My Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

A Blessed Easter to all of you. We hear the word’s “he saw and believed” in the Gospel reading.  This was after Mary Magdala saw the empty tomb and went to Simon Peter and the beloved disciple who in turn ran to the tomb themselves.  At the Easter Vigil, we lit the new fire and from the new fire and from the flame of the new fire, we lit up our Paschal Candle.  The Paschal Candle represents the light of Christ coming into the world.  The risen Christ and the light is the symbol of life dispelling darkness.  Before the Paschal Candle is lit, the priest says these words “May the light of Christ, rising in glory, dispel the darkness of our hearts and minds.”

Throughout our Lenten season, we have been preparing for this day where we recognize how Christ showed us the way to the Father.  By the cross we experience the ultimate act of love knowing that this is what God is willing to do for us to remove anything that will separate us from his love.  We are invited to celebrate this Easter season knowing that we have a God who loves us so much so that He would personally come into our lives to redeem us even after we turned our backs from Him.

On behalf of Fr. Boes, we would like to take this opportunity to wish all of you a Blessed Easter.  Thank you to all who made the Easter celebrations a Blessed occasion especially those behind the scenes who decorated our Church, our sacristans who prepared for the liturgical celebrations, our servers, lectors, choirs, musicians, ushers, staff and other volunteers.  We could not have done it without you.

Congratulations to all who have been received into our Church at the Easter Vigil and especially thank you to our RCIA team and our catechist that prepared them to enter into our Church.

Please know that there will be no confessions this week.  This includes this coming Saturday.

Next Sunday, April 27, our second graders at MOQ will be celebrating their First Communion and our second graders at SJV will be celebrating their First Communion the following Sunday, May 4.  Please keep our second graders and their families in your prayers.

Blessings,

Fr Marc