From the Pastor's Desk | March 8

First Reconciliation and Engaged Couples Retreat 
Last week we celebrated the First Reconciliation for over fifty of our second graders in the parish!  First Reconciliation is a graced and exciting time - at least for me.  It can be frightening for the second graders.  They were fantastic and certainly well prepared! 

A HUGE thank you to Jackie Rosalez for all her work in preparing our kiddos for the celebration of the Sacrament of Reconciliation and for your support of our engaged couples preparing for marriage!  I’m not sure if everyone realizes how hard Jackie works.  She is so dedicated to the parish, and I owe her a tremendous debt of gratitude.    

Not only was Jackie preparing for First Reconciliation but she also planned and hosted our Engaged Couples Retreat this past weekend.  Please pray for our engaged couples who will begin their lives together with the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony beginning this spring through early winter this year.  

Thank you also to Fr. Mike and Fr. Ginu (St. Mary, Williamston) for their presence at First Reconciliation and their help in hearing confessions.  This lightened the load for me!    

Parish Speaker Series 
I hope you not only enjoyed but, most importantly, were spiritually fed at our Lenten Speaker Series featuring James (Butch) Murphy.  I thought it was fantastic.  He did an excellent job putting into perspective what the Lordship of Christ means for us, personally, and that it requires not only a personal response but, perhaps more importantly, a personal submission of the entirety of our lives.  Please continue to pray for Butch!  He travels extensively and, quite often, not to the safest of areas.  

Diocesan Services Appeal (DSA)
Last week we kicked off our annual Diocesan Services Appeal.  This will continue until we reach our goal of just over $127,000.  Half of every dollar over that amount comes back to the parish.  Each dollar you generously give goes toward seminarian education, Catholic Charities, evangelization, marriage and family life, our cemeteries, etc.  Please be generous because without your generosity the Diocese of Lansing would not be able to provide the support to our parishes that we rely upon.

April 1 - Extended Confessions
Fr. Mike and I will be in the confessional all day on April 1 beginning at 7:00am and ending somewhere around 8:00pm.  This is an effort to be available to hear as many confessions as possible leading up to the Triduum which begins the following day on Holy Thursday.


Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick 
Beginning May 2, 2026 we will begin offering the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick on the first Saturdays of the month following the 5:00pm Mass.  Those who wish to receive the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick will meet in the chapel area.  Please allow us a few minutes to greet folks as they leave Mass. 

I need to stress that I do not want this Sacrament to be abused.  The Code of Canon Law states that, “The anointing of the sick can be administered to a member of the faithful who, having reached the use of reason, begins to be in danger due to sickness or old age” (can. 1004).  I want to emphasize the word “danger”.  What does that mean?  It means the Sacrament is reserved for those who have fallen ill and when an illness becomes serious and could reasonably lead to death.  It does not mean that an individual is at the point of death, although that would also be considered a fitting time to receive the Sacrament.  

The Church does not want you to wait until you are at the point of death to request the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick.  That being said, however, the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick is for gravely dangerous and serious illnesses - not the flu, arthritis, chronic pain, etc.

Gospel Reflection 
“True encounter with Christ liberates something in us, a power we did not know we had, a hope, a capacity for life, a resilience, an ability to bounce back when we thought we were completely defeated, a capacity to grow and change, a power of creative transformation” (Thomas Merton, He Is Risen). 

We see what this looks like in the encounter the woman at the well has with Jesus.  There are a number things worth pointing out about this particular encounter: 

1. The woman is going about her ordinary life.  She goes to the well to retrieve water as she probably normally would have everyday.  Like the woman at the well, we can encounter Jesus of Nazareth in the ordinary parts of our lives.  We need not look for amazing mystical experiences.  No, Jesus is constantly pursuing us waiting for us to notice him.  95% of the spiritual life is simply noticing.    
2. Jesus isn’t at the well by accident.  He was waiting for the woman.  Just as he was waiting for the woman at the well, Jesus is waiting for us to engage with him - to acknowledge our thoughts, feelings, and desires, to relate them to him, to receive what he longs to give us, and to respond to him.  
3. Notice the progression of the woman’s awareness of who Jesus is.  She first calls him a Jew, then sir, then a prophet, then Messiah.  The same is true of our relationship with Jesus.  He doesn’t reveal himself to us all at once but rather slowly and in a way in which we can understand and receive.  In other words, he meets us where we are at but doesn’t want us to stay there.  He wants to draw us closer to himself - to be like himself.
4. The woman is hiding.  It was noon - the hottest part of the day.  Most women would have come to the well early in the morning when it was cooler and easier to draw water.  But, this woman waited until she thought the well would be unoccupied.  She was ashamed of her sin and she knew that others knew and were probably drawing conclusions about who she was.  We hide too.  We don’t want others to see or know the messiness of our lives particularly our sinful attitudes, behaviors, thoughts, feelings, or desires.  Quite often, like Adam and Eve after the fall, we want to hide from God because we don’t want him to see our true selves.  Or, we are afraid that he will judge us as harshly as we judge ourselves.  
5. The woman dialogues with Jesus.  We call this prayer.  We can have the same dialogue with Jesus if we just give him the space and capacity to listen to him (harken back to last week’s Gospel…This is my beloved son. Listen to him).  Can we give (or are we giving) God just 1% of our day in silent, scriptural, meditative prayer? 
6. In the midst of the dialogue, both Jesus and the woman share their desires.  And, notice it takes a while for the woman to understand what her deepest desire is.  At first, she thinks she wants natural, physical water to satiate her thirst.  But, as the dialogue continues it becomes more clear that Jesus desires to give her eternal life and that she longs for the same.  Our desires may not be our deepest desires.  It takes prayer and encounter with Jesus for our deepest desires to well up from within so that we can identify and name them. 
7. Jesus isn’t surprised by our sins.  He already knows.  In the encounter with the woman, Jesus gently confronts the woman about her sin.  In the midst of the encounter we see a change in the woman.  She is less ashamed and more liberated.  Jesus is gentle with the woman as he is with us.  He will convict us of our sinfulness in order for our conversion - to change us similarly to how the woman at the well was changed by the end of their encounter. 
8. We must turn away from our sins.  Encounter with Jesus changes us.  It changes us so much that we don’t want to return to the person we used to be, but rather we desire to become the person God created us to be - his beloved sons and daughters who live not for this world but for relationship with God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit).  

The encounter with the woman at the well gives us deep insights into the reality of the spiritual life.  It is worth taking some time this week with this particular scripture passage (John 4:5-42).  Engage your imagination in your prayer by putting yourself in the place of the woman and, like her, have a dialogue with Jesus.  Why are you there with him spending the time?  What is your deepest desire?  What are you hiding from?  What does Jesus already know that you might be afraid to acknowledge?  What do you want to relate to him?  Give him space and time to speak within your heart and then respond to him. 

Know of my prayers for you all! 
Fr. Ryan ​