Happy Easter to all of you beautiful folk who have come to St. Joseph’s this happy day! We are made beautiful by His shining Resurrection:
“The splendor of Christ risen from the dead has shone on the people redeemed by his blood, Alleluia” (from the Easter Liturgy).
We love the 6am Mass on Easter Sunday, celebrated on the East Lawn, facing the Rising Sun (just visible above Orchard Supply Hardware!). The sun usually breaks over us in all its morning glory about the time we sing the Gloria. We are who are stamping in the cold of early dawn begin to revive as the rising sun streams into our upturned faces. We begin to reflect the glowing energy of the new day as our cheeks radiate the rising sun. Truly “This is the Day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Alleluia!” Our long Lent is over; the dreary winter is past; the rising sun breaks over the dew-laden grass. Let us believe that God gives us a new day, every day, and we are no longer slaves to the past or slaves of sin.
My mother and father have been married 58 years. It has not been an easy relationship, but it has been faithful, because both dared to believe in God’s will for them. As I was growing up, my mother prayed every night with us children for “the resurrection of our marriage.” When their relationship was at its most difficult, we children wondered if Mom and Dad should just get divorced. But Mom held her ground: “The grandchildren need to be able to come to their grandparents’ home,” she would say. She sacrificed the present for a future good, just like her Master, who suffered his Passion in view of a future Resurrection.
Many of you at Mass today are having real problems in your marriages. The Church offers a lifeline to troubled marriages, a weekend workshop called “Retrouvaille.” It has saved many marriages in our own parish. I will be serving on the next weekend, April 13-15. Join me and other couples at Modesto Retrouvaille by calling Mando and Bonnie at 883-4291.
“The splendor of Christ risen from the dead has shone on the people redeemed by his blood, Alleluia” (from the Easter Liturgy).
We love the 6am Mass on Easter Sunday, celebrated on the East Lawn, facing the Rising Sun (just visible above Orchard Supply Hardware!). The sun usually breaks over us in all its morning glory about the time we sing the Gloria. We are who are stamping in the cold of early dawn begin to revive as the rising sun streams into our upturned faces. We begin to reflect the glowing energy of the new day as our cheeks radiate the rising sun. Truly “This is the Day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Alleluia!” Our long Lent is over; the dreary winter is past; the rising sun breaks over the dew-laden grass. Let us believe that God gives us a new day, every day, and we are no longer slaves to the past or slaves of sin.
My mother and father have been married 58 years. It has not been an easy relationship, but it has been faithful, because both dared to believe in God’s will for them. As I was growing up, my mother prayed every night with us children for “the resurrection of our marriage.” When their relationship was at its most difficult, we children wondered if Mom and Dad should just get divorced. But Mom held her ground: “The grandchildren need to be able to come to their grandparents’ home,” she would say. She sacrificed the present for a future good, just like her Master, who suffered his Passion in view of a future Resurrection.
Many of you at Mass today are having real problems in your marriages. The Church offers a lifeline to troubled marriages, a weekend workshop called “Retrouvaille.” It has saved many marriages in our own parish. I will be serving on the next weekend, April 13-15. Join me and other couples at Modesto Retrouvaille by calling Mando and Bonnie at 883-4291.
RSS Feed