DIVINE MERCY SUNDAY
Happy Easter! As we bring the Octave of Easter to its conclusion, know that I have kept you in my prayers all week, that you may experience the joy of the Resurrection! Today is also Divine Mercy Sunday. Heeding the call that our risen Lord gave to St. Marie Faustina Kowalska in the 1930’s, the Church decreed on 23 May 2000 that “throughout the world, the Second Sunday of Easter will receive the name Divine Mercy Sunday, a perennial invitation to the Christian world to face, with confidence in divine [...]
SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER – DIVINE MERCY SUNDAY (Year A)
John 20:19 - 31 Welcome to my annotated commentary of Sunday’s readings. The purpose of my commentary is to give you the background for each reading, a little better understanding of its message and the message that all of the Sunday readings provide us. In this Sunday’s Gospel passage, we hear the presentation of two of the risen Lord’s appearances to the apostles, first on Easter Sunday and then on the next Sunday. These appearances to the disciples have parallels in Mark 16:14-18, Luke 24:36-43 and 1 Corinthians 15:3 [...]
EASTER GREETINGS
Alleluia! Our Lord is risen and offers us new life! We certainly need to hear this message this year as we find ourselves surrounded by suffering and death. The Paschal mystery proclaims that Jesus, truly man - the son of Mary - really died on the cross and then overcame death as he rose on Easter. The resurrection of the body, the central mystery of Easter, is an essential Christian doctrine. As the apostle Paul declares so clearly: “[I]f the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. If Christ [...]
How the Virus Stole Easter
By Kristi B (with a nod to Dr. Seuss) ‘Twas late in ‘19 when the virus began, Bringing chaos and fear to all people, each land. People were sick, hospitals full, Doctors overwhelmed, no one in school. As winter gave way to the promise of spring, The virus raged on, touching peasant and king.
PALM SUNDAY OF THE LORD’S PASSION (Year A)
We begin on Sunday the week that we appropriately call Holy Week, when our Lord Jesus, the Holy Son of God, comes to Jerusalem where he is first hailed as the Son of David, and the Prophet and then is tried as a criminal in a sham trial orchestrated by the Jewish leaders, only to be scourged and crucified. For the Jewish leaders of his time, it was just to get rid of a trouble maker. But, as I hope you have come to learn, this was all part of [...]