Pastor’s Letter & April 11 Bulletin

Pastor’s Letter & April 11 Bulletin

9 Apr 2021 | Posted by: chadmin

The April 11 bulletin is available online. 

Dear friend,

The 2^nd Sunday of Easter is known as Divine Mercy Sunday. In the early 1900s, Jesus appeared to a Polish woman named Sister Faustina. Jesus entrusted to her an image and a chaplet that called on His Divine Mercy. The Divine Mercy Image hangs in the vestibule of our church. It is a reminder to truth in His Mercy and believe in His Divine assistance. The following is a quote from the Diary of St. Faustina.

“I am giving you three ways of exercising mercy toward your neighbor: the first — by deed, the second — by word, the third — by prayer. In these three degrees is contained the fullness of mercy, and it is an unquestionable proof of love for Me. By this means a soul glorifies and pays reverence to My mercy.  Many souls … are often worried because they do not have the material means with which to carry out an act of mercy. Yet spiritual mercy, which requires neither permissions nor storehouses, is much more meritorious and is within the grasp of every soul.  If a soul does not exercise mercy somehow or other, it will not obtain My mercy on the day of judgment. Oh, if only souls knew how to gather eternal treasure for themselves, they would not be judged, for they would forestall My judgment with their mercy” (1317).

We will have a Divine Mercy hour of prayer at 3pm on Sunday, April 11, 2021. Please join us for Adoration of the Eucharist, the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, and the opportunity to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

On Easter Sunday, the second season of the video series “The Chosen” launched a new episode. If you haven’t seen or heard about “The Chosen” it is worth your time. You can watch the videos on their website or on an app: https://watch.angelstudios.com/thechosen  Essentially the series seeks to bring the Gospels and the life of Christ into life. Whenever anyone produces videos about the Gospels, some artistic liberty is needed. The Gospels don’t fill in all the normal, ordinary situations of daily life. Often times the creative liberties used in shows about Jesus can lead people to untruths. From what I have personally seen, “The Chosen” series does a phenomenal job of adding human emotion and ordinary human relational experiences to the world that Christ engaged. While this is not a Church-sanctioned project, meaning it doesn’t carry the weight of Scripture or Church teaching, the videos are inspiring, thought provoking, and challenging to one’s faith. If you have some free time and are looking for some spiritual growth, “The Chosen” series offers an opportunity to envision the Gospel story in a fresh way.

We pushed out a social media post and email this past week about coronavirus vaccine opportunities. More opportunities open up locally all the time. I know that many of us received great relief after being fully vaccinated. I am hopeful that this process provides a benefit to our society and enables us to get back to many aspects of life we love so much. I was personally relieved after being fully vaccinated as I felt less of a risk to the many people I see on a regular basis. While I wasn’t too concerned about receiving the virus personally, I was very concerned about giving it to others. Prayerfully this risk is next to zero now. As more information comes available for vaccine opportunities, we will communicate them to the parish.

God bless,

Father David