My Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ, the Parishioners of St. Peter’s Parish:

I hope and pray that this letter finds you and your family well and safe.

At the Pastoral Council meeting at the beginning of May, it was suggested by the members of the Council that I should reach out to you again with another update. I thought that I would wait until the Solemnity of Pentecost, which is celebrated this year on Sunday, May 23^rd.

The reason that I wanted to write to you on Pentecost is because this is the day that the Church was founded. On that day, the Holy Spirit came down on the believers and they were changed. Although they had hidden away in fear after Jesus was arrested and died, His many appearances to them throughout the forty days after His resurrection had convinced them that He was alive. When the Holy Spirit was poured out on them at Pentecost, they were transformed into the living Church, the Body of Christ, and they left their homes to continue His mission. Pentecost marks the day that the Church was founded and began its mission. Continue reading →

The reading from the Gospel of John for this Pentecost Sunday, the last day of the Easter Season, takes us back to Easter Sunday, the day on which this Season began. It begins with the words: “It was evening on the day Jesus rose from the dead, the first day of the week.” These words situate this scene, like so many of the Gospel stories that we have heard on the Sundays throughout the Easter Season on Sunday, on the day Jesus rose from the dead. Whether it was the story of the disciples on the road to Emmaus, or the story of Doubting Thomas, so many of the stories of Christ’s appearing to His disciples in the Easter Season, have focused our attention on the fact that Christ appeared to his disciples after His resurrection as they were gathered together on a Sunday. One of my favorite reminders of the importance of Sunday is actually that which we read in the story from the Gospel of Luke, with the disciples on the road to Emmaus. Here, like today’s Gospel story, Jesus appears to His disciples on a Sunday and celebrates with them that memorial supper that He asked them to celebrate in memory of Him. This emphasis that we hear over and over again throughout the Easter Season on the importance of Sunday, is a powerful reminder to all of us that this is the day that Jesus rose from the dead. It is the day He invites us to celebrate together and be reminded of who we are as His people. Continue reading →

In the days following Jesus’ resurrection, the disciples of Jesus locked themselves away in self-isolation for fear that the Romans and Jews might arrest them for being followers of Jesus. This self-isolation was very similar to that which many people today have had to experience on account of the COVID 19 restrictions that are in place. Throughout the entire time of the disciples’ isolation, Jesus appeared to His disciples and strengthened them with assurances of His resurrection, peace, and the gift of the Holy Spirit by which He would always be present in their lives. Continue reading →