A Letter from Fr. Paul, Easter Sunday, April 4th

Happy Easter!  May our celebration of the gift of our salvation inspire us to share the Good News with others!
 
I would be commenting on Holy Week, but that will have to wait until the next bulletin, since this letter is due the Friday BEFORE Holy Week!  I thank those who took the opportunity to celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation at our service on March 23rd.
 
Please note the information on “Living the Gift of Sunday,” which you can find in the April newsletter (which should have arrived this past week) and on our website.  I hope you can take advantage of this 10-week reflection opportunity, as individuals and especially as families.
 
The basic message to us as we celebrate Easter is that after suffering and death comes resurrection, a gift that Jesus bought for us with His life.
 
What we have celebrated the past four days mirrors the cycle of life:  in the fall flowers die, leaves fall from the trees, and seemingly death settles in and stays through winter.  However, with spring comes resurrection and we rejoice as the trees begin to grow leaves and the first flowers emerge from the dormant earth.  What does that say to us about what we have lived through this past year?
 
Perhaps because I have always been interacting with people and continuing many of my normal duties (even when my local community was quarantined with Covid, the five of us prayed and ate together and I continued my ministry from home), the pandemic has not weighed heavily on me.  However, my pastoral ministry has made me realize that, for many people, it has been a long winter that followed the closing down of activities a year ago.
 
Where are we in the pandemic?  February?  March?  April? How close are we to spring?  We don’t know.  But we DO know that spring and the resurrection will come:  Jesus has promised!  Spring and summer might not look exactly as they did before, but we can make sure that they are better by our attitude.
 
If we have been looking at the past and pining for it, I invite us to use Easter to turn our minds away from missing the past to the future and how we can make it better than any past.  What have I learned during this past year?  What is REALLY important and what should my priorities be? How can I make the new “normal,” whatever it will be, better than the past? 
 
With a positive attitude and resolve, we can do it.  It doesn’t help to pine for the past; we need to use what we learned this past year to make the future better!  I invite us to reflect on this as we celebrate the great feast of the Resurrection.  God bless.
 
Church sign of the week: If excuses came to church, the pews would be full.