6th Sunday of Easter
Have you ever heard one Christian teach one thing about Jesus, and then heard shortly thereafter another Christian teaching the opposite? Who’s right? How do we find out the truth? In our first reading we see where the first followers of Jesus turned to find the truth in the midst of disagreements and controversies over what they should believe…and where they turned then is still where we as Catholics turn now!
5th Sunday of Easter
The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead turned everything we thought we knew completely upside down! God showed that He has the power to bring good out of anything…even evil, and even the difficult and painful moments of our lives. This weekend I celebrated my final weekend of Masses in the Superior area. I have been asked to assist in covering the Masses in the Hayward and Cable Catholic Churches effective immediately. Thank you for welcoming me so warmly into your hearts and lives. Though this time of change and transition will be difficult, I know that God has the power to bring good out of all things. Please welcome whatever priest comes to this area next with the same warmth and love as you did me, and he will be one lucky priest!
4th Sunday of Easter
Jesus says today in our Gospel, “My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me.” What does God’s voice sound like in your life? What happens when you follow it? What do we and others miss out on when we don’t? Often God’s voice/invitation doesn’t give us the whole story or plan He has, just the next step in the process…so we can easily dismiss those thoughts, that voice, because it might not seem, from our perspective, to make sense in that moment. But I challenge you this week: listen for that voice, and the next time you hear it (even if it doesn’t seem to make sense or takes you out of your comfort zone), follow it! God has something special in store!
3rd Sunday of Easter
Our Gospel story today is one of the passages we as Catholics point to in the Scriptures where Jesus sets Peter apart from the other Apostles, in which we read the beginnings of the papacy and the pope! God gave us a great gift in our pope, a leader and figurehead meant to keep Jesus’ Church united as ONE body. Jesus’ great prayer was that all of his followers might be one, as He is in the Father and the Father is in Him, that we would all be ONE…at present there are over 40,000 different Christian denominations. Thanks be to God for our ONE Catholic Church, united throughout the whole world, for the gift of the pope to keep us united (even in the midst of struggles and difficulties and disagreements – kind of like the head of a family), and for the gift of the Eucharist where we become what we are: ONE in the Body of Christ!