THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT MASS INTENTIONS: 5:30 p.m. Saturday, March 18 Halina Barc (60th Birthday) (Sebastian Family) 8:00 a.m. Sunday, March 19 Bo & Ann Davison & Family (Donor) 10:00 a.m. Sunday, March 19 For the People 5:30 p.m. Monday, March 20 + Joseph Bokovitz (Ella Bokovitz) 8:00 a.m. Tuesday, March 21 Michelle Black (60th Birthday) (Sebastian Family) 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 22 Allan & Gina Stapleton (D. J. Stapleton) 8:00 a.m. Thursday, March 23 + Tom Whaley (Matt & Mary Anne Bokovitz) 8:00 a.m. Friday, March 24 All Souls (Patty Hays) 7:00 p.m. Friday, March 24 Stations of the Cross 8:00 a.m. Saturday, March 25 Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord

5:30 p.m. Saturday, March 25 Stephanie Sebastian (Birthday) & Maria Pozoga (Birthday) (Sebastian Family) 8:00 a. m. Sunday, March 26 For the People 10:00 a.m. Sunday, March 26 Jackie Ours & baby (C. W. C.) SAINTS AND SPECIAL OBSERVANCES:

Sunday: Monday: Thursday: Friday: Saturday:

Third Sunday of Lent St. Joseph; Spring begins St. Toribio de Mogrovejo Abstinence The Annunciation of the Lord

Total collection: March 11/12 $3,996.00 Average expenses last 4 weeks: $3,281.21 Total in Electrical Fund: $138,687.76 Total Pledged for Electrical as of 3/9: $131,209.25 Attendance: 5:30 (80) 8:00 (75) 10:00 (85)

MINISTERS: SAT. MARCH 25 5:30 PM EUCHARIST: _ __MARY KLINE LECTOR: PAUL SEBASTIAN SERVERS: KRYSTAL DAVISON GABBY MCCONNELL USHERS: STEPHEN KLINE _ JACOB KLINE

Pastor’s Notes We are all extremely thirsty. And there is only one way that our thirst can be quenched: GOD. Unfortunately, we try again and again to quench that thirst in ways that can never satisfy us. Like the Samaritan Woman we go time and again to the well, fill our jugs, drink, and find that we are only thirstier. But until we realize it is God whom we seek, our efforts will be fruitless. Many commentators note that the number of men the woman in today’s gospel had been with corresponded to the number of false gods the Samaritans were guilty of worshiping. Her dysfunctional love life reflected the failure of her people to worship the one true God. Saint John was likely well aware of this coincidence and thus drew the fuller meaning of our Lord’s encounter with this woman. John loved symbols and this passage is filled with them. The woman had to come to the well each day to draw water. She longed for “living” that is running water so that she would not have to work so hard each day to get the water she needed to live. Jesus offered her the true “living water”. He offered her divine grace that alone could quench her true thirst for God. Once she realized that Jesus was truly offering her “the gift” she realized that it was indeed God that she had been searching for all along. She suddenly knew that no one other than Jesus could give her what she truly needed. She came to believe in Him as the Christ and immediately ran to tell her fellow “thirsty” townspeople. In turn, when they encountered Jesus, they too knew immediately that He alone was the One they had longed for. That of course is how it should be with us. Unfortunately, we still try to find other sources of “living water”. We make false gods out of money, power, pleasure, prestige, and sometimes even friends and family. And because these things cannot truly satisfy us, we thirst all the more. We try to acquire more and more of these false gods hoping that if we have enough of them they will quench that inner burning we feel. But they never do. Of course, once again, that is the point of our Lenten prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. By giving up little things we come to know what we can live without and at the same time come to realize that the one thig that we truly need is God. Through our Lenten works we hope to approach the celebration of Easter with that fervor the Samaritan woman had when she proclaimed Christ to her fellow townspeople. And we also hope to become more and more aware that our Lord’s presence in the Eucharist is the way that even here on earth we can begin to quench our thirst so that this most wondrous sacrament can indeed be the source and summit of our life.

Father Tom SUN. MARCH 26 8:00 AM PAUL KOCH BRUCE DAVISON AUSTIN STAPLETON LARRY BESS ALLAN STAPLETON

SUN. MARCH 26 10:00 AM____ ___ JANET NORTH _________ MAUREEN KORMANIK _ ABBY HARVEY ADDISON NOLAN _________ MATT BOKOVITZ MIKE STAPLETON ____________

SPRING: The first day of spring is one thing, and the first spring day is another. The difference between them is sometimes as great as a month.—Henry Van Dyke

FATHER THOMAS HAMM, JR. PASTOR

MARCH 19, 2017_________

THIRSTING FOR LIFE-GIVING WATERS Especially during the Lenten, Holy Week, and Easter seasons, the prayer texts of the Eastern Church revel in paradoxical images of Christ: the eternal life who is put to death, the host of the supper who is also its meal, the thirsty crucified one with living water streaming from his side. These images flow from the evangelists’ portrayals of Jesus and from his very ministry, during which he often upset or reversed people’s expectations about him or the ways of God. This “reversal” is at play in today’s Gospel, as Jesus speaks to an enemy foreigner who is also a woman beneath his status. In addition he, the thirsting one, shows the woman to be the one truly thirsting. He—whose parched lips will say “I thirst” before he dies—is the source of life and life-giving water. Lent calls upon us to dwell on how each of us is thirsting for Christ, and it leads us, ultimately, back to the life-giving waters of our baptism into his Body. Copyright © J. S. Paluch Co., Inc.

CONFIRMATION CLASS TODAY SUNDAY, MARCH 19 AFTER THE 10:00 AM MASS. MASS ON MONDAY, MARCH 20 AND EVERY MONDAY DURING LENT WILL BE AT 5:30 PM. MASS ON WEDNESDAY, MARCH 22 IS AT 5:30 PM. BIBLE STUDY ON WEDNESDAY, MARCH 22 AFTER THE 5:30 PM MASS. PARISH SCHOOL OF RELIGION CLASSES ON WEDNESDAY, MARCH 22 AT 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM. LENTEN LUCHEON AT GRACE UNITED METHODIST CHURCH ON THURSDAY, MARCH 23 HOSTED BY FIRST CHURCH OF GOD AT NOON. FRIDAY MARCH 24: MASS AT 8:00 AM; FISH FRY 4:30-7:00 PM.; STATIONS OF THE CROSS 7:00 PM.

LENTEN FISH FRIES on Friday, March 24th. Last Friday at the fish fry we served 182. WHEN SERVING THIS AMOUNT OF PEOPLE WE NEED ALL THE WORKERS WE CAN GET. PLEASE SIGN UP TO WORK on the sheet on the table in back of Church. We especially need order takers, food runners and clean-up crew. There are a number of us that come early and get things ready and work and we still have to clean up. It would help if we had a clean-up crew. This is a fund raiser for the whole church everyone should get involved. We also need many wonderful desserts please sign up to make a dessert on the sheet on the table in back of church (just a note when sending in desserts please do not send anything with peanuts or peanut butter due to the fact of people with allergies). We are asking for cash donations to buy the grocery items we need in bulk. You can put your donation in an envelope mark Fish fry and drop in the collection basket. LOOKING FOR OUR HIGH SENIORS: We would like to know how many high school seniors we will have this year. So far, we know of two: Kimberly and MiKayla Edelmann from Gallia Academy. If anyone knows of any other from the area high schools please call the parish office at 740-4460-0669. FIRST CONFESSION FOR SECOND GRADERS IS NEXT SATURDAY, MARCH 25 AT 9:00 AM. MASS WILL BE CELEBRATED AT 8:30 AM. There will be a First Communion retreat on Saturday, April 1st from 9:00-12:00.

NAMES ON THE PRAYER LIST WILL REMAIN FOR 30 DAYS AFTER 30 DAYS THEY WILL BE REMOVED UNLESS YOU NOTIFY THE OFFICE.

These names will remain until March 31, 2017 Please pray for the health and the healing of our friends and relatives:

Resty and Gisela Alonzo, Kali Blazer, Brett Bokovitz, Bob & Joan Browning, Aniston Cooper, Nathan Cummons, Harriett Davison, Karen Davison, Keith Davison, Betty Doerfer, Sue Freyberg,. Jonnie Lou Gabrielli, Adrian Gibson, Albert Grable, Kelly Haas, Larry Haas, Betty Hamm, Doug & Barbara Johnson, Edna Johnson, Everett King, Robert King, Noah Knackstedt, John Lemley, David Leport, Davey Mathney, Lee Ann Mollohan, Dorothy Musgrove, Phoebe Neal, Carla O’Dell, Baby Ours, Linda Plymale, Mark Porter, Bart Repass, Herlinda Reyes, Jeff Rider, Remo & Helen Rocchi, Ken Ryan, Leo Ryan, Janet Schaad, Charlotte Shaffer, Lyle Shillington, Cameran Smith, Dr. Anthony Sola, Katy Sprow, Wendy Stiles, Irene & Charles Surber, Sandy Vanco, Tyler Ward, Harry White, Patrick Wolfe and Tombo Woodward.

DIOCESAN COUNCIL OF CATHOLIC WOMEN are sponsoring A Lenten Day of Spirituality for Women of the Diocese of Steubenville on Saturday, April 1st. There is a signup sheet in back of church on the table. Deadline to sign up is Sunday, March 26th. Fee is $25.00. More information is on the bulletin board. RIGHT TO LIFE is starting their Baby Bottle drive this weekend. Baby bottles are in back of church. Please take a bottle and fill it with loose change. The drive continues until Mother’s Day. NEXT WEEKEND, our parish will take up THE CATHOLIC RELIEF SERVICES COLLECTION (CRSC). Funds from this collection help provide food to the hungry, support to displaced refugees, and Christ’s love and respect to all people here at home and abroad. Next weekend, please give generously to the CRSC and help Jesus in disguise. Learn more about the collection at www.usccb.org/catholic-relief. CRS RICE BOWL Join our faith community-and nearly 14,000 Catholic communities across the United States- in a life changing Lenten journey of encounter with CRS Rice Bowl. Pick up your family’s CRS Rice Bowl from the table in back of church. May these 40 days better prepare us to encounter ourselves, our neighbors and our God. PLEASE MARK YOUR CALENDARS: We have two fund raising events coming up. The first will be on Saturday, May 6. It will be a Cinco de Mayo Fiesta sponsored by the EL TORIL RESTAURANT. Second will be on Saturday, June 3rd. It will be an Italian Dinner sponsored by TUSCANY. More details to come later.

TREASURES FROM OUR TRADITION Long ago, the custom of sending some pieces of consecrated bread from the Lord’s table began to take hold. Originally it was a way of assuring the sick and imprisoned of their bonds of faith and affection with the community from whom they were separated. By the third century, at least in Rome, we have evidence that the bishop would consign some of the sacred elements to presbyters or deacons. There was a crisis in the unity of the church early on, called the quartodeciman controversy, since some people wanted to celebrate the Pasch on the fourteenth day (quartodecima) of the Jewish month Nissan, even if it didn’t fall on a Sunday. The debate so fractured the church that the historian of the era, Eusebius, reported a new development to the pope. He wrote that the churches holding to the Lord’s Day sent out consecrated bread to the disgruntled people of the quartodeciman pastors with whom they were quarreling. Meanwhile, bishops complained about people taking the Eucharist home. St. Cyprian told a cautionary tale of a sinful woman who tried to open the “casket” containing the consecrated bread in her home. She was deterred from receiving, he said, by flames erupting from the box. Clearly, he wanted people to think twice before bringing Communion home! The Council of Nicaea defined the “old rule of the church” as allowing for reserving the eucharistic bread for the sake of the dying. The same council could foresee circumstances of persecution when people might have the Eucharist on hand to administer to one another in a time of great danger, literally, at the point of a sword. The first and enduring purpose for reserving the Eucharist is viaticum for the dying. —Rev. James Field, Copyright © J. S. Paluch Co.