THE GOOD SHEPHERD
This Sunday, we celebrate the 4th Sunday of our Easter Season. Many refer to this Sunday as Good Shepherd Sunday. This is the great acknowledgement that Jesus Christ is the one and true shepherd that cares for us, guides us, seeks us when we go astray and provides for us.
As we journey together through these challenging times of pandemic, we now - more than ever - need to open our hearts and minds to the love of God given to us through the Life of Jesus Christ. It is through our intentional choice that we seek to be disciples of Jesus. It is through our desire to fulfill God’s plan for us that we seek each day to be very intentional about how we talk, walk and witness the Good News.
The psalm we hear proclaimed this week is Psalm 23: “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want…” Every need, every want that we have is fulfilled in and for us through Jesus Christ. He is our connection to the life God meant and created for us to have.
I have come through my journey to know the incredible power of how God loves me through my family. You are the family God has blessed me with and you are my brothers and sisters who each day enable me to encounter the Risen Christ. I am filled with this incredible gratitude with the generous life-giving response I have experienced, especially during these challenging times.
As family, we simply seek to live and move in such a way that we can help anyone we encounter to see, understand and follow the Good Shepherd as we do. We do this because we know without the Good Shepherd we would forever be imprisoned in the darkness of the tomb.
This past Friday, the Bishops of the United States and Canada offered a Prayer of Renewal of Our Consecration to the Blessed Virgin Mary renewing North America to the guidance and protection of the Holy Mother of God, and asking our Blessed Mother to intercede in a special way during this time of pandemic.
In like manner on Friday after morning mass, Fr. Kyle offered this same prayer of Renewal for our family here at Holy Cross and St. Katharine Drexel. We seek as always the necessary grace of God and ask Our Mother to intercede on our behalf.
Our staff continues to seek opportunities to care for the Spiritual Needs of our Family here in Kaukauna and Hollandtown.
Our Discipleship Team has organized a community dinner on Thursday evening. (See the parish bulletin, our website and Facebook for more details.)
We continue live streaming experiences of daily and Sunday Mass. We have confession time on Saturday morning at 11 a.m. at St. Katharine Drexel – Holy Cross. Open Church time for prayer also is scheduled.
We will continue our Hour of Adoration on Sunday morning at 11 a.m. (this Sunday we will be in the parking lot at St. Katharine Drexel – St. Francis) with benediction at Noon.
Another spiritual opportunity I would like to offer for any who desire it is the blessing of your home. If you would like your home blessed, please contact me at deverts@kaucp.org and I will call and arrange a time to stop over and bless your home. We would do the blessing from outside to ensure we are protecting and caring for each of you. This is yet another opportunity to meet the spiritual needs of our family.
It is my hope that, even though our Easter Journey this year has been so unusual, each of you have continued to walk into the great mystery of the Resurrection. In my own way, I simply have been seeking, through the grace of God, to do all I can to provide for your Spiritual needs.
May our Easter Journey open us ever more to our daily encounter of the Risen Christ!
Peace and Joy,
Fr. Don Everts. (Privileged and Blessed to be) Pastor
Holy Cross & St. Katharine Drexel Parishes
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