Dear friends in Christ
This period between the Ascension of Jesus into heaven, which we celebrated on Thursday, and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost next Sunday, is a time of especial and intense prayer in the life of the Church. We imitate Mary and the Apostles in these nine days, as they prepared in prayer for the outpouring of the gifts of the Holy Spirit upon the Church. It is therefore appropriate that our Bishop visits the Parish this Sunday for the conferral of the Sacrament of Confirmation on sixteen young adults. We thank God for the presence of an Apostle with us, as Bishop Alan comes to confirm us in the Faith of the Apostles, the Faith of the Catholic Church. We pray for our young people, their Sponsors and families, as they receive their third Sacrament of Initiation, empowering them to be full, adult, active members of the Holy Catholic Church.
As we approach the end of the Easter season next weekend, some words in a sermon of Saint Augustine could resonate with us: Because there are these two periods of time – the one that now is, beset with the trials and troubles of this life, and the other yet to come, a life of everlasting serenity and joy – we are given two liturgical seasons, one before Easter and the other after. The season before Easter signifies the troubles in which we live here and now, while the time after Easter which we are celebrating at present signifies the happiness that will be ours in the future. What we commemorate before Easter is what we experience in this life; what we celebrate after Easter points to something we do not yet possess…Therefore, brethren, we urge you to praise God. That is what we are all telling each other when we say Alleluia. You say to your neighbour, “Praise the Lord!” and he says the same to you. We are all urging one another to praise the Lord, and all thereby doing what each of us urges the other to do. But see that your praise comes from your whole being; in other words, see that you praise God not with your lips and voices alone, but with your minds, your lives and all your actions.
May God bless you!
Msgr Kevin Hale