Dear Parishioners:
"This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad," the Psalmist sings on Easter Sunday. And indeed, in this Easter Season, we continue "to rejoice and be glad!" For there is much good news of great rejoicing at OLM.
At the Easter Vigil, we celebrated the Light of Christ, defeating the darkness of sin and death. We rejoiced in the waters of new life as five people were baptized and received into the Church. And so we rightly rejoice with and for them, as they enter the Church and take up the Catholic Faith. Please pray that their Faith grows and bears fruit as they celebrate their rebirth in Christ this Easter Season.
We rejoice, too, at our celebration of Holy Week. It was a solemn celebration of Faith as we recalled our Lord and Savior's Passion, Death, and Resurrection. Of course, such glorious liturgical celebrations require many people's hard work and dedication. We rightly thank all those who helped to prepare and make Holy Week and Easter so special at OLM.
We thank Paul Anderson and our dedicated maintenance crew for their tireless cleaning, preparing, setting up, and taking down everything involved in Holy Week. The Church and grounds were cleaned and ready to properly celebrate the mysteries of our Faith.
We also thank our good Franciscan Sisters, led by Sister Lourdes and her band of sacristans. Their humble devotion and faithful dedication to ensuring everything is pressed, polished, cleaned, and ready for Holy Week Liturgies deserve our deep gratitude. The decorators deserve our praise and thanks for making the Church beautiful for all the liturgies. Their hard work and devotion result in the beauty of Easter with all the flowers and plants that decorate our Church. We thank them for all they do.
The music for Holy Week, Easter, and all of Lent was magnificent. We must thank our Music Director, Henri St. Louis, our soloist, Christiana Caprarelli, and our OLM Choir for the beautiful music that always lifts us to God. As St. Augustine said: "When we sing, we pray twice!" All these talented people helped us pray twice, and we are grateful.
We thank all our Lectors for joyfully proclaiming God's Word and our Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion for helping us with the large crowds at Easter Masses. We are grateful to those Ministers who brought Communion to our many shut-ins. Our ushers did a superb job ensuring everyone could find a seat, as the crowds on Easter Sunday were thankfully very large!
And finally, we thank our many OLM Altar Servers for their exemplary service. They dutifully and reverently served God at his Sacred Altar with great devotion and dedication. We must also thank our Master of Ceremonies, Erik Carlson, Seminarian David Del Bonis, and Luke Simms, who returned from university, for their faithful service during Holy Week and Easter.
On behalf of Father Mahoney, Father Connors, and myself, we thank you, OLM's good and faithful parishioners, for your steadfast devotion during Lent and Holy Week. Your witness to the Faith is truly heartening and encouraging. We also thank the many parishioners who were so generous to us at Easter. Your well wishes, gifts, and delicious goodies are deeply appreciated, and we thank you. Your support of our priestly ministry calls us to "rejoice and be glad!"
In an Easter op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, "Why Pews Are Packed on Easter Sunday," Timothy Cardinal Dolan, the Archbishop of New York, wrote:
"As in a gathering of kin, congregating with one's spiritual family—people with whom one has a deep instant connection—is liberating and fulfilling. There are very few social gatherings where ordinary people can enter and not sense critical eyes sizing them up, assessing their status, and guessing their motives. There are even fewer where every participant sings, recites creeds, and listens to ancient wisdom in a spirit of humility and love. At its best, Christian worship is such a setting. And when Christians worship at their best, their wandering brothers and sisters tend to come home."
We worshiped and prayed at our best during this Holy Week at OLM, so we rightly rejoice and are glad. Blessings for a Happy Easter Season! Be well. Do good. God Bless.