Entering the Easter Season

I do not remember a time in my life when time itself passed so quickly. Ever since the beginning of this year, the pace has been swift, the travel around the diocese and elsewhere has been constant, and the movement through Lent into Easter has been like it has never been before. So when Easter finally arrives, there is a sense that things will just slow down – but “not so fast…” the Easter season – yes, the Easter season is full of such wonderful events and activities that before you know it, summer will be here. As much as I would like for time to slow down a bit, I am full of joy and excitement at the events yet to come: for as soon as Easter comes and goes, we enter into a vast array of Confirmation ceremonies in the diocese – and what joy it is to be the one to bring the Holy Spirit to our young people! With May comes graduations, both from elementary schools and from our high schools – these are momentous occasions for our seniors – marking an end to one aspect of their lives and seeing them move on to another. Ordinations to the diaconate and to the priesthood are on the horizon, and our diocesan Church will be, God willing, blessed with two new transitional deacons, and a newly ordained priest – now that has to be exciting to all of us.

As I list the events of the next couple of months, I would like to invite you to join me in prayer for our confirmandi, our graduates, and our newly ordained – all of them need our prayers as they enter into, or leave behind, a special time in their lives. And while most of them will say how quickly time passed – some will say that it did not pass quickly enough!

We, here in the northern hemisphere get to experience Easter unfold in the awakening of the earth: the grass turning green, the budding of the flowers and the trees, the warming of the weather. And even though pollen is not the friend of everyone, it is a reminder to us of the renewal of the earth around us. How blessed are we to experience the joy of, along with those being confirmed, those graduating, and those to be ordained.

But there is another large group of people whom we now call our “brothers and sisters in faith.” These are those who were received into the Church, some by baptism, others by profession of faith. Their numbers remind us also of the Church coming alive in our midst, and there is nothing quite like the excitement of those who newly join our numbers.

My message to you, my brothers and sisters, is to enjoy this Spring and to be observant of the natural and spiritual changes around us. May your own faith be awakened in this time of transition, and may the Lord make the most of your love for him.

Your brother in Christ,