April 16th

Dear Friends,


Thanks to all who participated in our Triduum and Easter services last week/weekend. We had a nice turnout for Holy Thursday, Good Friday and the Easter Vigil, and our Easter morning services were bursting with a sense of hope and joy. I am especially grateful to Carl DeSanati and Kenned MacIver, our “musicians extraordinaire” who, together with our choir, contributed so much to the solemnity and beauty of the church services. Also, we have Kim Madia and Dee Settino (Nativity of Our Lord) and Joe and Eileen Hermle, Joseph, Jessica Hermle and John McManus (St Gabriel) to thank for the beautiful decorations in our churches. I am grateful to all who contributed to the Easter Memorial flower fund, which allowed us to purchase so many beautiful flowers- the loved ones whose memory we commemorated were in my prayers throughout the Masses I celebrated. I am also grateful to Deacon Rob Morris and Deacon Erik Zeimys, as well to the liturgical ministers who served: our Altar Servers, Lectors, Extraordinary Ministers of Communion, and Ushers. Finally, thank you to those who allowed me to wash their feet on Holy Thursday!

The celebration of Christ’s resurrection from the dead goes for 50 days, until the Solemnity of Pentecost on May 28th. However, as with Christmas, we have an initial “octave” of Easter, culminating with this Sunday’s Feast of the Divine Mercy. One of these years I would like for us to participate in the devotions that accompany this feast, which includes adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, confessions and the recitation of the Chaplet of the Divine Mercy. The issue is my bouncing back and forth between our two churches. It is possible that we will be assigned an extern priest for a year starting in July- say some prayers for this, please. We have gotten to the point where having a second priest would be a huge help to me, and I think parishioners would also benefit from another homiletic perspective and an additional option to confess their sins to.


The Canaryville Little League opening day parade is next Saturday morning- it is a wonderful thing that our parish owns that beautiful baseball park, and I am thrilled to see our kids using it. I am also glad for the way this baseball league brings together young people from our entire parish. In addition to the couple of other events that take place there (like Ville-A-Palooza in August), I would love for us to find more ways for our parish to make use of the park. If you have any thoughts on this, please pass them along.




May your week reflect the encounter with Christ
we experienced at Mass today!