Dear Parishioners:
"Alleluia! The Lord is Risen! Alleluia, He has Risen Indeed!" This is the great truth that fills our faith with meaning. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who died on the cross, has risen. He has triumphed over sin and death and has overcome sorrow, anguish, and the power of darkness! After the event of Easter and the Resurrection of our Lord, nothing remains the same! We celebrated the truth of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ with great joy, hope, and faith at OLM.
The Sacred Triduum of Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday were the highlight of our liturgical year. Easter Sunday was a joyous and faith-filled day for our parish family! We thank the many volunteers and OLM Staff who make all the beauty, reverence, prayer, devotion, and solemnity of Holy Week possible at OLM.
Our OLM Maintenance Staff worked hard to clean, set up, and prepare for the celebrations. We owe them each our thanks. Once again, the OLM Decorating Committee did an outstanding job making OLM the most beautifully decorated Church in the Ocean State. We offer them our heartfelt thanks!
We also thank our good Franciscan Apostolic Sisters and their helpers who work so hard behind the scenes readying all the vestments and sacred vessels. They ensure everything is ready, clean, polished, ironed, and ready for Holy Week and Easter.
Of course, we must thank our truly superb Altar Servers under the direction of our Senior Master of Ceremonies, Erik Carlson, who did a tremendous job serving the ceremonies of Holy Week. They were reverent and dutiful, ensuring the Sacred Liturgy was celebrated with great solemnity. They are outstanding, and we are grateful for their service to God and our parish.
We thank Henri St. Louis, the OLM Choir, and the guest musicians for their magnificent gift of sacred music. The music for Holy Week and Easter was uplifting and raised our worship and praise of God to great heights. I thank them for their great work providing such majestic and beautiful music.
We thank the great work of our Lectors in proclaiming the Word of God and our Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion for reverently distributing Communion to such large crowds. We offer thanks to our dutiful Ushers who do such great work with hospitality and keeping good order during Mass.
And I also offer my deep gratitude to Fr. Mahoney, our Associate Pastor. He worked tremendously hard in making Holy Week truly meaningful for our parish. Seeing him celebrate his first Easter Vigil as a priest was a great joy. He is an outstanding priest full of zeal and holiness, and I am grateful for his presence here at OLM.
However, we must express all our gratitude to the one who truly deserves our thanks and praise, Almighty God! God is the great giver of all that is beautiful, true, and joyful. Thus, we thank Him for the many blessings we received during Holy Week and the Easter Season! St. Ignatius of Loyal reminds us: " "All for the greater glory of God!"
Thousands across the globe entered the Catholic Church and received the Sacraments of Initiation on Easter. At OLM, we continue to rejoice with the three adults fully initiated into the Catholic Faith at the Easter Vigil. And also with our youngest new Catholic, a beautiful baby girl baptized on Easter Sunday. We welcome them and pledge our promise to continue to pray for them. With them, we echo the words of St. Ignatius of Antioch: "I wish not merely to be called Christian but also to be Christian."
Easter is just beginning and is a season of fifty days, so we continue to celebrate the Resurrection of the Lord. Let us continue to live our faith with joy and fidelity as we celebrate Easter every Sunday at Holy Mass. St. John Paul II said: "Sunday recalls the day of Christ's Resurrection. It is Easter which returns week by week, celebrating Christ's victory over sin and death, the fulfillment in him of the first creation and the dawn of 'the new creation.'"
I am away this week to visit my sisters, who have been enjoying the winter in Florida this year. Fr. Mahoney is away this week from Wednesday until Saturday on the OLM 8th Grade Graduation Trip to Washington, DC! We thank Bishop Evans for covering Masses during our absences! Be well. Do good. A joyous Easter Season!