The image that we selected this year offers a different perspective. The focus is on the women at the tomb who are discovering, to their wonderment, that Christ has risen from the dead. The angels attest to it and we can see in the faces that are shown that they are witnessing something unfathomable and monumental

The artist, 19th century French painter William-Adolphe Bouguereau, draws us into this moment with the women when the world was changed and the promises of Jesus were kept.

Last year, at the beginning of the pandemic, Pope Francis chose to speak about the women at the tomb in his message for the Easter Vigil.  The Holy Father observed that it was the women who help along the promise of Easter by “sowing seeds of hope . . . with small gestures of care, affection and prayer.”

The timing of his words is significant. In March 2020, a period of fear and isolation for so many, we might have related particularly well to those women, called upon to find the light in the darkness and share the promise of Easter in their words and actions, in their prayer and love.

The people of this Diocese have made great strides from last Easter to this one . . . and this issue of The Monitor Magazine tells some of their stories. A number of parishes, in finding creative ways to connect with their isolated people, have blossomed with new life and energy; agencies have looked to solve problems and bring hope to those in need; individuals offer personal stories of strength in the face of adversity and faith as a response to fear. We invite you to read about them and consider how you have done similar things in your own lives, among your own families.

We might all be able to relate to what those women were seeing and feeling on that first Easter. We, too, are eager to experience this new life in Christ and to give witness to the irrefutable truth that by his Death and Resurrection, Christ has redeemed the world!