Hello Everyone,
This update comes to you in the midst of Holy Week. Final preparations are being made to livestream all of our Holy Week Masses and services. You will find links to each of them below.
This Holy Week is very different. Yet, it promises to offer us all the gifts and graces that God desires to shower upon us at this particular moment in time. Pope Francis often calls our Father “a God of surprises.” My advice is to allow God to surprise you this week. As we contemplate our Lord’s passion, death, and resurrection for us and our salvation, ask the Lord for what you truly need to make the Paschal Mystery a living reality in your life this year. It will be different, but it will be as meaningful and “surprising” in due proportion to the openness of your heart. So, open your heart wide!
When Pope Benedict was born on April 16, 1927, he too was a bit of a surprise to his parents. His birth took place on Holy Saturday that year and he was immediately baptized at the Easter Vigil, just hours later. Consequently, he has always had a “heart” for Holy Week and Easter. He gives us some really great words to lead us into the sacred mysteries that we celebrate this year:
“In our heart, in the heart of each of you, let there be always the joyous certainty that the Lord is near, that he does not abandon us, that he is near to us, and that he surrounds us with his love.”
My friends, the Lord Jesus truly is near to us at all times. And He is especially near to us in these times of trial and challenge. Draw close and enter deeply into the sacred days to come: Holy Thursday’s gift of the Eucharist, Good Friday’s proclamation of the Passion and the showing of the Lord’s cross, the Easter Vigil with the light of Christ dispelling the darkness of our fallen world, and Easter Sunday’s celebration of the Lord’s triumph over sin and death in His resurrection!
May the joy of the Risen Christ bless you and keep you in His love,
Fr. David Mulholland
