Dear Parishioners,

As we continue to celebrate the liturgical season of Easter, we are afforded the opportunity to hear how the early Church dealt with the problems of everyday life. In the daily context of a "Roman" world surrounded by inhospitable groups of people, the Church was able to be at peace from within and grow in numbers. They took seriously what it meant to be "in the world but not of the world."

Further, they relied heavily on the Word of Jesus who reminded His followers that, "without me you can do nothing." "Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me."

Therefore, for the believer, Jesus must be everything!

Jesus is everything for the community of believers whose mission is to bring the Good News to the world at large. Jesus promises that prayers will be answered when we pray to accomplish God’s Will. "If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you." Anything else that we might do "will be thrown out like a branch and wither..."

Consequently, in the first Letter of St. John, we have received solid instruction on how to apply our faith on a daily basis.

"Children, let us love not in word or speech but in deed and truth."

"Now this how we shall know that we belong to the truth...we keep his commandments and do what pleases him."

"And his commandment is this: we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another just as he commanded us."

"Those who keep his commandments remain in him, and he in them, and the way we know that he remains in us is from the Spirit he gave us."

Please pray with me for grace to "hear" the word of God, stop internally arguing about it, and just do it. As people of faith who claim to believe and know the Lord, our response will always show itself in how we bring God to everything that we are and everything that we do.

May God bless you and all of your efforts to truly live an authentic life of faith.

Sincerely yours in Christ,

Fr. James Tarantino,
Pastor