Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, In my parent’s bedroom when I was growing up there was a large statue of the Sacred Heart. I believe it had been the gift of a protestant friend of my father. It is still in the house. My brother had it restored when he rebuilt the house. Every year when Divine Mercy Sunday comes around I am reminded of the similarity of the two images and what they represent and teach us. The heart is the symbol of love. Jesus’s heart is the sign of God’s love for all people. We are reminded of the commandment “to love God and our neighbor” Take a look at the image of Divine Mercy; the rays coming from the heart of Jesus are the symbol of God’s mercy. Both of them the Sacred Heart and Divine Mercy are images from different times and centuries but both of them reinforce the same message, God is Love and He is a merciful God. As we look at our world, we hear of the violence in Brussels the massacre of Christians in Pakistan the wars in the Middle East and the migrant crisis and how little we hear of a loving and merciful God. The image of God that is being portrayed is one who is vengeful and demands that those who do not follow a particular way are to be annihilated. Somehow we are back in the middle ages and in the wars between Christians. We as Christians need to do more to show the images of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Divine Mercy to our world. Somehow the message that “ God so loved the world that he sent his only Son” is getting lost in the terrorism and violence of a small group of extremist and we as Christians have failed to show and to proclaim God’s love. Forgive us Lord. Easter is about redemption and new life. As we go forward in this Easter Season and listen to the Acts of the Apostle let us try to emulate them in proclaiming the message of Christ and the love that he has shown us. Christ has died Christ is risen Christ will come again Alleluia Alleluia Alleluia. The journey continues Sincere Thanks to all who decorated and cleaned the church, to those who participated and organized the living stations and to all who participated or helped in any way during the Easter Triduum. Pray for me as I pray for you, Fr Karl