3rd Sunday of Lent
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Mass Readings
First Reading – Ex 3:1-8a, 13-15
Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. Leading the flock across the desert, he came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There an angel of the LORD appeared to Moses in fire flaming out of a bush. As he looked on, he was surprised to see that the bush, though on fire, was not consumed. So Moses decided, “I must go over to look at this remarkable sight, and see why the bush is not burned.” When the LORD saw him coming over to look at it more closely, God called out to him from the bush, “Moses! Moses!” He answered, “Here I am.” God said, “Come no nearer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground. I am the God of your fathers, “ he continued, “the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob.” Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. But the LORD said, “I have witnessed the affliction of my people in Egypt and have heard their cry of complaint against their slave drivers, so I know well what they are suffering. Therefore I have come down to rescue them from the hands of the Egyptians and lead them out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey.” Moses said to God, “But when I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ if they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what am I to tell them?” God replied, “I am who am.” Then he added, “This is what you shall tell the Israelites: I AM sent me to you.” God spoke further to Moses, “Thus shall you say to the Israelites: The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. “This is my name forever; thus am I to be remembered through all generations.”
Responsorial Psalm – Ps 103: 1-2, 3-4, 6-7, 8, 11. (R.8a)
R. The Lord is kind and merciful.
Bless the LORD, O my soul;
and all my being, bless his holy name.
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits. R.
He pardons all your iniquities,
heals all your ills,
He redeems your life from destruction,
crowns you with kindness and compassion.R.
The LORD secures justice
and the rights of all the oppressed.
He has made known his ways to Moses,
and his deeds to the children of Israel.R.
Merciful and gracious is the LORD,
slow to anger and abounding in kindness.
For as the heavens are high above the earth,
so surpassing is his kindness toward those who fear him. R.
Second Reading – 1 Cor 10:1-6, 10-12
I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea, and all of them were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. All ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank from a spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was the Christ. Yet God was not pleased with most of them, for they were struck down in the desert. These things happened as examples for us, so that we might not desire evil things, as they did. Do not grumble as some of them did, and suffered death by the destroyer. These things happened to them as an example, and they have been written down as a warning to us, upon whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore, whoever thinks he is standing secure should take care not to fall.
Gospel – Lk 13:1-9
Some people told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with the blood of their sacrifices. Jesus said to them in reply, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were greater sinners than all other Galileans? By no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did! Or those eighteen people who were killed when the tower at Siloam fell on them— do you think they were more guilty than everyone else who lived in Jerusalem? By no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!” And he told them this parable: “There once was a person who had a fig tree planted in his orchard, and when he came in search of fruit on it but found none, he said to the gardener, ‘For three years now I have come in search of fruit on this fig tree but have found none. So cut it down. Why should it exhaust the soil?’ He said to him in reply, ‘Sir, leave it for this year also, and I shall cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it; it may bear fruit in the future. If not you can cut it down.’”
Featured Saints
Sunday takes precedence over the Optional Memorial of St. Turibius of Mogrovejo, Archbishop of Lima, Peru (†1606). He worked tirelessly for twenty-five years to glorify Christ’s name in his immense diocese which, at that time covered a good part of South America. He was an advocate of the indigenous and a reformer of clergy.
St. Walter, abbot (†c. 1095). First abbot of the monastery of Pontoise, France. He taught the monks the monastic rule by his own example and fought the widespread simony among the clergy.
St. Joseph Oriol, priest (†1702). Priest from Barcelona, Spain, who through corporal mortification, austere poverty and continual prayer lived in close union with God and always filled with heavenly joy.
St. Rafqa (Rebecca) of Himlaya, virgin (†1914). Religious of the Lebanese Maronite Order of St. Anthony; she suffered from blindness and other infirmities, and persevered in continual prayer for thirty years.
Blessed Peter Higgins, priest and martyr (†1642). Dominican priest hanged without a trial in Naas, Ireland, during the reign of Charles I of England Ireland for refusing to deny the Catholic Faith.
Blessed Methodius Dominick Trčka, priest and martyr (†1959). Redemptorist priest imprisoned in a dank cell in the Leopoldov Prison in Slovakia, where he died of pneumonia.
Blessed Anunciata Cocchetti, virgin (†1882). She founded the Institute of the Sisters of St. Dorothy in Cemmo, Italy. She died at age 82 having dedicated her long life to the formation and education of girls from poor families.
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