Dear Parish Family,

How has your Lent been so far? As we celebrate the 4th Sunday of Lent this week, roughly the halfway point of our Lenten journey, it’s a good time for us to pause and reflect on how much we have dared to be different. Have we been faithful to our promises of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving? Or have we faltered? If we have, there’s still time to pick up and begin again so that when we get to Easter we might renew our Baptismal Promises with great vigor. This week we might take some time to reflect on these words of St. Basil the Great….

What is the Mark of a Christian?

That we be holy and blameless and so eat the Body of Christ and drink his Blood.

And what is the mark of those who eat the Bread and drink the Cup of Christ?

That they keep in perpetual remembrance him who died for us and rose again.

What is the mark of those who keep such remembrance? That they live not for themselves but for him who died for us and rose again. What, then, is the mark of a Christian?

That our justice abound in all things, to watch daily and hourly and to stand prepared in that state knowing that the Lord comes when we least expect him.

So, then what is the mark of a Christian? That we love one another as Christ loves us. What is the mark of a Christian? To set the Lord always in our sight. —St. Basil (329-379 AD)