Baptism: A Baptism preparation meeting is required. Please contact Fr. Jon at least one

month prior to your baby’s baptism.

Marriage: Please contact Fr. Jon at least 6 months prior to the desired date for your

wedding so as to allow adequate time for preparation and paperwork.

First Reconciliation, Communion and Confirmation:

Fr. Jon will begin planning for these sacraments shortly. If you or your child

would like to receive these sacraments please contact Fr. Jon and let him

know of your interest.

Guidelines for Sacraments

This Bulletin is a chance to communicate the important events in the life of the parish

and community. If there are news items or events that you would like people to know

about please contact the parish office with your information.

The Parish Bulletin Our Lady of Victory

Catholic Parish www.facebook.com/olvinuvik

www.olvinuvik.com

PO Box 2033 Tel: 867 777-2236

Inuvik, NT X0E 0T0 Cel: 639 471-4579

Served by the Redemptorists

www.redemptorists.ca

Pastor: Fr. Jon Hansen, C.Ss.R.

olvinuvik@gmail.com

Sunday, April 16, 2017

Easter Sunday

Acts 10:34,37-43 Colossians 3:1-4 John 20:1-9

Mary Magdalene was on the way to the tomb of her lord in the dark of the early morning. We can imagine what her state must have been like, going to the cemetery to pay her respects to person who had changed her life. To grieve a relationship that had ended in sudden and devastating tragedy. Despite what Jesus had talked about in the days before his death. About rebuilding the tem-ple in three days, about dying and rising to new life, Mary wasn’t expecting to find anything that morning but a cold dark tomb. And who could blame her real-ly; who go goes around expecting the unexpected. Mary in her grief and heart-ache was clinging to a branch that she believed would be her only comfort, at least I can rest in the presence of the body of my Lord.

As Mary’s hopes appear to be dashed she runs to the only other people that she knows can understand what she is going through. And she tells Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, that Jesus is missing. Instead of being overjoyed by the thought of a promise fulfilled, they act as if they have been dealt another cruel blow. They both run off to the one place that they have just been told that Jesus isn’t there.

Along the way Peter falls behind perhaps winded, but maybe it’s the memories of the previous days coming back to torment him. Perhaps Peter is still haunted by the memories of the denial of a friend whom he had promised to lay down his life for. Peter Clutches onto the tree branch of guilt and won’t let go for the life of him. “What if I had just spoken up, what if I had done something. Even if I had been killed along side of him at least we would have been together

The disciple whom Jesus loved reaches the empty tomb first but something keeps him from crossing the threshold and seeing for himself. All he has left to hang onto is a limb of his doubts, not wanting to know what will come next.

It was the first day of the week and it began in darkness, in doubt, in fear. Each person clinging to the memories of the past and not wanting to open their eyes to the possibilities of that the things that Je-sus had talked about might be true. Continued on Page 3

HAPPY EASTER

As we gather to celebrate the resurrection

of our Lord Jesus Christ we are so glad to

have you here with us. Together we make

present the reality of that holy mystery,

Jesus breaking forth from the tomb, on

that Easter morning so many years ago.

As winter slowly comes to an end our

hearts turn toward the promise of spring.

Like flowers that have long been hidden

under snow which will soon be in bloom,

the Easter mysteries afford an opportunity

to reflect on the difficulties of life and to

see that even in darkness hope abounds.

Easter is significant because it reveals that love is more powerful than death. Death is what frightens

us most. It hems us in and it sets the ultimate limit to everything. If death has the final word, then all

the evil in the world wins and there's no hope because there's nothing after death. That's the end.

But Easter is the declaration that God's love, the love that made the world and sustains it, is more

powerful than death. That's a moment of liberation. It means death no longer enslaves us. The first

Christians saw that the bursting forth of Christ from the tomb is the shattering of death's bonds.

The glory of Easter morning is not a distant experience, it is a present one. It is one in which we are

called to take part. Like Mary Magdalene encountering Jesus in the garden, we are called to be

aware of the one in whose presence we stand and we are invited help others to do the same.

We do this by being a people of hope, by wearing a smile on our face and letting go of our fear and

doubt about the future. We do this by offering a, “Hello” to the people we meet on the street whether

we know them or not. We do this by offering some of our treasure to help good projects get off the

ground. We do this by pausing on our walk to pick up a piece of garbage, a sign that we care for the

creation which God has given to us. We do this by looking at the person sitting in the pew next to us

and taking the chance to reach out a hand and introduce ourselves. We do this by bringing a child

forward for Baptism, a sign that belief in the promises of God still abound. There are so many ways

that we can help others, and help ourselves, to be aware of the risen Christ in our midst.

As you go forward from this Church today, do so knowing that you are an ambassador for the risen

Christ; like the woman returning from the tomb, like the disciples rushing home from their walk to Em-

maus, we too are called to proclaim that Christ is alive. We know this because we have seen him with

our own eyes.

Fr. Jon

Church Schedule for the Coming Week

April 17–April 23

Tues—Friday Mass in the Church at 5:30pm

Saturday Lunch in the parish hall at 12pm

Mass at the Hospital at 4pm

Sunday Mass in the Church at 11am

Lunch in the parish hall at 12pm

Con’t from page 1

This is our first day. On this day we live once again the experience of the first disciples and though we may go through darkness we celebrate the fact that we are people of the light. We celebrate that the promise that Jesus made to us has come true. That the temple of his body has been rebuilt, that he has been raised from the dead. The resurrection is not something that is easy to understand. In order to teach about we often compare it some of the things that we do know about. We compare it to a caterpillar emerging from its cocoon as a butterfly. We talk about a grain of wheat or a seed that, although it looks lifeless sprouts forth new life.

These analogies may help us a little bit but in the long run I think that there are three things that will help us make the power of the resurrection a reality in our lives.

The first is listening to those who were there. Peter tells us in the first reading that the disciples are sent out as witnesses to the truth of the resurrection. There is very little in this life that we are able to know by first hand experience. We have to trust others who have spent their lives studying the nature of our universe and have discovered the laws that of nature that we live by. The resurrection was wit-nessed by some who were given the mandate of telling others so that they to might believe. We are here today because of them.

The second is by being aware of the experience of the risen Christ in our lives. When have we felt that we have gone from the tomb to new life, from darkness into light? Though I hear many stories of despair I hear far more stories of hope an light coming out of what seems to be the most desperate situations. And when we are aware of those times in our lives we need to take that memory and use it as a source of strength for the difficult times that may lay ahead. And we need to share those stories with others because our experience can be a source of strength for those we know.

And finally in order to live as people of the light as People of the promise of new life. We must have faith. We must be willing to let go of the branches that we cling to in whatever form they take, whether it is self-doubt, guilt, anger, jealousy. Whatever those things that we hang onto that we think we need to keep in this world we need to let go of them if we are going to experience the resurrection.