From the heart of Deacon Doug.
Happy Ascension Sunday to all of you. The good news today is that Bishop Vann will open our churches for mass on June 14. We don’t know however the number of people that will be allowed by the Governor of California. ——— Bishop Thomas Olmsted of Phoenix in his remarks Read more…
One night while Paul was in Corinth, the Lord said to him in a vision, “Do not be afraid. Go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you.” Acts 18:9 I believe it’s time for us to tell our elected officials to open up our churches Read more…
Today is 40 days after Easter and the traditional feast of the Ascension of the Lord. In the United States most diocese have transferred this celebration to next Sunday. In the Holy Land today is a big feast day. One of the most popular sites is the Chapel of the Read more…
In the reading today from Acts 16, they ask Paul; “what must I do to be saved?” Paul responds that we must believe in the Lord Jesus. This verse is at the heart of many people coming up to us and asking if we are “saved “. Maya Angelou said; Read more…
Deacon Russ Millspaugh sent out a cartoon that has God and Satan looking down on the earth. Satan tells God, “I sent a virus and it closed all of your churches.” God replies; “Yes but it opened up millions of churches in people’s homes.” This reminds us what several recent Read more…
Last night we had a Virtual Ultreya on Zoom. We had 100 openings for people to join and all 100 were taken. In many homes couples joined the Ultreya plus the Medina family had 5 or 6 All together. As a result I would guess we had between 130 and Read more…
This week we have been reading in Acts about St. Paul and his efforts to convert non Jews to Christ. His journeys were met with hostility, difficulty and even imprisonment. He was often prevented from doing good and sharing the gospel. Being human I would guess he wondered why the Read more…
In today’s gospel from John 15:12, Jesus says;”This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.” It seems to me that there are two important aspects to what Jesus is saying. First is that he loves us ! His love is unconditional and everlasting! He showed us this Read more…
Today is the feast day of St. Matthias. He was added to the group of apostles in Acts 1 to replace Judas, who hung himself, in order to bring the number of apostles back up to twelve. I can relate to Matthias a lot. When the first class of deacons Read more…
Today is the feast day of Our Lady of Fatima. Once when I was on Portugal, long before GPS or cell phones, I set out to drive to Fatima but got lost. The direction given to me were false either by ignorance or to purposely keep me from getting there. Read more…