APRIL 2025

Dear Rev. Fathers, Religious, and People of God,

I wish you all a Happy Easter of the Risen Lord. May the Risen Christ bless you, your parishioners and the families in your parishes. On the day of Easter, I shall offer my Holy Eucharist for all your intentions.

The feast of Easter is a unique event, unparalled in history. Nothing like this has ever heard before or after Christ. Lazarus was raised by Christ from the dead, but he died again. Jesus Christ rose from the dead to die no more. Thus the principal feast of Christianity is the resurrection of Christ and it is the foundation of our faith and the guarantee of our resurrection. In his first letter to the Corinthians, St-Paul says, "Since our message is that Christ has been raised from death, how can some of you say that the dead will not be raised to life? If that is true, it means Christ has not been raised, and if Christ has not been raised from death, then we have nothing to preach and you have nothing to believe. ..(lCor. 15:12-14)". Therefore, the resurrection of Christ is the basis and foundation of our resurrection. If we faithfully follow in his footsteps, we, too, shall rise with Christ in glory. In a nutshell, today we celebrate the triumph of life over death, hope over despair, light over darkness, goodness over evil.

Dear brethren, we are called Easter people. We belong to the Risen Lord. It is not sufficient to confess the Jesus rose from the dead but we must rise with Him from death in sin to a new life. Our encounter with the Risen Christ at the Eucharist should help all of us to get prepared for that final encounter which will take place at our death.

On 14th of April, we celebrate the Chrism Mass in our diocese. It is a day of sanctification and renew our vows to resume our pastoral ministry with zeal and enthusiasm. You have to attend the function without fail. In this month, four of our seminarians who will be ordained deacons. After pause of many years, we are getting four deacons. It is indeed a gift of God to our diocese. We thank Our Lord for the gift of deacons. On our behalf, we congratulate the deacons and wish them a fruitful diaconate ministry.

May the Risen Lord fill your hearts and homes with His peace and joy. May he shower His Graces upon all of us.

Thanking you and with manifold of God’s blessings

Yours devotedly in Christ

+L. Thomas Aquinas

Bishop of Coimbatore