"Rejoice, full of grace, the Lord is with you." Luke 1:27

Throughout the Holy Scripture (The Holy Bible/Word of God) we meet a number of men and women who lived a profound experience of God in their lives. From each one of them we could learn a lot, the call of God, their vocation, mission, witness, his writings etc. From all of them there is a lesson for our Christian life. The young Jewish woman Mary of Nazareth stands out. Of this extraordinary woman, the following highlights:

On this parables Jesus explain: The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while people were sleeping his enemy came and sowed weed seeds among the wheat and went away, then he tells them the parable of the mustard seed. If we try to understand each one of these parables, most like we will get confused since Jesus was just explaining this comparison for us to explain the kingdom of heaven. Normally we look for God on the spectacular or in amazing moments, not in the small or insignificant. That’s why the people of that time were so difficult to see that the kingdom of God was present among them. This is not to far from the way we look now on day.

It’s not uncommon to hear people complain that we Catholics often fail in communicating our faith. Fair enough. We can and should improve there. But it’s interesting to notice that Jesus himself was implicitly accused by his disciples of a similar failure. This week in Matthew’s gospel they are perplexed that he speaks to the crowds in ambiguous parables. The Lord’s riddles leave many people more confused than before. He responds by pointing out that his parables have an intentional dual purpose: to hide (for some) and to reveal (for others) his Gospel: “Because knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven has been granted to you, but to them it has not been granted” (Matthew 13:11). Is Jesus being unnecessarily difficult, obscurantist, or, worse, elitist?

A Blessed month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to all of you!

I just wanted to ask you to continue to pray for the major repair project of our Maze church. The construction company, Acme, has been doing a great job and so far, have not encountered any surprises - Praise God!

“Everyone who acknowledges me before others, I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father. But whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father.” (Mt 10:32,33) The ending words in today’s Gospel should not be taken lightly, especially considering all the transgressions against the true human values that we witness every day in these times.

This weekend we celebrate how we can allow ourselves to be lead by the Holy Spirit. To permit the Holy Spirit to take control of our lives: by constantly remembering His Holy Presence and behaving well; by praying for His daily anointing so that we may fight against our temptations and control our evil tendencies, evil habits, and addictions; by asking His daily assistance to pray, listening to God through meditative Bible reading, and talking to Him by personal, family and liturgical prayers; and by asking the help of the Holy Spirit to do good for others and to be reconciled with God and others every day.

This weekend we celebrate the Ascension of the Lord; Jesus Assends to be with his Father in heaven. This should not come as a surprise to any of his disciples, nor to us because He had told them what was going to happen.

Before he Ascends, he charges his disciples to go make disciples of all nations and also assures them that he will be with them always. Very soon we will celebrate Pentecost which is the descent of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit which we received at baptism, at confirmation and the one who hovers over the waters and the earth to help guide us and to direct our journey toward our heavenly homeland.

We as human beings show our love to others in different ways: we do it with words, giving gifts, taking others to favorite places they like to visit. We express our love for others in different ways, but the love that Jesus asks of us today in the gospel goes beyond a feeling.

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments… He who accepts my commandments and keeps them, he loves me” (John 14:15-21).

The first reading today gives us the account of the ordination of the first Deacons of the Church. I would like to share with you some of the prayers the Bishop says at the ordination of Deacons in our time.

Collect

God, who have taught the ministers of your Church to seek not to be served but to serve their brothers and sisters, grant, we pray, that these your servants, whom you graciously choose today for the office of Deacon, may be effective in action, gentle in ministry, and constant in prayer.

While we pray for the success of our Church Repair, We know that Jesus is our Good Shepherd who truly tends us, feeds us and loves us.

He said, "I am the gate" which means, in and through him alone we have life and salvation. His Good News of peace, righteousness and justice is our gate to enter into eternal life; Acknowledging Him as our Saviour is the gateway towards the kingdom of Heaven.

After having traveled the "Lenten Path" with its message and invitation to "conversion and believe in the Gospel", in addition to receiving every Sunday the proposal of the gospels (Temptation, Transfiguration, Samaritan, Blind from birth, Resurrection of Lazarus and Palm Sunday) we begin Easter time, which goes hand in hand with Lent.

Our faith is sustained in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, as Pope Francis said in his homily at the Easter Vigil on April 8: "This is what the Lord's Easter accomplishes: it encourages us to go forward, to overcome the feeling of defeat, to remove the stone from the tombs in which we often enclose hope, to look to the future with confidence, because Christ rose and changed the course of history.”

A young, engaged couple sat on the couch in front of me as we chatted about their upcoming marriage. The young lady was struggling to trust her future husband. She told me her father had been unfaithful to her mother. She said of her fiancé, “I want him to prove to me that he won’t cheat on me.” The young man looked at me helplessly, raised his eyebrows and shrugged his shoulders. What evidence could he possibly give to validate such a proof? Nothing. All he could do was invite her to trust him.

Happy Easter Christ has Risen! Alleluia!

Jesus Christ, who was brutally put to death and buried, is alive again through the power of God. The message of Easter, the message of the Resurrection is that “he has been raised from the dead”, Jesus Christ was victorious over sin and death for the salvation of mankind!

You may know the number 4-1-1 as what you may have used in the past to call for “information,” but did you know that 4-11 (April 11th) is the feast day of our patron saint-St. Stanislaus of Krakow? While we are entering into Holy Week this week, beginning with Palm Sunday, let us take a day to also celebrate the patron saint of our parish. St. Stanislaus was canonized in 1253 and was the archbishop of Krakow, Poland.