Next weekend we begin the “merry old month of May” as the old song goes and May is certainly a month full of celebrations that we can look forward to each year.  I’d like to draw your attention to a few of them that will be taking place here at St. Mary’s over the coming month. 

The month will kick off with the celebration of First Communion.  Our parish Second Graders have been preparing for months for the reception of the Blessed Sacrament for the first time.  Their enthusiasm and excitement and preparation are tangible and beautiful to behold.  Perhaps there is a lesson for us as well in that, to make sure that our reception of the Eucharist never becomes a matter of routine, but something we look forward to with expectation, as well as approaching it with the proper dispositions – freedom from grave sin and an understanding of what we are doing.  Please pray for them as they finish their preparation and celebrate this great milestone in their relationship with Christ next weekend.

Following on the heels of First Communion will be the celebration of the Sacrament of Confirmation for our high school juniors.  Like their younger brothers and sisters in Christ who have been preparing for First Communion, they too have spent these months preparing to be sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit and draw closer to Christ through the gifts of the Spirit.  Bishop Hying was originally scheduled to celebrate the sacrament with our confirmation candidates, but after being transferred to the Diocese of Gary, Indiana, I will have the great privilege of stepping into his place to confirm our young people.  It is something I am looking forward to with great joy, particularly after having read their Confirmation letters which reveals them to be young people who know the importance of faith in their lives and are taking this step freely and willingly. 

The month of May is also a month set aside and dedicated to the Blessed Virgin in particular.  So, it’s certainly a wonderful thing to increase or add some Marian devotion to our normal prayer routines - a rosary a day, a visit to the shrines of Our Lady found in our parish church, spending some time meditating on her example as revealed in the Scriptures.  You are also invited to attend our annual May Crowning taking place on the evening of the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima, May 13th.  The May Crowning tradition began with St. Philip Neri (1515-1595) who began the custom of decorating a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  It was around this time in the Church’s history that May was dedicated in a particular way to Mary and celebrated with festivities, processions, prayer and the crowning of a statue of Mary.  So, please join us that evening and sing the praises of Our Blessed Mother, Queen of Heaven and Earth!

As if this weren’t enough celebrating, we will conclude the month of May with the graduation of our 8th Graders from our parish school.  We are proud of these young men and women who have been educated and formed right in the heart of our parish, at our school.  Along with all of these festivities we also will have baptisms and weddings, the great celebrations of the Ascension, Pentecost and Trinity Sunday.  And while the celebration of Trinity Sunday supersedes our patronal feast day of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary on May 31st this year, we keep in mind that May is a particularly special month for all of us here at this parish dedicated to the patronage of Our Lady of the Visitation. 

As you can readily see there are a lot of things going on at St. Mary’s and if you want to keep abreast of them and find out more as well as needed information on the parish and our activities, be sure to check out our new parish website!  Take a peek at www.stmaryeg.org if you haven’t already!  

The Easter Season we are currently in will last for seven weeks and culminates with the celebration of the Feast of Pentecost.  The great feast of Pentecost commemorates the moment when the Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles, when “suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind…divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them.  All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts of the Apostles 2:2-4).  While Saint Paul was not present at the moment of Pentecost, he too experienced the working and the power of the Holy Spirit in his own life and ministry.  

There are a number of places in Saint Paul’s writings where he refers to the Holy Spirit.  It’s interesting to note that Saint Paul does not spend a lot of time trying to tell us who the Holy Spirit is, but what the Holy Spirit does in our lives.  Many of the references to the Holy Spirit center upon the gifts that the Spirit brings to us.  There are “varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:4).  These gifts are as diverse as wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, working of miracles, prophecy, and the discernment of spirits (cf. 1 Corinthians 12:8-10).  

This variety of gifts has been given to people not only for their own well-being, but “for the common good” (1 Corinthians 12:7).  These gifts are meant to build up the Body of Christ, the Church and while these gifts are distinctive and unique they all “are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses” (1 Corinthians 12:11).  

For Saint Paul, one of the greatest gifts that the Holy Spirit brings is the gift of wisdom.  This wisdom comes not from the spirit of the world, but the Spirit “that is from God” (1 Corinthians 2:12).  The Holy Spirit helps us to understand the gifts that He has bestowed upon us and enables us to interpret “spiritual things” (1 Corinthians 2:13).  Not only does the Holy Spirit help us to interpret and understand His gifts, but He helps us to understand and comprehend the greatest of all gifts – Jesus Christ Himself.  The Holy Spirit opens our eyes and ears and hearts, so that when we see Jesus Christ, we come to faith in Him.  Saint Paul says that “no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:3). 

Saint Paul also talks about the fruits of the Holy Spirit.  The fruits of the Holy Spirit are those things that result from His action in our lives – like the fragrance from a flower - they are tangible reminders that the Holy Spirit has been active.  These fruits of the Holy Spirit include “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23).  The Holy Spirit also brings us the gift of true freedom, “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Corinthians 3:17).

Finally, Saint Paul speaks of being ‘sealed’ with the Holy Spirit.  The Sacr`ment of Confirmation is, in a particular way, the sacrament of the Holy Spirit and the Church speaks of this seal which is ‘marked’ on one’s soul.  This seal is the pledge of the Holy Spirit’s presence and the promise of His continued action in our lives.  Saint Paul expresses it beautifully, in Christ “you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of his glory” (Ephesians 1:13-14).

(This is a part of a series on St. Paul that will appear in the bulletin over the course of this year.)

Over the weeks of the Easter Season, we hear at Mass accounts from the Acts of the Apostles and the beginning months and years of the Church.  We hear of the ministry of Saint Peter and Saint John, of the martyrdom of Saint Stephen, of the conversion of Saint Paul.  As with the beginning of any effort, there are always struggles and difficulties.  One of the difficulties the early Church faced was unity in the midst of a rapidly burgeoning community.  People were being drawn by the preaching of the Apostles from all sorts of ways of life, geographical locations and previous experience.  This led the Church to having to deal with the need to bring unity out of so much diversity.  This need for unity was something that Saint Paul took seriously and preached tirelessly.  

At the beginning of one of his earliest letters, Saint Paul already began to stress the need for unity in the church.  He urged: “I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose” (1 Corinthians 1:10).  Saint Paul also encourages the people of Ephesus to make “every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:3).  He tells the people of Philippi to stand “firm in one spirit, striving side by side with one mind for the faith of the gospel” (Philippians 1:27).  

Saint Paul uses the great analogy of the body to describe the unity that should characterize the Church.  Though we are many, we “are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another” (Romans 12:5).  This unity does not mean that we are all the same, instead, “as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body” (Romans 12:4-5).  In fact, the Holy Spirit recognizes and wants this beautiful diversity of members and “we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us” (Romans 12:6).  

This diversity of members and of gifts does not threaten the unity of the Church so long as we remember that we are “all children of God through faith” (Galatians 3:26).  We become children of God in baptism.  In baptism we become “members of the household of God” (Ephesians 2:19).  We are joined together and grow “into a holy temple in the Lord” (Ephesians 2:21).  

By sharing in the same baptism and believing that there is “one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all” then our unity is assured (Ephesians 4:5-6).  By holding firm to the Faith we have received we build up the Church in love (cf. Ephesians 4:16).  This unity of faith and baptism binds us together so strongly that “there is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female”  (Galatians 2:28).  This does not mean that our differences are obliterated, but that there is something even more powerful that holds us together in one Church and what holds us together is that all of us “are one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 2:28).

(This is a part of a series on St. Paul that will appear in the bulletin over the course of this year.)

Easter Morning!
My dear brothers and sisters, it is with great joy that we celebrate once again the glorious Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ!  Alleluia!  As we have journeyed to the Cross over the Lenten Season we can now glory in the victory won upon it over the course of the Eater Season.  Here are some words from a homily by St. Ephrem the Deacon, a Doctor of the Church who lived in the 4th Century:

“Death trampled our Lord underfoot, but he in his turn treated death as a highroad for his own feet.  He submitted to it, enduring it willingly, because by this means he would be able to destroy death in spite of itself.  Death had its own way when our Lord went out from Jerusalem carrying his cross; but when by a loud cry from that cross he summoned the dead from the underworld, death was powerless to prevent it. 
Death slew him by means of the body which he had assumed, but that same body proved to be the weapon with which he conquered death.  Concealed beneath the cloak of his manhood, the godhead engaged death in combat; but in slaying our Lord, death itself was slain.  It was able to kill natural human life, but was itself killed by the life that is above the nature of man.

Death could not devour our Lord unless he possessed a body, neither could hell swallow him up unless he bore our flesh; and so he came in search of a chariot in which to ride to the underworld.  This chariot was the body which he received from the Virgin; in it he invaded death’s fortress, broke open its strongroom and scattered all its treasure.

He who was also the carpenter’s glorious son set up his cross above death’s all-consuming jaws and led the human race into the dwelling place of life  Since a tree had brought about the downfall of mankind, it was upon a tree that mankind crossed over to the realm of life.  Bitter was the branch that had once been grafted upon that ancient tree, but sweet the young shoot that has now been grafted on, the shoot in which we are meant to recognize the Lord whom no creature can resist. 

We give glory to you, Lord, who raised by your cross to span the jaws of death like a bridge by which souls might pass from the region of the dead to the land of the living.  You are incontestably alive.  Your murderers sowed your living body in the earth as farmer sow grain, but it sprang up and yielded an abundant harvest of men raised from the dead.

Come then, my brothers and sisters, let us offer our Lord the great and all-embracing sacrifice of our love, pouring out our treasury of hymns and prayers before him who offered his cross in sacrifice to God for the enrichment of us all.”

A blessed and joyful Easter to all of you and your families!