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Sunday, April 24, 2011

JESUS CHRIST IS RISEN! HE IS RISEN INDEED!

THE BEGINNING AND THE END!
Last night's Great Easter Vigil was long but beautiful, two and a half hours! I had the most baptisms ever for me at an Easter Vigil, 17 in total. Plus we received into the full communion of the Church 17 others. It was a bit cumbersome, but thrilling to have so many people wanting to enter the Church. It is truly a new springtime for the Church. Have a Blessed Easter!



5 comments:

Anonymous said...

As I viewed the pix of you lighting the 2011 Easter Candle, I was transported back ten years to our own family's entrance under your watchful care.
Our boy of seven is now seventeen & discerning priesthood. Our family, having swum the Tiber, has never looked back.
We traveled this Triduum to spend our tenth at MHT, soaking up her presence & people; she is, and will ever be, home for our family.

If a priest marks his life by the lives he has helped change, be filled with joy this Easter-tide as we celebrate with you ten years of beauty living in the fullness of Truth!

He is Risen, He is Risen indeed! -pgal

Anonymous said...

How inspiring!!!

Anonymous said...

pgal,
What was it that motivated you and motivated your husband to convert?
~SqueekerLamb

Anonymous said...

SqueekerLamb - to answer 3 years of soul searching, reading articles, journals, books, talking to tons of people & 6 months of RCIA in a few words... the Eucharist.

My family had a true & real experience with Jesus in the Eucharist when we visited MHT as faithful Protestants, Bible College grads & post-several years as missionaries on the foreign field. Despite all of this experience & a deep love for Jesus, we had never been to a Catholic Mass & were in attendance at the invitation of a friend we were visiting.

Jesus was lifted up at the Consecration & there was NO DOUBT in that moment for either my husband or myself that this WAS the Body of Christ. We were stunned.

Following that experience were the questions (tons & tons of questions), struggles & even a few wrestling matches with Mary, but we had seen Truth & there was no going back.

As the Gospel of Luke states so beautifully - "Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?" (Luke 24:32)

Our hearts were open to His Truth & He revealed Himself in all fullness & glory. Our 'yes' came in 2010 as John Paul the Great slowly closed the Jubilee Doors & since then the daily walking out of our salvation.

Alleluia, Alleluia! -pgal

Anonymous said...

Your hearts were open to seeing Truth.
I commend both of you for being open, and staying open.
I also commend you for not letting your prior beliefs hold you back. It took courage and humility, plus perserverence. Rare qualities.
~SqueekerLamb