Hey Father Gary!

We continue to celebrate the Easter season and proclaim with great joy and enthusiasm that Jesus is Risen, Alleluia! At the beginning of our Sunday Masses we have the Rite of Sprinkling with the Easter Water. This sprinkling rite is an opportunity to give thanks for the graces and blessings of our baptismal vocation. Everyday we should give thanks that our lives have been united with Jesus through the waters of eternal life, the waters of baptism. We should pray in thanksgiving for those who brought us to the living water of baptism: our parents, grandparents, guardians, godparents and sponsors. On that day we were enlightened by Christ, clothed with the garment of salvation and anointed priest, prophet and a member of God’s royal people. Baptism confirms our identity and affirms our dignity as a son and daughter of God.

Today we have the Parish Picnic. It begins after the 1130 Mass. Everyone welcome! We are holding it on the front field. Great food and great fun with great people! No charge. We give thanks for this community of faith, may we continue to love, affirm and support each other. See you on one of the slides!!

The children of our school will be leading us in Word and Song at the 1130 Mass. One of the treasures of this community is our school. As I have said before, don’t keep it a secret. Tell the whole world how blessed we are to have the gift of a great Catholic school on our own doorstep. The school is open for tours after the 1130 Mass. If today is not convenient for you to visit the school please call the office for a tour: 733 3776 or 733 3496. The foundation stones of our school are faith and family. If you would like your child to receive a Catholic education but are concerned about the cost, tuition assistance is available. Please call the office before you dismiss the idea of a Catholic education for your child based on cost. Help is available.

The children who will be receiving first Holy Communion during May will be officially presented at the 1130 Mass today. Over the last few weeks and months they have been preparing for this special day. We know how important the gift of Jesus is. The greatest gift you can share with another person is yourself. Our God, yes, our God, shares his life with us in this very humble way. Our God is humble. We need to be nourished and strengthened by Jesus in Word and Sacrament. We need the food of everlasting life. We need Jesus. Hopefully we have fond memories of our own first communion. Hopefully we do not take this life transforming gift for granted. It saddens me to see people coming to communion chewing gum or leaving Mass early still chewing on the host. Such behavior shows a lack of reverence and love for the presence of Christ. If we want our children to have a profound respect for the real presence of Jesus then we must lead by example. Please remember, for at least fifteen minutes after we have received communion we are ‘living tabernacles’. As we watch the children receive Holy Communion for the first time may they rekindle in us a deeper love and reverence for Christ in the Eucharist.

Once again, I would like to thank all those who made Holy Week and Easter Day so very special. I have received a number of letters stating how Spirit filled the Triduum was. As one lady said, I have known the story all my life but this was the first time I actually experienced it. In today’s gospel, the two disciples are reminded of ‘the story’ by Jesus and then experience his presence in the breaking of bread.

- Fr. Gary Dowsey

Jesus is Risen, He is Risen indeed, Alleluia!

May the peace and joy of Easter flood your hearts and minds. How blessed we are to know, love and follow Jesus Christ. Through his death and resurrection new life is born, eternal life.

I would like to thank everyone who worked so hard to make the Holy Week and Easter services so special. We welcome those who were baptized, fully initiated or received into full communion with the Church at the Easter Vigil. Your journey has inspired us. May we never be afraid to share our faith with others. Only Jesus offers the message of eternal life.

Father Tim and I wish you all the joys and blessings of the Easter season. It is a joy and privilege to be your priests. Celebrate and give thanks, this is the day the Lord has made, Alleluia!

Reflection on Easter by Cardinal Basil Hume OSB:

“In the risen Christ death has lost its hold over mankind. Death is not for us the end of the story. It is the beginning of a new chapter. There is life after death. It is life with God. The purpose of our present life is to prepare for that.

Easter is not only concerned with life after death. It has much to say about life here on earth. Life matters. Human life is both of the body and of the spirit; in our present state each depends on the other. Life depends on love. Life gives love its real meaning and its purpose. Our Easter faith assures us that life will overcome death and love will triumph over hatred.

Easter does not take suffering away from us, nor does it save us from physical death. But suffering and death are now different, because Christ suffered and died. Indeed, before Christ rose from the dead there was only despair at the center of pain. Now, and because of Christ, there is hope. When we know pain or depression, when we feel abandoned, or when we are dying, we remember that Christ had the same experiences. Our sufferings bring us closer to Christ and closer to God.

Easter challenges us each year. Do we believe that Christ rose from the dead? Belief in the resurrection is the bedrock of Christianity. It is at the heart of the Easter message.” - Fr. Gary Dowsey

Today we begin Holy Week. We commemorate Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. “For five weeks of Lent we have been preparing, by works of charity and self sacrifice, for the celebration of our Lord’s paschal mystery. Today we come together to begin this solemn celebration in union with the whole Church throughout the world. Christ entered in triumph into his own city, to complete his work as our Messiah: to suffer, to die and to rise again. Let us remember with devotion this entry which began his saving work and follow him with a lively faith. United with him in his suffering on the cross, may we share his resurrection and new life.”

Lent ends on Thursday evening. We move without stopping for breath into the three days that are for us the heart and soul of the entire year. The Church calls them a “Triduum”, just the Latin for “three days”. One day flows into the next as a continuous act of prayer and praise to God. I encourage you to make this journey with Christ and to put aside all other engagements and events. The liturgies are beautiful, come and experience the depth of God’s love for you.

On Thursday evening we do something different, we wash feet. This is what Jesus did on the night before he died for us, as he sat at table with his apostles. Jesus gave us this image of what the Church is supposed to look like, feel like, and act like. This is rehearsal for Christian life. Behind this act lies the true meaning of the Eucharist, the full implication of breaking bread and pouring wine. It’s all about service, loving one another as Christ loves us. The true meaning behind this commandment is uncovered on Calvary. At the end of Mass we process with the Blessed Sacrament to the Conmy Center. When Jesus left the supper table he went to the Garden of Gethsemane to watch and pray. We are invited to follow him. There will be watching until midnight, with night prayer at 1145pm.

On Friday we gather quietly at 3 or 7pm. We listen to scripture and pray for the world’s needs. Then there is another once a year event: the cross is held up in our midst and we come forward one by one to do reverence with a kiss or a bow or a genuflection. We glory in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ! We bring to the cross all the suffering and death that takes place daily in our world and ask Jesus to continue to redeem it and give us hope. The tree of defeat has become the tree of life! Come to the Cross on Friday.

On Saturday at 8pm we will gather for the most important liturgy of the Church’s year: the Easter Vigil. The Church gathers in the darkness and lights a new fire and a great candle that will make this night bright for us. We listen to some of the most powerful scriptures in the Bible; we ask the prayers and intercession of all the saints as we go to the font for the blessing of the baptismal water. We will have an adult baptism, confirmations and receptions into full communion with the Church. This is a night to celebrate and rejoice as we welcome new members into the Catholic Church. This is the night when death and life meet, when we reject evil and place our faith and trust in a loving God. Together we go to the altar table and celebrate the Easter Eucharist. Easter Sunday begins and we are ready for Fifty Days of rejoicing.

Please enter into this most holy week. Invite family and friends to journey with you. We come together to celebrate the depth of God’s love for us. This love is revealed so perfectly and intimately in our Savior, Jesus Christ. O come let us adore Him!

- Fr. Gary Dowsey