From Father Steven - March 31, 2024

Father Steven Clemence • March 28, 2024




CHRIST IS RISEN! HE IS ALIVE!

 

 

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

 

Today is EASTER, the most solemn day of the year! We celebrate Jesus, who was crucified on Good Friday, and mourned on Holy Saturday. But today we celebrate with the angels that CHRIST IS RISEN! HE IS ALIVE!

 

In the beginning, we read in Genesis, there darkness. But God created light. Today, sin may seem to reign over the earth, a new light appears. Christ's resurrection is like a new creation. St. Paul says, "the old has gone, the new has come" (2 Corinthians 5:17). Christ offers us new life! One of the hardest things about sin is the disappointment we feel when we fail again. Despite our promises and desires to change, we often find ourselves stuck in the same patterns. We hurt people we love and feel terrible about ourselves. We keep promising to change, but we fall back into the same sins. We feel defeated. We just accept it as a condition of our lives. But today is different! Jesus' death pays for our sins, and His resurrection gives us new life! He breaks the chains of sin that have held us captive. Jesus is Alive! He comes to meet us today!

 

The Gospels tell the story of women and disciples who find Jesus' tomb empty with Jesus’ burial cloths on the ground. A large stone blocked the entrance. In our lives, there may be big obstacles that keep us from living the life God wants for us. Whether it is a sin or a trauma, we cannot get past them. Instead, we adapt ourselves to live enclosed in a tomb. But today, God removes the stone! He offers us the chance to move from death to life with Christ. Like Jesus we can rise from darkness of sin to the light of love. What seems impossible for us is possible for the Risen Lord. Today Christ enters into our tombs, and opens the way for us. He conquers death, and comes to take us to Passover from death to Life, from darkness to light, from sin to grace. Courage Brothers and Sisters, Pharaoh was defeated, the Red Sea was opened, let us take the opportunity to leave behind all our slavery and fears!

 

Easter is a celebration of freedom! You are invited to join us in a special retreat on April 20th with Deacon Joe Cooley here in the parish. The "Unbound: Freedom in Christ" conference offers us an opportunity to experience true liberation and healing in areas of our lives where we still struggle. These sins, habits, trauma, and bondages are the devil’s door to tempt us to think and act as though we were still slaves held in bondage. Deliverance is removing the power of the lies so that we can hear the voice of our Father that has always been speaking deep within. Freedom is to live as a beloved child of God. It is where broken humanity is healed. This is what we celebrate on Easter! Join us on this adventure as we enter deeper into freedom together. It has changed the lives of many people beyond what words can express and I am confident the Lord wants similar for you! You can sign up at the parish office or directly at the website https://housesofmercy.regfox.com/apr-20-2024-unbound-freedom-in-christ-conference. The cost is $40 per person (second family member is $20, and third is free). You can also sign up using the QR code on the eighth page of the bulletin. Note that this conference is for individuals and families but may be too much teaching for small children. Parents can learn and teach their younger children. The prayer that you will learn is appropriate for all ages.

 

 

God Bless,

Fr. Steven

 

From Father Steven - August 23, 2026

By Father Steven Clemence • August 19, 2026
Dear Brothers and Sisters, I hope you are enjoying your summer! I, along with some of the youth of our parish, attended the Steubenville East conference in Springfield a few weeks ago. It is a 3 day catholic conference for high school teens to encounter Christ through eucharistic adoration, the sacraments and dynamic sessions all produced by Lifeteen and Franciscan University. The conference was attended by thousands of youth from all over New England with the hope to ignite life long discipleship in our teens. We have asked one of our youth to share with you a bit of his experience. Please see the letter written by Gabriel Torres below. God Bless, Fr. Gabriel ——————————————— Hello and Happy Sunday, or whenever it is that you read this. I am Gabriel Torres and I am a part of the youth group here, at Immaculate Conception. We, the youth, Fr. Gabriel, and a handful of chaperones recently attended a life changing 3 day Steubenville conference in Springfield. And when I say life changing, I really mean it. I thought the same as you, when Cecilia, our religious education director told us about it. I wanted to go, but was kinda doubting that it could be that fun and life changing, as it is a big statement. I thought that it would just be us, listening to priests talk about Jesus, and I would have gone for that, but it turned out to be so much more. On the first day after the first talk and mini worship concert (with a mosh pit and everything), we were asked to come up with one word to describe how we felt about the conference so far. The word that I chose was Connection. And I still agree, and I think anyone that went would agree. Just feeling the connection between yourself and the Lord, and how that connection spread between each signing heart was just purely gorgeous and fulfilling. Seeing thousands of youth come together and praise the Lord was inspiring. The conference was fun with singing and dancing breaks, with people trying to be as close to the music as possible, and games that got the whole center laughing, all the way down to the serious moments when the speakers were speaking the truths of our hearts. The way that you could just raise your hands and pray to the Lord without having to worry what others might think, but instead feeling the connection to those around you and feeling how through God we were all connected, loved, and worthy, brought tears to even those of us who ‘never’ cry. There was just a rawness at this conference that I have never felt anywhere else. So, if you are a youth, teen, or know someone who might be interested in this conference, I encourage you to come next year. If you have friends that are not fully in the faith, or are Christian and not Catholic, invite them. A Christian teen that I got closer to at the conference told us on day one that he didn’t fully understand everything we did or why, but that he believed in Jesus Christ and that he wanted to follow Jesus, wherever it took him. And that was here. Thank you to all who donated to make this possible, and thank you for allowing us to experience the Lord in a new way. Thank you, and God Bless you all. Your brother in Christ, Gabriel Torres

From Father Steven - August 16, 2026

By Father Steven Clemence • August 14, 2026
Dear Brothers and Sisters, I hope you are enjoying your summer! Please see the letter below from Fr. Javier. God Bless, Fr. Steven ——————————————— Hello Brothers and Sisters, Time flies, it has already been a few months since my ordination but I feels like it was only yesterday. The ordination has been a gift and a joy. Thank you all for your support in my formation. I would like to share with you two things that have been close to my heart since my ordination to the deaconate and now the priesthood. The first is on God's Providence and the second is a particular part of the Eucharist. My diaconate ordination marked the end of my time of mission and my return for the final year in the seminary. As many of you might remember I was in mission in American Samoa, Samoa, and a short but impactful time in Saipan. During that time I experienced how God opened doors that I never even knew existed. In difficult times God always had a solution in ways that I didn't expect. In short, I experienced God's Providence and I was awe-struck. I felt that God was my Father who was providing what I needed. Looking ahead into my priesthood, I know that there will be challenging moments but I have these core memorials that serve to remind me that God provides the grace needed to carry out his will. Providence comes to you when you seek out God and his will, everything else falls into place. Now as a priest there is a particular part of the Eucharist that I really enjoy, the Holy sung during the Eucharistic Prayer. "Heaven and Earth are full of your glory". That line has stuck with me because it calls to mind all the wonders that I have seen God work in my life, the life of my family, and in the lives of others. Not only this, but the action of singing Holy, Holy, Holy during the Liturgy fulfills our heavenly calling to one day join the angels and saints in Heaven singing the perpetual praises of God. The Book of Revelations says that they never cease to sing Holy, Holy, Holy. In the Eucharist, and in this moment in particular Heaven and Earth come together. What a blessing to celebrate the Eucharist! I remember you in my prayers, please pray for me. In Christ, Fr Javier Alexis Padilla