Where did the time go? It’s amazing that as you are reading this, we have just begun Holy Week with the celebration of Palm Sunday. It feels like Ash Wednesday was just a few days ago. It is my prayer and hope that the past five weeks of Lent have provided us a wonderful opportunity to prepare our hearts and minds for the great feast of Easter. May our “desert experience” in this season of Lent has allowed us to focus on those things that are truly essential in our Christian discipleship just like in the desert where choices are pretty clear cut. Lent is a time to pause, to reevaluate significant relationships just as Christ came to this world to restore the broken relationship between God and humanity marred by sin. Are there relationships in our lives right now that need to be resurrected or revived so that we can enter into the true spirit of Easter?
I also want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who were involved in the activities that happened last week. Our Knights were really busy with their back-to-back
sponsored activities. Kudos to the Knights of Columbus for a very successful fish fry dinner two Fridays ago. I was a little nervous when I saw the long line waiting for their turn to get food. I thought that there would not be enough fish for everyone. Some of them asked me if I could perform the “multiplication of the fish,” but I told them that I’m not in that league yet (ha ha!). But prayers did work; in the end, everybody had their fill except some of our Knights had to settle with a half fish instead of the usual two serving.
The Eucharistic Miracle exhibit was also well received – a whooping success! We had very good and steady traffic in the Activity Center after all the weekend Masses. Some have expressed how powerful and inspiring it is to have had the opportunity to have a cursory glance of most of the Vatican approved Eucharistic Miracles. It was especially
heartwarming and uplifting to see so many children and teens checking the different panels and reading the short summaries of each of the miracles. That alone for me made all the work worth it! To our hardworking and ever-dependable Knights, thanks so much for your dedication and unwavering love for our community!
The complete schedule for Holy Week can be found in this bulletin and also on our parish website. As we enter today into the holiest of all weeks, let us also slow down a little bit so that we can deliberately listen to the inner workings of the Spirit. I invite you to reflect and make as your own prayer the Collect for the Palm Sunday Mass:
Almighty ever-living God,
who as an example of humility for the human race to follow
caused our Savior to take flesh and submit to the Cross,
graciously grant that we may heed his lesson of patient suffering
and so merit a share in his Resurrection.
Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.