April 12th Pastor's Message

Read this week's message from Father Don

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 ALLELUIA, CHRIST IS RISEN! 

Dear friends,

Having completed our 40 days of Lenten penitence, we now enter the 50 days of Easter, the most challenging season of the Church year. 

Lent, Advent and Christmas each have simple practices that we are invited to undertake: fasting, helping the poor, the Advent wreath, the Jesse tree, the Christmas crib, etc. The Easter season does not encourage any specific practices, rather it invites us to embrace the attitudes and behaviours of Jesus that are the foundation of the Christian life. 

These include:

• Trusting in God who is always supporting us and knows better than we do what is for our good.

• Humbly serving others, both within and outside of our family. At the Last Supper, Jesus washed the feet of the disciple and told them “As I have done, so you also must do.” 

• Striving to live like Jesus every day, by embracing the new life he demonstrates and turning away from our old ways.

• Rejoicing in the Lord always, even in the midst of struggles. This requires us to look at the Lord more than at our present challenges.   

  
  

Easter describes the general pattern of the Christian life that we are called to embrace. It is more demanding than Lent, Advent or Christmas because it asks individual Christians to make an intentional choice to apply Christian practices to their daily lives, not just for a few weeks but continually.

The self-giving death and glorious resurrection of Jesus sit at the centre of the Christian life. Together they are the demanding model that all Christians are called to imitate. Is this difficult? Of course, because it requires us to change and to long for something more than daily life.

My friends, this Easter let us sincerely strive to place our trust in God and to humble ourselves in service of our brothers and sisters.

Love,

Father Don

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