JESUS CHRIST IS RISEN FROM THE DEAD! This is what we celebrate today, our new life in Jesus Christ. Often, we do not feel that our life is new. We all have our routines and every now and then we do something out of the ordinary; every now and then we have a very extraordinary experience, but soon enough we settle back into our ordinary everyday lives, our routines. Knowing and believing that Jesus has risen from the dead can and does transform our routine, everyday lives. Jesus Christ makes all things new! This does not necessarily happen on an emotional or experiential level; we do not necessarily “feel” any different, but we “know” that Jesus can and does make a difference in our lives. Then we can go about our daily lives with a renewed sense of purpose and awareness of God’s love and mercy. Jesus will show us the newness only HE can bring to our lives in so much as we let Him. Through daily prayer, frequent reception of the sacraments, reading the Word of God, and learning more about our Catholic Faith, we let Jesus into our hearts and our lives.
So, as we celebrate another Easter, I pray that the Lord Jesus will so fill your hearts with the joy of the resurrection and that you and your loved ones will always know His love and presence even in the most ordinary and routine events of our daily lives. May the time you spend with Him in prayer fill your minds and hearts with the peace only He can give us. CHRIST IS RISEN!
I am very grateful for all who made our celebration of Holy Week and Easter such a beautiful and special time of prayer: our choir and musicians under the direction of Eric Pandrea and Melissa Busson; our ushers and ministers of hospitality under the direction of Gary Nied; our extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion, especially those who take Communion to the shut-ins under the direction of Jean Hricko and Candi Weber; our altar servers, especially our seminarians and future seminarians; those who so beautifully decorated our sanctuary and church inside and out under the direction of Tammy Seifert; Deacon Roger, Deacon Rich; our sacristan Margaret Connor; and all our parish staff. Please keep all these in your prayers in gratitude for all they do in sharing their gifts with all of us. It is all of us working together that makes us the parish community that we are, a people of faith seeking a deeper faith desiring to GROW IN GRACE AND SERVICE.
Next Sunday is the Feast of Divine Mercy, established by Pope John Paul II, at the canonization of St. Faustina, in 2002. It is very fitting that we celebrate the feast of God’s mercy on the octave of Easter, which is THE celebration of God’s love and mercy for us. We will pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy at all the Masses next Sunday before the final hymn. After Mass, you are invited to venerate the image of Divine Mercy by bowing before the image as you leave church. In doing this and going to Holy Communion and confession within eight days before or after the Feast of Divine Mercy, you can receive a plenary indulgence, which is the removal of all temporal punishment due to our sins.
