The Raising of Lazarus from the Dead       The Diocese of Fresno has extended the suspension of all Masses, classes, meetings, and other events until after Palm Sunday – and it could go longer. So there is no Sunday Mass this weekend of March 28-29, nor Palm Sunday Weekend of April 4-5. Keep checking our website for the most current updates – ollcalcity.org . Also, daily Mass from Bishop Barron's chapel in Santa Barbara is now broadcast each day on our website during this closure.       While we cannot feed just now on the Bread of Life, the Eucharist, Christ is still present in His Word which each family or individual at home (hopefully safe from any virus) can open, read, and meditate on. The Gospel for this Sunday is the raising of Lazarus from the dead. If you have a Missal, open it up to the Fifth Week of Lent and pray through the entire Mass: antiphons, readings, the special Preface for the raising of Lazarus, chose one of the Eucharisti...

St. Patrick Likely we've worn green and feasted on corned beef and cabbage in honor of St. Patrick’s Feast Day (or “St. Paddy’s Day”) this week. Let's take pause to look at this most interesting 5th Century slave-turned-missionary. Patrick lived from approximately 387-460 (exact dates are not certain). He called himself a “Roman” and a “Briton,” and likely was born in Kilpatrick, Scotland, although others think his birth may be Cumberland, England, or northern Wales. His father was a high-ranking Roman and a deacon, and his grandfather a priest; his mother was a near relative of St. Martin of Tours (316 or 336-397). Patrick, however, was not much of a believer initially. When he was 16, Patrick was captured by Irish pirates along with a large number of his father’s slaves and vassals. They were all sold as slaves in Ireland, Patrick being sold to a chieftan in the present county of Antrim to be a shepherd tending flocks near today’s town of Ballymena. St. Patrick later ...

Living Water        This Sunday is the Third Sunday of Lent, and our Gospel reading is John 4:5-42: the encounter of the Samaritan woman with Jesus at the well. But it is not just this one woman Jesus reaches – as important as that is. The whole town of Sychar is reached, the 12 disciples are taught, and we readers and hearers of the story also are encountered by Jesus.       The brief version of what happened is this: the woman comes to the well to draw water around Noon. Jesus is alone, sitting by the well, and asks her for a drink. As Jews normally would not speak with Samaritans, nor men with women in public like this, the woman says, How can you ask? Jesus answers, "If you knew the gift of God and who is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water." Jesus' "living water" is certainly more than the H 2 O the woman came for. And so the conversation about water becomes about ete...

The Transfiguration        This Sunday is the Second Sunday of Lent in which we read the Gospel of Jesus’ Transfiguration (Mt 17:1-9). It probably occurred around February 29 AD. Use your imagination to picture the scene:   It is early morning. Perhaps Spring was early that year. Jesus and all His disciples are coming from northern Galilee, heading south towards Mt. Tabor which is southeast of Nazareth. At the foot of Mt. Tabor, Jesus says that Peter, James, and John will go with Him, and He sends the rest of the disciples along the roads to preach the Good News.       Peter, being the oldest, is out of breath much more quickly than young John, James, or Jesus, then maybe 32. Jesus says to them to rest in the shade and goes over to a large rock at the summit of the mountain to pray. The warmth and exertion soon have Peter, James, and John cat-napping in the sunshine. Suddenly they are roused by a brilliancy that is so striking that it...