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From the Desk of Father Mark - Our Pastor
January 25, 2026 -
Third Sunday in Ordinary Time
NOT AVAILABLE ON THIS BULLETIN EDITION
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From the Desk of Father Mark - Our Pastor
March 8, 2026 -
Third Sunday of Lent
"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 imagery of water is often used in Scripture. It begins at creation, through Moses and the Red Sea, to the prophets calling the people to water, to John the Baptism and ultimately our own baptism. Baptism restores our soul to its original disposition, as God intended. Recalling our baptism inspires us to be holy people to live a holy life. At Easter, we renew our baptismal promises, confident that the promises of God live in each of us.
Also at Easter, adults who desire baptism receive this sacrament at the Easter Vigil. This year we have a good number of people who will be baptized. The prayer used at the Easter Vigil over the Baptismal Water can be a source of inspiration and renewal for us. On this weekend, as we reflect on the woman at the well, let us be reminded of the many ways God has blessed us using water.
Blessing of Baptismal Water
O God, who by invisible power accomplish a wondrous effect through sacramental signs and who in many ways have prepared water, your creation, to show forth the grace of Baptism;
O God, whose Spirit in the first moments of the world’s creation hovered over the waters, so that the very substance of water would even then take to itself the power to sanctify;
O God, who by the outpouring of the flood foreshadowed regeneration, so that from the mystery of one and the same element of water would come an end to vice and a beginning of virtue;
O God, who caused the children of Abraham to pass dry-shod through the Red Sea, so the chosen people, set free from slavery to Pharaoh, would prefigure the people of the baptized;
O God, whose Son, baptized by John in the waters of the Jordan, was anointed with the Holy Spirit, and, as he hung upon the Cross, gave forth water from his side along with blood, and after his Resurrection, commanded his disciples: ‘Go forth, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit’, look now, we pray, upon the face of your Church and graciously unseal for her the fountain of Baptism.
May this water receive by the Holy Spirit the grace of your Only Begotten Son, so that human nature, created in your image and washed clean through the Sacrament of Baptism from all the squalor of the life of old, may be found worthy to rise to the life of newborn children through water and the Holy Spirit.
Have a great week!
Fr. Mark Walter
Pastor of Our Lady of the Ridge - St.Linus Parish |
