Sunday, May 8 is Mother’s Day. As you are honoring your mothers, grandmothers, godmothers...etc., please remember our Blessed Mother in a special way as well. It is a good time to teach your children also, that as Catholics we honor Mary as our mother.

Today we celebrate new life! Our Lord is Risen! He has defeated the power of death… we do not fear! He has promised to send His Holy Spirit to us, to guide us in this new life. Alleluia!

We also celebrate new life in our community. At the Easter Vigil we welcomed nine new members into our family, five adults and four young. Their joy gives us new life and helps us celebrate our new life with them.

And so we have begun the holiest week of the year. We have walked all through Lent to Jerusalem with our Lord, and now we are within the city. This week will be an emotional week if we truly enter into it.

Thursday evening we will celebrate the Lord’s Supper with the apostles and then walk with our Lord to the Altar of Repose (Gethsemane where we wait and pray until 10 pm. Our Lord is then taken away!

Next weekend we begin the final part of our Journey to Jerusalem celebrating Passion (Palm) Sunday. There will be a couple of minor changes since COVID restrictions are no longer in place, so please watch the bulletin or website carefully.

By an apostolic tradition taking its origin from the very day of Christ’s resurrection, the Church celebrates the paschal mystery every eighth day, the day that is rightly called the Lord’s day. On Sunday the Christian faithful ought to gather together, so that by listening to the word of God and sharing in the Eucharist they may recall the passion, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus and give thanks to God who has given them a new birth with a lively hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

In the liturgy on earth we are given a foretaste and share in the liturgy of heaven, celebrated in the holy city of Jerusalem, the goal of our pilgrimage, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God, as minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle. With the whole company of heaven we sing a hymn of praise to the Lord; as we reverence the memory of the saints, we hope to have some part with them, and to share in their fellowship; we wait for the Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, until he, who is our life, appears, and we appear with him in glory.

from the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy of the Second Vatican Council

Indeed, in this great work which gives effect glory to God and brings holiness to men, Christ is always joining in partnership with himself his beloved Bride, the Church, which calls upon its Lord and through him gives worship to the eternal Father. It is therefore right to see the liturgy as an exercise of the priestly office of Jesus Christ, in which through signs addressed to the senses man’s sanctification is signifies and, in a way proper to each of these signs, made effective, and in which public worship is celebrated in its fullness by the mystical body Jesus Christ, that is, by the head and by his members.

from the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy of the Second Vatican Council

Christ is always present in his Church, especially in the actions of the liturgy. He is present in the sacrifice of the Mass, in the person of the minister (it is the same Christ who formerly offered himself on the cross that now offers by the ministry of priests) and most of all under the Eucharistic species. He is present in the sacraments by his power, in such a way that when someone baptizes, Christ himself baptizes.

This Wednesday, March 2nd, is Ash Wednesday and the beginning of the season of Lent. This is a special time in our Church, especially in these difficult days. It is a time for profound repentance and a turning back to God, for ourselves and for our Church. We as individuals and as a Church must repent and turn more wholeheartedly to God as we prepare for Easter and for eventual eternal life with God.

I met with our Finance Council last week, of course, there was good news and bad news. Such is life during a pandemic! At, our next quarterly meeting we will be looking at next year’s budget. Remember our fiscal year is July 1 - June 30.

A concern we saw involves our E-Giving Program. We have lost some electronic givers and not gained them back with new people. Electronic giving is a win-win for us all. It very much helps us with budgeting for next year and it helps you plan your budgeting as well. It also means you do not need to remember envelopes when coming to Mass...and sending the envelopes costs us money. You see: win-win!