Happy Feast Day! Happy 101st Anniversary of the founding of our parish!
We rejoice and give thanks to God for the blessings of the past year and ask God to keep us together as a parish family. We journey with one another through joys and sorrows and are assured that God walks with us.
In spite of hearing that God is with us each time we celebrate Mass, listen to the Mass prayers of the day, the mention of this in several Eucharistic Prayers, it is still a moment for us to embrace that faith that makes us Catholics.
As some of you heard, last weekend beginning on Thursday night, I served as the priest on a diocesan sponsored ‘Women’s Cursillo’ that took place in Pleasanton. Two of our own parishioners joined this experience and many parishioners, both men and women have participated in Cursillo through the years. Fr. Pat Goodwin often encouraged you to participate.
For some it is an awakening of their faith. For others it is a weekend filled with grace and healing. It has been described by some as ‘the little course on discipleship.’ Themes that you may have heard in piecemeal are brought together to remind us that we are all beloved daughters and sons of God who walks along our path but supplies us with all we might need to one day reach heaven.
We are reminded that every human being is made equal in God’s eyes and heart and God chooses us and invites us to spend eternity with God if we agree and choose and seek God in return. We are confirmed that each and every person is made in God’s image and likeness and God’s Word in the Scriptures, encounters in prayer and the sacraments, and our using of our unique gifts to build the Kingdom will always receive God’s love and help.
This is part of why we are members of a parish that we celebrate today and every time we gather in His name. So, congratulations! Membership has its perks, and I hope you will enjoy the company of each other, the food at the barbeque, the games the children will delight in and just an afternoon to be proud of these 101 years. To many more!
Now for some work. Cardinal Robert McElroy gave a very powerful homily and firmly rooted teaching in our Church’s tradition last weekend when 112th World Day of Migrants and Refugees was commemorated.
There is no space here, but I will post the whole talk/homily on the parish website and a link in the Flocknote. Citing the Parable of the Good Samaritan, he echoes Pope Leo who directs us that we cannot just ignore injustice and pass by.
I encourage all to pray fully, read Cardinal McElroy’s homily and act on it.
(The following is the text of the homily by Cardinal Robert W. McElroy, the archbishop of Washington, at a Mass on Sept. 27, 2026, at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington for the 112th World Day of Migrants and Refugees.)