sentence just read is; for if the head of a kingdom were to rise against the members, the king against his ministers, the people against both king and government, and the army and navy against their proper commanders—if all this should take place, then I say that kingdom would certainly be brought to desolation, and any enemy could easily come along and take possession of it. Now, dear brethren, the Christian family is a little kingdom. The father and mother are the king and queen, the older and more experienced members of the family are the counsellors, the children the subjects of that kingdom. The Christian family ought to be most closely united, and this for many reasons. Each member has been baptized with the same baptism, been sanctified by the same Holy Spirit. They have all been pardoned for their sins through the same Precious Blood, do all eat of the same spiritual food, the Body and Blood of Christ. Then, to come to natural reasons, they are bound together by the tie of blood, by the tie of parental and filial affection; they live together, pray together, rejoice together, suffer together. So there is every reason why the Christian family should be united; and if it is to fulfil its mission properly it must be united, or it will be brought to desolation. O my dear friends! how many of these little kingdoms which should go to make up the grand empire of Jesus Christ upon earth fall away from their allegiance to him, and all because they are divided against themselves. We see a father, for instance, given over to habits of drunkenness; he comes home either in a dull, heavy stupor or else in a perfect fury of rage; he worries his wife, scares his children, disgraces himself; all his family shrink from him. There you see at once the head divided against the members. Or there is in the family a cross, ill-tempered, scolding wife, and, as the Scripture says, “there is no anger above the anger of a woman: it will be more agreeable to abide with a lion and a dragon than to dwell with a wicked woman. As the climbing of a sandy way is to the feet of the aged, so is a wife full of tongue to a quiet man.” Such a woman would divide any family; she destroys the unity thereof just as much as the drunken husband. What, also, must be thought of interfering relations, cousins, aunts, uncles, and last, but not least, mothers-in-law? How often do they make mischief and destroy the kingdom of the Christian family! So, too, rebellious children, quarrelsome brothers and sisters—they all destroy peace, they all help to divide the kingdom, they all help to bring it to desolation; and in the end, instead of a fair kingdom, strong and united, nothing remains but a wretched scene of strife and contention, and in comes the devil and takes possession of everything. Now, my dear friends, when by your drunkenness, your crossness, your mischief-making and party-spirit, by your rebellion against parental authority, you divide the kingdom of your family, not only you yourselves will suffer, not only will you and your family have to endure spiritual injury and perhaps loss of salvation, but the great kingdom of Christ, now militant here on earth, and one day to be triumphant in heaven, suffers also. Who make up the church on earth? Individuals, families. Who are to fill the ranks of the heavenly kingdom? The same. Oh! then, if you are divided against yourselves, if you are brought to desolation, you are part of the devil’s kingdom on earth, and will form part of his empire of sin and death in hell. For God’s sake, brethren, stop this evil war. Stop these things which make the family miserable. Have peace in your homes. Let men see that the peace of Christ and the union of Christ dwell there. Correct your faults; curb your tongues and your tempers; be obedient. Remember, the first words the priest says when he comes to your homes on a sick-call are these: “Peace be to this house and all that dwell therein.” Try to profit by that benediction. Try always to have the peace of God, which passeth all knowledge, and then shall your kingdom stand.

  Rev. Algernon A. Brown
  Five-minute sermons, for low masses on all Sundays of the year by priest of the Congregation of St. Paul