Happy 3rd Sunday of Easter and Mother's Day! The Risen Lord is made present in this holy place in many ways; in the persons gathered here, the sacrament of the Eucharist, in the persons of those who minister to us, and in the living word of God proclaimed. We who have renewed our joy at the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ know what it means to have our hearts burning within us. Let us eagerly listen to God’s word, break bread and share it as he commanded us to do, and then, like the first disciples on the road to Emmaus, let us go out and share the Good News.
Mother’s Day was first observed soon after the turn of the 20th century in the Methodist Church as a memorial service for those who had lost their mothers. The observance spread to other churches, and in 1914 became a civic holiday. We pray on this Mother’s Day weekend that God blesses all Mothers with happiness, protect them from harm, and care for them. HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!
Tuesday is the feast of Saint Damien Joseph De Veuster of Moloka’i. He ministered to the Leper Colony on the Hawaiian Island of Moloka’I where he himself was afflicted with leprosy. A Honolulu pastor publicly called Damien a “coarse, dirty man” whose leprosy should be attributed to his “carelessness,” Novelist Louis Stevenson rebutted him saying “You are one of those who have any eye for faults and failures; that you take a pleasure to find and publish them; and that having found them and publish them, you make haste to forget the virtues and the real success which had alone introduced them to your knowledge. It is a dangerous frame of mind.” Not all are called to Damien’s heroism, but every Christian must reject a narrow-mindedness that sees only the faults and failures of others.
