“If Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.”

St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians

St. Paul the Apostle in his First Letter to the Corinthians writes about the fundamental truth of our faith – the resurrection of Christ and its fruits. Jesus Christ not only died on the cross for our sins but also rose from the dead to grant us the forgiveness of sins and life eternal. The mystery of the departure from this world touches everybody. In each family we have our ancestors who have already accomplished their earthly pilgrimage. Following St. Paul’s teaching, we hope that for our dead the gates of heaven will be opened and that we will be there one day with them. St. Paul ensures us also that there is a reliable remedy for our iniquities – the death and resurrection of Christ. Our Saviour has already paid our debts, made us free and reconciled to the Father. This we can hear when we receive the absolution (forgiveness of sins) in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, the priest says: “God the Father of mercies, through the death and resurrection of his Son has reconciled the world to himself…” Let us be thankful to the Lord for all the gifts we are granted through the death and resurrection of Christ!

This week there is only one mandatory memorial:
Monday, February 14th, Memorial of Saint Cyril, Monk and Saint Methodius, Bishop. They were brothers of Greek origin living in the 9th century. Because their father was an officer in a part of Greece inhabited by many Slavs, these two Greek brothers ultimately became missionaries, teachers, and patrons of the Slavic peoples. Cyril’s first work was to invent an alphabet, still used in some Eastern liturgies. His followers probably formed the Cyrillic alphabet. Together they translated the Gospels, the psalter, Paul’s letters and the liturgical books into Slavonic, and composed a Slavonic liturgy. Cyril, died in Rome 50 days after taking the monastic habit. Methodius continued mission work for 16 more years. He was papal legate for all the Slavic peoples, consecrated a bishop and then given an ancient see (now in the Czech Republic). Methodius translated the whole Bible into Slavonic in eight months. The brothers were proclaimed the Patrons of Moravia, and became specially venerated by Catholic Czechs, Slovaks, Croatians, Orthodox Serbians and Bulgarians. Saints Cyril and Methodius are eminently fitted to guard the long-desired unity of East and West. In 1980, Pope St. John Paul II named them additional co-patrons of Europe.
St. Cyril and Methodius – pray for us!

God bless,

Fr. Peter