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April 24, 2019
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ
This Sunday is Divine Mercy Sunday. The Feast of Divine Mercy, celebrated on the Octave of Easter (the Sunday after Easter Sunday), is a relatively new addition to the Roman Catholic liturgical calendar. Celebrating the Divine Mercy of Jesus Christ, as revealed by Christ Himself to Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska, this feast was extended to the entire Catholic Church by Pope John Paul II on April 30, 2000, the day that he canonized Saint Faustina.
During his life, Pope John Paul II had actively promoted the message of St. Faustina. In his 1980 encyclical on God’s mercy, Rich in Mercy, Pope John Paul II developed a scriptural and doctrinal basis for our faith in the mercy of God. In linking the revealed truth about God’s mercy to the Sunday after Easter, The Holy Father illumined the fact that the liturgy already proclaimed the divine mercy. Pope John Paul II goes to says that “The truth has been embedded for two millennia in the worship of the Church: The law of faith is the law of prayer.”
On this Divine Mercy Sunday, we see that Christ is alive and shares that risen life with each one of us. Now is our time to encounter the risen Jesus in new ways so that we can continue throughout our lives to be that risen presence for the good of others. People see the risen Christ in our everyday acts of kindness, sensitivity, generosity, patience forgiveness and mercy
During the eight Sundays of Easter the first readings are selected from the Acts of the Apostles and deals with the Easter Faith of the early Christian community. Theses selections from the Acts of the Apostles record how those first Christians received the spirit of Jesus and carried the mission of Christ forward. These writings help us move forward with our mission to show love and mercy to the world in light of the risen Christ.
STHY is blessed to have an incredible amount of faithful people that are part of our Liturgy for Easter: Altar servers, acolytes, Readers, singers, musicians, cantors, ushers, sacristans, greeters, Extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist and Liturgical Environment team members , and all contribute to making the Easter Liturgy here at STHY bear fruit in the lives of so many people.
I want to give a special thanks to Mrs. Pamella Pittman our Director of Liturgy and Music, along with our entire multitude of choir members and musicians who have brought us wonderful songs and music to our Easter celebrations.
What makes Easter special in the life of the Church is how the Church itself is prepared for the celebration.
I want to thank our Liturgical Environment team and a host of volunteers from various other ministries in our parish, for decorating the Church for our Easter celebrations. I want to give a special thanks to: Margie Gulledge, Linda Cory, Barbara Kelly, John Matula, Xavier Cantu, Alicia Mendoza, Debbie Lambert, Celeste Evans, and Rodney Pruett who were among the ones who dedicated their time to make sure that our Church was beautiful for the Eater Celebrations.
Today we continue with the last day of our two day is our annual Parish Spring Festival. This will be our seventh festival for our parish in close to 20 years and the first time that it is being held over two days. The Springs Festival theme this year is ‘”All Star Weekend”. I hope everyone had fun at our kick off celebration yesterday with Bingo and fun. This weekend is shaping up to be a big weekend for our parish.
I want to thank everyone who has been involved in bringing this festival to our parish. Please come out and join us for what is shaping up as great festival for our parish family. I want to give a special thank you to our Spring Festival Chairman Mrs. Lisa Freeman. Mrs. Freeman has done a wonderful job in bringing a wonderful celebration to STHY. Please also thank Mr. Raul Turner who stepped up to the plate this year and helped us move forward with the Spring Festival.
Finally, I want to say congratulations to all of our young people who confirmed by Bishop George Sheltz this past Tuesday. I want to thank Mrs. Pamela Johnson Director of Faith Formation and Evangelization, and Steven Sotelo our Coordinator of Youth Ministry, Youth Assistant, Etan Rangel along with our team of Catechist and Assistants for their work of religious formation in Confirmation preparations.
Once again, I send out my sincere thanks to all who made a pledge for our Building Faith, Family and Future … our Sanctuary… our Home… Capital Campaign. I truly appreciate your generosity and support. Remember, we ask every family to consider an equal sacrifice, not an equal size gift. Thank you for doing your part to help us reach our goal.
God Bless,
Fr. Reginald Samuels