ST. MARTHA'S GUILD: The Marthas are grateful to all who have responded to our needs for soup, bread, sandwiches, and goodies during the year. We now have over 40 members to host the occasions of hospitality in our Parish, including the Parish tradition of Soup with Love at noon each Wednesday during Lent. We welcome anyone who would like to join this ministry. Please do so by calling the Parish House at 804 725-4332. Who was Saint Martha..? Martha was the sister of Mary (often assumed to be Mary Magdalene) and Lazarus. She lived with them in Bethany, a small town near Jerusalem. Jesus preached in Judea and visited their home often. Martha directed her household and took special pains to make Jesus comfortable. Active in her ministrations, she asked Jesus to direct her sister, the more contemplative Mary, to help her serve him, and he replied, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her" (Luke 10:38-42). Thus, Jesus reminds us that our active works can often distract us from God, while contemplation can often bring us closer. It was Martha who went out to meet Jesus after the death of Lazarus. She met him when he was still a few miles outside their village. Martha said to him, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." She added that she still believed God would grant whatever Jesus asked. In response to this act of faith, she was the first to hear one of Jesus' deepest revelations. As Jesus continued to question her, Martha said she believed her brother would rise again on the last day. Then Jesus said to Martha, "I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" Martha replied, "Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God" (John 11:1-44). Martha has always been a favorite subject of artists; from early Christian icons to the famous paintings of Fullmaurer and Tintoretto, to Vermeer's "Christ in the house of Martha and Mary" and Velázquez's puzzling "Kitchen Scene with Christ in the House of Martha and Mary." According to medieval legend, Martha, Mary, and Lazarus went to France after the death of Jesus and evangelized Provence; where Martha is even credited with slaying the dragon "La Tarasque" at Avignon. To this day she is venerated by Roman Catholics in Provence. She's commonly portrayed as a housewife with a dragon and an aspergillus. At times the image includes; books, keys, ladle, with Martha veiled and her hands folded in lamentation by Mary Magdalene, Mary in scenes from the Gospel, or, with Lazarus and Mary, crossing the sea to Marseilles. She is often bearing a distaff or any symbol of housework. Tradition holds her as "the patroness of housewives, innkeepers, house servants, waiters, and cooks."