News - April 2025 RSS Feed

Dear Parishioners, On this Second Sunday of Easter, the Gospel tells of what happened on the evening of the Resurrection day when Jesus stood among the ten Apostles gathered in the room where they had eaten the Last Supper three nights before. Remember – there were only ten Apostles on this occasion since Judas killed himself and Thomas was not present for some reason. Jesus unexpectedly walks through locked doors and greets His dear Apostles with “Peace be with you!” After initial surprise and possible shock, they rejoice with their risen Master, Rabbi, Teacher, and Lord. The Risen Jesus (see more)

Dear Parishioners, Have you ever realized something that has always been, that you’ve experienced all your life, and, suddenly, it’s like a light bulb goes off in your brain? Well, that happened to me this past Monday night as I began writing this article. From Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday is 40 days, and from Easter Sunday to Pentecost Sunday is 50 days – a total of 90 days or three months.

Dear Parishioners, It is obvious why Palm Sunday is titled the way it is: Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey for the Passover, while many of His fellow Jews waved palm branches and shouted “Hosanna to the Son of David!” Blessed palms are taken home by Mass-goers today. On Ash Wednesday, blessed ashes, from burned blessed palms leftover from the year before, were applied to our foreheads, giving the name to this first day of Lent. The distinction between sacramentals and sacraments needs to be brought to our attention always, and it is important that a sacramental is never given more importance than a sacrament. Two good examples: A person should not be upset that he or she is not able to go to Mass and receive ashes on any given Ash Wednesday for various reasons. Ash Wednesday is not a holyday of obligation, nor are ashes on our foreheads on Ash Wednesday a “religious” requirement.

Dear Parishioners, We received our ashes this past March 5th, and here we are on the weekend of April 5th & 6th, a month later, on the Sunday before Palm Sunday. Holy Week starts after that, and soon it will be April 20th Easter Sunday for 2025! Sometimes it’s not easy to observe Lent in our world today, because our world is not exclusively Christian or Catholic today – not that our world ever was exclusively Christian or Catholic – but the overall observance of religion, Christian or non-Christian, is not very prevalent in this 21st century.