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Weekly message
from Fr. Chris
Easter
April 5th, 2025
Dear SPA Family,
Easter is an invitation to experience the mystery of Christ’s death and resurrection, as well as an invitation to the family table at which we share wishes and a dyed egg - a symbol of reborn life. This Holy Day is associated with the joy of the first delicate spring green. Life awakening from its winter sleep. Yellow forsythia on hills, marsh marigolds on wet meadows, and daffodils of the same color growing in the home garden are an inseparable image of returning Easter memories.
However, Holy Week takes the charms of the natural world to the background. The cleaned and decorated churches exude the solemnity, the joy of the Easter Sunday. The atmosphere of ecclesiastical solemnity also sets the rhythm of the holiday cleaning at home. Everything needs to be cleaned, scrubbed, and washed. A lot of work, but there needs to be also enough time to participate in church services.
Holy Thursday is the day of the institution of the Eucharist. Holy Mass during which the priest, in the image of Christ during the Last Supper, washes the feet of twelve chosen parishioners. Good Friday is filled with painful seriousness. Through fasting and prayer, we join this suffering.
On Holy Saturday, the joy of the resurrection slowly prevails. From the very morning, children and adults with colorful and fragrant baskets gather in churches to bless Easter foods. Among the sausages, hams, cakes and Easter eggs joy emanates from everywhere. The lips are still silent, but the hearts are already singing a joyful Hallelujah. The rich liturgy of Holy Saturday, through the blessing of fire, paschal and water and the singing of the Exultet, brings us closer to the mystery of Easter morning. However, full of power, the joyous Alleluia will sound on Sunday morning at the Resurrection Mass: Hallelujah, Christ is risen.
The event that took place in Jerusalem on the morning of the first day after the Sabbath tells us about the possibility of victory over death. Mary Magdalene went to the tomb of Jesus and found it empty. This fact was confirmed by the apostles. The empty tomb spoke for itself, giving a feeling that something extraordinary had happened. Then risen Christ appeared to the apostles and many other disciples. Christ is risen, He has conquered death and is alive. Moreover, He said that whoever believes in Him will also live.
Having such faith, we look at death differently. It is like a change of place of our residence. At the Easter table, we will probably mention our relatives who ‘changed their place of residence.’ Thanks to Christ’s death and resurrection, this new place is a place of life, not death.
Happy Easter! Wesołych Świąt Wielkanocnych! ¡Felices Pascuas! Maligayang Linggo ng Pagkabuhay! Fr. Chris
PSA - faithfulness
Marrch 29th, 2026
Dear SPA Family,
There is no good use for buildings, projects, or strategies that are not yet ready or unfinished. If we try to live in our climate in a new house without a roof, we will still be able to endure some unexpected weather or bugs in the summer, but autumn will quickly teach us that we moved in hastily. If we want to put the dam into operation, we need to check everything well so that a great catastrophe does not happen next year.
Jesus enters Jerusalem greeted with an ovation by the crowds – they spread cloaks and green branches at the feet of the donkey on which the King enters. But they are not ready, they have not yet followed Jesus all the way, and they do not realize what the nature of His kingdom is and how the Messianic prophecy of the Old Testament is to be fulfilled in reality. Christ knows this very well and will lead them to the end on His way – it will turn out that this King feeds the people with His Body and Blood, undergoes the way of the cross, dies the death of the worst criminals, and finally rises from the dead to free people from their sins and death, false ideas about God and about themselves. He enters Jerusalem to fulfill everything, to be prepared for the Kingdom of God, which will extend to all times and nations.
We are starting Holy Week today – perhaps we are prepared by Lenten services, prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Many also do this through the sacrament of reconciliation. We stand like crowds and cheer – such a rite, after all. Holy Week will end quickly, it will be the same again, we will endure it, and then we will celebrate peacefully.
If we look at it this way, we are somewhat not ready yet – we have accepted everything superficially, and we only want to ‘check-mark it’ like the crowds of Jerusalem who came for the feast.
Such a Christianity must end in spiritual catastrophe – putting ourselves and our needs on a pedestal. Jesus wants more, He wants to finish His work in us, to destroy sin, arbitrariness, and selfishness in us, He wants to prepare us for a new life through His Passion, Death, and Resurrection. He, the King, the Son of David, wants to sit on His rightful throne in our lives.
Dear friends, it is not too late to make an effort to work on ourselves, to enter the path of transformation, improvement, conversion, and return to God. Let this Holy Week be a kind of examination of conscience over our attitude towards God and others.
We are not just Christian Catholics in church. We are in it in everyday life, in which we are to be guided by God’s Commandments.
Have a blessed Holy Week. Fr. Chris