Hey Y’all,
Happy 4th Sunday of Easter! That’s a greeting from our liturgical calendar. And from a more accepted Gregorian civic calendar, Happy Mother’s Day. (While both the Church’s liturgical and the world’s civic calendars are based on the Gregorian Calendar which was established by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582, the focus is obviously different. In our prayer, we always emphasize the liturgical calendar and the liturgical year. The civil or civic calendar marks time along the lines of government, business, etc. But as Church we can celebrate both liturgical and civic occasions on the same day. Thus, the 4th Sunday of Easter just happens to also be Mother’s day!)
Plus, when I’m writing this, I’m anticipating that an election of a new Pope may have happened or is soon to happen. And all of this is current stuff happens while the Scriptures remind us of past events of the earliest Church – Sts. Paul and Barnabas preaching in Antioch in Pisidia, and St. John writing from his exile in Patmos. This points out that as Christians, we live in the Kingdom of God which already invites us into a kind of timelessness, a kind of eternity. While time marches on, we exist and will exist in God’s present which is eternal. And even as we celebrate Mother’s Day, as Christians, we put our hope in the truth that our Mom’s who have departed from this earthly realm are yet present to us spiritually and prayerfully. The live in God’s present, saved by Jesus Christ, the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. And for those Mother’s who have lost children, please take consolation that your children, living fully in God’s present, they are not lost, but are actively yearning with the yearning of our God that nothing and no one will be lost. That was and is and will be God’s desire played out in the resurrection of Jesus Christ and revealed to us through the Holy Spirit.
So y’all, let’s celebrate all of this bundle of time and eternity, knowing of God’s grace, Jesus’ gift of paradise to those who have gone before, and the Holy Spirit’s wisdom that all will be made gloriously eternal.
God bless us now and always!
Fr. RF
PS…
Our Bishop has also asked that we say this prayer communally after Communion at all Sunday liturgies. It is a prayer for vocations.
O God, grant us holy vocations in the Diocese of Orange. Call forth laborers for Your vineyard from our parishes, families, and schools. Inspire young people to lay down their lives for the Gospel. Configure men for priestly sacrifice and pastoral service. Draw men and women to radical discipleship through consecrated life. Grant parents generosity to encourage their children to discover Your plan of love. O Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, teach us to say a joyful “YES” as You did at the Annunciation. Amen.