FROM THE DESK OF THE PASTOR

April 10, 2026

Dear Friends in Christ,

I have been away on my annual retreat this past week. I am so grateful for your prayers while I was away and for the wonderful way you all sang the praises of God and renewed your faith this past Holy Week and Easter. Our celebrations together gave me such hope. I want to begin this letter focusing on the mystery of the resurrection so central to our faith. The first words of the Risen Lord to his disciples on the evening of the day of the resurrection are: Peace be with you! These are the words the Lord speaks to us once again today. No matter what difficulty or circumstance we may find we find ourselves in, the Lord says to us: Peace be with you! The Lord wants us to know that he is with us in whatever suffering and tribulations we are experiencing. He wants to know that sin and death will not have the final word. He wants to give us a new horizon of hope to place our trust in, in a peace that world cannot give.  In days of great uncertainty and when war is waged in so many places, we need to remember his promise to give a peace that the world cannot give.



We have great reason to hope in resurrection of the Lord. Because as St. Peter puts it, we do not follow, “some cleverly disguised myth” but have our faith through eyewitness accounts.  As St. John reminds us that the apostles reported, “what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we looked upon and touched with our hands.” Yet being distant from these events, and experiencing the types of things we are going through now, we too often doubt like St. Thomas in the gospel. We say with him, “unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nail marks, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” Jesus invites us at Mass this weekend to believe in him and the testimony of St. Thomas --who actually did touch him and he invites us believe in Jesus and his resurrection. As the Lord Jesus put it, we are even more blessed by our faith in him at distance, “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”

Many thanks to all who made our celebrations of Holy Week and Easter so beautiful this year.  I especially want to thank all the behind-the-scenes volunteers who did so much, our liturgical ministers, musicians, and staff who gave so much of themselves that we might worship well together. I also want to thank the Syro Malabar community at St. Jude. It was a joy to have you here and we are grateful for all you did to contribute to the joy of Easter. We have a wonderful family of churches in St Anthony, Holy Innocents and St. Jude. I am so grateful for your faith and cooperative spirit. I cannot begin to thank you all enough for your dedication, generous service, love of our parishes, and most of all your love of the Lord! The Lord is truly risen! Let us rejoice and be glad! Alleluia!

The Lord is truly risen! Let us rejoice and be glad! Alleluia!

Blessings on your week!

Fr. Johnson