Dear Parishioners,

We are now within the Easter Season, and the Cathedral is a busy place, mainly on the weekends as we host the Sacrament of Confirmation for the parishes of the Archdiocese.  This is quite an undertaking, and I am so grateful to the many volunteers from the Cathedral parish who assist as ushers.  There is truly no way we could welcome so many without their help.  If you are interested in being a part of this ministry, please call the rectory. Your help would be greatly appreciated.

The Annual Catholic Appeal has one primary goal – proclaim the Gospel. Often it is seen as a collection or fundraising appeal. The Appeal does raise money, but only so that the Catholic community has the resources to announce the Gospel. How? Principally by loving others, showing compassion and care for the hungry, the thirsty, the homeless, the imprisoned, the sick and dying, the naked. Thank you for your generosity to the Annual Catholic Appeal.

The 4^th Sunday of Easter is affectionately called Good Shepherd Sunday.  Our gospel this week reports the second part of the passionate speech with which Jesus presents himself as the "good shepherd." He also uses the image of the gate where the sheep he gathers, guides and defends even at the cost of his own life' s cost enter. He clarifies: "The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away-and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep."

In a time full of wolves who kidnap and destroy and of hired hands - among them the false prophets who deceive so many people in the world - together with the great mass of indifferent people, the Lord asks of us a new passion: to be with him "shepherds" of the crowds of our time. We come up with excuses, perhaps saying that we are only "sheep” ourselves. 

The Gospel tells us that the shepherd is a sheep who has learned how to love, who has begun to have Jesus' same feelings. That is why Jesus says to the disciples: "I send you like lambs among wolves." And the lambs are softened sheep who have widened their hearts, who see beyond their own habits, their own closures and who, together with Jesus, also say: "I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd." 

Monsignor Henry Breier

                            

This weekend, in honor of Mother’s Day, the Cathedral Pro-Life Ministry will be selling roses to benefit Birthright. Walk-up sales will be available at a table near the front steps of the Cathedral. Please see your bulletins for additional information.