About Eastertide

Eastertide is the period of fifty days from Easter Sunday to Pentecost Sunday. It is celebrated as a single joyful feast, indeed, as the "great Lord's Day. 

Each Sunday of the season is treated as a Sunday of Easter, and, after the Sunday of the Resurrection, they are named Second Sunday of Easter, Third Sunday of Easter, etc. up to the Seventh Sunday of Easter, while the whole fifty-day period concludes with Pentecost Sunday. The first eight days constitute the Octave of Easter and are celebrated as solemnities of the Lord.

Since 2000, the Second Sunday of Easter is also called Divine Mercy Sunday.
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Divine Mercy Image

Divine Mercy Sunday, April 7, 2013

Several years ago, the Catholic Church designated the Sunday after Easter as “Divine Mercy Sunday.” That raises two very important questions – what exactly  is “mercy” anyway, and what does it have to do with the Easter season?

[READ MORE, Click here]

How to pray the Chaplet of the Divine Mercy–

Divine Mercy Sunday is based on the Catholic Devotion to the Divine Mercy that Saint Faustina Kowalska reported as part of her encounter with Jesus, and is associated with special promises from Jesus and indulgences issued by the Church.

[TO PRAY THE CHAPLET, Click here]

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2 HOMILIES FROM POPE FRANCIS

From the Chrism Mass on March 28, 2013 

TOPIC: "Our Priestly People require Good and Holy Priests"
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From the Mass of the Easter Vigil, March 30, 2013 

"... May he open us to the newness that transforms, to the beautiful surprises of God. May he make us men and women capable of remembering all that he has done in our own lives and in the history of our world. May he help us to feel his presence as the one who is alive and at work in our midst. And may he teach us each day, dear brothers and sisters, not to look among the dead for the Living One."
[READ MORE, Click here] 
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The Contemporary Catholic–

The Roman Catholic Church, especially under Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI, has identified relativism as one of the most significant problems for faith and morals today.

According to the Church, relativism, as a denial of absolute truth, leads to moral license and a denial of the possibility of sin and of God.

[READ MORE, Click here]
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April Saints–

Doctors of the Church, an evangelist, a Marian visionary and mystic, and patrons of African-Americans, England, Portugal and Italy, teachers, Boys and Girls Scouts, and the computer and the internet are all remembered in April.

[READ MORE, click here] 

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Small Faith Communities at St Mary's–

Saint Mary's will be hosting both English and Spanish Kerygmatic retreats in the near future to develop additional small faith communities within the Parish. These retreats introduce and orient people to grow personally in their faith, encourage and support a deeper, more personal, spiritual experience, and provide opportunities to evangelize the Gospel, proclaim the Good News and commit to stewardship and service to build the fellowship and hospitality of our own Community.

In this Year of Faith, we recall Pope John Paul II's words:

"It is also necessary for us to create around us an environment that fosters and strengthens the faith of the individual. Authentic Christian life needs the support of a living community of faith and love. A Christian community at the service of the faith has to grow from being a simple Bible Study or Prayer group, or a social action group to a group in which the members share their faith with one another through the proclamation of God's Word, bear common witness to the Word they proclaim, carry the Word beyond the group to the society in which they live.”
[READ MORE, Click here]
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Catholic Joke– 

 Four Catholic ladies are having coffee together, discussing
 how important their children are.
 
 The first one tells her friends, "My son is a priest.  When
 he walks into a room, everyone calls him 'Father'.
 
 The second Catholic woman chirps, "Well, my son is a bishop.
 Whenever he walks into a room, people say, 'Your Grace'.
 
 The third Catholic woman says smugly,  "Well, not to put
 yours down, but my son is a cardinal.  Whenever he walks into
 a room, people say Eminence'."
 
 The fourth Catholic woman sips her coffee in silence.  The
 first three women give her this subtle "Well"....?  She
 replies, "My son is a gorgeous, 6'2", hard-bodied,
 brain surgeon. Whenever he walks into a room, people say.........
 "OH MY GOD"