Rome, April 9, Easter, 2023

“This is the day the Lord has made; let us be glad and rejoice!” Psalm 118

Dear Sisters, Associates and Friends,

The refrain for the Responsorial Psalm for Easter Sunday is an invitation for us to be glad and rejoice in the day that the Lord has made. It is the day of our salvation. It is the day of a promise fulfilled.  It is a day of gratitude.

The joy of the Resurrection is not a gift to be left unwrapped, but a gift to be opened and shared.  We are invited to share this joy with our sisters and brothers.

For sharing this joy, we need new eyes to look at the world in a new way, to be ready for a new beginning. Easter Sunday is the first day of the week, a new beginning, but to grasp it we need to have the eyes of faith, to be a person who experiences something new every day.

Do I experience life in the same way each day?  Or do I have the capacity to see things with the attitude of a person of faith? To believe in the ongoing creative love of God for all creation?  The newness is not in things that happen but in seeing these happenings with new eyes, with joy and a grateful heart – and to share this with others.

Easter is the culmination of the journey from captivity to freedom, from sorrow to joy, salvation coming from Jesus who died for us on the Cross and walks with us, encouraging us to go forward, towards beauty and harmony and joy.

After two thousand years, do we still know how to marvel and rejoice at the Resurrection?

May the Resurrection be a sign of joy for us, a joy to be shared with all we meet.

Happy Easter!

S. Dolores Lahr

S. Maria Cristina Gavazzi         

S. Elisa Fátima Zuanazzi    

S. Celine Kalathoor