“This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice in it and be glad.” Psalm 118:24

I greet all your fervent believers gathered here this Easter, your souls on fire with Easter joy, your minds uncluttered by any worldly care whatsoever.  Your thoughts focused perfectly on nothing but the beautiful mysteries we celebrate today.
 
That introduction was for all the perfect Christians among us and the rest of the letter is for the regular folks, including myself.  The reality is we come to our Easter worship today with concerns, distractions. But we turn them over to the Risen Lord.  Maybe some of us admit we were disappointed with our fervor for Lent.  We maybe even blew it on the first day and ate meat on Ash Wednesday and our promise to do all that prayer and fasting and almsgiving just never really got going.
 
Maybe even today at this Mass we have demons of worries and distraction thinking about the Easter meal upcoming, some family tension and problems. Maybe some of us have sadness that a loved one is not with us – or whatever reason.  Let’s turn all these rights now over to the Risen Lord and ask him to banish them from the Easter Mass and from this day so we can rejoice in “His” and our Rising. And let’s remember all those imperfections we come with today is very similar to that First Easter Sunday.
 
Imagine Peter, despite being chosen as the leader to the Apostles, as the Scriptures say on that first Easter after seeing the empty tomb “did not yet understand the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead.”  His faith and the other apostles’ faith dawned on them gradually.  Recall Thomas saying, “unless I put my hands into his side his nail prints on his hands and feet I will not believe.”  And even some of the holiest of saints had their doubts, like St. Mother Theresa of Calcutta. Can you image that she wrote these words in one of her letters: “In my soul I feel just ‘terrible pain’ of loss of God not wanting me, of God not being God, of God not really existing...?”  Yet she continued doing what she felt she ought to do with her life, she lived her faith even though sometimes she didn’t feel it. Yes, for you and me, like Peter and Mother Theresa, faith doesn’t always come instantly and fully; we can have our dry spells, our worries.
 
May our faith today in our Risen Lord be strong. May the Lord dispel any anxiety and dryness or doubt we may have. May we continue, this Easter Mass, especially as we come to communion today, to thank Jesus for the gift of faith; and may we know His peace, His joy, His love this day and every day of our lives.  Amen.
 
Of other things…
 
The parish wishes to thank Tyler Cray from Troop 42 from Little Flower Parish in Canton for choosing us to be the Beneficiary of his Eagle Scout Project.  On Wednesday, March 27^th, he and fifteen other scouts planted five fast-growing White Pines behind our outdoor Crucifix.  They will grow to hide the new solar panel farm that our neighbors to the south planted last fall. God bless Tyler and all who helped him with the project.  God bless all of our Scouts.
 
Speaking of Scouts, we want to congratulate the following scouts who earned the Ad Altare Dei Religious Emblem.  This award will be given to them next Sunday April 28^th at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist.  They are: James Bazan, Jack Cerone, Jack Cole, Luke Hutsman, Jon Roth and Jack Szarnicki.  A Special thanks to Mary LaConte, Denise Szarnicki and Sarah Weber, whom prepared them for this religious emblem.  We thank you for your keen interest in the spiritual development of our youth in our Scouting program.  We also want to congratulate Sarah Weber for she will be receiving the St. George Emblem also at the same time at the Cathedral. 
 
Lastly, don’t forget to take home our Easter gift to you, the book called “Signs of Life” by Scott Hahn. A token of our appreciation of you.
 
God Bless You All this Easter and always,

Fr. Dave

“Hosanna in the highest! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” Hosanna is the English word derived from the Hebrew term meaning “grant salvation.” Words that the faithful Jewish pilgrims would have used from Psalm 118 at the procession of our Lord into Jerusalem on this Palm or Passion Sunday.
Interesting to me is the way our Lord chooses to enter into His Passion is quite similar to the way He enters into the world, via a donkey (colt). I believe the significance of this is His teaching us that we also need to enter into this life with humility. Think about it for a moment. The Jews were expecting the long-awaited messiah to be a powerful king who would rescue them from their enemies and captors. You can imagine a powerful king would choose to enter on the mightiest of stallions, not a lowly donkey. Not so for Christ. Salvation, and therefore victory over sin and death (the paschal mystery) does not come through mighty deeds, honor, or great power. It comes by humbling ourselves before the one True God and properly orienting our thanksgiving and worship for His victory that He so generously shares with us.
This then becomes the way we evangelize. Keeping in mind that the Lord has given this responsibility to us now, His disciples in the present moment. We are charged with humbly sharing the faith that our ancestors have shared with us. And as any good giver of gifts knows, we should do it with joy, knowing that we will receive ten-fold what we give in faith. Truth delivered with joy is the means which others will come to know Jesus’ love and victory over sin and death for them.
And so, I humbly ask you for a few things. The first is to continue to show our youth by your actions that the Gospel can be lived with great joy and that being Catholic is a true gift. Secondly, use the Confirmandi prayer cards handed out at Mass last weekend as part of your prayer intentions. We know the devil wants nothing more than these souls to be pulled further away from Truth into darkness and blind to Christ’s victory over sin and death.
Last, please lift up in prayer the 50+ teens and adult team/priests who will be on retreat at Loyola on the weekend of April 27th and 28th.
In Christ’s peace,
Steve

​Jesus said, “Then neither do I condemn you. Go and from now on do not sin any more.” Words taken from today’s Gospel.
 
Several years ago, we heard the horrific new that happened at Mother Emmanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, where a young 21-year-old white man came into this historic church and entered upon a group of African American that were having a Bible Study. The young man methodically gunned each of the members down…nine lives were taken that day. The 21-year-old’s intention was apparently to single-handedly create a race war between whites and minorities in that southern city and across the U.S.
 
When the shooter was brought into court for the first time, family members of the nine victims were allowed to make statements before the judge. These people, who were deeply harmed by the young man’s actions, spoke out with one unified message of forgiveness.
 
Their choice to forgive rather than ask for vengeance shocked and horrified many people who felt that these families had every right to demand the harshest retribution possible from a person who was obviously acting out of hate. Instead of reacting with hate, as the shooter had hoped, these followers of Christ demonstrated the power of forgiveness and love. One by one, the families of the victims got up asked God to forgive him and said that they forgave him.
 
“I forgive you,” Nadine Collier, the daughter of 70-year-old Ethel Lance said at the hearing, her voice breaking with emotion. “You took something very precious from me. I will never talk to her again. I will never hold her again. But I forgive you and may God have mercy on your soul.” Hate will not win, love will.
 
The acts of forgiveness shown by the church members in Charleston are a perfect example of what Jesus is calling us to in the Gospel today… “Nor do I condemn you.”  It is the core of His teaching
 
We are about to celebrate Palm Sunday or Passion Sunday next weekend. We will understand why He did what He did…so we would be forgiven. No matter what our faults or sins, God is willing to forgive, and He calls us to do the same. “The one without sin, cast the first stone.” Only with God’s grace can we forgive, and we can be instruments of forgiveness by first experiencing His forgiveness.
 
Also note the other line, “Go and from now on do not sin any more.” To be forgiven we must be truly sorry, and we must have a purpose of amendment. We need all the help we can get to amend our lives, that is why God’s grace is always there for us.
 
May God Bless You,
Father Dave

Most of us are familiar with the passage from St. John’s Gospel (3:16) “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” That certainly is “Good News!” But, to add a little icing to that cake for us, I’d like to share a quote from Pope Francis:
             “The Holy Spirit teaches us to see with the eyes of Christ, to live life as Christ lived, to understand life as Christ understood it. He tells us that we are loved by God as children, that we can love God as his children and that by his grace we can live as children of God – like Jesus. God loves you, God likes you… God is love, God is waiting for us, God is Father, he loves us as a true father loves, he loves us truly and only the Holy Spirit can tell us this in our hearts.”
 
Imagine that, God likes us – just as we are with all of our weaknesses, imperfections, faults and failings! It’s hard sometimes for us to take this in, but it’s the truth.
 
At times, it’s easy for us to view Christ’s suffering and death on the Cross intellectually as something that just had to be done. It may seem as if Christ was duty bound to die for us, and God the Father was duty bound to offer his only begotten Son on our behalf – just because it was what the rules required. But the truth is that Jesus purposely and willingly offered himself up for you and me because he delights in us and every other individual who has ever walked the face of the planet.
 
Christ’s love for one person – each of us personally – is more immense than the purest love of all humanity combined. And here’s the most remarkable part – it’s not a love that’s motivated out of any obligation that the Creator might have to his creature, but rather it’s motivated out of love that stems from a God who genuinely likes us. What a joyful truth! All God wants to do is to shower down his love on us and make us understand how good it is that we exist.
 
Today is Laetare Sunday. On this mid–Lenten day, the liturgy is a joyful celebration of God’s mercy. Our Father God, who is rich in mercy, has brought us to life in Christ! Why? Because of his great love for us – even when we were dead in our transgressions? Yes! But we need to remember, too, that there’s more – that our loving Father’s heart was moved to create such a grand plan for our salvation because he genuinely likes us.
 
May God grant you his joy, his peace, his grace, his light and his most holy consolations!
 
Deacon Steve

Blessings,

Many of you are probably aware of the 1997 film “As Good As It Gets,” starring Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt. For those of you who haven’t seen it, it’s about an obsessive-compulsive man whose life gets entangled with a waitress who works at the restaurant he goes to each and every day. On top of his psychological problems, he also is tremendously rude, the kind of person who speaks his mind in every situation regardless of whether or not he hurts others’ feelings.

There is one scene late in the movie that is famous for a particular line, one which is said by Jack Nicholson’s character to Helen Hunt’s character across the table as they have dinner in a restaurant. The man is being his usual difficult self when the woman grabs hold of the situation by asking him to pay her a compliment. The man tries but fails miserably. The woman points out to him that what he said wasn’t a compliment, so he tries again. This time he gets it right. He looks her directly in the eye and tells her, “You make me want to be a better man.”

Isn’t that what Lent is all about. Lent encourages us to be a better man and woman, a better person. Isn’t that what most of us want to be a better person? Isn’t that what today’s gospel tells us. Jesus says, “Repent,” and He says there is an urgency about it. He says that if you do not repent then you will parish.
What does REPENT mean?  To be sorry for our sins and to turn away from sin. It is also two-fold: to turn away from our past sin and turn toward God and His mercy and His ways of love; meaning that we have to leave behind our old ways, and we have to be changed.

Some are so motivated because of fear and punishment in the next life (which is not exactly the best motive); and some are even motivated because they think God is “going to punish me right now.” That is what the people thought in Jesus’s day...that the tower collapsed on the people of Siloam because of their sin...that the Galileans were murdered by Pilate because of their sinful sacrificing to the gods.
Jesus refuted that kind of thinking and told us that is not the way God works. But some still think amending our lives provides us a certain amount of protection against God’s punishments. Some believe if we behave then God will owe us and we will acquire more of God’s blessings. They think that being a better person is just playing it smart, it is covering all the bases.

This way of thinking is all tied to what our image of God is: Is our image of God the severe taskmaster who keeps his legal pad ready to check off every time we do something good or bad; or is it the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus who is a Boundless Ocean of Mercy?
We hear in the Responsorial Psalm, “The Lord is kind and merciful.” He tells the parable of the fig tree and gave the tree another year to bear fruit. This means that Our God is the God of second chances. He is not done with us. He is patient with us.

Why be a better person? Why be a more loving person and avoid punishment here or the next life. Why? Because God has loved us first. He showers us with his kindness, His mercy and His generosity every single day. We don’t love so that God loves us. We love because God has loved us and the only acceptable way of responding to such goodness and love from God is to share that love with others.

Yes, God wants us to be better persons and He gives us the grace to do it right here in the Eucharist, in that great sacrament of mercy – the Sacrament of Reconciliation. By the way, we will celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation this coming Tuesday evening, March 26th at 7:00 p.m. at Queen of Heaven Parish whom will be hosting the Cluster Communal Penance Service. There will be a least 10 priests that evening to hear confessions. Hope to see all of you there!

In Christ,
Father Dave

During this second Sunday of Lent, we are reminded by our Lord that our life is full of distraction, but also full of wonder. Children remind us of this all the time. They are amazed by the big world around them which can make them easily preoccupied. What comes to mind is the scripture verse from Matthew 18:4: Jesus says, “unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of Heaven.” 
 
The challenge to grown-ups like you and I is how to remember to become child-like in our spirituality. Imagine for a moment that you are one of the core disciples in today’s Gospel story.  Jesus takes you up the mountain and you encounter him praying. What is your first reaction? What does he look like?  Are you filled with awe? You can imagine the three disciples had to be wondering what they were about to encounter.  Instead, they fall asleep only to awaken to a glorified Christ, a transfigured Christ, who has taken on a bright new appearance. They had to be somewhat confused and amazed. Their initial reaction is to stay longer and pitch tents, to continue living in the moment as if it should never end. In a way, their reaction is child-like.
 
So, what do we ultimately make of their experience and how does it relate to ours? Sometimes the Lord allows his grace to come through special circumstances and experiences in our life. We do not always know when and why, but it is something to be grateful for and to serve as a reminder that he is always with us. It also prepares us for the challenging times ahead. Like Peter, James, and John we also will experience Christ crucified.   
           
Please pray in a special way for our Catechumen, Patty Riffle and our Candidate, Jessica Schlasenhauser, as they both enter more fully into this period of scrutiny in the RCIA program leading up to the Easter Vigil.
 
Have a blessed week,
Steve Dyer