Pastor's Corner - Fr. Bac-Hai Viet Tran
Greeting you with love and blessings from God.
How was your week? I hope things are going well with all of you. Once again we are so blessed for the very nice weather we are having in New Orleans. I overheard that the first weekend of the Jazz Festival was amazing! Compared to other places in the center of America, Lincoln Nebraska, Oklahoma that were hit with the worst tornadoes, category 5. It cleaned out almost an entire town. Imagine a very heavy truck turned upside down on the highway, so you know how strong the winds were. Well they say somewhere in America we have to suffer with the weather, the West Coast, East Coast, and now Central America. We cannot avoid it, we all have to suffer with the disastrous weather sometimes from Mother Nature. Please pray for a safe hurricane season. At the same time we also need to pray for the victims of these natural disasters. But more importantly please pray for peace in Ukraine, Israel, Palestine, and Iran and help them to find a solution to have peace in the world. We seem to never learn from the mistakes we have in history, the same problems are repeated over and over again. And everybody knows that you cannot solve a problem with War unless everyone agrees to sit down and talk.
Watching the news at the Vatican, the Pope invited an Israelite gentleman who lost his daughter and a Hamas gentleman who also lost a daughter during the same War. They were all crying at the same time and hugging each other at the end of their audience with the Pope. There isn’t a better lesson that one bringing the two together to bring peace before the public.
By this time the Spring Break is just about over and all the students are looking forward to their summer vacations. You know from your own experiences that your nieces, cousins, children, and grandchildren, many of them are graduating this year and you better have your wallet or purse opened and ready. This year I don’t have any nieces or nephews graduating, but I have another generation after them who are graduating. They take their birthdays so serious. They all call me about three months ahead of time to remind me about their birthday. They list what they want me to give them. Ironically, they learned from the Bible and repeated to me, “be generous as God is generous to me. The more you give, the more God gives to you.” Well thank God they learned. I learned the American way by telling them “let me see, I will try the best I can.”
As the Easter season is coming to an end, next Thursday is the Ascension of the Lord, but it will be dispensed to the following Sunday, which is next Sunday, the Seventh Sunday of Easter. Among the elements with the Paschal mystery the Ascension is the least understood because it did not give us a clear picture. What happened at the Ascension? The forty days between the Resurrection on Easter Sunday to the Ascension contains too many events that feels too much like the Church today in our society. There was confusion, joy, challenge, withdrawal, etc., it is so confusing because people talked about it but nobody got the entire picture. It was a time of some joy, yes, but also other considerable confusion and despondency and loss of faith. In the day before the Ascension the disciples were overjoyed whenever they gathered together and recognized God again. But at the same time, many times they were bewildered, discouraged and full of doubt as they were unable to find and recognize in what was happening around them. The same Jesus to whom they had once given their hope and their lives. At one point they gave up completely and as John put it in his Gospel, they went back to their former way of life, fishing and be with the sea, and with a new mission, bring the god news to others. In the same token today God wants us to be like the disciples, get back to our mission and have the courage to bring the good news to others, regardless of all the challenges that we are dealing with. Even though sometimes it may cause despair, doubt, and challenges, but we have to have strong faith in the risen God just like the disciples had 2000 years ago.
On Wednesday, April 17th we were so happy to have eight of our CCD students who received the Sacrament of Penance and will receive the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist this Sunday. Eduar Tomas Medina Castro, Aceleigh Jane Chappitta, Dalton Michael Copelin, Layla Louise Kiff, Zachary Ross McClendon, Rene Steven Lemus Medina, Gabriella Hope Nunez, Camille Addison Obiol. Thanks to our CCD Coordinator, Kelly Wilbert, and all of the CCD teachers. But above all we thank all of our parents, grandparents and guardians who helped their children to learn and grow in their faith daily. Sometimes we focus too much on the physical and at the same time forget about what they also need on their spiritual, emotional and psychological aspect. Yes, we care more about our children’s teeth, than their soul, their character, their manner, and their morality. Hopefully you can balance the body and soul of your children in your duties as a parent.
Well, we are in the month of May, and again May is the month dedicated to Mary. Traditionally we also have the May Crowning to the Blessed Mother. I hope you know how to say the prayer to the Blessed Mother,
“Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed are thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.”
Talking about the Blessed Mother, Pope Francis brought out the image of Mary, the untired of Knots. The concept of the Blessed Mother untying knots comes from St. Irenaeus of Lyons who emphasized on Mary untie the knot of evil disobedience with her own grace-filled obedience to God. I’m sure that everybody has some kind of problem to unknot and you can ask Mary to help you to do it in your life. I have a picture of the Mary the Untied of knots. And I do pray to her everyday.
Well, that’s all for this week, until next week be healthy, be happy, be cheerful and be kind to one another. Have a great week. God Bless.
Fr. Bac-Hai
