April 28, 2024 – Fifth Sunday of Easter
“Now this is how we shall know that we belong to the truth and reassure our hearts before him in whatever our hearts condemn,
for God is greater than our hearts and knows everything.”
(1 John, Ch. 3)
Dear Friends,
The Risen Lord bless you! As I prayed over our second reading this Sunday, I am amazed at how small-hearted and judgmental I can be at times. Absorbing the culture we live in can lead to such division. Anyone who is different from our way of seeing or doing things becomes the enemy. Anyone who might have hurt us becomes an unreachable other from whom we must maintain as much distance as possible. The judgment we make is immediate and long-enduring.
Then we celebrate Easter where through the Resurrection, God introduces a logic and praxis that shatters what seems absolutely final. Life, mercy, hope, unity, encounter, redemption, and forgiveness become a litany to help us in the new way of Jesus to face the old ways of human living.
God is greater than our hearts, and moves us through love to new possibilities of facing the same old problems with others in a new and radically different way. It is possible to live in Truth and Mercy, the dynamic tension we all have to face, of loving others even when we don’t agree with them, or even like them.
Resurrection to new Life in Jesus is hard, but oh, how the results produce Joy! And how the world needs joy these days!
Sincerely, with love, and always seeking mercy,
Fr. Tim
April 21, 2024 – Fourth Sunday of Easter
Happy Easter! We are in the midst of the Easter Season and still celebrating the Lord’s Resurrection!
This weekend is also known as Good Shepherd Weekend. The readings point to Jesus as the good shepherd. During this weekend, we pray for all shepherds who reflect the good shepherd, especially those called to ordained ministry. Please know that we appreciate your continued prayers and support.
Because it is Good Shepherd weekend, the church has declared it as “World Day of Prayer for Vocations.” Please pray that more people hear the call to the priesthood, diaconate, religious life, and consecrated life. Encourage those in your life who might be interested in one of these vocations to explore the possibilities. If you desire to explore more, please contact one of our priests, and we will point you in the right direction. Have a great week continuing the celebration of the Resurrection of the Lord!
God Bless, Fr. Joseph
April 14, 2024 – Third Sunday of Easter
Dear friends,
“Peace be with you,” are the words that the risen Jesus tells his disciples when he appears to them after his resurrection.
These words also make me think of the sacrament of Reconciliation. When the priest absolves the penitent, he says, “may God grant you Pardon and Peace.”
This means that the gift of God’s peace is given in the same measure as the gift of his forgiveness when we celebrate this Sacrament. It is easier for us to accept God’s forgiveness, for we know ourselves to have been forgiven after a good confession, the absolution and the fulfillment of the penance, but, what does it mean to have been given the gift of God’s peace? What does it look like to welcome the gift of God’s peace into my life?
On a different note, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your prayers during my time in Colombia. It was not easy to get my last visa approved, but thanks to God and your prayers the visa was approved in the end, and I was able to come back to the parishes.
Also, I have news to share. Back in January, I had shared that I was leaving the Family of Five this June. This news is that I will be staying for another year! This extra year will allow me to enjoy the gift of being at the parishes longer and, at the same time, work on some immigration related paperwork.
May God bless you, and I pray you have a great, blessed week!
With love,
Fr. Carlos
April 7, 2024 – Second Sunday of Easter
Divine Mercy Sunday
“Be kind to one another, compassionate, and mutually forgiving, just as God has forgiven you in Christ.
Be imitators of God as his dear children. Follow the way of love, even as Christ loved you.He gave himself for us as an offering to God, a gift of pleasing fragrance.”
(Ephesians 4:32-5:2)
Happy Easter, everyone! Like a party that doesn’t end for fifty days, we continue to marvel at the love of God which transforms death into life, despair into hope, limited into possibility.
The last line of this quote from St. Paul reminds us that the stench of violence and death, which summarizes Good Friday, can never defeat what our tradition calls “the odor of sanctity.” It is the pleasing fragrance of a life lived in virtue and the call to permeate the earth with the scent of kindness and mercy.
In our Liturgical rituals this past weekend, we smelled a lot of incense and the beeswax of the Easter Candle. We absorbed the scent of Chrism oil, newly minted by our Archbishop for our use, and then spread around in the baptism and confirmation of our newly-commissioned believers in Jesus. The scents send us to the invigorating fresh air of kindness and sacrificial service to others that far overpowers a stale culture and the staggered wheezes of wasted chances for peace and justice.
We all are called to this, and thanks be to God for new members, who took the chance, like many of us did so long ago, to breath a new air and let our breath be the breath of the Risen Christ, bringing a new fragrance to our world so in need of it!
