Today we celebrate Good Shepherd Sunday and when I think about what that means along with this reading I think about the time I spent in Guatemala. I was down there learning Spanish, back early in my seminary formation, and there was this lake that I got to go to a couple times. It’s a beautiful lake. It’s like a mile deep and it’s surrounded by 3 volcanoes and it’s called Lake Atitlan.
This Gospel we just heard is a very important one to me. One of the interesting features of it is that it is one of two times where God breathed into humanity, and since there are only two instances, that makes it important to reflect on.
Happy Easter everyone! What a beautiful day to celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord. He is truly Risen. It is a cause to celebrate every day, but today especially. How will you celebrate Jesus’ victory over sin and death today? How will you celebrate? I was thinking about this as I read the readings, celebrating the victory as a witness to these events, just a strong emphasis on Witnesses today…
Happy Easter everyone! It really is so good to be here with you, last year Fr. Andrew Marr and I celebrated the Easter Vigil by ourselves in this huge church… it was rather strange, so I am so very thankful to be with you this evening.
On this afternoon we typically venerate the cross. This year we will not venerate it in the usual fashion, coming forward during Mass to touch or kiss it, I will ask you to remain in your pews. We usually venerate the cross because “As we kneel before the crucifix and kiss it, we are not adoring the material image; rather, we are paying the highest honor to the Cross of Our Lord as the instrument of our salvation. Because the Cross of Jesus is inseparable from His sacrifice, as we reverence His Cross we, in effect, adore Christ.”
It is good to be with you this evening, my first real Triduum celebration with all of you here at Nativity. We are getting closer to normal but we aren’t quite done with all of the regulations that the Vatican and the Archdiocese are giving us: do this, don’t do that - and these next few days will feel different than usual.