Dear friends,
What a privilege for us to remember and celebrate our mothers. Your participation in the Mother’s Day prayer remembrance was overwhelming. I’d like to thank our Art and Environment Committee members for their thoughtful preparations in honoring our mothers. I can’t wait to see how our DADS will fare!
The month of May is dedicated to Mother Mary. Please pray the Rosary at home; it is never too late to start and is a beautiful family devotion. Our Mother has repeatedly requested our participation in praying the Rosary for world peace and the repentance of sinners. Remember Fr. Patrick Peyton, C.S.C., who popularized the phrase, “The family that prays together stays together!”
What a blessing to see so many of our parishioners returning to worship with us. I would continue to ask that you please continue to keep India in your prayers. The Covid situation there is out of control with so many dying on a daily basis. The people are under tremendous stress and strain.
A very special word of thanks for all the prayers, warm wishes, and numerous gifts offered for the occasion of my Ordination Anniversary. Your gifts are being used to help the people in India, as always, but now more than ever. Thank you for your kind assistance and continued prayers for those who are suffering.
This weekend, we celebrate the Feast of The Ascension of Our Lord. Just before he ascends into heaven, Jesus assures the Apostles that “ … you will receive power when the holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth,” a task that is needed still today and for all generations to come, namely to communicate and spread the Good News of God’s saving grace as revealed to us by Jesus Christ and through the powerful presence of the Holy Spirit. The task of communicating the Good News is ours. Are our lives rooted in the pursuit of bringing hope to the people around us? Do our lives communicate God’s mercy and love unambiguously?
The weekdays after the Ascension and until Pentecost are a time of preparation for the coming of the Holy Spirit. It is the time of the year when we chant or pray, Come Holy Spirit, … (Veni, Creator Spiritus).
Have a blessed week!
With love,
Fr. John