Dear Friends in Christ:
Christ is risen! He is truly risen! Alleluia!
What a truly wonderful Lent, Holy Week and Easter. I would be remiss if I did not say thank to everyone who assisted throughout Lent and Holy Week to make our journey so wonderful and special. To the volunteers, groups and of course our wonderful staff, thank you. Most people do not know the tremendous amounts of effort that it takes to do all the wonderful and special things that we do. From those volunteers providing deserts for the Lenten Dinners, and all of the servers at Tuna fish Fridays, Party on the Lot, to the liturgical ministers who set up and serve at the extra masses and liturgies and so much more! Thank you to everyone.
Of course, one of the greatest blessings of Easter are our newest Catholics. We had 32 women and men received into the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil and another 14 school-age children baptized this weekend. Truly, a great blessing for our parish community and the whole Church. We pray that these new Catholics and their families will always stay close to the Lord and faithful to the Church and know God’s love for them. If you or someone you know would like to become Catholic, return to the practice of the faith, have their marriage blessed or their child baptized, please call us.
As wonderful as everything was, and it truly was wonderful, there were a couple of things that we need to examine and address. One issue is traffic and parking. On holidays, parking and traffic are always a challenge, especially given the increased number of cars and our rather tight schedule. We cannot really change the schedule due to the number of masses that we must have to accommodate all of our parishioners. Surprisingly, there was not a lack of parking spaces. We actually had empty parking spaces available on Easter Sunday morning even at the most crowded masses. The problem was traffic “control”. We need more people directing traffic and directing people where to park. The parish Business Office will be working on how best to address parking and traffic control, not just on holy days but throughout the year. The last few years since COVID, traffic was not such a huge problem. Now it looks like we need to work to improve the situation. All things considered; it is a good problem to have!
We continue to celebrate our Easter joy during this holy Paschal season. In the weeks ahead, we will joyfully celebrate the reception of our Lord’s Most Holy Body and Blood in the First Holy Communion of our children. We will rejoice in the gifts of the Holy Spirit bestowed in the Sacrament of Confirmation for adults and youth. We will then celebrate the wonderful Feast of Pentecost followed by the wonderful Solemnity of Corpus Christi and the Eucharistic Procession. In the mix, we will also have weddings and graduations and the wonderful month of May dedicated to our Blessed Mother. All in all, this is a wonderful and grace-filled time of year. Our parish and our hearts are filled with signs of life and new life. Easter reminds us of the new life that is ours in Jesus. By His glorious resurrection,
Jesus conquers sin and death not only so that we can live in newness of life with him but so that we may share in His joy and that our joy may be complete (Jn 15:11).
Christ is risen! He is truly risen! Alleluia!
In Pace Christi,
Fr. Troy