Dear Friends,
On this octave (Eighth) Day of Easter, the alleluias and joy of Jesus’ resurrection continue to ring throughout our world. Allow the joy and the rejoicing of His resurrection to permeate your entire being ~ body, mind, soul.
This Second Sunday of Easter is also called Sunday of Divine Mercy. There will be a Holy Hour at 3 pm today in Church with the recitation of the Divine Mercy Chaplet and Benediction. Come and experience a tremendous outpouring of God’s mercy and grace. Those who participate may receive a Plenary Indulgence under the usual conditions. Saint John Paul II gave this feast to the Church through the visions of Saint Faustina. God is eternally Merciful. He wants all of us, His children, to receive the fullness of His Mercy and to share that mercy with one another.
Our Triduum celebrations and Easter Masses were absolutely amazing!! As I reflect back, when we entered Lent, I had a different feeling within myself about the holy season of penitence this year, perhaps more ready to embrace it. It was a good Lent, not perfect of course, but I would judge it for me a good one. Among us priests we marveled and give thanks to God for the number of confessions we heard and the quality of the confessions.
Easter as always arrived so quickly but Holy Week and Easter were truly remarkable and tremendous blessings. The crowds attending services and Masses were very impressive and large. The beauty of the liturgies and the church were truly uplifting and inspiring. This was a really special and blessed year!
Mother Church provides us with fifty days for the Easter Season. May the joy and presence of the Risen Lord touch each of us with profound grace, light, and hope. Jesus alone is “the way and the truth and the life.”
My gratitude goes out not just to the sizeable numbers who came and participated this year in our liturgies and Masses but also to all who made them truly prayerful, beautiful, and inspiring encounters with Jesus Christ and the mysteries of redemption and salvation.
Profound thanks to Father Graebe, our Deacons, all our parish office staff, our volunteer weekly cleaners, Brad Papciak and the personnel of GDI, Mary Barbuto our Gardening Angel, our sacristans and so many other volunteers who helped on Holy Saturday to clean and prepare the Church and our liturgical items for Easter, our altar servers, our lectors, Elizabeth Calabro and our cantors, choir, organists, our extraordinary Eucharistic Ministers, our Ambassadors, Matt Kirsch and our Youth Group (a really great Easter Egg Hunt), Jim Bozzini, our Seminarian, Jude Arkesh Ragel. There are always so many people who help and step up in countless ways and so often behind the scenes. I hope I didn’t miss anyone but truly thank you one and all!!
At the Easter Vigil, Michael Harris was fully initiated into our Catholic Faith receiving the sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist. We welcome him and pray for him as he begins his journey with Christ and our parish family. At the 10:30 Mass this weekend and at the 12 Noon Mass on April 30, we will receive into full communion and celebrate the sacraments of Confirmation and Eucharist for eight new members: Joseph Bucara, Sean Buruschkin, Deanne Dimarco, Brian Freas, Melissa Harris, Lynne Szatkowski, Francesco Calderone and Heidi Slattery. What special and profound blessings for these good folks and for our parish family, as we witness the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of our brothers and sisters and accompany them and one another on the journey towards heaven.
May we continue to consciously seek and accept God’s abundant graces and blessings in our lives and in the lives of all our brothers and sisters.
God bless you, God love you,
Monsignor McCulken
