In the past weeks, you might have seen a bit more activity in the parish. Generally, this time of the year is when our children and our young people, and even some adults, conclude their formation programs and receive their sacraments.
This is a beautiful time in which we witness that the church is alive. I personally like this time because I see how faith is lived in families and in concrete faces. It is very gratifying to see how our children and young people of the parish see their two years of preparation for the reception of the sacraments crowned. I know that the time of preparation is a time of great effort for the whole family, but everything that is good for us requires effort and sacrifice. In other words, ‘all good things come with a cost,” and the sacraments are no exception. Although we journey through sacrifice, this time is a time of great joy for the parish community.
Last weekend we heard in the gospel that we are Jesus’ sheep and that He gives us eternal life. One of the most concrete, most visible, and most personal ways, through which Jesus gives us that eternal life is the sacramental life. In other words, Jesus, the Good Shepherd, continues to take care of his sheep and continues to give us eternal life through the sacraments that priests administer to the faithful.
In our parish community, we are very blessed because we have programs that have been established precisely for that purpose, so that the Lord may continue to offer life through the sacraments to the people of our parish community. Thank God we have “full-house” in these programs.
This year during the Easter Vigil we had seven people who received the sacrament of Baptism. Five of those people received the Sacrament of Confirmation at that same Mass. One week after Easter, our parish community was happy to see that 125 people, the great majority of them young, of the confirmation program, the RICA, and RCIA programs received the sacrament of Confirmation. Moreover, these last three Saturdays we have witnessed how around 240 children, including some students of our parish school, have received the sacrament of the Eucharist in their first communion.
I ask you to join me in thanking God our Lord for these great gifts He has given to our brothers and sisters by bestowing on them the Sacraments of Initiation. I also ask you to join me in a prayer of gratitude to God because the fact that our parish lives these celebrations means that Jesus is alive, that we are a living parish, a parish with faith. We are very blessed because God continues to give us eternal life through the sacraments and continues to show us his love.
Congratulations to all who have received the sacraments in recent weeks in our parish community!
Fr. Manuel Rosiles, MSpS