Posted on April 27, 2022 View all Pastor's Letter
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
As a church we continue to celebrate the Lord’s resurrection, His triumph over death, and within this Easter joy, today we celebrate the Sunday dedicated to Divine Mercy. It is about something that goes far beyond a particular devotion; Saint John Paul II in his encyclical “Dives in Misericordia”, explains that the Divine Mercy is the loving manifestation of God in a history wounded by sin and that God places our miserable situation due to sin in His Father’s heart, which is faithful to His designs. Jesus Christ, dead and risen, is the supreme manifestation and performance of Divine Mercy. “God loved the world so much that He gave His Only Begotten Son” (Jn 3:16) and sent Him to death so that we might be saved. I really like a phrase from the Easter Proclamation that we sing at the vigil that expresses God’s mercy very well when He says: “To redeem the slave He has sacrificed the Son”, that is God, He loves us with mercy, and for this reason by faith and conversion we welcome the treasure of Divine Mercy.
As you may have noticed, we have prepared two more arches on the sides of the temple, one dedicated to the picture of the Divine Mercy. I know that many parishioners have a great devotion, for that reason I decided to place a large and more visible image. This Sunday, after the 10:00am mass, I will bless this new image, so that we can all offer our prayers. The image that was there before that is smaller version; it will be placed in the adoration chapel of the Blessed Sacrament to remind us that His mercy is great. I also invite you to pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy this Sunday after the 8:00am and 10:00am masses, which is when we have the most time in-between the masses.
I want to remind you that next Tuesday, April 26th, 44 of our youths from our school and from our parish will receive the sacrament of Confirmation; our Bishop Michael Burbidge will be the main celebrant for this mass. I invite you to keep these young people in your prayers who will be sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit, so that they may be good Christians and live their faith in Jesus Christ with great love and become true soldiers of Christ and of the Church. Everyone is invited to come.
Finally, I want to thank the financial support that continues to be provided to our parish through the weekly offertory as well as through the capital campaign. I invite all those who have not made a commitment to do so; we still have three more years! We are still missing many areas of the building that require repair. The infrastructure is quite old and it is urgent that it be taken care of, but without your financial help I cannot take the next step. Please, if you wish to make this financial commitment for the next three years please call the parish office. God bless all those who responsibly continue to send their contributions.
May God bless you and may His infinite mercy comfort you always.
Fr. Alex
