During Lent it sometimes helps to read about the saints and other religious people. Sometimes what they say may really hit home. Here is one that woke me up from Saint Teresa of Avila’s book, Interior Castle:

Let us look at our own shortcomings
and leave other people’s alone; for
those who live carefully ordered lives
are apt to be shocked at everything
and we might well learn very
important lessons from the persons
who shock us. Our outward
comportment and behavior may be
better than theirs, but this, though
good, is not the most important thing;
there is no reason why we should
expect everyone else to travel
by our own road, and we should not
attempt to point them to the
spiritual path when perhaps we do
not know what it is...It is better to
attempt to...live in silence and in hope,
and God will take care of God’s own."

"The Easter Triduum"

More from Liturgy With Style and Grace, by Gabe Huck and Gerald T. Chinchar:

The word Triduum, three days, refers to the time from the evening liturgy on Holy Thursday until evening prayer on Easter Sunday. The sacramentary says: ‘The Easter triduum of the passion and resurrection of Christ is thus the culmination of the entire liturgical year. What Sunday is to the week, the solemnity of Easter is to the liturgical year. The Easter triduum begins with the evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper, reaches its high point in the Easter vigil, and closes with evening prayer on Easter Sunday.’ The emphasis is on the unity of the days, on not separating death from resurrection. From its first years, the church has never spoken of one without the other. Triduum is a single celebration.

READINGS for NEXT SUNDAY, FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT
Isaiah 43:16-21 Phillipians 3:8-14 John 8:1-11

WE CONGRATULATE THE NEWLY MARRIED
Aniceto Ladua & Rosalie Ante

SICK RELATIVES AND FRIENDS

We pray for the ill: Sharon Aiello, Marilyn Arancibia, Bastiaan Blumenthal, Marcia Bourne, Ann Burns, Sister Cabrini, Arthur Candia, Josie Clarke, Nan Connolly, Ana Cosgaya, Imelda Daly, William & Sandra Dill, Adela Florez, Elsie Grech, Randall Guerro, Denise Hawald, Joanne Johnson, Koret Koelman, Muriel Krause, Josephine Lavoie, Marky, Rosemary McHale, Jeanne McHugh, Terry McLeod, Catherine Okulove, Sister Nancy Reynolds, Mary Shick, Ruth Sleeper, Cyndy Smerdel, Kari Stellino, Don Vickery, Walton and June Dickhoff, Gordon Sinks, Daniel McHale, Ilaria Belluomini & Bernie Voight.

WEEKLY INTENTION

Again on Friday at 6:00 p.m., in the Church, Stations of the Cross will be celebrated. All are invited to come and pray together as we reflect on the passion and death of Jesus. Following Stations, come to a light Lenten meal in Hennessy Hall as we break bread together and give what we would have spent on our Friday evening meal to our St. Vincent de Paul Society, who will feed our hungry sisters and brothers. Thus we practice the three Lenten disciplines:

Pray     *    Fast    *    Learn     *    Give

In today’s second reading, Paul speaks to the Corinthians as an "ambassador for Christ." Through his physical presence and his letters, Paul connected with the Corinthians, sharing Christian teaching and reminding early Christians of the responsibilities of their faith.

Like Paul, we are ambassadors for Christ, and our participation in Operation Rice Bowl promotes the Catholic Social Teaching principle of solidarity. Operation Rice Bowl also provides opportunities to promote solidarity through advocacy and political responsibility. We learn about the realities of our neighbors for whom we must be advocates and ambassadors for Christ, and learn how we may take action on their behalf.

Memorial Easter Lilies

Easter Lilies will decorate the Church during the Easter Season. If you would care to make a donation of $10 (please make check payable to St. Robert’s Lilies Fund) towards their purchase in memory of a loved one, please fill out the form below and return it to the Parish Office by April 11th. A memorial list will be published in the bulletin.

My gift is in memory of:__________________________

My gift is in honor of:____________________________

Letter of Pope John Paul

As we begin the new millennium, Pope John Paul has written a letter to all members of the Church.

During the weeks of Lent, selections from the letter will be in our bulletin to help us prepare for the Feast of Easter. We continue today with:

The Son’s Face

This divine-human identity emerges forcefully from the Gospels, which offer us a range of elements that make it possible for us to enter that "frontier zone" of the mystery, represented by Christ’s self-awareness. The Church has no doubt that the evangelists in their accounts, and inspired from on high, have correctly understood in the words which Jesus spoke the truth about his person and his awareness of it. Is this not what Luke wishes to tell us when he recounts Jesus’ first recorded words, spoken in the temple in Jerusalem when he was barely 12 years old? Already at that time he shows that he is aware of a unique relationship with God, a relationship which properly belongs to a "son." When his mother tells him how anxiously she and Joseph had been searching for him, Jesus replies without hesitation: "How is it that you sought me? Did you not know that I must be about my Father’s affairs?" (Lk. 2:49) It is no wonder therefore that later as a grown man his language authoritatively expresses the depth of his own mystery, as is abundantly clear both in the synoptic Gospels (cf. Mt. 11:27; Lk. 10:22) and above all in the Gospel of John. In his self-awareness, Jesus has no doubts: "The Father is in me, and I am in the Father" (Jn. 10:389)

However valid it may be to maintain that because of the human condition which made him grow "in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man" (Lk. 2:52), his human awareness of his own mystery would also have progressed to its fullest expression in his glorified humanity, there is no doubt that already in his historical existence Jesus was aware of his identity as the Son of God. John emphasizes this to the point of affirming that it was ultimately because of this awareness that Jesus was rejected and condemned: They sought to kill him "because he not only broke the Sabbath but also called God his Father, making himself equal with God" (Jn. 5:18). In Gethsemane and on Golgotha Jesus’ human awareness will be put to the supreme test. But not even the drama of his passion and death will be able to shake his serene certainty of being the Son of the heavenly Father.

If you have shopped at Tanforan please turn in your receipts at the information booth on the 2nd floor at Tanforan, in the vestibule of the Church, or the Rectory. For questions or more information Call Linda Cuddy.

JOB FAIRE

We welcome you into our parish!

Joseph Martin
Kevin & Theresa Chase and family
Gerin Mark & Gilda Giner and family
Abel & Rubi Morales and family

Jesus said to his disciples on the eve of his condemnation and crucifixion, "Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me" (MT 25:40). The work of the agencies involved in the Church’s international social ministry expresses our love for Christ and manifests our Catholic Christian call to action for the least among us, without consideration of borders and origins.

GROWNUPS.....are having their annual Lenten Soup Supper on Wednesday evening, March 28th, at 6:00 p.m. in Hennessy Hall. Mr. Patrick Kelly, St. Robert’s Pastoral Associate for Liturgy, will be the Guest Speaker. The price is $5.00 per person. Tickets will be sold on the weekends of March 17 & 18, and 24 & 25 after the 4:30, 7:30, 9:00 and 10:30 a.m. Masses. Tickets will also be available by calling Dorothy Branch or Dolores Moynihan. No tickets will be sold at the door.

DINNER/DANCE-VIVA LAS VEGAS.....Tickets are still available for the "VIVA LAS VEGAS" Dinner Dance on March 31st at the Clarion Hotel in Millbrae. Call Marilyn Marshall or Sharon De Martini if you’re interested. The price is $75.00 per ticket, $65.00 for seniors. There will be entertainment, a raffle, an auction, dinner and dancing. You don’t want to miss it!

   
MONDAY, March 26th
5 - 7 p.m. 8th Grade....Hall
7 - 9 p.m. Dinner Dance Mtg.....Hall
7 - 10 p.m. Grownups.....Library

TUESDAY, March 27th
6:30 - 8 p.m. Legion of Mary.....Library
7 - 8:15 p.m. Religious Ed ......Hall

WEDNESDAY, March 28th
3 - 10 p.m. Grownups.....Hall
7:30 - 9 p.m. Bible Study....Convent
7:30 - 9 p.m. Liturgy Committee....Mary’s Chapel

THURSDAY, March 29th
3:30 - 8 p.m. Religious Ed.....Hall
7 - 9 p.m. RCIA.....Chapel

FRIDAY, March 30th
6:00 pm Stations of the Cross ...Church
4 - 8 pm Lenten Supper.....Hall

SATURDAY, March 31st
Viva Las Vegas Dinner Dance/Auction