Blog Archives

4/29/2022

BBQ on the Beach

Dear Friends,

This Easter season, I have been thinking about the resurrection of Jesus and what it means for us 2000 years later. Additionally, I’ve been considering the evidence for Jesus’ resurrection having happened. We don’t have any eyewitness accounts in the Scriptures of Jesus’ actual rising from the dead. But we do have the empty tomb, the testimony of the women who encountered the angel there, and the apostle’s accounts of the Risen Jesus appearing to them. Of all the post-Resurrection stories, I think the one from today’s gospel is the one I love the most: the barbecue on the beach after an eleventh-hour reprieve from a night’s fishing that yielded nothing, and the opportunity for Peter to repent of his threefold denial by declaring his love for the Lord three times.

The instructions (feed my lambs) that follow Peter’s expressions of love are meant for us, too, and that leads me to what I think may be the most convincing evidence for Jesus’ resurrection: the vibrant, loving Church, of which we are all a part, still ministering today, feeding the Lord’s lambs, with the help of the Holy Spirit.

Still, one cannot deny that there is evil in the world, even within the Church, and that can be discouraging, perhaps obscuring the truth of the Church as the Risen Christ’s Body. The fourth verse of Bob Hurd’s “Two Were Bound for Emmaus” that we are singing at liturgy today may be helpful:

When the road makes us weary, when our labor seems but loss,
when the fire of faith weakens and too high seems the cost,
let the Church turn to its risen Lord, who for us bore the cross,
and we’ll find our hearts burning at the sound of his voice.

How do we turn to the risen Lord? In Scripture, in sacrament, and in service: if we feed his lambs, we will find him.

Siempre Adelante!

Dominic MacAller
Director of Liturgy and Music

Picture: “Christ Appears on the Shore of Lake Tiberias” by James Tissot

4/22/2022

Peace be with you

Dear Parish Family,

"Peace be with you!” This was the initial greeting of our Lord as he appeared to his disciples after his Resurrection. At this time, the apostles were filled with fear, weak and discouraged. Their Master had been arrested, crucified, and now his body was missing from the tomb. It's easy to imagine how their fear and doubts took over instead of holding on to His promise that he would rise again. Jesus could have questioned their trust and loyalty, yet he did not mention it; instead, he wished them peace. He knew what their hearts were experiencing, and what they needed was peace. Not just any peace but the peace that only He can provide. His peace which calms any storm. It helps us face troubling circumstances without being swallowed by anxiety, anger, or fear. It brings a quiet confidence to our hearts that guides us as we face challenging decisions. It allows us to accept God’s boundless love, which makes us say, “I belong to Christ, and I know he will never abandon me! I am loved, and I am forgiven.”
Jesus said to them once again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” His gift of peace is not just for us alone; it is meant to be spilled over to our relationships with each other. Jesus is sending us out, asking us to treat each other with the same mercy and love that he has shown us. Loving each other and forgiving each other is perhaps the most challenging aspect of our lives as Christians. We know how difficult it can be to forgive someone who has hurt us, to love without conditions. The only way we can overcome this is to “let the peace of Christ” reign in our hearts. Remember, we don’t do this alone; we have also been given his Spirit. “He breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.’” Filled with God’s Spirit, just like the apostles, we are empowered to go out to the world, sharing God’s love, peace, and forgiveness.

This Easter season, let us greet each other with God’s Peace, and may it be a reminder to be instruments of God’s peace as we pray for an end to the war in Ukraine and around the world.

Siempre Adelante,
Tere Delgado
Faith Formation Minister

4/21/2022

Taka Yamashita

1938 - 2022

Funeral Liturgy - Cremains
Saturday, May 7
10:00 am
Padre Serra Parish

4/15/2022

Time to leave the Tomb?

Dear Parish Family,

"Peace be with you!” This was the initial greeting of our Lord as he appeared to his disciples after his Resurrection. At this time, the apostles were filled with fear, weak and discouraged. Their Master had been arrested, crucified, and now his body was missing from the tomb. It's easy to imagine how their fear and doubts took over instead of holding on to His promise that he would rise again. Jesus could have questioned their trust and loyalty, yet he did not mention it; instead, he wished them peace. He knew what their hearts were experiencing, and what they needed was peace. Not just any peace but the peace that only He can provide. His peace which calms any storm. It helps us face troubling circumstances without being swallowed by anxiety, anger, or fear. It brings a quiet confidence to our hearts that guides us as we face challenging decisions. It allows us to accept God’s boundless love, which makes us say, “I belong to Christ, and I know he will never abandon me! I am loved, and I am forgiven.”

Jesus said to them once again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” His gift of peace is not just for us alone; it is meant to be spilled over to our relationships with each other. Jesus is sending us out, asking us to treat each other with the same mercy and love that he has shown us. Loving each other and forgiving each other is perhaps the most challenging aspect of our lives as Christians. We know how difficult it can be to forgive someone who has hurt us, to love without conditions. The only way we can overcome this is to “let the peace of Christ” reign in our hearts. Remember, we don’t do this alone; we have also been given his Spirit. “He breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.’” Filled with God’s Spirit, just like the apostles, we are empowered to go out to the world, sharing God’s love, peace, and forgiveness.

I pray that you are free from weakness, falsehood, bitterness, addiction, anger, selfishness and hypocrisy. I pray that your Lenten sacrifices might lead to authentic Easter joy!

Happy and Holy Easter to you all!
Fr. Patrick
Pastor

4/9/2022

Palm Sunday and the Procession of the Assembly

As a parish community, we gather in the courtyard on Palm Sunday to hear a short reading about our Lord’s entry into Jerusalem seated upon a colt. Palms are blessed and distributed. We ask God to sanctify the palms with His blessing that we too may follow Christ the King and reach the eternal Jerusalem. We then process into the church holding our palms and singing “Hosanna.”

Passion/Palm Sunday is celebrated with full acknowledgement of the ultimate reality: Jesus died and rose from the dead and is now seated at the right hand of God. We do not process as if we do not know the rest of the story. Jesus is addressed as the “the Son of David … he who comes in the name of the Lord.”

In our procession into the church, we are joyful, yet ever mindful of the price paid by our loving Lord to heal the wounded core of humanity. Our procession is a public proclamation of our faith and trust in God. A procession provides an opportunity for a fuller and richer expression of the prayer of the assembly. The celebration of the procession of Christ is not some historical reenactment.

Palm Sunday reminds us, ever more fully, that the path Jesus chose is also our path of discipleship. It is the path that leads to salvation.

When the procession is over, the singing of Hosanna continues in the Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of hosts...Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.

Bob Shadduck
Altar Server Ministry Director