Happy Easter! Yes, I realize that Easter Sunday was last week and I hope you had a wonderful Easter, even under these unusual and stressful circumstances.  But, since the Resurrection of our Lord is such an important event, the Church calls us to celebrate it for an entire octave and today we come to the end of those eight days.  Just as cinematographers slow down the action of a particularly important moment of a movie or television show to give the viewer time to catch every detail of the event, […]

Christ is risen! Halleluiah!  These are the victorious words we shout and sing with gusto on this greatest of all feast days.  Halleluiah is the “h” word I mentioned in my homily last Sunday, when we were focused on another “h” word – Hosanna.  As you will recall from last week, “Hosanna” means “God save us.”  It is a cry for help.  That’s how we started off Holy Week – praying to God to save us, knowing that he, alone, can save us.  But this morning we can shout out […]

“Hallelujah!”  We’ve already sung it several times and now I can say it: Hallelujah!  It was that “h” word I referred to last Sunday when another “h” word – “Hosanna” – was the word of the day.  “Hosanna”, you will recall, is a cry for help; it means “God save us.”  That’s how we started off Holy Week – praying to God to save us, knowing that he, alone can save us.  But this evening we can shout out “Hallelujah!” which means “Praise God!”  We can, indeed, praise God because […]