Today the Orthodox Church celebrates Easter. Happy Easter to all our Orthodox brothers and sisters! Yesterday was a holiday throughout much of the world, May 1st, May Day, Labor Day. The Church celebrated St. Joseph the Worker. On Wednesday, Mexico and many Mexican Americans celebrate Cinco de Mayo, the Fifth of May. This spring time celebration commemorates the Mexican victory over the French at Puebla, Mexico and what some call Mexico's Second Independence, first from Spain and later from France. Happy Cinco de Mayo to all who celebrate it!
Next Sunday is Mother's Day. Do something nice for your mother this week, at least an extra prayer. During the month of May the Church reminds us of our mother Mary. On the cross Jesus gave his mother Mary to his disciple John and gave John to her. We see that as Jesus giving his mother to all of us. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. And she is with us!
Today, May 2, we celebrate the Fifth Sunday of Easter. Alleluia! Our first reading continues from Acts of the Apostles. It tells us of Paul's conversion and the trouble he had trying to convince the Church that he was sincere. Remember he went from persecuting the Church to become one of its great preachers. Many in the church did not trust him until Barnabas took charge and brought him to the apostles, who gave him their seal of approval. When the Hellenists tried to kill him, Paul began his missionary journeys that took him all over, ending in Rome.
In our second reading Saint John tells us God's commandment: "And his commandment is this: we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another just as he commanded us." If we do, we remain in God and God in us. The Gospel uses the vine and the branches as an example of this. Jesus is the vine and we are the branches. Dead branches are thrown away but fruitful ones are pruned to give more fruit. When a branch is pruned, part of it is cut back, which may hurt, but the result is new growth and more fruit. Our sufferings can be seen as God pruning us so that we can grow even closer to Jesus. "By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples." As long as we are branches on the vine, which is Jesus, we can produce much good fruit in our lives by loving God and each other.
We continue to have our Sunday Masses at 8:15 and 10:30 AM, masked and socially distanced. Cheryl and Francine continue to record the 10:30 and put it on line in the afternoon on our webpage. We look forward to the day when enough parishioners have had their vaccine shots to return to normal. Please, get your shots as soon as possible. I've had mine for several weeks. The Black Catholic Advisory Board of the Diocese has a zoom program every Thursday at 7 PM. Some of our parishioners meet by zoom on Fridays at 4 PM, now discussing "The Sum of Us." The Soup Kitchen is open MWF from 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM. Our St. Vincent de Paul Group still visits shut-ins with food. Our church keeps on keeping on! Alleluia, Alleluia!
Let us continue to pray for an end to the pandemic.