Padre Serra Parish
  • Home
    • Parish
    • Parish Life
    • Coming Soon
    • Ongoing
    • Events By Age
  • About
    • Gallery
    • Homilies >
      • Homilies 2025
      • Homilies 2024
      • Homilies 2023
      • Homilies 2022
      • Homilies 2021
      • Homilies 2020
      • Homilies 2019
      • Homilies 2018
      • Homilies 2017
    • Mass >
      • Mass in Very Slow Motion
      • New Year Mass
      • Epiphany
      • Ash Wednesday
      • Holy Week
      • Ascension of the Lord
      • Pentecost
      • Corpus Christi
      • Blessing of Graduates
      • Assumption of Mary
      • College Blessing
      • Catechetical Sunday
      • Saints Day
      • Mass of Remembrance
      • Thanksgiving
      • Immaculate Conception
      • Our Lady of Guadalupe
      • Simbang Gabi
      • Christmas Mass
    • Ministries
    • Ongoing
    • Pastor
    • Prayer
    • Sacraments >
      • Baptism
      • Reconciliation
      • Eucharist >
        • Spiritual Communion
      • Confirmation
      • Marriage >
        • Marriage Preparation & Weddings
        • Wedding Liturgy Music Planner
      • Holy Orders
      • Anointing of the Sick
    • Stations of the Cross
  • Encounter
    • Family >
      • ​​Christmas Concert & Dinner
      • Fall Concert
      • Parish Picnic
      • Posada
      • Trunk or Treat
      • Spring Concert
      • Summer Concert
    • Children >
      • Children's Choir
      • Faith Formation Registration
      • Faith Formation Balance
      • Faith Formation Volunteer
      • Little Church
      • Liturgy of the Word
      • Summer Camp
      • Stay & Play
    • Peer Leaders
    • Youth >
      • Faith Formation Registration
      • Youth Retreats
    • Young Adults >
      • Sacred Hearts Servants Mission
    • Adults >
      • Adult Faith Formation >
        • Who is God in My Life?
      • Faith Life
      • Peace & Justice
    • Seniors
    • Becoming Catholic >
      • Baptism for School Aged Children and Teens
      • Catholic Inquiry
      • Confirmation for Adults
      • Parish Sponsor
  • Engage
    • Calendar >
      • Presiders
      • Mass Intentions
    • Groups >
      • Bereavement
      • Bible Study >
        • Summer Bible Institute
      • Cancer
      • Caritas
      • Chronic Pain
      • Divorce
      • Faith Sharing
      • Filipino Ministry
      • Knitting
      • Returning Catholics
      • Married Couples Ministry
      • Men
      • Military Family
      • Meditative Movement
      • Open Hearts
      • PAX Christi
      • Peer Leaders
      • Prayer & Pruning
      • Racial Justice
      • Saints Among Us
      • Scouts
      • Single Adults
      • Spanish
      • Toastmasters
      • Writers
      • Women >
        • Lemons on the Loose
        • Moms Group
        • Seeds of Faith
    • Knights of Columbus
    • Music Ministry >
      • Adult Choir
      • Cantors & Instrumentalists
      • Cherubs
      • Children's Choir
      • Christmas Concert
      • Chorus Caritas
      • Fall Concert
      • Jason Stoll >
        • Jason Stoll Bio
        • Micah Wright Bio
        • Yu-Ting Peng Bio
      • Spring Concert
      • Summer Concert
      • Youth Choir
      • Youth Strings Ensemble
      • Dialogues
    • Outreach
    • Retreats
    • Liturgical Service >
      • Altar Servers
      • American Sign Language
      • Environment
      • Eucharistic Ministers
      • Hospitality
      • Lectors
      • Marthas & Matthews
      • Sacristans
      • Livestreaming Ministry
      • Welcome Ministry
    • St. Vincent de Paul
  • Contact
    • Baptisms
    • Contact Us
    • Directory
    • eNews Sign up
    • Funerals >
      • Funeral & Memorials
    • I Need Help >
      • SVdP Food Pantry
    • Join
    • Safeguard the Children >
      • VIRTUS®
      • Fingerprinting
    • Serra Center
    • St. Mary Magdalen School
    • Weddings
  • News
    • Bulletins
    • Funerals & Memorials
    • Watch
  • Donate
  • Home
    • Parish
    • Parish Life
    • Coming Soon
    • Ongoing
    • Events By Age
  • About
    • Gallery
    • Homilies >
      • Homilies 2025
      • Homilies 2024
      • Homilies 2023
      • Homilies 2022
      • Homilies 2021
      • Homilies 2020
      • Homilies 2019
      • Homilies 2018
      • Homilies 2017
    • Mass >
      • Mass in Very Slow Motion
      • New Year Mass
      • Epiphany
      • Ash Wednesday
      • Holy Week
      • Ascension of the Lord
      • Pentecost
      • Corpus Christi
      • Blessing of Graduates
      • Assumption of Mary
      • College Blessing
      • Catechetical Sunday
      • Saints Day
      • Mass of Remembrance
      • Thanksgiving
      • Immaculate Conception
      • Our Lady of Guadalupe
      • Simbang Gabi
      • Christmas Mass
    • Ministries
    • Ongoing
    • Pastor
    • Prayer
    • Sacraments >
      • Baptism
      • Reconciliation
      • Eucharist >
        • Spiritual Communion
      • Confirmation
      • Marriage >
        • Marriage Preparation & Weddings
        • Wedding Liturgy Music Planner
      • Holy Orders
      • Anointing of the Sick
    • Stations of the Cross
  • Encounter
    • Family >
      • ​​Christmas Concert & Dinner
      • Fall Concert
      • Parish Picnic
      • Posada
      • Trunk or Treat
      • Spring Concert
      • Summer Concert
    • Children >
      • Children's Choir
      • Faith Formation Registration
      • Faith Formation Balance
      • Faith Formation Volunteer
      • Little Church
      • Liturgy of the Word
      • Summer Camp
      • Stay & Play
    • Peer Leaders
    • Youth >
      • Faith Formation Registration
      • Youth Retreats
    • Young Adults >
      • Sacred Hearts Servants Mission
    • Adults >
      • Adult Faith Formation >
        • Who is God in My Life?
      • Faith Life
      • Peace & Justice
    • Seniors
    • Becoming Catholic >
      • Baptism for School Aged Children and Teens
      • Catholic Inquiry
      • Confirmation for Adults
      • Parish Sponsor
  • Engage
    • Calendar >
      • Presiders
      • Mass Intentions
    • Groups >
      • Bereavement
      • Bible Study >
        • Summer Bible Institute
      • Cancer
      • Caritas
      • Chronic Pain
      • Divorce
      • Faith Sharing
      • Filipino Ministry
      • Knitting
      • Returning Catholics
      • Married Couples Ministry
      • Men
      • Military Family
      • Meditative Movement
      • Open Hearts
      • PAX Christi
      • Peer Leaders
      • Prayer & Pruning
      • Racial Justice
      • Saints Among Us
      • Scouts
      • Single Adults
      • Spanish
      • Toastmasters
      • Writers
      • Women >
        • Lemons on the Loose
        • Moms Group
        • Seeds of Faith
    • Knights of Columbus
    • Music Ministry >
      • Adult Choir
      • Cantors & Instrumentalists
      • Cherubs
      • Children's Choir
      • Christmas Concert
      • Chorus Caritas
      • Fall Concert
      • Jason Stoll >
        • Jason Stoll Bio
        • Micah Wright Bio
        • Yu-Ting Peng Bio
      • Spring Concert
      • Summer Concert
      • Youth Choir
      • Youth Strings Ensemble
      • Dialogues
    • Outreach
    • Retreats
    • Liturgical Service >
      • Altar Servers
      • American Sign Language
      • Environment
      • Eucharistic Ministers
      • Hospitality
      • Lectors
      • Marthas & Matthews
      • Sacristans
      • Livestreaming Ministry
      • Welcome Ministry
    • St. Vincent de Paul
  • Contact
    • Baptisms
    • Contact Us
    • Directory
    • eNews Sign up
    • Funerals >
      • Funeral & Memorials
    • I Need Help >
      • SVdP Food Pantry
    • Join
    • Safeguard the Children >
      • VIRTUS®
      • Fingerprinting
    • Serra Center
    • St. Mary Magdalen School
    • Weddings
  • News
    • Bulletins
    • Funerals & Memorials
    • Watch
  • Donate
Search by typing & pressing enter

YOUR CART

News

Bulletins

7/10/2020

A Parable to Encounter Jesus and Be Disciples

What exactly is a parable? In C.H. Dodd’s book, The Parables of the Kingdom, he defines a parable as “a metaphor or simile drawn from nature or common life, arresting the hearer by its vividness or strangeness, and leaving the mind in sufficient doubt about its precise application to tease it into active thought.”

In today’s gospel the Parable of the Sower from Matthew would have been contemporary to a Jewish farming culture. Dry, rocky or thorny soil would have been understood as foolish for a favorable future harvest. This parable of the soil teaching by Jesus was offered to the inquiring or non-believing “large crowds because they do not see and hear and do not listen or understand” his prior teachings that the revelation of the Kingdom of God was at hand.

If we “tease” today’s parable into “active thought” we need to ask ourselves are we too part of the “large crowds” Jesus was speaking to who did not see or hear, listen or understand him? Or are we truly a disciple of Jesus encountering him and living his teachings in good soil of our own lives? Maybe we find ourselves at one moment being an inquirer in the “large crowd” and at another time an active disciple living in Jesus.

Contemporary times for us present different types of challenging “soil” to be tilled with good seed. Contemporary dry soil may be our growing and enveloping secular and materialism culture or the challenge of living a life filled with the rocky soil of anxiety, busyness, loneliness, and siren songs distracting us from balance, solitude and silence. Thorny soil abounds with challenging political and cultural divisions, civic unrest, collapse of families, injustices in education, health and economics, and least we forget a pandemic with many deaths and the social and economic effects of the lock down.
God may cast seeds on dry, rocky, thorny or on our own contemporary challenging soils but as has been written “some may see this as foolish but others may see this as God’s hope and encouragement” for a favorable harvest anywhere. The Parable of the Sower does “tease” us to ask not only who we are but in what soil we live. We are to encounter Jesus and be disciples in words and works in all soils offering hope and encouragement as his encountered seeds. Do we do this?

Deacon Jack Redmond
Picture

Comments are closed.

    All Audio Bulletins Funerals & Memorials Message Of The Week Photo Albums


    RSS Feed

Blessed Sacrament Chapel Hours

Sunday - Friday, 8:00 am - 9:00 pm
Saturday, 2:00 - 9:00 pm 

Office Hours

Monday through Thursday 8:00 am – 7:00 pm
Friday 8:30 am - 4:30 pm
Saturday 3:00 pm - 6:15 pm
Sunday 8:00 am - 1:00 pm
Mass Schedule
Vertical Divider

Telephone

(805) 482 · 6417
(805) 987 · 8100  FAX

For emergencies requiring
a priest after hours,
such as serious illness or death,
​please call:

​(805) 512 · 3208

Email Us

​[email protected]

Address​

5205 Upland Road, Camarillo, CA 93012

Guest WiFi

Login: psp-guest
​Password: pspwelcome
Bulletin
Calendar
Donate
Join Email List
For eNews you can trust.

Staff Login​

​Contact Communication

​Disclaimer