Below is the Easter message from Fr. John Bosco - pastor of Our Lady Queen of Apostles, our Twinning Parish in Nkokonjeru, Uganda.
Fr. John in his Easter vestments just before he went to celebrate the Easter Vigil.
Greetings to Fr. Jerry, Fr. Jacob and to the congregation at St. Eugene Parish.
During the 19th century the emperor Napoleon was at the height of his military power. He conquered nearly all of Europe. One of the countries he overran was Austria. While subduing this country, he sent one of his generals Messena, with an army of 18,000 men to capture the village of Feldkirch. There was a great panic in the village.
The village gathered together to decide what should be done, they agreed on one thing, it was useless to oppose Napoleon's army, but beyond that they could not come to a common decision. At that point the kindly village pastor arose and said, "My dear beloved children, this is Easter Sunday. Cannot God who arose from the dead, protect us in our distress? Shall our first act in this calamity be to forsake Him? Let us go to church as usual, and trust God for the rest."
The people accepted his words hopefully, and the sextons were ordered to ring the bells as joyfully as possible. The people turned out in large numbers into the church. They celebrated Easter joyfully. The French armies, upon hearing the bells ring and ring, concluded that it could only mean one thing, that the strong Austrian reinforcements had arrived. The French General Massena, not wishing to risk a battle at that time, ordered his army to retreat. Thus the Easter bells of Feldkirch saved the city. Christ would not allow those who were celebrating the glory of his feast day to be captured and oppressed!
May we be saved by Christ from all danger during this Easter.
My beloved brothers and sisters of St. Eugene, on behalf of all the parishioners of Our Lady Queen of Apostles, I wish you a joyous Easter.
Yours in Christ,
Fr. John Bosco
THANK YOU to all who have donated so far. The houses in the Narthex will be out for a couple of weeks for those who wish to donate to the Lenten appeal of helping our sister parish with the Send the Chicks project.