Blessed is the Father, who lets the Lord be his guiding hand. Whose faith brings his family courage. Whose wisdom comes from God and whose children Still stand and honor him.

Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of the faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love.

Today we celebrate Pentecost which is the solemn descent of the Holy Spirit, the Sanctifier, on the Christian Church. The Feast of the Pentecost celebrates at least three essential things in the faith of the church:

1. It marks or celebrates the end of Easter. For Easter is not one-day celebration; it is rather a 50-day celebration.
2. Pentecost also celebrates the Holy Spirit, the 3rd person of the Blessed Trinity, God Himself.
3. It celebrates the launching, the first appearance in public of the church of Christ.

The Sixth Sunday of Easter comes just before the Lord’s Ascension. It marks Jesus’ last presence with His disciples. The gospel reading contains Jesus’ tender farewell to His disciples. In His farewell speech he leaves them a special gift — peace of mind and heart. What a beautiful promise, what a special gift. "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives". Again we hear the very beautiful statement addressed to the disciples and to all subsequent followers of the New Way: "If anyone loves me, he will keep my word". The two great statements have remained for generations very crucial points for Theological reflections.

Truly no one could have ever expected it to happen!!

People whom the Jewish people normally referred to as the dogs, the Gentiles, were listening to the preaching of Jewish missionaries and were flocking to become members of the New Way, the Way of Jesus Christ. So many people throughout the various lands were becoming Christians, that Paul and Barnabas had to establish Christian communities in these foreign lands.

Indeed it's extraordinary! The Gentiles were receiving the Word of God and responding. This was beyond comprehension as Paul and Barnabas reported all this to the Christian Community of Antioch. They were convinced that God had done this. He had called the Gentiles to himself. The world was being transformed. It’s all new!

The reception of Holy Communion at Sunday Mass is such an expected feature of the Mass these days that it is surprising to realize that for many centuries, receiving Communion was a relatively rare event in the life of a faithful Christian. “Easter duty” means that Catholics must celebrate reconciliation if aware of serious sin, and receive Holy Communion during the Easter season. For a while, this was a requirement of Easter week, and later extended to the whole season of fifty days, and even beyond that by a few weeks.

It is impossible to truly meet Jesus and remain the same. All through the Easter period preceding to Pentecost we shall enjoy and celebrate the Real Presence of our Risen Lord and Savior. We shall equally be celebrating the power of transformation the glorified Risen Lord brings to all those that encountered Him. Jesus the Christ changes us and commissions us to witness to the fact of His resurrection.

As Christians, the real presence of Christ is of utmost grace because that is what shapes and forms our experience, and continually lifts our attention to the graces of heaven that give us strength and courage. Through scripture and through the Eucharist we remind ourselves of the great love by which we recognize Jesus, and in return we hear him clearly say “Follow Me”. This becomes our hearts’ desire.

Indeed, our hearts are still filled with Easter joy as we continue to celebrate the victory of the Cross and Resurrection. The victory of life over death, of good over evil, of the Father of mercies over the father of lies.

The tradition of celebrating the Sunday after Easter as Divine Mercy Sunday was started by St. John Paul II, who was inspired by the visions of St. Faustina. We are all familiar with the image of Jesus that St. Faustina had painted. The painting shows Jesus with the rays of light flowing from out of His wounded side, like the blood and water that flowed from His heart on the Cross. This is what calls for our celebration today. Little wonder the readings for the feast are carefully selected to tell us more about God’s mercy, the necessity for trusting Faith and the need for the forgiveness of sins.

Dear brethren, we are all happy to come together once again to celebrate the Glory of the Son of Man-Jesus. We are back here to celebrate the fact of His Resurrection.

This is a celebration that calls for a deeper reflection on the Great statements presented in the readings today:

1. That Jesus is Risen
2. That All prophetic scripture must be fulfilled
3. That preaching repentance and forgiveness of sin has become imperative- a command by all witnesses (Christians).
4. That Power is to come upon you through the Holy Spirit, by staying and praying together.

Dear Parish Family,

Today, we celebrate not only an empty tomb, but the One who opened the tomb and left it empty. Jesus the Christ destroyed death; His death and our death. Fear of death may once have had power over us. But, for Jesus’ disciples, then and now, faith in Jesus Christ conquers that fear. It is His gift of faith that brought us here today to celebrate His victory and worship Him as Lord of the world.

Jesus conquered death, but he didn’t give us a way around it. Instead, He confronted death and won. We also, with faith in Him, must confront death. Let Jesus roll away the stone that you cannot move (sorrow, sickness, addiction, etc.). Let Him fill that space with His light and the fresh wind of His Holy Spirit.

Dearly beloved, today is Passion Sunday, also known as Palm Sunday which marks the beginning of HolyWeek. It is a special Week deep into Lent which recounts a complex and meaningful series of eventswhich lead to the Resurrection on Easter Day. By this understanding we can say Palm Sunday representsa preparation, a setting up, for the Resurrection to occur.

All the readings today seem to say to us: "Forget the past and push on into the future.” God's words to the Israelites in captivity through the Prophet seem to resonate all through the readings: "Remember not the events of the past; the things of long ago consider not. See I am doing something new! Now it springs forth. Do you not perceive it?" What is happening is that a way is being prepared for us all to return to our homeland and to a happier future.

Paul writes to the Philippians from prison, facing his own death, and he tells them, “I give no thought to what lies behind but push on to what is ahead.” This is apt and encouraging!