Monday Evening, December 28th, 2020:
Dear Saint Charles Borromeo Family:
Although we will not be holding in-person communion on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday, you are all invited for Communion this Friday, January 1st, from 10:30 am until 11:30 am, folowing our 9:30 am live-streamed Mass for the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God.
And although January 1st is the first Friday of the Month, we will be skipping Adoration of the Holy Sacrament this time. However, rest assured, Adoration will return on Friday, February 5th.
If your preference is to attend an in-person Mass, you can sign up to attend Saturday's 4:00 pm Vigil Mass in the Keeley Center courtyard. Hopefully, we will not experience inclement weather that would cancel this Mass.
Meanwhile, in the lower portion of this flocknote, you will find my bulletin message for Sunday.
Blessings,
-- Fr. Kwame
St. Charles' Health Ministry News
PROJECT SMILE
We hope you’ve been following our series on gratitude these last few weeks. To culminate our series, we’d like for you all to participate in our PROJECT SMILE, which will take us from Christmas, Dec 25, 2020, to the Epiphany, Jan 6, 2021.
If you read our list of ways to express gratitude, you might have noticed that the last one was a quote by Mother Teresa: “Let us always meet each other with a smile, for the smile is the beginning of love.” What better way to express our love and gratitude for one another, and within our parish community, than with your smile?
Here is how it works:
1.) Take a picture of your big smile!
(1-2 people in a picture is ok. The smaller the
group, the more your smile can be seen and felt!)
(1-2 people in a picture is ok. The smaller the
group, the more your smile can be seen and felt!)
2.) Create a gratitude statement
For example, “I am grateful for my family”,
or “I am grateful to see the sunshine every day”,
or “I am grateful for my morning cup of coffee”.
For example, “I am grateful for my family”,
or “I am grateful to see the sunshine every day”,
or “I am grateful for my morning cup of coffee”.
3.) Send the picture and your gratitude statement
We will create a slideshow with the pictures and gratitude statements, and we will share that slideshow on the parish YouTube channel for everyone to see! It will remain there to be viewed whenever you need your spirits to be uplifted or need to see your St. Charles community smile back at you! Feel free to share PROJECT SMILE with your friends and family, near and far.
If you have any questions, send them to the email address above.
Thank you for your participation!
Jan
4
Monday Evening - WALKING WITH PURPOSE on Zoom
Are you going?
Yes
No
Maybe
going.
not going.
might be going.
Walking with Purpose
Bible Study Program
Opening Your Heart
by Lisa Brenninkmeyer
CURRENTLY ON BREAK
Meetings resume on Monday, January 4th, from 7:00 to 9:00 PM
Meetings resume on Monday, January 4th, from 7:00 to 9:00 PM
Questions? Contact:
Angela Layton
602-799-6648
wwpstcharleslivermore@gmail.com
Jesus Boost Podcast
Be inspired and empowered each week! Jesus Boost invites you to connect with and tap into the infinite strength and unconditional love of God, available to everyone. There is so much beauty, joy, and power in knowing you are never alone and that Jesus is by your side on this journey. Jesus Boost is your reminder with honest, insightful commentary about modern-day situations, supported by scripture and words of wisdom from renowned leaders. Come away with a fresh perspective, a smile, and a wonderful, unique spiritual lift to help you greet life with renewed hope and strength.
Sunday, December 27, 2020
MAKING OUR FAMILY A HOLY FAMILY
Every year, on the Sunday right after Christmas, we celebrate this Feast of the Holy Family in order to inspire all human families to strive for holiness. It takes every member of the family – all related persons – to do this striving for holiness. In the gospel, we hear that various people cooperated to make the Holy Family including Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, and even others like “old” Simeon and Anna in the Temple.
How can a family of human beings be called “Holy”? You and I know that there is not a single perfect family in our world. There is no family without disfunction, because, as the saying goes: “to err is human, but to forgive is divine.”
So, if we are speaking in human terms there is no holy family. We speak of the Holy Family in divine terms, that is, only if and when a family allows the divine – God – to be born into that family. To be holy then is about “birthing” Christ!
We have heard a lot about Mary’s role in the conception and birth of Jesus, and what makes her role special is her “fiat” – let it be done to me.
Mary's answer of “yes” to the divine proposal from the messenger of God was not merely a word. Instead, we read throughout the Christian Testament that she committed her life to conceive, birth, nourish, and accompany Jesus and his messianic mission. We also know about Joseph’s contribution that provided security for the child Jesus and his mother, Mary.
Today, we are told that both parents brought the baby Jesus to the Temple to fulfill the customs in regard to him according to the Mosaic Law of God. What is special about Joseph and Mary is their humility to follow the customs even though their child required no purification – he is Emmanuel – the God with us. That practice of humility is a hallmark of holiness!
The natural family members are not the only ones who are called to make a family holy. as other people also play important roles. Simeon and Anna, we hear, were in the Temple at the right time for a purpose: to identify who the child Jesus was.
Each time I hear this story, it reminds me of the day when “old” Mama Victoria pointed at me and told my parents that I would become a priest, even though I was hardly 10 years of age. To this day, after all my philosophical and theological studies, I still believe that she saw something (although not holy) deeper about me as Simeon and Anna did about the child Jesus.
Whatever it was, I know that Mama Victoria's declaration inspired and guided my interest to pursue the priesthood. Members of our families would realize their God-given gifts sometimes from people outside the natural family. These outsiders are spiritual insiders – they are our spiritual families because of the role they play to make us holy.
What we can take home from today’s feast is that members of the Holy Family had the same attitude of openness and supporting the divine plan for the world. That plan is to save the world and is to let the world learn to know and identify the divine savior, worship, and revere the divine savior, and live by serving the divine savior in the world.
In these days of our shelter-in-place, we can make our families holy, just like the Holy Family, by signing on to this divine agenda to heal the world. Each family must assign a family member to be responsible for something that contributes to the family’s spiritual life.
I know a family in our parish in which every member of the family has a ministry in the Church – not one person is without a ministry. Holiness is not based on who you are within the family. To be holy is not based on your gender or appearance, lineage, age. generation, status, or physical abilities and skills. What matters most and is crucial is your openness to let the divine – the Christ – to be born into your life and your family, by engaging in the ministry of learning, liturgy, or of living (service to others).
May the Holy Family – Jesus, Mary, and Joseph – assist us, the family and families of Saint Charles Borromeo, to realize the “Holy” in the Holy Family.
--- Fr. Kwame
In Case You Missed Sunday's Mass...
St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Community
1315 Lomitas Ave.
Livermore, CA 94550
