Easter Blessings

The rain came early this year, and in such abundance, that I have found a sweet pleasure in viewing our green hills and mountains, filled with wildflowers and life. Knowing the golden hillside hues to come I try to make the most of these beautiful months of late winter and spring.

The lush push of nature is a foretaste of the promises of Easter, reminding us of the renewal of life, not so much in our hills, as in our hearts. All that the Lord’s rains have done to the world around us, His grace can do within us.

Each of us bears our own set of struggles to this moment, our own crosses carried to our unique Golgotha, bound, beaten, and weary. Perhaps, we are responsible for these Calvaries, but even when we have done all things well and good, the world and its politics, our companions and their struggles, can darken our optimism.

For the Christian, though, there is hope. Resurrection is the basis of our faith, and the horizon toward which we journey. It has happened for our Lord Jesus. He would also have it for us, and there is no better time than now.

If you have brought any sorrow or heaviness to this Easter Day, I invite you to confidently lay it at the foot of Jesus’ cross. Jesus died while we were yet sinners, because He sees what He needs to heal in us, the Godlikeness that remains in us to redeem, and that which is our truest self for Him to love. Can you, this Easter, simply bathe in your Lord’s tender devotion to you? If we could, we would be like our beautiful Ventura County countryside, brought back to verdancy through the deep and satisfying rain
of God’s grace into our arid hearts.

If, by blessed chance, you come with joy in your heart, I encourage you to celebrate with full voice and heart. 

Whatever circumstances bring you to Padre Serra Parish today, you are most welcome, you are most wanted, and for as long as you are here, you are at home in this vineyard of the Lord.


May every Easter blessing be yours,

​
Fr. Patrick Mullen
Pastor 

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