Capt. Richard Phillips (r.) stands alongside Cmdr. Frank Castellano, commanding officer of USS Bainbridge, after being rescued by U.S naval forces off the coast of Somalia April 12. (CNS/Reuters)

Here’s another life-affirming Easter post.

An article published today by Catholic News Service tells how the Easter prayers of a Vermont parish were answered by the dramatic Easter Sunday rescue of fellow parishioner Capt. Richard Phillips by U.S. Navy SEALs in the Indian Ocean.

In order to protect his crew from harm, the heroic Capt. Phillips had offered himself as a hostage April 7 when four Somali pirates tried to seize the U.S.-flagged freighter Maersk Alabama.

Fearing that his captors were about to kill Phillips, Navy SEAL snipers shot and killed three of the pirates who were holding him in the Maersk Alabama’s lifeboat. Phillips was rescued unharmed.

“We’re so happy that it turned out the way that it did,” said Donna Schaeffler, secretary of St. Thomas Church in Underhill Center, Vt., the parish where Phillips, 53, and his wife, Andrea, regularly attend Mass.

“There is so much media here and we’re trying to give the Phillipses their privacy, but we’ve been praying at Mass for his safe release,” Schaeffler told Catholic News Service April 13 in a telephone interview.

“Our pastor [Father Charles R. Danielson] also asked everyone to pray for the Phillipses during the Easter morning Mass. We were just so happy to hear the news of his rescue later in the day.”