My Friends,
     How can we not be happy with this bright crisp weather we’ve been having these past few days.  They invigorate me and help me to feel joyful, peaceful and hopeful.   I pray that they do the same for you.
     One day seems to meld into another,  I understand that only too well and these times can be very overwhelming for us.  That I don’t deny.  But throughout all of this, one thing is absolutely certain is that you and I have the unquestionable word of Christ that He is with us all the way.  He will bring us out of this nightmare.
     As Jesus told Paul in today’s first reading as Paul was spreading the Gospel to all people: Do not be afraid.  I am with you.  This is something perhaps you should put on your refrigerator or somewhere else where you can see it and reflect on it,  DO NOT BE AFRAID; I AM WITH YOU.  
     We hear all the time on TV- You are not in this alone; we are in it together.  This is what Jesus says to you and me.  You are not in this alone;  I the Lord are in this with you.  Believe that my friends.
 
God Bless,
Father John
 
 
     In the Acts of the Apostles, the Lord appears to Paul in a dream and encourages him to go out and preach the Good News of Christ to all that he meets.  The Lord says : Do not be afraid.  Do not be afraid.
     The Lord tells you and me the very same thing.  He tells us that as we live good Catholic lives, as we do good deeds for the less fortunate, as we stand up for the beliefs of our faith- do not be afraid.  Jesus is with us to give us the strength, determination, the support and the guidance we need to carry on His work in our lives.
     We know that we have nothing to fear because the refrain of our RP tells it all.  It says : God is King of all the earth.  You and I serve our great king with our very lives. 
     In the Gospel, the Lord tells His friends they will weep and mourn because He will no longer be with them.  But this pain and grief that they are feeling will be transformed.  It will not last. 
     The Lord may not be physically present to us but His Spirit is certainly within us to help us throughout our lives- to guide, direct, support and strengthen us. 
     As followers of Christ, opposition goes along with the territory because the ways of the Lord are not the ways of the world.  This we know.  But the Lord reminds us that He is with us and a joy that no one or nothing can take from us will be ours if we cling to Christ and hold out to the end.  May each of us trust in the words of Christ so that we may experience the joy and peace that our hearts yearn for.