A Note From Father Eickhoff

April 20, 2025

Merry Easter!

No, that doesn’t sound right. Perhaps the word “merry” has a too close connection to Christmas to be used for Easter.

Happy Easter!

No, that doesn’t sound celebratory enough. Easter is the greatest and holiest day of the entire year. While “happy” is certainly a nice word it seems to lack the gravitas and cheerfulness that is needed for Easter.

Honestly, I don’t know the right word to express the fulness of the joy of Easter. And so, I can only use a great many words to try and explain Easter. Certainly, Easter is joyful. We are celebrating the victory of Jesus Christ over the power and sin and death; and with Christ’s victory our own triumph as Christ shares his victory with us. Certainly, Easter is awesome (as in full of wonder) since we marvel at all God has done for us through His Son Jesus Christ since we certainly did not merit or deserve our salvation from sin and death on our own. And certainly, Easter is amazing. We human beings are witnesses to the resurrection which is an event completely beyond our own abilities. And so, I suppose I should have started this bulletin article with:

Joyful, Awesome, Amazing Easter!

Yeah, I don’t expect it to become the standard greeting for this day.

Having failed to come up with a good greeting for this Easter day I want to switch my attention to something that is achievable. Namely to offer my thanks to all the volunteers in the parish who have helped make the worthy celebration of this past Holy Week and Easter Sunday possible. A great many parishioners have spent a great deal of time decorating the church for each liturgy this past week. Many others have contributed their time and energy to preparing and preforming the music we heard these past few days. Others have served in a number of liturgical ministries such as altar servers, lectors, eucharistic ministers, and ushers. Your efforts on behalf of the people of St. Anne Parish are greatly appreciated.

Yours in Christ,

Fr. Stephen Eickhoff
Pastor