Alleluia! Jesus is risen from the dead. He is always victorious! Today and for the next eight days the Church celebrates the Octave of Easter. This means that we celebrate Jesus’ resurrection from the dead for eight straight days! Everything draws its strength from Christ’s resurrection. Without the resurrection, our faith is in vain. As Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI said, “Faith in the Resurrection of Jesus says that there is a future for every human being; the cry for unending life which is part of the person is indeed answered.” How incredibly blessed we are! Archbishop Fulton Sheen further explains: “The Cross had asked the questions; the Resurrection had answered them…The Cross had asked: “Why does God permit evil and sin to nail Justice to a tree?” The Resurrection answered: “That sin, having done its worst, might exhaust itself and this be overcome by Love that is stronger than either sin or death.”
Stations of the Cross: Lent is over, but I really enjoyed the 8th grade school students enacting the Stations of the Cross. They were fantastic!
Vacation for Fr. Gary: Our beloved associate pastor is going with his brother Fr. Todd and other family members to Rome to visit their brother, Lee, who is a seminarian studying in Rome for this semester. Hope they have a blessed trip. They are leaving Easter Sunday. Fr. Gary will be back at the parish on April 12. I will miss him; hurry home!
Bball: With both in-state schools on the losing end in the first round of the NCAA tournament now, who do we root for to win? Hope you are enjoying the tournament. I’m thinking Kansas will win it all.
Interviews: What a joy it is to interview those who will receive the Sacraments of First Holy Communion and Confirmation. I am really looking forward to celebrating the Sacraments with them.
Next Sunday: The second Sunday of Easter, April 2-3, is Divine Mercy Sunday. Why is it called this? In the mid 1930s, on the cusp of another world war, Jesus appeared to Sr. Maria Faustina Kowalska, a religious sister in Poland at the time, and asked her to spread the message of Divine Mercy. The message is clear. That God loves us – all of us. And He wants us to recognize that His mercy is greater than our sins, so that we will call upon Him with trust, receive His mercy and let it flow through us to others. This message of divine mercy was somewhat stalled in getting to the world until John Paul II was elected as pope in 1978. He canonized Sr. Faustina (making her Saint Faustina), and established Divine Mercy Sunday as a feast day for the entire Church on the Second Sunday of Easter. When Pope John Paul II declared this, he remarked that “this is the happiest day of my life.” Saint John Paul II described Divine Mercy as the answer to the world’s problems and the key message of the third millennium. Ironically, Pope Francis has called for this year to be a Year of Mercy. I often wonder why this year in particular is the year of mercy. Next Sunday, April 3, we will celebrate Divine Mercy with a service at 1:30 p.m., followed by confessions. So, if you haven’t been able to go to confession yet this year, this will be an opportune time. The Divine Mercy message is one we can call to mind simply by remembering ABC:
A – Ask for His Mercy. God wants us to approach Him in prayer constantly, repenting of our sins and asking Him to pour His mercy out upon us and upon the whole world.
B – Be merciful. God wants us to receive His mercy and let it flow through us to others. He wants us to extend love and forgiveness to others just as He does to us.
C – Completely trust in Jesus. God wants us to know that the graces of His mercy are dependent upon our trust. The more we trust in Jesus, the more we will receive.
Happy Easter! May the Lord bless you abundantly with peace, hope and joy during this Easter week.
In Christ’s love,
Msgr. Jerry
Saint quote of the week:
“O Death, where is your sting? O Hell, where is your victory? Christ is risen, and you are overthrown. Christ is risen, and the demons are fallen. Christ is risen, and the angels rejoice. Christ is risen, and life reigns. Christ is risen, and not one dead remains in the grave. For Christ, being risen from the dead, is become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. To Him be glory and dominion unto ages of ages.”
St. John Chrysostom