LIVING RESURRECTION LIFE - Fr. Steve Mattson

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!

Today 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 in depth 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 the Resurrection Life course, in which participants get to hear the good news of the Gospel and are equipped to live life in the Holy Spirit, and the four-year formation program which covers many aspects of how to live out the life of a committed and growing disciple in the world of today, through loving God and our neighbor.

On the back cover you will find a beautiful Easter poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins, with a biographical introduction on page fifteen by Brian Fink.

There are many more ways that the Lord is blessing us and we hope to be able to share those with you in future issues. Our desire at this point is to produce this magazine three or four times per year. In this period of “cloister,” we are only offering it in an online format, but in the future we hope to have printed copies as well. We hope you enjoy it.

As we celebrate this Easter Season and look forward to gathering again, God-willing, at Pentecost or before, let’s keep praying for each other, trusting that the Lord has allowed this season out of love for us. And let’s all strive to notice the grace of our Resurrection Life, and share it with others. Amen.

- Fr. Steve Mattson is Pastor of Church of the Resurrection.