Dear Brothers and Sisters of St. Andrew the Apostle,
Happy Easter! The Church in her wisdom has an Easter Octave so that we can celebrate the day of the Lord's Resurrection for eight days, beginning with Easter and ending this Sunday. This weekend's Sunday Masses, the Second Sunday of Easter, were designated as Divine Mercy Sunday by Pope St. John Paul II in honor of the Lord's immense mercy following the Lord's revelations in the visions of St. Faustina Kowalska.
To better celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday, we will have a Holy Hour this Sunday from 3:00 PM to 4:00 PM led by Fr. Bresnahan with a reflection on Divine Mercy and the prayer of the Divine Mercy Chaplet. I will be hearing Confessions beginning at 3:00 PM and continuing until 4:00 PM. This is a fitting way to celebrate and participate in the infinite mercy of God that we can all experience through the sacrament of Reconciliation. Our Lord desires to heal us and set us free in the Confessional. May we be a community that partakes of God's mercy regularly for the benefit of our souls and for the health of our parish!
The Knights of Columbus Council 10947 held a 40 Cans for Lent food drive for the St. Lucy Project in Manassas. St. Lucy is a food bank for those in need operated by Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Arlington. I am proud to announce that St. Andrew's donated 2449 pounds of canned goods as well as $520 for St. Lucy's! Thank you to all who donated and congratulations to the Knights for running such a successful program to help feed those who hunger.
I continue to be amazed and grateful at the generosity of our parish. We also ended our collection of donations for the Seminarian Education Endowment Fund (SEEF) to be made in honor of Fr Jerome Fasano for all of his years of priestly service and promoting vocations to the priesthood. Our total was $22,000. I will send a note to Fr. Fasano with the names of the individuals and families that donated in his name and with the assurance of our appreciation and our prayers. Thanks again to all who donated to help this worthy cause and to honor Fr. Fasano for his ministry, especially for his ten years as pastor of St. Andrew the Apostle.
Finally, I would be remiss if I did not mention that the lowly Baltimore Orioles opened the major league baseball season by sweeping three games from the Boston Red Sox. As you may remember, they were projected to have a 0% chance of reaching the postseason by a popular statistically oriented website. At the end of that three-game winning streak, they raised that percentage to 0.2%! Of course, they lost three of their next four to drop down to 0.1%, but still, it's better than (literally) nothing. The big story for the Orioles this year is that their best player, Trey Mancini, missed last season after he was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer in Spring Training. After surgery and chemotherapy, he fought his way back to play this opening day, and has been welcomed back with great fanfare and appreciation. As a name like Trey Mancini suggests, his family is from Italy and he was raised Catholic. He even went to Notre Dame.
To see an athlete fight through such trials to return to play again helps us to put into perspective how we should be preparing for the heavenly kingdom. Trey Mancini is an inspiration to many because of his perseverance, as he should be. Many people will imitate his fighting spirit in their battles to return from cancer and other grave diseases and illnesses. However, our battle against the world, the flesh, and the devil is for a much greater prize: eternal life with the angels and saints. May we, too, have the same determination in our effort to achieve the heavenly kingdom, and may our faith, hope, and love be an inspiration to our families and those God has placed into our lives, that we may lead others to holiness and help them attain eternal life, through the grace of God. Let us pray for each other each day as we discipline ourselves and persevere in the spiritual life so as to gain the promises God offers to his faithful.
Know of my prayers, and please pray for me as well.
In Christ,
Fr. Wagner
