Dear Lord, have mercy on us! Today the church throughout the world celebrates Divine Mercy Sunday and we certainly need it now! Some friends of mine, Marlene & Lothar, who live in West Chicago, but grew up in Germany during World War II e-mailed me on Palm Sunday saying “We are practicing social distancing, a challenge, but for the better. Yes, we are living in trying times. Both Lou and I are children of WWII, even during that trying time we had our House of Worship to go to, we felt safe there, it was a comforting shelter. However, 75 – 80 years later Churches are closed because of this invisible enemy, Covid-19. But we must not lose our Faith, God is there, God listens, God gives us words.” I would add that His mercy is always there too! So while we can’t come to church to celebrate Divine Mercy this year, I invite you to pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet at home.

The Divine Mercy celebration developed with the apparitions of Jesus to Saint Faustina Kowalska. The venerated image under this Christological title refers to what Sr. Faustina’s diary describes as “God’s loving mercy” towards all people, especially for sinners. Sr. Faustina reported a number of apparitions during religious ecstasy which she wrote in her diary, later published as the book Diary: Divine Mercy in My Soul. The two main themes of the devotion are to trust in Christ’s endless goodness, and to show mercy to others acting as a conduit for God’s love towards them.

Trusting in God’s endless goodness and mercy can at times be a challenge. Many of us grew up in a time where we believed that we had to earn God’s mercy and never deserved God’s mercy. We are right in knowing that we do not deserve God’s mercy, but we are wrong in thinking that we can earn it. God’s mercy is freely given. God’s mercy removes the punishment we deserve for sin. All we have to do is ask for it, and trust that God IS mercy. Receiving his Divine Mercy calls us to extend mercy to others.

For me, the words of Dag Hammerskjold, Secretary General of the United Nations (1953 through 1961), written in his diary Markings sums it all up: “Forgiveness is the answer to the child’s dream of a miracle by which what is broken is made whole again, what is soiled is again made clean. The dream explains why we need to be forgiven, and why we must forgive. In the presence of God, nothing stands between Him and us – we are forgiven. But we cannot feel His presence if anything is allowed to stand between ourselves and others.”

Let us bless God for His Divine Mercy!

Fr Don

On the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning and saw the stone removed from the tomb. She ran to Simon Peter and told him they have taken the Lord as the tomb was empty. Simon Peter and the other disciple came to the tomb and found it exactly as she said…..empty! On the first day of the week, two disciples of Jesus, Fr. Mark and Fr. Don, came to the church early in the morning, and found it just like the tomb….empty!! What a strange feeling overcame them! All due to an invisible virus that has stopped us in our tracks.

Easter 2020 will be remembered by all of us as the most surreal Easter ever! We’ve had snow on Easter, we’ve had storms on Easter, we’ve even had wars raging in different parts of the world on Easter, but we’ve never had no crowds on Easter! We all look forward to coming to Mass on Easter….the joyful music and choirs, the flowers and decorations, the signs of spring, the message of joy and hope, and most of all receiving the very body and blood of Jesus, the ultimate sacrifice he made for us on Good Friday to wash away our sins! And yes, the Easter bonnets and being all dressed up! Much of that we miss today. Yet, none of this changes the fact that Jesus rose from the dead and IS with us – even during this medical pandemic. When we started our Lenten “journey to the heights” none of us realized that the journey would be as challenging to our spiritual and physical life as it has been! We understood that as we undertook the journey, that the goal was to be a transformed person by the time we reached the heights of Easter. The COVID-19 pandemic forced us to change not only our physical routines by staying at home, but spiritual routines as well. With churches locked, how was I going to be able to pray? During this time God has challenged us to grow closer to Him, but perhaps in new ways. Some created altar and prayer spaces in their homes. Keep them – even after the pandemic subsides. Some have taken more time to read the scriptures or other spiritual reading – keep doing it after the pandemic subsides. Some have experienced God by being more in tune to neighbors, family, or by taking walks in nature – keep doing that after the pandemic subsides. And never lose hope…..the risen Lord is always with us no matter how often we think not. After His resurrection the disciples did not immediately recognize Jesus when he appeared to them. We do the same. But perhaps this time of worldwide pandemic will open our eyes to recognize Jesus in ways we never saw him before! ALLELUIA!!

Blessed Easter to you All!

Father Don, Father Mark, the Deacons and the Parish Staff

“The very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while other cut branches from the trees and strewed them on the road. The crowds preceding him and those following kept crying out and saying: Hosanna to the Son of David, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord; hosanna in the highest.” The words of Matthew’s gospel seem to ring a little empty this morning. There are no crowds here, no excitement and enthusiasm, no waving of palm branches to be blessed. It all seems so surreal. How is it that a virus has robbed Christians from celebrating the most holy and sacred time of the year? And quite likely it will be the same on Easter Sunday. These several weeks of no public Masses, no Holy Week liturgies, no Easter due to the COVID-19 virus has made me reflect on how lucky we are to weekly celebrate as a community the mysteries of our faith. It makes me reflect upon the Catholics throughout the world who only have a priest come once a month or even just once a year to celebrate Mass with them. How do they sustain and nurture their faith without weekly celebrating the Eucharist? It is so central to who we are as Catholics! They say that absence makes the heart grow fonder! I can only imagine their hunger. And now we get a taste of what some Catholics throughout the world experience throughout their lives. In the several weeks that you have not been able to receive communion, I pray that the absence indeed has made your heart grow fonder! And when we are able to celebrate public Masses again, I hope that you who come every week, and those who have been away for awhile will fill our church with loud Hosannas!!

Please be sure to check our website and app for resources to celebrate Holy Week at home. Let us not loose our sense of community…..join us for our livestreamed liturgies. In the meantime, know that Fr. Mark and I keep you in our thoughts and prayers. We miss you!! Have a blessed Holy Week!

On this Fifth Sunday of Lent, we meet dead Lazarus brought back to life. In doing so, perhaps we meet ourselves!! If you haven’t caught my drift yet, I started my last two bulletin articles with the same line after the person we met in that week’s gospel…. “In doing so perhaps we meet ourselves!!” The gospel story two weeks ago of the woman at the well, the gospel last week of the man born blind, and the gospel of today, Lazarus all form the basis of the scrutiny prayers used each week with the elect who are to be baptized at the Easter Vigil. These prayers call not only the elect to see themselves in the character of the particular gospel and what Jesus does for those characters the prayers call us to see ourselves as well. So today, we all called to recognize what is dead in us, and ask Jesus to raise us from our sins so that we might live a new life NOW! Has love grown cold? Have hurts made us bitter and resentful? Have we isolated ourselves, unwilling to forgive? Certainly, Lazarus had human faults and failings. It is important to note in this gospel that Jesus resuscitated Lazarus back to the life in the time he was living. Lazarus got his same body back, he was the age he was when he died, he was the same person, given the chance to live again with the new life and ability to change that which was dead in him. Resurrection on the other hand comes at the end of time, and resurrection is something much more than resuscitation! At the resurrection, we are transformed in to the likeness of the Risen Lord – a completely new body! So, while we are still here on earth, we have the chance to live a happy life in this body if only we let Jesus heal what is dead in us!

The Coronavirus pandemic has certainly challenged one of the things we hold dearest…our independence. Many having to self-isolate, stores and restaurants closed, and worst of all, cancellation of public Holy Week and Easter liturgies. This pandemic has also made us more conscious of our mortality. This conversation between Martha and Jesus in today’s Gospel is a reminder to us not to fear. Lazarus had died. Martha said to Jesus “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise.” Martha said to him, “I know he will rise, in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” Martha replied Yes, Lord, I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world.” May we live with the faith of Martha through this Coronavirus pandemic.

Fr Don