This last day of Advent:

Ave Maria sung by Aaron Neville






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O Come. O Come, Emmanuel !

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Listen and enjoy: Amy Grant sings the words of Mary in this beautiful song: Breath of Heaven

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The Fourth Sunday of Advent

The birth of the Lord draws near. The celebration of the fulfillment of God's promises approaches.

Christmas.

Christmas celebrates God coming into the world as a fully human - human being. He comes for the renewal of our lives.

Joseph had a problem and it wasn't a small one. Yet he relied on the Lord to speak to him and guide him through his very difficult moment. Joseph was a righteous man and we should all be righteous people, taking Joseph's lead.

Joseph may have feared BUT he was not afraid! JOseph knew, as we should all understand, God was with him.

"What emanates from the figure of Saint Joseph is faith . . . Joseph of Nazareth is a just man becasue he totally lives by faith. He is holy because his faith is truly heroic."

Pope John Paul II
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Do you think of yourself as living a virtuous life?
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Do others perceive you as righteous?
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What makes the difference between the righteous and the self-righteous person?
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Jospeh was a man who paid attention to his dreams. Do you listen to your dreams, by day or night?
What do you take in?
What do you ignore?
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Loving God, through the intercession of the blessed virgin Mary, the mother of Christ Your Son, may our hope of salvation be realized in the birth of Christ.

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Celtic Thunder

Enjoy some terrific Weekend Music

Desperado

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You Raise Me Up

Home ....

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Meet My new great-nephew

Caden Foley with his sister, Cambria

Today, Dec 13, The Feast of Saint Lucy

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Today we remember St. Lucy the Martyr or Santa Lucia! Little is known about this 3rd century saint. She died a martyr on this day in 305 AD. She is the patroness of those with eye difficulties.

Lucy's name means "light", with the same root as "lucid" which means "clear, radiant, understandable." Unfortunately for us, Lucy's history does not match her name. Shrouded in the darkness of time, all we really know for certain is that this brave woman who lived in Syracuse lost her life in the persecution of Christians in the early fourth century. Her veneration spread to Rome so that by the sixth century the whole Church recognized her courage in defense of the faith.

Lucy's name is probably also connected to statues of Lucy holding a dish with two eyes on it, see the pic above. This refers to another legend in which Lucy's eyes were put out by Diocletian as part of his torture. The legend concludes with God restoring Lucy's eyes.
Lucy's name also played a large part in naming Lucy as a patron saint of the blind and those with eye-trouble. (One huge reason why, when I was blind for about 6 mos in the 80’s I became a daily pray-er to Saint Lucy for my own eye sight)

Whatever the fact to the legends surrounding Lucy, the truth is that her courage to stand up and be counted a Christian in spite of torture and death is the light that should lead us on our own journeys through life.
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Saint Lucy, pray for us!

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Thanksgiving Day 2010: St. Joseph's welcomes the hungry and the Homeless

The Desserts are ready


The tables are ready

Guest Meal Servers
(gentleman on the far left is a medical doctor whose services were needed for one of the Dinner Guests)


Meal Servers get ready to welcome dinner guests


Doris Simmons, Elaine Ciardello and June Reaves work in the kitchen


Sue Bruno and Jackie Mead...
background: Mike McVoy, Ray Borras, Rollie Earley, and Gloria Green

Father Pat, Bishop Ricard and DeeDee Green


Father Pat welcomes Dinner Guest


Father Pat and Dinner Guests


Sunnie, Father Pat and Brenda

Happy Thanksgiving

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow."

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Today is the Feast of St. Cecilia: the Patron Saint of Sacred Music

"Those who sing scare away their woes."
Miguel de Cervantes

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Today: The Feast of Christ the King

Today's solemn feast of Christ the King, the grand finale to Liturgical Year C, gives us an opportunity to lay aside a lot of cultural baggage about kings and kingdoms, and discover how Jesus Christ can be a true king, unlike earthly rulers.

Over the past year, we have seen the important theme of the imitation of Jesus, especially in His ministry of forgiveness and reconciliation. In today’s moving Gospel story of the crucifixion, this theme reaches its apex.

Jesus' final moments

Today's Gospel (Luke 3:35-43) is recounted only by Luke. The penitent sinner receives salvation through the crucified Jesus. This moving scene of the crucifixion is filled with details typical of his portrayal of Jesus. He is crucified with the two criminals surrounding Him, fulfilling Jesus' own prediction at the supper table. Just as Jesus had repeatedly taught His disciples not to respond to violence with more violence and to be forgiving, so He forgives the very men who had condemned Him and who drive the stakes into His body.

When one of the crucified criminals joins in the chorus of derision that accompanies Jesus to His death, the other confesses his sin and asks for mercy. It is Luke's prescription for authentic conversion as exemplified in the story of publican and the sinner (18:9-14) and so Jesus promises this man not only forgiveness but also a place at His side that very day as His journey to God triumphantly reaches its home in paradise.

Only Luke describes this poignant scene: One of the criminals who hung alongside Christ derided Him, saying, "Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!" But the other rebuked the other criminal, saying, "Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong." This one then said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." Christ replied, "Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise."

The image of the dying Jesus jars us with such a sense of shame and powerlessness in Luke, who describes the death of the Son of God, the King of the Jews. We are given a lexicon of abuse and humiliation: criminals, condemnation, crucifixion, nakedness, scoffing, mocking, taunting, deriding, reviling, sneering ... hardly the stuff of kingship, and no crowns here except one of thorns. We are face-to-face with agony and grief, and a cacophony of insults instead of songs and praise.

A kingship that embraces

Kingship, when God is involved, does not ask people to ignore the failures, but embraces those experiences and redeems them. Throughout salvation history, God's promise to the people was a king who is righteous, deals wisely, executes justice and righteousness in the land, and enables the people to live securely. In Jesus, God has fulfilled that promise.

In the story of Jesus, kingship is recast. The miracle lies in the fact that God shares the potential hopelessness of the human situation, but does so as king, as the source of our hope and life. That is what the criminal on the cross with Jesus in today's Gospel scene partly grasped. He asked Jesus to remember him when He came into His kingdom. He was looking to a future reign, but Jesus handed out the royal pardon immediately. This was simply the culmination of the way Jesus lived: He never dressed as we think a king should, or did things properly by our standards. Jesus' kingdom is unlike the one that Pilate knows and is willingly or unwillingly part of. The Roman kingdom was one of arbitrariness, privileges, domination, vengeance, vindictiveness, and occupation. Jesus' kingdom is built on love, service, justice, reconciliation and peace.

Very few can measure up to Christ's kingly stature, remaining powerless in the face of the powerful. Many of us resist with power, even though we resort to very refined forms of pressure and manipulation. As we contemplate Christ crucified, we understand something of why Christ has remained a king, even up to modern times: He didn't bow down. He never responded to violence with more violence. He forgave until the end.

God's agent in history

As we celebrate the feast of Christ's kingship today, let me leave you with this one thought that has been on my mind for the past year in particular. If we follow the example of the prophets of ancient Israel who worked within the framework of the structures of the faith of God's people of their day, then we in our day cannot marginalize Christian revelation and its ecclesial transmission by proposing a non-Christian vision where misuse of the terminology "Kingdom or Reign of God" is a substitute for Jesus Christ and his Church. The Church is the necessary vehicle, and privileged instrument for us to encounter Jesus Christ, to receive His life through the sacraments, to hear His Word mediated through preaching and the interpretation of the Church, and to journey toward the fullness of the Kingdom of heaven, which lies ahead of us.

Jesus Christ is our great prophet. He is the only full revelation of God and He is the Lord and Savior of all men and women. We must be watchful and vigilant that the Christian terminology is never emptied of its theological meaning so as to be better integrated into a "vision" or a supposedly "new wisdom" of this age.

On this great feast, let us remember that Jesus took His wounds to heaven, and there is a place in heaven for our wounds because our King bears His in glory. Perhaps we need to cry out: "Where are you, God?" And today we are given the answer: God is hanging on a tree, in the broken body of a young man -- arms outstretched to embrace us, and gently asking us to climb up onto the cross with Him, and look at the world from an entirely new perspective. Or perhaps we need to cry out for mercy, asking that He not forget us in the New Jerusalem: "Jesus, remember me, when You come into Your kingdom."

And from the depth of our own darkness and shadows, we might have to pray with Cleopas and his companion on the road to Emmaus, "Stay with us, Lord, for it is almost evening and the day is far spent." Or maybe in the midst of our despair, we recognize the source of our hope and echo the words of Jesus, "Father, into Your hands I commend my spirit."

What a strange form of kingship Christ offers us today! May today's feast force us to remember the appalling fact of our salvation. When all around us seems to be darkness, destruction, night, and even death, let us never forget that we are not alone. In our midst hangs the Crucified One, arms outstretched in loving mercy and welcome. May we have the courage to ask our benevolent King to remember us in His Kingdom, and the peace to know that Paradise is already in our midst even when every external sign indicates darkness and death. This is abundant life on the Royal Road of the Cross.

Jesus King of Kings



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Why I Became a Priest

A video offering great insight and inspiration. It's 28 minutes long but worth every second. Enjoy! And pray for your priests.

The priest today from IChoseYou on Vimeo.





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A Veteran's Day Prayer

God of peace,
we pray for those who have served our nation
and have laid down their lives
to protect and defend our freedom.

We pray for those who have fought,
whose spirits and bodies are scarred by war,
whose nights are haunted by memories
too painful for the light of day.

We pray for those who serve us now,
especially for those in harm's way.
Shield them from danger
and bring them home.

Turn the hearts and minds
of our leaders and our enemies
to the work of justice and a harvest of peace.

May the peace you left us,
the peace you gave us,
be the peace that sustains,
the peace that saves us.

Christ Jesus, hear us!
Lord Jesus, hear our prayer!

Amen.


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Wednesday, November 10

Today is also the feast of St. Leo the Great who died in the year 461.

"goodness does not consist in greatness, but greatness in goodness."
Athenaeus
Greek grammarian and writer
3rd century

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Tuesday, November 9

"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose."
Dr.Seuss

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Good Way to Start the Week

Is God Calling You?

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You gotta see this!

This weekend Pope Benedict is in Spain, primarily to consecrate the new Cathedral of the Holy Family. Earlier, however, at a prayer service in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, he placed incense in a HUGE censer and it swung like you would not believe. Some say the speed of the censer reaches 45mph.





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Yikes ... NO water this morning!

Could this be the reason? oh, yeah! Will take a few hours.
Look at that water just oozin' outta there..... ugh

Thanks to the crew from ECUA! This is how they are spending their Saturday.

Saturday, November 6

"Delicuous Autum! My very soul is wedded to it."
George Eliot
British writer 19th cent

First Friday of the Month: in Honor of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.

Friday, November 5

"If a pot is cooking, the friendship will stay warm."
Arab Proverb

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We continue our prayers for:

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Prayer for the Deceased

God our Father,
Your power brings us to birth,
Your providence guides our lives,
and by Your command we return to dust.

Lord, those who die still live in Your presence,
their lives change but do not end.
I pray in hope for my family,
relatives and friends,
and for all the dead known to You alone.

In company with Christ,
Who died and now lives,
may they rejoice in Your kingdom,
where all our tears are wiped away.
Unite us together again in one family,
to sing Your praise forever and ever.

Amen.

Celebrating All Souls Day in Song

Nunc Dimittis:
the words of this hymn are taken from the words spoken by Simeon as he held the Christ Child, brought to the Temple by Mary and Joseph.
Simeon has now seen and beheld the promised One and tells the Lord that now he is ready to be taken into Heaven:

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Today is the Feast of All Souls

The souls of the just are in the hand of God
and no torment shall touch them.
They seemed, in the view of the foolish, to be dead;
and their passing away was thought an affliction
and their going forth from us, utter destruction.
But they are in peace.
For if before men, indeed, they be punished,
yet is their hope full of immortality;
chastised a little, they shall be greatly blessed,
because God tried them
and found them worthy of himself.
As gold in the furnace, he proved them,
and as sacrificial offerings he took them to himself.
In the time of their visitation they shall shine,
and shall dart about as sparks through stubble;
they shall judge nations and rule over peoples,
and the Lord shall be their King forever.
Those who trust in him shall understand truth,
and the faithful shall abide with him in love:
because grace and mercy are with his holy ones,
and his care is with his elect.

-- From the Book of Wisdom


Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them.
May their souls and the souls of all the faithful departed
Through the mercy of God, rest in peace.


Amen.


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Three Days in San Antonio

Let's begin with a few city churches:
San Fernando Cathedral in the heart of San Antonio:

Christus Santa Rosa Children's Hospital (chapel also)

Magnificent mural on exterior of the Hospital, another look

The Alamo, which was once used as a chapel:

Side area of Alamo:

St. Mary's Church, downtown

St.Joseph's Church in downtown San Antonio




view of SJ from the Tower of the Americas:

Two pics of outdoor television program:


sights:

Sights along the river: