Dear Parishioners,

We rise again from ashes! That is the song that reminds us during Lent that we live in a world where failure is turned into success, defeat into victory, sickness into health, sadness into joy, despair into hope, hatred into love, death into life. All this happens because Jesus went through death into Eternal Life and showed us that nothing can keep us down for long, and absolutely nothing can keep us down forever. He has won the victory over death and over all the lesser maladies and disappointments and problems that we face. He gives us forgiveness and mercy, hope and joy, peace and love in this life, and the fullness of life and glory in the next.

Nothing can come between us and the Love of God that comes to us in Christ Jesus - not pandemics, or economic reverses, or loneliness, or isolation, or social unrest, or any other problem real or imagined. Jesus is Risen and we rise with Him from whatever ashes have covered us to the abundance of life He has planned for us. His Resurrection was instantaneous. Our resurrection may be slow but it is inevitable if we hang on to Him.

I pray that all of us let Jesus’ Resurrection happen in our hearts and in our lives this Easter so that the feast we celebrate may be a living and powerful reality in our lives and in our world.

Happy Easter,
Msgr. Jeff Conway