My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
Welcome to our third Sunday of Easter. As I mentioned in a previous bulletin, during this Easter season our Sunday gospels pay attention to the different resurrection appearances of Jesus. Today, we look at Luke’s account after the disciples on the Road to Emmaus came back bringing news of Jesus’s resurrection and how they recognized Him after the breaking of the bread. While this was taking place, Jesus appeared in their midst again. The disciples were afraid and thought they were looking at a “spirit.” In other words, they thought they were seeing a ghost.
While they were still speaking about this,
he stood in their midst and said to them,
"Peace be with you."
But they were startled and terrified
and thought that they were seeing a ghost.
Then he said to them, "Why are you troubled?
And why do questions arise in your hearts?
Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.
Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones
as you can see I have." Luke 24:36-39
It is important to remember that at this point, the belief in the resurrection of the death was not unanimous among the Jews. The Sadducees, for example, believed that your soul just stopped existing after death, so no life after death, no resurrection. On the other hand, the Pharisees believed in the immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the body on the last day. Others believed in what we can call reincarnation, meaning that somebody’s soul could leave their body and then come back in a different person’s body. Herod seemed to believe in this because he thought John the Baptist came back from the dead in the figure of Jesus.
So, it was not easy for the disciples to believe in the resurrection of Jesus. For this reason, Jesus needed to appeal to his different senses to prove that it was truly Him and not a “spirit.” By showing his hands and feet, he was showing them that this was the same body that was crucified. By asking them to touch him, he was showing them that he was flesh and bone like them. By eating, he was showing them he had a real body. Even after all this, it was the grace of God that finally “opened their minds to understand the scriptures” and believe.
My dear family, like the disciples, I know we also struggle to believe some of the teachings of Jesus and his Church. For this reason, as we keep approaching the Bible and the Catechism we need to ask for the grace of the Holy Spirit to open our minds to understand. Remember, this is not just an academic exercise but also an act of prayer and act of faith. During this Easter season, I invite you to read the Acts of the Apostles and to pray with it every day.
In Christ,
Fr. Cesar Valencia
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
I hope you are having a blessed Easter Season. Before continuing, I would like to thank all the volunteers and parish staff who made our beautiful Holy Week liturgies possible and all of you who participated in them. I also want to thank you for your generous support to our Catholic Family Sharing Appeal (CSFA) as we met our financial goal in both parishes.
During the Easter season, you will notice a change in the readings we hear during Mass. Usually, the first reading is from the Old Testament, but during Easter the first reading will be from the Books of Acts because the Church wants us to pay attention to the birth of Christianity. Also, during this season the gospel reading will focus on the resurrection appearances of Jesus and the words of Jesus about the age of the Church from the Gospel of John.
In Sunday’s gospel, we read the account of two resurrection appearances of Jesus, one on Easter Sunday and the other eight days later. There are two things here that I would like to pay attention to. First, Jesus repeats three times “Peace be with you”. This was a customary greeting in Jesus’ times. Nevertheless, Jesus is not only repeating a greeting but is trying to help the disciples in their fear and sense of shame/guilt because they abandoned Him during his Passion and Death on the cross.
Second, the Gospel of John tells us that “he breathed on them, and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained”. The action of breathing on them could seem a little bit strange, but if we go back to Genesis, we will remember that “breathing” is an act of creation. God breathed into the dust of the earth to give Adam life. So, here Jesus is inaugurating a new creation through the Holy Spirit and one of the first acts of this new creation is to give them the power to forgive or retain sins, the sacrament of confession. This is an important reminder that one of the first fruits of the Resurrection is this sacrament.
My dear family, on this Divine Mercy Sunday, I invite you to rediscover God’s mercy through the Sacrament of Confession. I know that Lent and Advent are usually the times in which we look for this Sacrament, but it shouldn't be limited to those times. We should look for it on a regular basis and take advantage of our regular confession times during the weekend.
In Christ, Fr. Cesar Valencia P.E.S
In Christ,
Fr. Cesar Valencia
Holy Wednesday - March 27
Communal Penance Service, 6-8 PM, Holy Spirit
Holy Thursday - March 28
No regular daily Masses or daytime Adoration
Mass, 7 PM at both Holy Family & Holy Spirit
Eucharistic Adoration following Mass until midnight at both parishes
Good Friday - March 29
Parish Offices Closed
Liturgy - 12 PM Holy Spirit & 3 PM Holy Family
Living Stations Portrayal: 5:30 PM at Holy Family & 7 PM at Holy Spirit
Holy Saturday - March 30
Easter Vigil Masses 8:30 PM at Holy Family & Holy Spirit
Easter Sunday - March 31
Masses 9 AM & 11 AM at Holy Spirit; 8:30 AM & 10:30 AM at Holy Family (no 5 PM at Holy Family)
We are glad you are visiting our new website for Mitchell Catholic Parishes!
This new website www.mitchellcatholic.org will replace the former separate websites for Holy Family and Holy Spirit Catholic Churches (if anyone uses the old website addresses, they will be automatically redirected to the updated website). The new website will help create consistency between parishes, increase efficiency and avoid duplication of efforts, and hopefully improve the experience of our parishioners and visitors.
The launch of this new website is the completion of Phase 2 of the Mitchell Catholic Parishes branding effort. Phase 1 included creating a new logo (learn more about our logo here), joint and updated bulletin between the parishes, and consistent email domain between the parish staff members. The Mitchell Catholic Parishes branding effort was made possible by generous benefactors of the parishes and designed by Brian Holdswoth with Holds Worth Design.
To provide feedback on the website or for assistance, contact Courtney Deinert, Communications Director, at
Registration is now open for the 2024 Men's & Women's Broom Tree Retreats!