LIVING
RESURRECTION LIFE Fr. Steve Mattson
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!
T
oday we celebrate the Octave of Easter. On this Divine Mercy Sunday, I am excited to share with you a new parish initiative. In the midst of this strange season of struggle, uncertainty, and grace, we are pleased to introduce Resurrection Magazine. We hope this will be the first issue among many more. We have chosen to introduce this magazine now because we want to bear witness to what the Lord is doing in our midst. Our Risen Lord is blessing us richly, and we want to take this opportunity to share some of those blessings with you. Even in these difficult times, when we might be tempted to wonder why all of this has happened, it is well to remember that God is love and has created us for love. He has created us for union with Himself. St. Ignatius of Loyola tells us that God is constantly trying to break into our lives with that love that is beyond our comprehension. He is doing that right now. The fundamental truth is that each and every one of us is a beloved son or daughter of the Father, and we are invited every day to open ourselves more fully to love. As we do so, God will give us the desire (and the grace) to love one another in personal and practical ways. One of the graces of our Resurrection Life is a real and growing sense of community that can only be the result
of the action of the Holy Spirit. One of the places where we can see this community is in the “Connect Groups” that have formed over the past two years. Maureen Budd shares her experience of connect-group life in her article on page fourteen. On page eight, Liz O’Neill writes about the wonderful healing ministry that has developed at the parish, based on the methodology taught to us by the John Paul II Healing Center. In addition to the prayer teams who have received indepth training in prayer ministry, many of us are regularly praying over each other for healing, and our bi-monthly Healing Encounters provide a powerful focus for the Lord’s healing power to be dramatically made manifest among us. The article on page six describes the experience of Mike Ball, who was blessed with a miraculous recovery from a major heart attack. Mike describes how his own suffering changed his life, renewed his relationship with God, and has given him new direction, increased faith, and greater dedication to doing the Lord’s work. Our principal, Jacob Allstott, shares his vision for Resurrection School on page twelve, highlighting how the introduction of the Catholic liberal arts tradition at the school has been ideally suited to fulfilling the mission to create disciples among the students, in partnership with committed families. On page ten, Sean O’Neill describes our new outreach and formation programs. These programs include
