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 Dear
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
HAPPY EASTER!!! The great day of the Lord's Resurrection has
arrived! It is truly a day to celebrate and rejoice. He who
was dead and in the grave has been raised up. God has done
this. And our world and our lives will never be the same!
We welcome all of our visitors who join us today. It is
good to have family and friends with us on this most important
Feast Day. We hope you enjoy our celebrations and praying with
us today.today.
For so many of us, today is the culmination of the past
six and a half weeks of Lent. We were here on Ash Wednesday.
We were here at the Parish Lenten Mission with Fr. Larry
Richards. Some of us either went on or worked in support of,
the Men’s Christ Renews His Parish weekend. There were many who
made or served on both the Men’s
and
Women’s Cursillo weekends. The largest number of us ever went
on the RCIA retreat at Ferdinand and St. Meinrad. Many of us
participated in the current Adult Bible Study on Wednesday
nights and Thursday mornings. Hundreds of people went to
Reconciliation during Lent, including many that haven’t been for
a very long time, or maybe haven’t ever been at all. Stations
of the Cross were better attended this year than ever before.
More people than ever are spending an hour in Adoration each
week in front of the Blessed Sacrament. Daily Mass attendance
has tripled, and on some days even quadrupled during Lent. The
Shepherd’s Gate food pantry reports that donations of the new
“food of the month” for the pantry have been greatly
successful. This past week we had a wonderful Holy Week. The
Chrism Mass on Tuesday night, the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on
Thursday night, and the extraordinary Good Friday services were
moving for all who attended. ALL indicators are that this has
been one of the best Lents ever for our Parish family. We have
been truly blessed. We don’t want to lose sight of this. God
is at work even still. And our community still continues to
grow in His blessing and love and peace. Today for so many is
truly Easter, a new beginning.
For others who join us today, you didn’t even know that
it was Lent for the past six and a half weeks. You have no idea
who Fr. Larry Richards is. Nor do you have any idea what a
Christ Renews His Parish weekend or a Cursillo is. You don’t
have a clue as to what RCIA stands for and you have never been
to either Ferdinand, IN or St. Meinrad, IN. You have never
attended a Bible study. Some have never read the Bible outside
of Mass. You can’t remember the last time that you went to
Reconciliation – Oh, by the way, that’s the word that we’re
using now to refer to Confession. The Stations of the Cross are
something that maybe you prayed a long time ago when you were a
kid. You have never spent an hour, yes, a whole hour, in
Eucharistic Adoration, and you wouldn’t have any idea what you’d
do in that hour in front of the monstrance anyway. For some of
you, you haven’t been to Mass with us since Christmas, or maybe
it was last Easter, or even the Christmas before last. You most
likely have never been to daily Mass. And that’s too bad,
because daily Mass only takes about half an hour, and you’d
probably like that a lot better than the hour and twenty minutes
that it’s going to take us to have Easter Mass today with all
the “extra” people. You have no idea what the Shepherd’s Gate
Food Pantry is or why it is so important to our Parish family
and to the hundreds of people who come there every year to help
feed their families. You weren’t at our Holy Week services, and
so once again, you have no idea what I was referring to in the
paragraph above. And if you’re reading this paragraph and
you’re thinking, “Oh my gosh, he’s talking about me!” And
you’re getting your feelings hurt. And you’re thinking, “Who is
this guy? And where does he get off talking to me like this?”
Please don’t take this wrong. We miss you. I miss you.
Everybody misses you. We want you in this Parish family, and
you are family! You are part of us. We want to be part of
you! It is just so hard for us to understand where you’ve been
and why you haven’t come to pray with us since Christmas or last
Easter. You can’t be a twice a year Catholic. It just doesn’t
work. We want you with us every Sunday. We want you to get
involved, and take part, and find your place in our community.
We need your ideas, and energy, and talent. Will we see you
next Sunday? Or we will see you next at Christmas? Don’t play
games with God. He always wins.
This is a great day. We’ve got to talk about this
today because next week I won’t get the chance. May all of us,
no matter where we are in our Faith, have an awesome Easter!
Eat Peeps!Peeps!
In Christ,
Fr. Kevin
“Christianity is in its very essence a Resurrection religion.
The concept of the Resurrection lies at its
heart. If you remove it, Christianity is destroyed.” - John
Stott
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