e are a Roman Catholic community of believers in Jesus Christ in Lincoln Park and surrounding areas, located in the Diocese of Paterson, New Jersey. Our Bishop is Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney. Please feel free to visit the pages of our Parish site, learn about who we are as a community of faith and the services our parish provides. If you are thinking about moving to the Lincoln Park area, we cordially invite you to make St. Joseph's your parish.
The Third Sunday in Lent: March 7, 2021
Today’s Gospel gets our attention immediately. Jesus has just arrived in Jerusalem for the feast of Passover. He immediately goes to the temple. When he arrived at the temple, the situation he found there infuriated Him. Yes, there were many people in the temple. However, most of there were not there to pray. There were an astounding number of money changers and also people selling animals for sacrifice!
Jesus absolutely “lost” it! He took a length of cord, made a whip and began driving all these people out of the temple! They were desecrating this beautiful and sacred temple. How dare they? The temple was built and dedicated to be a place for prayer and worship. It was not built to be a market place! Jesus was infuriated! Yet he also was saddened that the people would desecrate such a holy, beautiful and sacred place.
Today may be a day to ask ourselves: what and where are our sacred places? What are the places that are sacred to us? It might be a church, a forest, the mountains, the ocean or simply a swing in our backyard or special chair in our house. We all need sacred places in our lives. These sacred places enable us to experience and open ourselves to God’s presence in the beauty, the silence, the peace – be that in nature, the quiet space in your house or a church.
Sacred places and spaces help to ground us in God. And thus, we may experience God’s presence in that place more intensely and more tangibly. A sacred place as well as a sacred activity (such as simply sitting quietly in a chair) also may help us open ourselves more deeply to God’s presence, word and grace.
Today I invite you to deliberately sit quietly with God for 5, 10, or 30 minutes. We may receive many gifts and deep peace as we quietly and peacefully simply sit with God! God longs for us and God is waiting for us! Will we come?
http://ferdinandbenedictines.blogspot.com/2015/03/reflection-john-213-25.html