Happy Easter!! May the Resurrection fill your hearts with hope and joy!
The world can look at the negative or short term, but God has our long term/eternal good in mind with all that He does for us. Holy Week reveals humanity’s weakness and need for a Savior. Easter reveals to us the Savior that took on our weakness and defeats sin and death to offer us redemption and eternal life. Our God is so good to us. We need the Easter octave to allow that goodness, those blessings to fill our hearts. The Easter octave concludes with Divine Mercy Sunday.
Divine Mercy Sunday is a way of allowing the graces won for us on the Cross to intentionally enter our hearts. We are not perfect and need mercy. Jesus freely offers us that yet like any gift we have to accept it. So the celebration of this feast opens our hearts to that mercy God so generously offers to us. I encourage you to be a part of the celebration at Sacred Heart parish in Polonia. I will be there as one of the confessors for the afternoon.
Also beginning on April 6th will be my pastoral care and administration of St. Adalbert and St. Mary’s parishes. Fr. Thomas Nirappel is returning to India at this time because his visa has run out. Pray for his safe trip home. As the Dean, a parish that does not have a pastor is entrusted to the Dean’s pastoral care. So you will note in the bulletin the Missa pro populo (for the families) will now add St. Adalbert and St. Mary until a new pastor is named. In July a new pastor will be appointed. The weekend Masses have been covered thanks to the generous help of the senior priests in our area. Other sacramental celebrations will be worked out among local clergy. It does mean that there will be some administrative duties that I will be picking up and aspects of parish life that I will be supervising.
This brings to mind the need to pray for priestly vocations for our diocese and from our parishes. Perhaps we take for granted the fact that priests come from families and families also need prayers. There are many circumstances that impact families and it can be hard to ask for help or admit the need for help. So in this season of hope and new life, pray that these gifts enter family life and refresh all those who are overwhelmed by life. May the resurrection touch all of our hearts with Jesus’ new life.