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We hope your Lent is going well and you are growing in the love, joy, and peace of Jesus in your life. Check out all the good and holy stuff going on at PWC this week!
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Lenten Soup and Bread
Tonight, Wednesday:
March 11
5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
This is our last one!!!
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Tonight, Wednesday, March 11,
7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
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We will finish tonight with our reflection on the book:
The Return of the Prodigal Son
by Henri Nouwen.
If you have not been able to attend the first two sessions, you are most welcome to attend our last one.
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Lenten Reflections
with Pastor Mark
This Friday, March 13!
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Join Pastor Mark on Friday mornings for Prayer and Lenten Reflections. We will spend an hour breaking open the Word of God and examining how we can deepen our faith through this Lenten journey.
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Friday Mornings
9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.
March 13, 20 & 27
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Pastoral Care Associates presents
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Active Listening Lab
Learn the power of compassionate listening and supportive presence. Develop deeper skills to care for others in times of need.
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Location: Westminster Village
12000 N. 90th Street, Scottsdale,
Second Floor, Saguaro Room
Dates: Saturdays, March 21, 28,
April 4, 18, & 25
Time: 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
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There will be no Children’s Ministry this Sunday,
March 15
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We will return on Sunday, March 22.
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Please contact Helen Dipree for more information about the Children’s Ministry @ [email protected]
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Our Weekly Online Reflections
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Check out a new reflection from Monday, March 9 on “How Is Your Lent Going?” Here is the link:
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Pastoral Counseling is available at PWC
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Fr. Mike Lessard is available for pastoral counseling on Wednesdays at PWC. Please call the church office to make an appointment at 480-649-0300.
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Our Theme Song for Lent 2026 at PWC
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by Phil Wickham
Please see the link below:
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Blood Pressure Checks take place at PWC on the first and third Sundays of the month
from 11:00 a.m. to 11:45 a.m.
Our medical team is providing the blood pressure checks.
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At PWC
your tithing & generosity allow us to minister to so many who come through our doors with their spiritual, emotional, and physical needs.
Thank you for your tithing and
commitment to PWC!
From pastoral counseling to grief support, to bible study and adult education, to providing food through Matthew’s Crossing for families who are economically struggling, to Marriage Enrichment and our funeral ministry -- your consistent giving makes a difference, a big change in people’s lives!
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Here are the different ways you can tithe to PWC:
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• Mail in your gift to: Praise and Worship Center, 2551 N. Arizona Avenue, Chandler, AZ 85225.
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• Sign up for monthly giving with a credit card or voided check. Just call the office at 480-649-0300 or stop by the office.
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Do you want to be inspired again by Fr. Dale or Pastor Mark? You can listen to Fr. Dale or Pastor Mark’s sermons on our podcast page. Here is the link:
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Are you homebound? If so, Deacon John Null can bring you communion. The only exception is if you have or are recovering from COVID. The best way to get in touch with Deacon John is by contacting the church office, at 480-649-0300, and leaving a message.
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A Reflection
by Ronald Rolheiser
Amazing Grace
It was William Auden, I think, who wrote that when grace enters a room everyone begins to dance.
Would this were so! More often the opposite happens, grace enters a room and instead of dancing we become discontent and our eyes grow bitter with envy. Why? Nikos Kazantzakis, the great Greek writer, tells a story of an elderly monk he once met on Mount Athos. Kazantsakis, still young and full of curiosity, was questioning this monk and asked him: “Do you still wrestle with the devil?”
“No,” replied the old monk, “I used to, when I was younger, but now I’ve grown old and tired and the devil has grown old and tired with me.”
“So,” Kazantsakis said, “your life is easy then? No more big struggles.”
“Oh, no!” replied the old man, “now it’s worse. Now I wrestle with God!”
“You wrestle with God,” replied Kazantsakis, rather surprised, “and you hope to win?”
“No,” said the old monk, “I wrestle with God and I hope to lose!”
There comes a point in life when our major spiritual struggle is no longer with the fact that we are weak and desperately in need of God’s forgiveness, but rather with the opposite, with the fact that God’s grace and forgiveness is overly-lavish, unmerited, and especially that it goes out so indiscriminately. God’s lavish love and forgiveness go out equally to those have worked hard and to those who haven’t, to those who have been faithful for a long time and to those who jumped on-board at the last minute, to those who have had to bear the heat of the day and to those who didn’t, to those who did their duty and to those who lived selfishly.
God’s love isn’t a reward for being good, doing our duty, resisting temptation, bearing the heat of the day in fidelity, saying our prayers, remaining pure, or offering worship, good and important though these are. God loves us because God is love and God cannot not love and cannot be discriminating in love. God’s love, as scripture says, shines on the good and bad alike. That’s nice to know when we need forgiveness and unmerited love, but it’s hard to accept when that forgiveness and love is given to those whom we deem less worthy of it, to those who didn’t seem to do their duty. It’s not easy to accept that God’s love does not discriminate, especially when God’s blessings go out lavishly to those who don’t seem to deserve them.
Allow me to share a story: When I was first ordained, I lived for a time in one of our Oblate rectories with a semi-retired priest, a wonderfully gracious man, who had been a faithful priest for fifty years. One evening, alone with him, I asked him: “If you had your priesthood to do over again, would you do anything differently?”
The answer he gave me was not the one I’d anticipated. “Yes,” he said, “I would do some things differently. I’d be easier on people than I was this time. I’d risk the mercy and forgiveness of God more.”
Then he grew silent, as if to create the proper space for what he was about to say, and added: “Let me say this too: As I get older, I’m finding it harder and harder to accept the ways of God. I’ve been a priest for fifty years and I’ve been faithful. I can honestly say, as far as I know, that in my whole life I’ve never committed a mortal sin. I’ve always tried my best and done my duty. It wasn’t easy, but I did it with essential fidelity. And you know something? Now that I’m old, I’m struggling with all kinds of bitterness and doubt. That’s natural, I guess. But what upsets me is that I look around me, and I see all kinds of people, young people and others, who’ve never been faithful, who’ve lived selfish lives, and they’re full of faith and are speaking in tongues! I’ve been faithful and I’m full of anger and doubt. Tell me, is that fair?”
In the end, we need to forgive God and that might be the hardest forgiveness of all. It’s hard to accept that God loves everyone equally – even our enemies, even those who hate us, even those who don’t work as hard as we do, even those who reject duty for selfishness, and even those who give in to all the temptations we resist. Although deep down we know that God has been more than fair with us, God’s lavish generosity to others is something which we find hard to accept. Like the workers in the Parable of the Vineyard who toiled the whole day and then saw those who had worked just one hour get the same wage as theirs, we often let God’s generosity to others warp both our joy and our eyesight.
But that struggle points us in the right direction. Grace is amazing; by disorienting us it properly orients us.
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We look forward to seeing you tonight for our last Lenten Soup & Bread and our last Lenten Book Club! Please pray for peace in our world.
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Love,
Fr. Dale & Pastor Mark
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Keep up with all your PWC friends on Facebook
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Please do not reply to this email;
the sending address is not monitored.
Please reply to: [email protected]
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Chris Pfund PhD, MBA, BSN, RN
President Homestead Health
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phone: (602) 755-4508
fax: (602) 691-0283
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Homestead Health is a 501(c)(3) non-profit dedicated to helping adults live safely and independently at home. We offer a range of in-home and virtual medical services, including concierge medicine, palliative care, transitional care, and geriatric care management. We believe everyone deserves access to compassionate and affordable healthcare.
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