“I shall not die, I shall live, and recount the deeds of the Lord. This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvellous in our eyes. This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Ps 119

Dear parishioners,

Let us indeed continue this week to rejoice and be glad in the resurrection of Jesus, and in everything that follows from it.

Firstly today, I have to say a few words about our in-vehicle attendance masses. As I write these lines, on Friday, just two days away from Sunday, only 17 vehicles have been pre-registered for the 11:15 mass on Sunday, and only 3 for the 3:00 p.m. mass! I think two things at least are going on here.

The first, I suspect that a lot of people didn’t get the message, so I’ll repeat it here. You can pre-register for in-vehicle attendance at the two Sunday masses that we are currently celebrating, at 11:15 a.m. and at 3:00 p.m. (in Tagalog). The full schedule of both live streamed masses and in-vehicle attendance masses is on the parish bulletin. I’m hoping it is also on the website itself and on all our sites. Till further notice, please pre-register for just one Sunday mass per month, to give as many people as possible the opportunity to attend mass. If demand should prove to remain consistently low, this limitation will be removed. Everything went well at our in-vehicle events last weekend, but I would just like to make a few reminders. Please stay inside your vehicles at all times. And please don’t mix people from different households in the same vehicle. A reminder as well that public health authorities are asking that before attending a service of any kind, you carry out a personal health check. We are using the health check prepared by WorksafeBC, which you can read by clicking here. It will also be posted on the pre-registration page and on all our sites.

The second thing I believe is happening is that people are staying away from our in-vehicle attendance masses because they have to use their data to access the mass on Youtube in their vehicles, and this takes a lot of data. All I can say to this is that we are working on setting up a radio frequency so that you will be able to access the mass, audio only of course, from your car radio. As soon as this is up and running, we will let you know. If we succeed in setting this up, we’ll be in a position to offer more in-vehicle attendance masses, as needed.

Since we’re being asked again to stay away from other people as much as possible, here are two more suggestions as to beneficial ways in which you can be on your own, with a device. There are two new sites that have been created by the Archdiocese. They are rcav.org/behold and rcav.org/proclaim. These are two very excellent sites, full of online activities intended to educate your faith, increase your awareness of the Church, and deepen your sense of belonging to the Church. There are a lot of very good things on these two sites. Please check them out.

The May edition of Living With Christ is available at the front door of the parish office, and in a box just outside the main entrance to the church. You’re welcome to take one for yourself, and one for someone you know would like to have one but can’t come to church to pick one up.

Rose Pillay had created what was supposed to be a hand-shield for those to whom we were going to distribute small candles for the celebration of the Easter Vigil. I hate to see it go unused, unseen, so you can access this lovely page by clicking here.

Finally, just a week after Easter, it’s time for acknowledgement and thanks. Thank you to all who contributed to our preparations for the Easter Triduum in this difficult pandemic time. Thank you to Rose and to the liturgy committee. Thank you to the lectors and sacristans, choirs and ushers. Thank you to our flower ministry team who did such a good job. Thank you to our team of live streamers. You would not believe the elaborate lighting they set up for the Vigil. I felt like I was on a movie set! I’m told the on-screen effect was very beautiful.

Thanks to all of you who I know have made a special effort to contribute financially to the parish on the occasion of Easter. You are keeping us afloat!

Finally, I pray that the quiet joy and relief of Easter will linger in your homes and in your lives like perfume during this Easter Season. I pray that the Holy Spirit will inspire in us all the prudence that will be necessary for us to be safe and well until things get better. And I leave you with a Marian Easter prayer:

Queen of Heaven, rejoice, alleluia;
He whom you merited to bear, alleluia;
He is risen, as he had said, alleluia;
Pray to God for us, alleluia.

Happy Easter everyone,
Fr. Guy