Our commitment to Christ

Dear Friends in Christ,

Now that June is here many of us are probably thinking of summer and vacations. With the price of gas and airline tickets going up however, you may be like me thinking of a shorter trip this year. I was talking to our first year Confirmation students and parents the other night and reminding them that wherever we go and whatever we do this summer, we always carry with us our commitment to Christ.

By our Baptism we are marked people, marked as Christians, followers of Jesus Christ. As a consequence we must remember to “pack” our faith along when going on our summer vacation. What does this mean in the concrete?

For example, save gas by going on a “journey of the mind”. We can do that by reading that great spiritual book we promised ourselves. Do you remember the reading list we published here several weeks ago?

There are some books that would make great summer reading, for example The Story of a Soul, the autobiography of St. Therese of Lisieux. Pope Pius XI called her the greatest saint of modern times, and Pope John Paul II named her a doctor of the Church. St. Augustine’s Confessions gives us the spiritual journey of one of the greatest minds the Church has produced. Another modern saint, Faustina Kowalska, reveals her struggles and joys as “the Secretary of Divine Mercy” in her Diary: Divine Mercy in my Soul. If you’re still looking for a great book that’s not on the list you could go online and check out Ignatius Press or Roman Catholic Books. Both of these publishers have lives of the saints, histories of the Church, children’s books, and books on prayer. Or if you’re more of a visual person, they have DVD’s with great stories and films both fictional and historical.

If you do take a trip this summer, check out this website: masstimes.org to find a Catholic Church and the time for Sunday Mass anywhere in the country or throughout the world. You can even find Masses in different languages and churches that are wheelchair accessible. Our Church is called Catholic because we’re universal; we’re found all over the planet. So don’t leave your religion at home this summer, get connected with your Church wherever you go. You may be surprised and make new friends at the same time.

Have a great week and see you in church.

Fr. Hildebrand

A Special Message From Our Bishops

“The California Catholic Conference of Bishops must express its disappointment in the California Supreme Court decision to declare Proposition 22 unconstitutional. “Proposition 22, which states, ‘Only marriage between one man and one woman is valid and recognized in California,’ passed eight years ago by a vote of 61.2 to 38.8 percent. That statute reflected the wisdom of the voters of California in retaining the traditional definition of marriage as a biological reality and a societal good. Unfortunately, today (May 15), the Court saw fit to disregard the will of the majority of people of California.

“Catholic teaching maintains that marriage is a faithful, exclusive and lifelong union between one man and one woman joined in an intimate partnership of life and love—a union instituted by God for the mutual fulfillment of the husband and wife as well as for the procreation and education of children.

“Partnerships of committed same-sex individuals are already legal in California. Our state has also granted domestic partners spousal-type rights and responsibilities which facilitate their relationships with each other and any children they bring to the partnership. Every person involved in the family of domestic partners is a child of God and deserves respect in the eyes of the law and their community. However, those partnerships are not marriage—and can never be marriage—as it has been understood since the founding of the United States. Today’s decision of California’s high court opens the door for policymakers to deconstruct traditional marriage and create another institution under the guise of equal protection.

“Although we strongly disagree with the ruling, we ask our Catholic people, as well as all the people of California, to continue to uphold the dignity of every person, to acknowledge individual rights and responsibilities, and to maintain support for the unique and irreplaceable role of traditional marriage as an institution which is fundamental to society.”

The Real Presence of Christ

Dear Friends in Christ,

May is a very busy month at our parish. Here are some of the events that have already taken place. On May 3-4 we celebrated the First Communion of our 2nd Grade students. People at all of our Masses saw the little children receive Jesus for the first time. On the afternoon of May 4 we honored Our Lady in her month of May with our annual procession and crowning. We offered prayers and songs in four languages, showing the cultural diversity of our parish. On May 8 we had the joy of seeing our young people sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit in Confirmation and on May 10-11 twenty-two adults were also confirmed.

Next weekend there are two important events that are closely related. On Saturday May 24 a large group of Spanish speaking children will receive their First Communion. Then on Sunday May 25 we will hold our annual Corpus Christi Mass and Procession. This celebration is close to the hearts of our Norbertine community because St. Norbert was known as the Apostle of the Eucharist. In his time he vigorously defended the Real Presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament against heretics. He also traveled with a Mass kit so that he could say Mass at the different towns where he preached his missions.

I hope as many of you as possible will join us for our 2PM multi-lingual Mass and procession next Sunday. As Catholics we believe Jesus Christ is truly present in the Holy Eucharist, and on this feast of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ our participation in the Mass and procession is a profession of faith in this great truth.

Next Sunday we will also honor those who have committed to spend an hour before the Blessed Sacrament in our chapel. We will pray especially for them at our Masses next weekend. I want to personally invite you to join this army of prayer warriors who faithfully come to answer the call of Jesus to “watch one hour with Me”. Perpetual Eucharistic adoration was recently promoted by the Vatican as a fruitful way to increase vocations to the priesthood and religious life. The blessings received by our adorers are too many to describe.

Are you looking for a job? Are you feeling alone? Is there something you need? Come to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament; He will hear your prayers. To sign up for an hour, just take a form from the purple box at the rear of the church, fill it out and leave it at the rectory office. If you sign up for a late night hour you will receive an entry code to unlock the chapel door, which is locked after 9PM.

O Sacrament most holy, O Sacrament divine, All praise and all thanksgiving Be every moment Thine.

Sincerely yours in Christ,

Fr. Hildebrand

Pentecost 2008

Dear Friends in Christ,

Our parish family has rejoiced recently with the celebration of First Communion and Confirmation of our young people. Today, on the feast of Pentecost, we continue to rejoice as over twenty adults receive their Confirmation. Surely this is a sign of the Holy Spirit working in the Church.

We are most grateful to God for these manifestations of His grace among us.Many of you and your families and friends have attended these sacramental celebrations during this Easter Season, and I’m sure you are happy too about the gifts of grace bestowed on our people. However, I wonder how many of you are aware of the fact that in spite of the numbers of new Catholics and Catholics that receive the Sacraments, there are many Catholics who fall away from the faith of their childhood.

I was recently reading an article on the web called “Catholics Come Home”. In the article Deal Hudson (editor of Crisis Magazine and inside-catholic.org) says:

One out of every ten Americans is a lapsed Catholic, according to the Pew Forum's recently released "U.S. Religious Landscape Survey." Though the Pew statistics could be disputed, the survey confirmed what any observer of the Church knows: Many cradle Catholics leave the Church never to return.

In response to the Pew survey, Inside Catholic sponsored a symposium with over 30 Catholic leaders discussing the question, "Why Are They Leaving?" One reason is obvious -- a lack of concern for evangelism, reaching out to those who have either stopped attending church or never did in the first place.

In today’s first reading we here about the Apostles preaching and converting thousands to our faith. Why can we not do the same? Are we afraid to share the beautiful gift of our faith with others? Maybe we have family members who have stopped attending Mass or have given up their faith entirely. Here are some things we could do to bring them back. We could offer a holy hour weekly in the chapel for their “reversion” (second conversion). We could invite them to Mass on Sunday and then invite them to breakfast afterwards. We could refer them to this website, catholicscomehome.org, which has a short video about the Church.

Remember what the Letter of James says about conversion: “If anyone among you should stray from the truth and someone bring him back, he should know that whoever brings back a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins” (James 5:19-20).

God bless you and your families.

Fr. Hildebrand