3rd Sunday of Lent

Processional Song - Return to the Lord

Cantor: Return to the Lord

All: Return to the Lord

Cantor: with all your heart,

All: with all your heart,

Cantor: with fasting and weeping and mourning.

All: with fasting and weeping and mourning.

Cantor: The Lord is gracious,

All: The Lord is gracious,

Cantor: full of mercy,

All: full of mercy,

Cantor: slow to anger, rich in love.

All: slow to anger, rich in love.

1. Blow the trumpet in Zion!
Gather the people. Sound the alarm!
The day of the Lord is near.
Come, and be cleansed.

2. Blow the trumpet in Zion!
Gather the people, sound the alarm!
The day of the Lord is near.
Come, and be healed.

1st Reading –
Ezekiel 17:3-7

In those days, in their thirst for water,
the people grumbled against Moses,
saying, “Why did you ever make us leave Egypt?
Was it just to have us die here of thirst 
with our children and our livestock?”
So Moses cried out to the LORD, 
“What shall I do with this people?
a little more and they will stone me!”
The LORD answered Moses,
“Go over there in front of the people, 
along with some of the elders of Israel, 
holding in your hand, as you go, 
the staff with which you struck the river.
I will be standing there in front of you on the rock in Horeb.
Strike the rock, and the water will flow from it for the people to drink.”
This Moses did, in the presence of the elders of Israel.
The place was called Massah and Meribah,  because the Israelites quarreled there and tested the LORD, saying,
“Is the LORD in our midst or not?”

Responsorial Psalm –
Psalm 95

R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts. (2x)
Come, ring out our joy to the LORD;
    hail the Rock who saves us.
Let us come now before our God;
    with songs let us hail the Lord.

R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Come, let us bow and bend loe;
    let us kneel before God who made us.
For he is our God,
    we are the people, the flock that is led by God’s hand.

R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Oh, that today you would hear his voice:
    “Harden not your hearts
as on that day in the desert,
When your parents put me to the test”

R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

2nd Reading –
Romans 5: 1-2, 5-8

Brothers and sisters:
Since we have been justified by faith, 
we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 
through whom we have gained access by faith  to this grace in which we stand, 
and we boast in hope of the glory of God.

And hope does not disappoint, 
because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
For Christ, while we were still helpless, 
died at the appointed time for the ungodly.
Indeed, only with difficulty does one die for a just person,  though perhaps for a good person one might even find courage to die.
But God proves his love for us
in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.

Gospel –
John 4: 5-42

Jesus came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, 
near the plot of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.
Jacob’s well was there.
Jesus, tired from his journey, sat down there at the well.
It was about noon.

A woman of Samaria came to draw water.
Jesus said to her,
“Give me a drink.”
His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.
The Samaritan woman said to him,
“How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?”
—For Jews use nothing in common with Samaritans.—
Jesus answered and said to her,
“If you knew the gift of God
and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink, ‘
you would have asked him 
and he would have given you living water.”
The woman said to him, 
“Sir, you do not even have a bucket and the cistern is deep; 
where then can you get this living water?
Are you greater than our father Jacob, 
who gave us this cistern and drank from it himself 
with his children and his flocks?”
Jesus answered and said to her, 
“Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; 
but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; 
the water I shall give will become in him
a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
The woman said to him,
“Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty 
or have to keep coming here to draw water.”

Jesus said to her,
“Go call your husband and come back.”
The woman answered and said to him,
“I do not have a husband.”
Jesus answered her,
“You are right in saying, ‘I do not have a husband.’
For you have had five husbands, 
and the one you have now is not your husband.
What you have said is true.”
The woman said to him,
“Sir, I can see that you are a prophet.
Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain; 
but you people say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.”
Jesus said to her,
“Believe me, woman, the hour is coming
when you will worship the Father
neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
You people worship what you do not understand; 
we worship what we understand, 
because salvation is from the Jews.
But the hour is coming, and is now here, 
when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth; 
and indeed the Father seeks such people to worship him.
God is Spirit, and those who worship him
must worship in Spirit and truth.”
The woman said to him,
“I know that the Messiah is coming, the one called the Christ; 
when he comes, he will tell us everything.”
Jesus said to her,
“I am he, the one speaking with you.”

At that moment his disciples returned, 
and were amazed that he was talking with a woman, 
but still no one said, “What are you looking for?” 
or “Why are you talking with her?”
The woman left her water jar 
and went into the town and said to the people, 
“Come see a man who told me everything I have done.
Could he possibly be the Christ?”
They went out of the town and came to him.
Meanwhile, the disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat.”
But he said to them,
“I have food to eat of which you do not know.”
So the disciples said to one another, 
“Could someone have brought him something to eat?”
Jesus said to them,
“My food is to do the will of the one who sent me
and to finish his work.
Do you not say, ‘In four months the harvest will be here’?
I tell you, look up and see the fields ripe for the harvest.
The reaper is already receiving payment 
and gathering crops for eternal life, 
so that the sower and reaper can rejoice together.
For here the saying is verified that ‘One sows and another reaps.’
I sent you to reap what you have not worked for; 
others have done the work, 
and you are sharing the fruits of their work.” 

Many of the Samaritans of that town began to believe in him
because of the word of the woman who testified, 
“He told me everything I have done.”
When the Samaritans came to him,

they invited him to stay with them; 
and he stayed there two days.
Many more began to believe in him because of his word, 
and they said to the woman, 
“We no longer believe because of your word; 
for we have heard for ourselves, 
and we know that this is truly the savior of the world.”

Prayer for Our Lady of Angels Parish

Heavenly Father, we thank you for gathering us together and calling us to serve as your disciples.
You have charged us through your Son, Jesus, with the great mission of evangelizing and witnessing your love to the world.
Send your Holy Spirit to guide us as we discern your will for the spiritual renewal of our parish.
Give us strength, courage, and clear vision as we use our gifts to serve you.
We entrust our parish family to the care of Mary, our mother, and ask for her intercession and guidance, as we strive to build a parish that loves God, embraces all people, and shares the Gospel joyfully.

Amen.

Offertory Song - Here I Am to Worship

Light of the world
You stepped down into darkness
Opened my eyes, let me see
Beauty that made this heart adore You
Hope of a life spent with You

Here I am to worship
Here I am to bow down
Here I am to say that You're my God
You're altogether lovely
Altogether worthy
Altogether wonderful to me

King of all days
Oh, so highly exalted
Glorious in heaven above
Humbly You came to the earth You created
All for love's sake became poor

Here I am to worship
Here I am to bow down
Here I am to say that You're my God
You're altogether lovely
Altogether worthy
Altogether wonderful to me

I'll never know how much it cost
To see my sin upon that cross

I'll never know how much it cost
To see my sin upon that cross

Communion Song -Come to the Water

O let all who thirst,
let them come to the water.
And let all who have nothing,
let them come to the Lord:
Without money, without price,
Why should you pay the price,
except for the Lord?

And let all who seek,
let them come to the water.
And let all who have nothing,
let them come to the Lord:
Without money, without strife,
Why should you spend your life, except for the Lord?

And let all who toil,
let them come to the water.
And let all who are weary,
let them come to the Lord:
All who labor, without rest.
How can your soul find rest,
except for the Lord?

And let all the poor,
let them come to the water.
Bring the ones who are laden,
bring them all to the Lord:
Bring the children without might.
Easy the load and light:
come to the Lord.

Processional Song - 40 Days

Forty days to wander,
forty days to die to self.
Forty days to grow stronger
as faith breaks open the gates of hell.
The jubilee is over,
but grace is far from gone
in the hearts of the faithful,
broken on the wheels of love.

Refrain
’Cause in the desert of temptation
lies the storm of true conversion,
where springs of living water
drown and refresh you.
And as the Jordan pours out change,
your true self is all that remains,
where springs of living water
bind and break you,
bind and break you.

Forty days to remember
the Paschal Sacrifice.
Forty days to discover
his passion calls us to new life.
The jubilee is over,
but mercy's far from gone
in the arms of the father
as the wayward child comes home.

© 2003, Matt Maher. Published by Spirit & Song®, a division of OCP. All rights reserved.