Second Week of Easter

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,  

 
This Sunday is Divine Mercy Sunday. The Feast of the 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 Saint Pope John Paul on April 30, 2000, the day he canonized St. Faustina. 

During his life, St. Pope John Paul II has actively promoted the message of S.t Faustina. In his 1980 encyclical on God’s mercy, Rich in Mercy, Pople John Paul II developed a scriptural and doctrinal basis for our faith in the mercy of God.  
On this Divine Mercery Sunday, we see that CHrsit is alive and shares that risen live with each of us. Now is our time to encounter the risen Jesus in new ways so that we can share that presence to others. 

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. These selections from the Acts of the Apostles record how those first Christians receive the sprit of Jesus and carried the mission of CHrist forward.  

 For 2023, Cardinal Dinardo has assessed our parish DSF goal at $85,000. DSF supports more than 60 ministries and programs that serve the faithful of the Archdiocese and us here at St. Hyacinth. Go to https://www.archgh.org/ways-to-give/diocesan-services-fund-dsf/donate-to-dsf/ to donate online.  

Next, thank you for your support and patience as we move back towards recovery. We are working diligently to get our systems back on track at the Church. Hopefully, we will have our systems up and running in the next few weeks. Please keep us in your prayers. 
 
Finally , please welcome Fr. Alan Bower, who will be celebrating all of the masses here this weekend.  He comes to us from Cross Catholic Outreach and will share some touching stories about eh amazing work Cathlic Missions are accomplishing wordwide. Please welcome Fr. Alan who will speak at all the masses on how S.t Hyacinth can support the priests and nuns working in the Church overseas in the Caribbean, African, Asia, Central America and South America.   
 
God Bless, 
Fr. Reginald Samuels