Easter III
How do you know it is Easter Season? The “Vidi Aquam”, of course!
✠ The Bishop’s Corner ✠
April proved the poet true. It was indeed “the cruelest month” for Faith and freedom, for Mass attendance and the economy, for Truth. Its cold, wet conclusion was a final slap in the face, dragging even “fairest of seasons, sweet May,” along with it, at least for its early hours. But what a day was May First. First Friday, feast of Ss. Philip and James, within the Octave of St. Joseph, Protector of the Catholic Church, and the opening of Mary’s month of May. Who could not rejoice? All was bright and joyful within as the saints and devotions lined up in a glorious constellation. May your May make up for April, and more so!
Still, let us not too quickly forget the charming memories, the perfect pictures, the unexpected graces of last month, of Holy Week and Easter. Well, they were unforgettable, weren’t they? And that such mercy and protection should have been vouchsafed to us in the midst of our richly deserved corona chastisement! Start out and end your day always with thanks, and you will live in childlike, wondering joy.
Fr. Cekada has been eagerly asking each morning for news of the coming Covid Conspiracy crack-up. Much good news arrived on Friday, but due to censoring you have to look for it. Don’t worry, it’s there. Persevere in prayer. Visualize the lifting of this “Communist Spring,” the parting of America’s Iron Curtain. It is a struggle. Our Masters the Marxists will not easily give up, but is not our land dedicated to Mary Immaculate? As she told Juan Diego, “Am I not here, who am your Mother?”
But it’s the fear thing, far more than maskings and distancings, which takes the greatest toll. The elderly and the ill who are afraid to have a priest visit, or to attend Mass, or even have family members hear Mass, for fear of contamination. All for a myth, all for an experiment in Communism. But it seems “the people” are rising up. Our prayers certainly are.
May Devotions now mark our days as we continue with our Masses, Rosaries, novenas and Vespers. Fear not! Come pray with us, receive Our Lord, and know His strength!
May blessings to you and yours.
–Bp. Dolan