This is the week where we give thanks and look forward as Catholics. We celebrate the national holiday of Thanksgiving that always pushes towards the New Year of our Advent season of preparation. We are called to remember and lift up in prayer the blessings of our lives in thanksgiving to God’s gracious blessings knowing that very near is the greatest of all blessings the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
This past year has been a jumble of experiences and emotions many of which were very difficult to discover blessings and hope. But within each moment were blessings to be discovered both in the personal and in the ministry. Here are three blessings from this odd and strange year.

A little blue envelope: As many of you know we began renovations of our church on the 2nd of January, then COVID struck then all the delays began to happen. As pastor one of the worries that was foremost in my mind was how to keep the church going without Mass and without a Sunday collection. Within a few weeks little blue envelopes began to arrive. For our capital campaign the donation envelopes were the color blue. This gift of generosity, and as many other envelopes began to appear, was one of the truly great blessings. It reminded me of our love for Jesus and our Church is not something that is solely based on the physical but also our desire to bring the kingdom of God to others. I give thanks for a little blue envelope.

The second is “the caring of:” once more this is a gift of generosity by so many people. Early on our Bishop asked us to team with Catholic Chariities and Second Harvest Food bank to have food distribution to those in need. My immediate response was yes, then began the immediate response of so many parish volunteers who have offered their time and talent in serving over 550 households every week with food and prayer. Our St. Vincent de Paul society sought new ways of reaching out and receiving those in need to serve them with the immediate concerns of so many of our brothers and sisters. Our Social Justice Committee chose to pivot and focus on the mental health care needs as people began to suffer from the isolation and worry of what would be next. The gift of generosity is a blessing of how Jesus invites us to extend our arms to embrace the other in hope and joy. It is the thanksgiving of caring of one another.

The third is, “We are not alone:” In my life and certainly in my seminarian training what I, as a priest, have been asked to do over the past nine months was never talked about or covered. The generosity of those who have shared their talents in technology, building so many other things, pivoting on worships space and stewardship of the gifts we share. With each new change and challenge the gift of time and talent from so many people, even with the limitations surround our ministry showed for the hope of God’s blessings within the community. We are not alone is the gift of generosity uniting us as the Body of Christ.

For this I give thanks……Thank you! You each are in my prayers daily.

God bless
Fr. Mark

Normally at this time of year the color purple would be something I would be looking forward too and happy to talk about, but in this year of pandemic the color purple this week meant that our parishes throughout the Diocese and state were asked once more to close there doors to indoor worship and to move out into the relative (in a California sense) cold and wind of our late fall and early winter season.
As the news began to filter and leak out that the state would jump from the orange tier into the purple tier there was truly a sense of dread that filled my heart. Although we had been restricted to celebrating indoors with only 100 people allowed, an almost sense of normalcy had begun to fill the practice of Mass. Even with the masks, the people scattered at safe social distances from each other and the lack of joyous songs being sung was a reality, being in the building, celebrating on a consecrated altar and not hearing the noise of the street allowed, for me, the prayerful celebration of the Mass in a way that was different from our outdoor space.

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It is true and I believe, where two or three are gathered, Jesus is there and I have been blessed greatly by the celebrations in the courtyard in seeing families come to hear God’s Word and receive Him, Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity in the Eucharist and yet, it felt like a gut punch. I spent most of my fitful sleep on Monday night thinking, planning, doubting and fearing what would happen next. Maybe we would be experiencing the movie “Groundhog Day” where tomorrow doesn’t come until we figure out God’s wonderful gifts that surround us and learn to celebrate them in the midst of everything. So when I woke up Tuesday morning and it wasn’t Monday morning, I was a little grumpy…even though I really look forward too Tuesdays because they are my day off…I went to celebrate Mass and get our outdoor worship space ready once more.
What makes the Eucharist so wonderful? Why is it so beautiful to be at the Eucharist? “To be spotted at a Eucharistic meal should make people talk about us because it indicates that we are in a relationship that is scandalous in many ways. Through the act of celebration the Eucharist, we are first and foremost proclaiming an intimacy with the creator of the universe.” (p. 56, from “Living the Sacraments” by Joe Paprocki) This is ultimately what gets me out of my mopey-ness and allows me to see, even in the midst of this time, the gift of God present in the Eucharist. Jesus is with me and celebrates with me and desires to draw me into this “scandalous” relationship of knowing Him as my brother and Savior.

He is Christ the King! It is what we will celebrate this Sunday as we move into the purple of love that opens wide the doors of Advent in preparing our hearts and the world to receive the King of the Universe as the baby Jesus. This isn’t sentimental schlock but rather it is a gift of love. And this is how we are called to live our lives…encountering Jesus in the daily bread of life, just as we receive him in the Daily Bread of the Eucharist. The “Amen” of I believe is a grace of seeing the world not in the “what we don’t have” attitude of wanting but in the “blessings of presence” we do have in the gift of loving stewardship. “In each encounter we have, we can ask ourselves, “Am I offering a real presence to this person?” (p 63) This is what Jesus offers me and you. It is why nothing can separate us from the love of God. (Rm 8:35) It is why, indoors or outdoors, we come to celebrate and say AMEN.

God Bless
Fr. Mark

Three things: Something good, something sad and something tragic. It has been a hard week and a wonderful week. There is much joy and anticipation around our parish campus as we continue to work of evangelization, serving the poor and vulnerable and celebrating the blessing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Old friends: We will start with the good. This weekend our parish welcomes Unbound Ministry. The guest priest this weekend is Msgr. Aldolfo Valdivia. I have known Msgr. Valdivia for over 15 years. He was my supervisor at St. Maria Goretti Parish during my deacon year. When I was able to be at the parish during my final year at St. Patrick Seminary, I followed Msgr. Valdivia around seeing what a priest did and learning the routines so when I was ordained a deacon I at least had some vague idea of how to celebrate the great number of baptisms the parish had each weekend. This weekend as he visits us will give me one more chance to thank him for his kindness and example of priesthood. To remember his graciousness in sharing his wisdom and answering the questions posed by a newly ordained deacon.

Home: This past week my mother left the house she helped build almost 50 years ago. The house where she raised the gaggle of nine children. The house of my childhood and the place where our family has celebrated the joys and sorrows of life. At 84 years old she decided to move to an assisted living facility. In various ways I am happy and sad. Happy in the security and safety she will have living in community and not isolated not the farm. Sad, in the reality that the place of refuge we called home is no longer there. The physical building, the memories and soil remains but it is no longer our home. I know that my brothers and sisters who worked so hard with her this past month to pack up and clean out our family home and to sort out what she wished to take with her, what they wished to take to their homes has been a struggle of emotions…in all that the sadness of leaving something behind is a reality we are all asked to embrace. The quiet mornings of vacation with my breviary and a cup of coffee looking out onto the pasture and fields of the farm are no more. The going home is now gone. But, a new day has begun, with sadness and a tear…a new day has begun.

The Cross and McCarrick: Lastly the tragic…I was in seminary in 2002 when the full force of the sexual abuse crisis hit the Catholic Church. There was shock, anger, dismay, frustration and every other emotion felt as many of us watched and read about priests we loved and respected being listed as men who had abused the children and young people of our Church. It was a reality we were all faced with in our formation to the priesthood and many people question if we would leave. Over the last 18 years we have had the slow dripping of more information as we continue to seek the best ways to protect the vulnerable of the Church and share the joy of the Gospel.

This week as the report of the crimes and abuse of then “Cardinal McCarrick” became public the questions were asked how could he rise to such prominence in the Church when the open secret of his abuse of children, seminarians and young priests was known by so many? I don’t have an answer for this, although I wish I did, but God gave me three things this week that has helped me to digest and live with the reality of the sin of abuse. First was the celebration of two of the great bishops of the Church: St. Martin of Tours and St. Josaphat. I was reminded of the role the bishop has in our faith. On the day of my ordination, as it is with all priests, we place our hands in the hands of the bishop and vow obedience. It is a vow not to some middle manager in a large organization but a vow to a spiritual father in the example of the two great saints who battled for healing, unity and peace within the faith. I believe most bishops seek to live this holy example and with each of the two great saints, they seek to embrace the cross given to them and work diligently and faithfully for the holiness within the people of God.
It is the Cross of Jesus Christ we are called to embrace. St. Paul in his Letter to Philemon in the reading from Thursday (the memorial of St. Josaphat) wrote these words, “And if he has done you any injustice or owes you anything, charge it to me.” (Philemon 1:18) St. Paul asks us to be more like Jesus, to embrace the cross as the only way to bring about healing and peace.

It may not be a cross we desire but we embrace it because Jesus is with us and is already embracing the cross as a healing gift of love. We must join together in praying and working for the healing of God’s holy catholic Church.
God Bless
Fr. Mark

It has been a busy and extraordinary week. As we wait for the final outcome of our presidential election we are reminded of the great gift of freedom of will endowed in us by our creator from the moment of our conception. We are given the gift to choose good and avoid evil, the gift to speak truth and blessing and avoid slander and defamation and the gift to seek peace and justice and turn away from cruelty and violence. The reality of freedom is we do not need to be of one mind as long as we have the common goal. We know, as Christians, we have one destination, one common goal, life with Jesus Christ and eternal life in the great company of saints. And like so many of the great saints in our Church’s tradition and history, there are a variety of ways to reach this goal…but each way is founded in the recognition of using the gifts and blessings God gives to us and use them to bring peace and justice into our world.

The Sacramental life of our faith reminds us of how we grow in grace and unity as a community. Each Sacrament calls us to a greater unity and into a greater community. As Catholics we are called to share these gifts with the world. At the center of our sacramental life is the Eucharist and Reconciliation, moments of grace and blessings.
We are invited into thanksgiving and the sharing of blessings daily in our life. The hope we see around us isn’t limited by a day in November of a vote total but rather in the knowledge and love of God we share with one another. We know in this time of lock-downs and social distancing building community is often difficult and even frowned upon but the sharing of the human need of community will not be destroyed. In our Eucharistic life we are challenged to look for the better and the very best in each other as we look for this within our own hearts. We are challenged to examine our words and actions and ask the hard questions of: Have we sought the best in others? Have we gave the best of ourselves to the other? As St. John reminds us in his first letter, “Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.” (1 Jn 4:20) This is where the common goal and the common destination comes into greater focus.
Jesus reminds us again and again how we must learn to forgive from the very first actions and words in his ministry to the words of forgiveness from the cross of our salvation: the cross of reconciliation and forgiveness.

We are called as members of the Body of Christ, to a continued conversion of life in moving toward greater unity with God and His holy Church. In this we know we are surrounded by saints and sinners knowing we are both saint and sinner in our own life. It is the movement of a heart seeking contrition which allows us to grow in love and desire. We pray this daily, “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” It is the command Jesus offers us, “So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift. (Mt 5:23-24)

After this election where feelings have run high and words have often been spoken not in charity, let us once again turn towards Jesus and seek the unity and hope of a people whose destination isn’t the values and trappings of the world but the heavenly Kingdom of God’s house.
God Bless
Fr. Mark

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