Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

HAPPY EASTER! It is with the greatest of joy that we gather together today to begin our celebration of the Resurrection of our Lord! We are so happy that you can be here with us. We welcome all of our visitors who join us for our Masses, and we pray that you have a good visit with family and friends here in the Westfield area.

Today we are surrounded by symbols of new life: From the flowers and the new holy water, to our new Easter candle and the Easter eggs that we celebrate with, we have reminders everywhere of just how things change today. Jesus rose from the dead to bring each one of us the chance at new life. Today is a new beginning, a new opportunity to be better, to be more, to be different. I pray today that each one of us takes this new opportunity seriously. Things don’t have to be the same. When we do the same things the same old way, we are going to get the same old results. Could it be that the reason some people never move beyond their sin, is because they are constantly doing the same things the same old way? Absolutely! Easter offers each of us a brand new start and the opportunity to do things differently. Let us take this chance! Today we are new. Today we are recreated in God’s own image. How sad it would be for us to sing some “Alleluias” and eat some jelly beans today, and then tomorrow just go back to our same old ways. Easter is not a day. Easter is truly a way of life!

And in particular, let me address a few words to our brothers and sisters whom we haven’t seen for a long while, like maybe Christmas or last Easter. WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? We have missed you. We have prayed for you. And we love you. But if you are going to continue to be a follower of Jesus the Christ in the Catholic Tradition, then you’ve got to come and join us more than what you have in the past. As Catholics, we gather every Sunday at Mass to show our love for the Lord and to be strengthened to live the Christian life by the Word of God and the Eucharist. How can you be Christian without that support? I know that I can’t. Our Church is moving on. The Catholic Church today is going some awesome places. I have to be honest with you: by exempting yourself from Mass, from the other Sacraments, and from the life of the community, you are getting left farther and farther behind every year. It’s true. We’re glad you’re here with us for our celebration of Easter. We would be even more pleased if you were with us here every week for our celebration of Sunday, the day of the Lord. Think and pray about this. It is clearly time that some of us come to Mass much more regularly than we currently do.

I would like to thank all of our liturgy folks who worked so hard to make our celebration so nice. The Liturgy Committee is headed up by Carla Erickson. Thank you, Carla. Thanks to Gina Ressler who serves so faithfully as our Parish’s sacristan. Thanks, Gina! Thanks to John and Mindy Etter who, for years now, have coordinated the Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion, and to all of the EMHC’s who assist us at Mass every week. Thanks also to Kathy Lengerich, who will be the new coordinator of our Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion, following the training sessions this spring. Thanks to Jim Roytek and all of the Ministers of Welcome, the ushers! Thanks also to John Mahon and all the lectors. The lectors got quite the workout this past week. And thanks to Jolene McCann, Jenny Hester, and all of the Liturgical Decorating committee for their hard work. Our simple, temporary worship space always looks so nice for our big celebrations. I can’t wait to see what you guys can do with a real church! We are so blessed with awesome music at all of our Masses. My thanks to Cathy Rund and all of the groups and individuals who lead us in beautiful music for God. We are so blessed with your talents and generosity. Thanks to Duke Haley who coordinates and trains our servers, and to all of our young people who assist at the Altar of the Lord each week. Finally, thanks to Bill and Marilyn Sultan who are coordinating the scheduling of all of these people for all of our Masses. It is a huge undertaking! We are so blessed!

Next weekend, we are proud to host the eighth Women’s Christ Renews His Parish. Let us keep the ladies in our prayers this week. Christ Renews His Parish continues to do amazing things for our entire Parish.

Have a great Easter day and wonderful celebration during this entire Easter season! Don’t eat too much chocolate!

In Christ,
Fr. Kevin

The most important things in life are the
thoughts that you choose to think.