Journey to Easter

Dear Parishioners Over the coming weeks our ‘Living Community’ at St John the Evangelist Parish Dapto will Journey towards Easter. As you well know, Easter is the Christian festival that celebrates the Resurrection of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who, after his agony at Gethsemane and his crucifixion on Golgotha, was raised triumphantly on the third day! In other words, Easter is the culmination of the passion of our Christ, the anointed one. It is the core event which fuels our faith, hope and love; for “if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain[…] and we [Christians] are to be the most pitied”(1 Cor. 15:14,19) . That Christ is raised and that ‘Alleluia is our Song’ (cf. St Augustine) is the truth in which we as Christians ‘live and move and have our being’ (Acts 17:28). It is the truth that we must constantly remind ourselves about and the truth around which we Catholics must walk our talk! Once again, our Church is encouraging us to prepare wholeheartedly for the Easter season. We can do this especially throughout Lent, a forty-day period of penance that involves fasting, alms giving, reflection, study and prayer. As a parish community, we invite you once more to make a special effort to prepare yourself for Easter, both individually, and as a vital member of our parish community. In the following pages you will find a variety of creative ways and means to accompany you on your Journey towards Easter. We encourage you to sign up to these various events. Some of these faith-formation initiatives are new for our parish. Others are tried and true and represent faith-formation pathways to which numerous parishioners are already dedicated. Please commit yourself, as you Journey towards Easter, to at least one of these faith-formation initiatives! We hope and pray that as you prepare again for the great feast of Easter, that both your individual faith life will be enriched and that our Living Parish Community will be strengthened. May each of us strive to be “joyful witnesses and messengers for our world which always needs to be reminded of the eternal truth: That God revealed God’s immense love in the crucified and risen Christ”. Let us as a ‘Living Community’ remember, that “whenever we return to the source and recover the original freshness of the gospel, new avenues arise, new paths of creativity open up with new forms of expression, more eloquent signs and words, with new meaning for today” (Evangelii Gaudium: The Joy of the Gospel Pope Francis 1). We call upon our patron Saint, John the Evangelist, and Mary our Mother, who Jesus entrusted to the care of his beloved disciple, to intercede and to pray for us before God in Christ, in order to ensure that our Journey towards Easter 2014 will be truly blessed! Furthermore, we wish you every blessing and safe passage on your journey - and we assure you of our ongoing love and support…always. Remember also to keep smiling! Fr. Francis Tran (Parish Priest) Mr. Michael Dyer (Seminarian) Australia Day, 26 January 2014