St. Clare of Assisi is, rightly, famous for many things. She was a spiritual sister of St. Francis, a rich and beautiful young woman who desired to live detached from any material wealth or comfort. She was zealously committed to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and founded a group of women to pray - today known as the “Poor Clares.” We are quite blessed to have a house of Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration at Our Lady of Solitude Monastery in Tonopah. They are our neighbors and one of our former parishioners, Aundrea Garcia, is a novice there. Fr. Brian regularly offers Mass for the sisters and I know they pray for all of us.

You may have noticed that this year we celebrated the Annunciation on April 8, not the usual March 25, as that date fell during the Easter Octave (those 8 days of Resurrection celebration.) We don’t typically move holy days around - so it tells us just how important the Easter Octave is that the Church wants us focused the whole time on Jesus’ resurrection… AND how important that we still celebrate the Announcement by Archangel Gabriel to Mary that the Eternal Son of God would be conceived as a human baby in her womb.

An ancient story, retold famously by St. Jerome, is that in the final years of St. John the Apostle he lived in exile in a cave on Patmos Island. A small community of Christians lived on the coast and each Sunday they hiked up the mountain to pray with and  listen to the Apostle. Every week St. John told them “children, love one another.” The Christians nodded their heads and seemed to take this message to heart.

Happy Easter! For these past 7 days (today makes 8!) we have been celebrating the Octave of Easter and praying as if each day were the Day of Resurrection. This means that we come to Mass today with the same joy as the disciples who found the empty tomb and were gathered in the Upper Room as Jesus came to them to bring them peace (John 20:19).

Christus Resurrexit Sicut Dixit! Christ is risen, just as He said! Happy Easter to you all and may God bless you abundantly this holy season!

Over the past week we have celebrated, as a parish, the mysteries of our faith: the Passion, Teachings and Death of Jesus Christ. This morning we celebrate his glorious Resurrection from the dead!

A very blessed Palm Sunday to everyone. Following our six weeks of preparation in Lent we have come to the beginning of this most sacred week. Together, over the coming days, we will commemorate the central mysteries of our faith: the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Just like we found with Advent and Christmas, time flies when you’re having fun (and busy!) It’s hard to believe that Palm Sunday is next week… I hope your Lent has been full of many blessings and graces that have brought you closer to Jesus. As a parish, SJV has celebrated a Mission, weekly Stations of the Cross, daily Mass, and many good confessions. Of course we have also had opportunities for fun like our weekly Fish Fry and the various spring activities in school, youth ministry and religious education. We have celebrated together at weddings and baptisms and mourned together at funerals.

I continue to receive lots of notes and messages from parishioners who attended our parish mission, “The Missing Piece: What Are You Searching For?” that we offered on Feb. 25 - 27. To a person people have expressed gratitude to the Holy Spirit for what we received there. As well, we all owe much thanks to David Portugal, Fr. Andrew, the Faith Formation Office and various parish missionaries who helped to coordinate this. It’s no small project!! Keep your eyes out (and ears tuned) for information on how to participate in “quads” of discipleship.

I can only speak for myself, but all I can say about the Parish Mission is WOW! I felt the Holy Spirit moving in a most palpable and beautiful way. Jesus was present - as He promised - when 2-3 are gathered in His Name and I think we ended up over 500 gathered together on Night 3. He also walked among us in the Eucharist and we proclaimed and heard and shared His Word. Take a look at the pictures we included in this week’s bulletin and if you were with us, please share your experience with those who weren’t able to attend this year.

Greetings to all and messages of prayer and gratitude from Fr. Tom! He continues to recuperate and is getting stronger each day. Like I mentioned in my email to the parish last week Fr. Tom so wishes he could be with us for the sacred liturgies, devotions, and activities of these first weeks of Lent. However, he is listening to his doctors and us brother-priests in Holy Cross to rest and feel better. We’ll be very ready and excited for his return to SJV but in the meantime he knows we’re all praying for him and love him very much. He asked me to let you all know how grateful he is and that he is praying for all the faithful of the parish.

Since the 10th century we Christians have begun our Lenten observance with the ancient Latin hymn Attende, Domine, et miserere, quia peccavimus tibi. (“Look down, O Lord, and have mercy, for we have sinned against You.”) I mentioned last Sunday that I do not believe Catholics are obsessed with sin, as many in society would claim about us. There are people who laugh at the phrase “Catholic guilt” and think our religion causes us to constantly feel guilty or ashamed. If you’ll pardon the old-fashioned response, what a bunch of poppycock!

Parishioners of a certain age may remember the Question 6 from The Baltimore Catechism “Why did God make you?” and its answer “God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him forever in the next.” A young person asked me last week this very question - from his own curiosity, not from a catechism class - and I thought of this answer. We exist because God desired (and still desires now) that we exist, and so we are born. No one is an accident or superfluous.

In his book Priests for the Third Millennium, New York’s Cardinal Timothy Dolan tells the story of an older man on his deathbed, surrounded by his children and the parish priest. Wanting to settle his affairs before he passed away, he gave each of his sons and daughters an assignment based on their profession: to the attorney went the responsibility for settling the estate, to the accomplished businesswoman daughter went taking care of the family store, and so forth. Each had a stated responsibility except the priest, who asked “sir, and what would you like me to do?” To which every head in the hospital room turned and looked with surprise at the priest and the old man said “Well Father, you pray of course!”