Our hearts are filled with joy as we celebrate the Resurrection of Our Lord this Easter Sunday. The Church proclaims, through the Exultet (Easter proclamation), that on this day, Jesus broke the chains of death and rose triumphant from the grave. Thus, Easter is the most important celebration in our Church’s liturgical year because it celebrates Our Lord’s triumph over sin and death.

Saint Augustine calls this event our hope. Christ rose from death to tell us that after all the sufferings and pains we have endured, we will triumph over them if we will only put our trust in God. He lived a life of obedience to the Father and was faithful to the mission given to Him. If we look at the Risen Christ, we have the reason to hope.

Following the gospel this Sunday, we can see on that first Easter morning everything was made new. Mary Magdalen shared to Simon Peter and John what she saw about the empty tomb and coming back, they also saw the burial cloths. They believed that Jesus had risen from the dead and that belief brought newness in their lives and it changed their perspective from being timid to zealous apostles of Christ. St. Paul shared the same feeling when He encountered the Risen Christ on His way to Damascus. He said: “If anyone is in Christ, He is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come” (2Cor 5:17). Thus, Paul became a zealous apostle of Christ proclaiming His gospel.

This “new life” experience can also happen to us if we allow the Risen Christ to transform us. As a parish, we experienced some transformation, not only in the physical structure of our Church building, but also in terms of ministries when we introduced Helping Hands, Theology on Tap and the Men’s Group.

To date, Helping Hands has approximately fifty volunteers and they have been able to help some people in the community. They had the first education workshop in March and it was well attended.

Theology on Tap is also doing well. Every month they meet in a restaurant and a speaker is invited to present a topic relevant to the 20’s, 30’s and 40’s.

Men’s Group has twenty-four men who have joined via the initial call for membership. An organizational meeting will be held after Easter. The group will provide spiritual development and social interactions for men of the parish. The group will also provide support for parish activities and maintenance needs. Recently, a dozen men from the parish joined with six hundred other Catholic men at the first ever Diocese of Greensburg Catholic Men’s Conference, The WELL.

The Easter celebration is indeed a celebration of hope and joy. May we all enjoy the benefits of Christ’s resurrection through our openness to His grace and His calling! Happy Easter to all!