My dear parishioners, I give you the joy of Easter and the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ! We rejoice in his baptismal blessings. Our baptismal promises shape every moment of our lives. They strengthen, prepare and enrich our future. In Christ we are everything. Without him we are nothing. Jesus suffered, died and rose from the dead that we might live. Therefore, Jesus is worthy to be the cornerstone of the Church and the joy of our lives. To be in the Church is to be one in Christ. We are the Body of Christ, and he is the head. The head and the body are one.

My dear parishioners, the door to a house opens inward. However, the door to the human heart, it seems to me, must open outward. The phrase ‘reaching out’ expresses how human beings are to be with one another. The more one reach out to other human beings, the better off he is. We are more energetic, more positive and more forward looking in the company of others.

My dear parishioners, in 1621 the Wampanoag Indians shared a memorable meal with the Plymouth colonists they had befriended and to whom they entrusted priceless knowledge of the New World. In 1863, President Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a perpetual celebration to be held annually on the last Thursday of November. This national holiday was to be observed by all citizens whether at home in America, or at sea or in foreign lands. Soon American families everywhere celebrated this autumn harvest feast.

Mark Durrance, 12 years old, lived with his family in rural southwest Florida. They had no telephone. One Sunday afternoon Mark took his BB gun and his dog Bobo into the far-reaching scrub and brush behind their isolated house. On the way home, jumping a ditch, he landed on the squishy back of a six foot Eastern diamondback rattlesnake. The pit viper reacted violently. Its massive head struck the upper leather of Mark’s right shoe. Its fangs, an inch and a half apart, punctured his foot near his ankle. The snake, writhing to free itself of the shoe leather, injected an immense quantity of deadly venom into the helpless boy. The snake venom detonated in Mark’s foot, surging through his leg like fire. The boy knew he was in terrible trouble. A hundred fifty yards from his house, he tried not to panic as the poison overcame him. He felt weak all over. Everything swirled around him. Alone and in shock, he could barely stand. His barking dog could not help...

Eighteen whales washed up dead or stranded on New York and New Jersey shores November and December 2022, the most recent fatality being a humpback struck by a ship. The number of incidents in this east coast cluster is abnormally high, a reminder of sea life’s increasing fragility. Some scientists suspect things like off-shore wind farms, navy sonar training, seismic surveys and shipping activity are disrupting whale’s natural sonar and hearing...