Message from Fr. Mike
I just want to say Happy Easter to you. It is a privilege to celebrate this great feast with you. This is my first Easter with you, and it is an incredible experience. With thankfulness in my heart, I pray that Our Risen Lord will bestow upon you and those you love blessings that will bring you and your loved ones peace, joy, and happiness.
We congratulate and welcome our newly baptized and fully initiated members of our community; Jennifer Kennedy, Sarah Motevalli, and Uzma Paquillo. We also welcome Susanne Broussard from Concord, California. It has been a long journey. They are signs to us of God’s grace of conversion. What a wonderful witness of a new life in Christ that comes from conversion. They remind us of our continuous journey into the Kingdom of God. We thank the volunteers and their sponsors who made this program a reality. We cannot thank them enough.
Easter is a symbol of new life. An Easter Sunday Orthodox liturgy states, “Now that we have seen the resurrection of Christ, let us adore the all-holy Lord Jesus, the only sinless one. We bow in worship before your cross, O Christ, and we praise and glorify your resurrection, for you are our God, and we have no other, and we magnify your name. All you faithful come: let us adore the holy resurrection of Christ, for, behold, through the cross joy has come to the world! Let us always bless the Lord, let us sing His resurrection.” St. John Chrysostom said, “Beloved, do not pass over this mystery without thought.” Do not let the experience or insight you gained during Lent pass you by. Let us continue to work on the resolutions we made during Lent. May the light of our resurrected Savior continue to illuminate our path towards God our Father.
HAPPY EASTER! HAPPY EASTER!!!
Fr. Mike Ume.