Happy Trinity Sunday!
This Sunday we give thanks and praise to God for the ordination to the Diaconate of our own Harold Escarcega. He is to be ordained a deacon this Sunday morning at St. Thomas the Apostle. Please keep him in your prayers as he begins his last year of seminary as a transitional deacon at St. John Vianney Seminary in Denver. He will be ordained a priest next June! Congratulations Harold!
READ MOREHappy Pentecost Sunday!
Today the Church celebrates the gift of the Holy Spirit given to the apostles at Pentecost. In the Office of Readings for today we hear from St. Irenaeus who says, “This was why the Lord had promised to send the Advocate: he was to prepare us as an offering to God. Like dry flour, which cannot become one lump of dough, one loaf of bread, without moisture, we who are many could not become one in Christ Jesus without the water that comes down from heaven. And like parched ground, which yields no harvest unless it receives moisture, we who were once like a waterless tree could never have lived and borne fruit without this abundant rainfall from above.”
READ MOREHappy Sunday!
This Sunday we celebrate the Feast of the Ascension of the Lord. In the Preface Prayer of Mass this Sunday the Church prays,
“He ascended, not to distance himself from our lowly state
But that we, his members, might be confident of following
Where he, our Head and Founder, has gone before.”
Happy Sunday!
And Happy Mother’s Day! Thanks be to God for all of our mothers. Our Gospel is very fitting this weekend as Jesus gives us His commandment: “Love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” Isn’t this the example of mothers throughout the world? Women who lay down their lives for those whom they love most, their own flesh and blood. More often than not, this self-sacrificial love happens in secret. I have been very privileged to witness this in the women of our parish. Thank you for being so generous with your gift of motherhood.
READ MOREHappy Sunday!
May begins Confirmation season for us here at St. Joan of Arc. This weekend at the 10:30 Mass we celebrate the adult confirmations. Over the next few weeks we will have First Reconciliation and First Communion and Confirmation for our children. Please keep all in prayer during this very eventful month. As well, we have numerous weddings throughout May and June. Please keep all couples in your prayers as they prepare for the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony.
READ MOREHappy Sunday!
I pray everyone has had a good week. This week we continue to hear from the First Letter of St. John. It begins, “Beloved: See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are.” St. John has a wonderful simplicity in his writing. The love the Father bestows on us is making us His children. St. John adds very simply, “Yet so we are.” Almost as if anticipating how remarkable such a statement is. It is not open to debate, it is merely that. We are God’s children, no arguing. Sometimes it’s difficult to really understand this. We can hear over and over again that we are God’s children and yet not “feel” it or experience it. One good spiritual practice is to simply sit with this truth. Maybe to ask God in prayer what it means that you are His child. In the silence of prayer God can speak to us and give us a deeper understanding of the love He has bestowed on us.
READ MOREWe often act out of ignorance. Armed with the best of intentions, we think we are seeing clearly and correctly, but we are not. We don’t always understand the full meaning of things and only perceive part of the truth. Hence, our judgments and actions can be impaired by myopic, incomplete or erroneous perceptions. The meaning of life, understanding of human experience, and negotiating life’s challenges can all become skewed without proper understanding and vision. The resurrection of Christ is the corrective to our incomplete and limited view of life. Looking at things with the eyes of faith brings a depth of clarity and understanding to how we see God, ourselves, others, and the world.
READ MOREHappy Divine Mercy Sunday! Happy Easter!
I hope everyone has had a wonderful start to the Easter season. I have not written a bulletin letter in a while and want to express my thanks to everyone who made Lent and Holy Week such a wonderful success. We have a great staff here who continually gives of themselves as well as incredible volunteers! Thank you to everyone; you are all a great gift to me and the parish.
READ MOREHappy Palm Sunday!
This weekend we commemorate Our Lord’s entrance into Jerusalem and the beginning of Holy Week. One of the great gifts I’ve had is to spend time in Jerusalem; this was probably about 6 six years ago at Christmas time. The old city of Jerusalem has narrow streets and is very crowded and noisy. I can only imagine the same was the case in the time of Jesus. His entrance of great joy, causing everyone to sing, “Hosanna!”, would have been quite remarkable. And yet, we know what will happen. Those who welcome Jesus with joy will have their voices drowned out by the Jewish leaders in a matter of days. The Lord freely submits himself to all of those for our good. He submits himself to what might seem to be the great hypocrisy of the crowd for love of us. As we begin this Holy Week we are invited to walk with Jesus each day. I would very much encourage you to read the daily gospel each day and enter into the scenes with Jesus.
READ MOREHappy Sunday!
This weekend we celebrate the Third Scrutiny in preparation for our catechumens to be baptized, confirmed, and receive Holy Communion at the Easter Vigil. Please keep them in your prayers as they prepare to be welcomed into the Church. We are grateful to God for them! This Friday will be our last Stations of the Cross in the main Church at 7pm. Please join us for this wonderful Lenten practice. Last week we published the schedule for the Triduum liturgies in the bulletin. Please refer back to that for a list of times for confessions and liturgies.
READ MOREHappy Sunday!
There are a lot of things to be thankful for right now. So much of that is because of you and your desire to let the Lord work in our parish. First, I hope everyone has been enjoying our Lenten mission with Fr. Vietor, “Your Lenten Exodus”. If you have not seen any of the videos please check out our parish website where we have posted each part of the mission. This weekend we sent nearly 30 of our high school students on retreat. Thank you for keeping them in prayer. We are grateful for Mary Lynch and the wonderful work she has been doing with the teens as well as the core team which so generously offers their time each week for the teens.
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