From all of us here at Our Lady of Peace, we pray that you have a wonderful Easter. Blessings to you and yours in this season of Resurrection. Our worship spaces at Our Lady of Peace and Notre Dame de Lourdes are stunningly beautiful. Thanks to all of our church decorators. It was a very busy week preparing our worship spaces for Palm Sunday, The Triduum, and for this day of Resurrection. Thanks again for your dedicated service and love of our parish.
Thanks also for your generosity for the Mission Youth outreach this Holy Week. Your prayerful, financial, and material support has made for a memorable Holy Week experience for our youth and for those who have benefited from their loving service.
Thanks to our Social Committee for organizing our gathering after the Holy Hour on March 28 that concluded the Ridley Catholic Churches Lenten program. The Holy Hour was a fitting way to conclude our Lenten season and prepare us to receive our Resurrected Lord. The tables at our parish center were filled with food and fellowship, at the reception that followed.
Subsequently I dropped the “H”, but last year, I was a resident priest of OLPH in Morton. The Repository was located in the Chapel which is across the parking lot from the main Church. On Holy Thursday evening the procession was through the parking lot. It was a very breezy night. The altar servers valiantly attempted to keep their candles illuminated but the wind eventually won out. Yet something remarkably replaced their glow.
As we processed through the parking lot the lights of the cars were lighting. The cars must have sensed the proximity of the car keys when the people were walking past. And they awakened with light. Awakened with a light that no breeze could extinguish.
Similarly, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb while it was still dark. Noticing the stone rolled back away from the tomb, she left in darkness. Peter and John also arrived at the tomb in darkness. The sun did not rise until the light of faith first rose in their hearts. Awakening with light, they saw and believed.
No breeze can extinguish the light of Easter. Easter is a celebration of the light – the light of faith that was instilled within us at Baptism. Light that was strengthened at Confirmation, light that is restored by the Sacrament of Penance, light that is nourished by the grace of the Eucharist, light that is graced through prayer and devotions. No breeze can extinguish the light. The presence of the Holy Spirit makes it stronger, more brilliant, more effective.
At this Easter awaken with light and celebrate the light by sharing it. St. John the Baptist stirred within his Mother, St. Elizabeth, as he sensed the nearness of the Savior. Your car lights up with anticipation as it senses the nearness of you. May we be light for each other and beam with the anticipatory joy of the presence of God within each other. Have a blessed Easter!
O God of unchanging power and light,
look with favor on the wondrous mystery of the whole Church
and serenely accomplish the work of human salvation,
which you planned from all eternity;
may the whole world know and see
that what was cast down is raised up,
what had become old is new,
and all things are restored to integrity through Christ,
just as by him they came into being.
Who lives and reigns for ever and ever.
Amen.
From the Mass of the Easter Vigil. Prayer after the seventh reading. Roman Missal, page 220.