Third Sunday of Easter

My Dear Parishioners,
 
Today we commemorate the Third Sunday of Easter in our celebration of the Lord’s Day. The Gospel reading takes us back to that first Easter Sunday later in the day when the Risen Lord Jesus appears again to the disciples. The Lord asks for something to eat in order to prove that He is alive and that they are not seeing a ghost. He tells them that, “ Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem . You will be my witnesses of these things.”
 
Throughout the 50 days of Easter we are reading from Saint Luke the Evangelist’s second volume work, Acts of the Apostles. This book tells of the spread of the Gospel from Jewish territory to Gentile lands through the preaching and witness of Peter and Paul. The evangelization of peoples also occurs as a result of the preaching and witness of other disciples, both male and female; their names are recorded in Acts of the Apostles.
 
Throughout the centuries the followers of the Risen Christ have engaged in the work of evangelization by tirelessly and at great peril bringing the Gospel to the nations. Today I am in Ireland with some fellow parishioners on tour of the country which may be the ancestral home for some of you. As we know, the faith was brought to this country through the pastoral zeal of Saint Patrick.  He is regarded as the “ Apostle to Ireland.” Let us keep the people of this great nation in our prayers that they may remain faithful to the Gospel and not allow the evils of secularism and indifferentism influence them especially as they will decide in a short time whether to legalize abortion or remain a pro-life nation.
 
I am looking forward to seeing all of you in church next Sunday. Our celebration of the Holy Eucharist on the Lord’s Day is our weekly remembrance of Jesus’ suffering, death and Resurrection as we consume His Body and Blood. His Excellency, Bishop Arthur Serratelli has lifted the ban on the distribution of Precious Blood now that the flu epidemic is past. The Bishop has left it up to each pastor when or whether to reinstate the distribution of the Precious Blood. We will resume the distribution of the Precious Blood the first weekend of May at those Sunday Masses in which there is a sufficient number of ministers to do so. When we are short of ministers the Precious Blood will not be administered. Catholic theology states that when one receives the Body of Christ (the Host), one is receiving both the Body and the Blood of our Savior. My pastoral observation is that only very few people approach the chalice for the Precious Blood as a result of health concerns.
 
See you next Sunday, God willing!
Christ is Risen!
Father Zig