This is the 50-day Eastertide to go deeper into knowing and living the Faith. The two Mary's whose joy is beyond words when they encounter the Risen Jesus are told by Jesus to go to the Apostles and share the Good News with them.
If I might offer some advice this year for you and your family, here it is from the heart of Pope Benedict to the several million young people gathered in Madrid, Spain in 2011, for World Youth Day.
He gave each one of them a book entitled YOUCAT, Youth Cathecism :
“Today I recommend for your reading an unusual book. It is unusual both because of its content and because of the way it came to be. I would like to tell you a little about how it was written because then it would be clear why it is so unusual.
You could say that it came to be from another work, whose origins go back to the 1980s. It was a difficult time for the church and for society worldwide. New guidance was needed to find the path to the future. After the second Vatican council (1962-1965) and in a changed cultural situation, many people were confused about what Christians actually believe, what the church teaches, whether in fact she can teach anything at all, and how everything can find its place in a culture that had changed from its very foundations. Is it still reasonable today to be a believer? These were the questions that even good Christians were asking.
At that time Pope John Paul II made a bold decision. He decided that bishops from all over the world should together write a book in which they would answer these questions. He gave me the task of coordinating the work of the bishops and seeing to it that from the contributions of the bishops a book would result--a real book, not just a haphazard collection of all sorts of documents. This book would have the old-fashioned title Catechism of the Catholic Church but would be something entirely new and exciting. It would show what the Catholic Church believes today and how one can with good reason believe.
You need to know what you believe. You need to know your faith with that same precision with which an IT specialist knows the inner workings of a computer. You need God's help if your faith is not going to dry up like a dewdrop in the sun, if you want to resist the blandishments of consumerism, if your love is not to drown in pornography, if you are not going to betray the weak and leave the vulnerable helpless.”
The Catechism explains: What we believe; How we celebrate that belief in the Christian Mysteries; How we are to live this belief with life in Christ.
Finally, the moving commentary on how we pray. Remember, the Family that prays together stays together.
Christ is Risen, as He promised! Christ is Risen indeed! Alleluia! Amen.
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Father Wilfred J. Raymond, C.S.C. (Father Willy), a native of Old Town, Maine, is the eighth of 12 children. He joined the Congregation of Holy Cross in 1964 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1971. He earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Stonehill College in 1967 and a master’s in Theology from the University of Notre Dame in 1971. He served in ministry at Stonehill College (1979-1992), Holy Cross leadership (1994-2000), National Director of Family Theater Productions, Hollywood (2000-2014), and President of Holy Cross Family Ministries (2014-2022). In addition to English, he is conversant in French and Spanish. He remains a diehard fan of the Boston Red Sox, even though he has served as Chaplain for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
