This week, leading up to Easter, is a time for us to pause and reflect on the power of love and the strength of living hope. This is a rollercoaster week, with highs and lows and lots of emotion. For many people, this week will be filled with family gatherings, easter egg hunts and hopefully some well-earned down-time. For many people, this week will be filled with a variety of ancient customs and religious observances. And for us at Rosies, this week is a time to be renewed in our faith and commitment to our mission, of bringing love, compassion and dignity to our friends on the streets.

Many of us, this week, will witness once again the immense love of Jesus as he makes his journey to the cross and offers up his life for the world. At Rosies, we are called to see the face of Christ every day in those who suffer, who put up with pain, rejection, isolation, and abandonment. Like those who journeyed with Jesus, we journey alongside our patrons. We carry their crosses with them, we wipe their brows of the dirt and sweat of the streets, we stand with them in pain and loneliness and we carry them into a new day of hope.

As the sunrise awakens us on Sunday morning, I pray that you all are filled with a renewed sense of hope and that Easter for you, in whichever way you choose to celebrate it, is a day that is filled with love. Hold in your hearts this Easter the profound love that God has for you, that he willing gave up his own life for you, and share this unconditional love with our patrons so that every act of compassion we share on outreach is a quiet moment of resurrection in the lives of our friends on the streets.