Fr. Greg

Happy Easter! This Sunday is the eighth day of the Octave of Easter, so it is still considered Easter Day itself. So keep celebrating. This Sunday is also known as Divine Mercy Sunday.

This Sunday, April 11th is Divine Mercy Sunday. In a series of revelations to St. Maria Faustina Kowalska in the 1930s, our Lord called for a special feast day to be celebrated on the Sunday after Easter. Today, we know that feast as Divine Mercy Sunday, named by Saint Pope John Paul II at the canonization of St. Faustina on April 30, 2000.

Christ is risen…He is risen indeed!

Do you know the "Paschal Greeting”? It is what I wrote above where we greet people on Easter with “Christ is risen,” and they respond with “He is risen indeed!” This is a tradition in almost all of Christendom, especially in the Eastern Churches, but this is certainly also a tradition in the Latin Church. This is a good tradition for us to keep, because it is our greatest truth!

St. Paul wrote, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain; you are still in your sins.“ (1 Corinthians 15:17)

We enter into a sacred time this week. Palm Sunday has the full name of “Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord.” What I find most powerful about Palm Sunday is not the blessing of palms to take home, which is certainly nice, but the long reading the gospel of the Passion of Jesus. That is what this week  is  about—what  Jesus  has  done  for  us  in  his  last supper,  agony  in  the  garden,  crucifixion  and death!

I invite you to come to the Sacrament of Reconciliation for Lent. This is the last week of Lent before Holy Week so you can’t procrastinate any more if you want to go to confession before the Sacred Triduum and Easter. We have lots of options this week, eight days straight of confession times:

This upcoming Friday, March 19th is the Solemnity of St. Joseph. It is the highest rank of feasts every year, and in the universal Church normally a holy day of obligation (but not in United States). In addition, this is the Year of St. Joseph. So, we had better celebrate the day! It falls on a Friday of Lent, so it triggers a special treat—the requirement for abstinence from meat is lifted. No fasting on a feast day of highest rank!

Is it time for Spring cleaning? According to Wikipedia, “During the 19th century in America, prior to the advent of the vacuum cleaner, March was often the best time for dusting because it was getting warm enough to open windows and doors (but not warm enough for insects to be a problem), and the high winds could carry the dust out of the house.” Sounds about right to me. I’m eager for Spring to come. The first day of Spring is Saturday, March 20th. But next weekend, Sunday, March 14th, Daylight Savings Time begins—and I’m particularly excited about having more evening light!

Setting the World on Fire:  

Setting the World on Fire: How Scripture applies to our world today  

“I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!”  (Luke 12:49, NAB)  

This will be a topical Bible study, so not one particular book, but instead jump around  with many different passages from different books, but all related to topic studied.  

Topics:  
Division & Unity  
Enemies & (Non)Violence  
Apocolypticism  
Conspiracies & Trust  
Fear, Anxiety, Response  
More?  

Happy cold Saint Valentine’s Day! My hope and prayer for this Valentine’s Day is to get the third degree. Normally, “getting the third degree” is an idiom meaning “to be interrogated, scrutinized, or questioned intensely or thoroughly by someone.” I don’t want that. But I do want our temperature to at least crack 3 degrees today. And people wonder why I don’t like February.

I am not a fan of February to tell you the truth. I find it cold, dark, rather boring, and I’m impatient for Spring to begin. However, this February, I admit, is kind of exciting. This Sunday the KC Chiefs play in the Super Bowl again. But even more importantly, this month is pretty much the Super Bowl of great faith opportunities, especially retreats, as well.