Happy Easter!- Father Kevin Louis's Bulletin Column - April 08, 2007
“The Lord has risen indeed!” (Luke 24:34) A happy and blessed Easter to you and your loved ones! May the Crucified and Risen Lord abundantly bless all of you!
Congratulations and welcome to those who were baptized at Saint Peter at the Easter Vigil this year – Mike, Krista, Ivy Cecilia, Cedric James, Owen Thomas, and Silas! Congratulations, too, to those received into the full communion of the Catholic faith – Paula, Heidi, Ryan, and Meredith – as well as to those who completed their initiation into the Catholic faith by the reception of Holy Communion and Confirmation: Nicole, Arturo, and Nancy. Please keep all of them in your prayers during this Easter Season!
Thank you to everyone who made our Holy Week celebrations so prayerful and beautiful at Saint Peter – those who cleaned the church, members of the Sacred Worship Committee, decorators including those who work with candles and flowers and altar coverings, custodians, sacristans, Haesi Fanizius and musicians, cantors, Darcy Bunn and members of our schola cantorum, lectors, extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion, altar servers, ushers, Father Sakowski, and each of you through your participation! May the special graces of these liturgies bring continued spiritual renewal to our parish family.
Thank you for your kindness and generosity to me personally during this Easter season. I am most grateful for the numerous cards, notes, and gifts that have been delivered to the rectory. I appreciate, too, your words of encouragement written in so many cards and the assurances of your prayers. Know that you and your loved ones are daily in my prayer.
Of course, for many families Easter is a time to come together in order to give praise and worship to God in prayer, to eat delicious food, and to simply share one another’s company. More than a decade ago, Servant of God Pope John Paul II noted that the family is at the service of charity and that charity is at the service of the family. Our late Holy Father wrote: “The family is the first and foremost place in which we come to appreciate and live the fraternal life, the life of charity and of solidarity, in all its many forms. In the family, we learn attentiveness, openness and respect for others, who must always be able to find their proper place. Life in common is also an invitation to a sharing which helps us to rise above our selfishness. In learning to share and to give, we discover the immense joy which comes from the communion of goods. With great tact, parents should strive by word and example to awaken a sense of solidarity in their children. From childhood, everyone is called to mortification and fasting in order to grow in character and self-discipline, overcoming the desire to possess everything for oneself alone. What we learn in the family stays with us throughout life” (Message for Lent 1994, 2).
A number of years ago I ran across this item from Monsignor Lucians: “I knelt to pray, but not for long, I had too much to do. Must hurry off and get to work, for bills would soon be due. And so I said a hurried prayer, jumped up from my knees. My Christian duty now was done. My soul could be at ease. All through the day I had not time to speak a word of Christ to friends. They’ll laugh at me I feared. No time, no time, too much to do. That was my constant cry. No time to give to those in need. At last ‘twas time to die. And when before the Lord I came, I stood with downcast eyes. Within His hand He held a book. It was the Book of Life. God looked into His Book and said ‘Your name I cannot find. I once was going to write it down, but never found the time.’”
Saint Peter, pray for us! Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us!