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One of my summer jobs as a kid was working for a retired farmer. My parents knew this would be a good character-building opportunity and drove me out to his farm most every week in the summer. I mowed the huge yard and did many other odd jobs. One job that I hated the most was digging up the thistles in the pasture. I was given a spade and told to go “dig them up by the roots”. When the prickly thistles have grown up taller than you, they can be nasty. It’s tempting to cut them off at the ground and walk away…but unless you dig up the whole root, you know they will grow back. Looking back on it now, weed killer would have been very helpful.

Rarely do we have a reading from the second book of Chronicles which is used for today's first reading. It includes a description of the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem and the people being captured and taken to Babylon and then the restoration of Jerusalem under Cyrus, the new king of Persia.

Here on the 3rd Sunday in Lent, since I have talked about the Preface Prayer for the last two Sundays, I thought I just as well keep it going. Today we will hear this Preface: “For by your gracious gift each year your faithful await the sacred paschal feasts with the joy of minds made pure, so that, more eagerly intent on prayer and on the works of charity, and participating in the mysteries by which they have been reborn, they may be led to the fullness of grace that you bestow on your sons and daughters.” So I’m just going to give some thoughts, three thoughts, on this prayer as it relates to our readings.