Jesus said:
“My sheep hear my voice;
I know them, and they follow me.
I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish.
No one can take them out of my hand.”
John 10:27-28

Father Cooper asked on Good Shepherd Sunday how we hear Jesus in our own lives. Some of us hear him through the homilies and through prayer, and even the words of our families and friends.

Father suggested that if we want to hear Jesus more fully, we challenge ourselves to read scripture every day. An easy way to do this is to check out the daily readings in the lectionary, which can be found for free here.

How much closer can you be to Christ if you take up this practice for the rest of Easter?

Nickey Sawyer caught a bit of the opening chant to our adoration before the Altar of Repose. This beautiful tradition starts with our priests kneeling and sitting before the altar, with the parishioners joining their voices, leading into the night long adoration.

Imagine you’re the captain of your own fishing vessel. You’ve had a lousy day at sea and a measly catch, and a carpenter gets on board, tells you to go out deep, and throw your nets back into the water.

That’s what happened in Luke 5:1-11, and Father Cooper asked if we had room in our boats for the most famous carpenter in the world — Jesus. Would we have allowed Him to come on board and tell us where to go? Are we doing that now in our own lives?

Jesus told the fishermen not to be afraid. Father Cooper also asked if we had ever let fear stop us from doing something new. If Jesus led you into the deep water, would you go?

We got to kick off Advent in 2018 with 5 (five!) baptisms. We gather around the font as a parish to welcome the new members to our family in Christ. What a wonderful way to prepare for the Feast of Guadalupe & Christmas! See all those pictures in our gallery.

We got a lot of work done today, getting the church prepared for Christmas Eve while hanging on to that last bit of Advent contemplation! We think you’ll love what we’ve done with the place, & will really love the full changeover to Christmas.

Not pictured: Janice, who polished a lot of brass but had to leave early, & Theresa, who sent over sandwhiches.

If you are participating in the St. Nicholas Day Baking Contest on 12/02/2018, please print & fill out the following form. Fill out the bottom & turn it in with your baked Christmas treat before our 9:30 AM bilingual mass to have your entry counted. Good luck & blessed baking!

St. Nicholas Christmas Baking Contest
 
Bake your best Christmas sweet for the St. Nick’s priests to judge and eat!
 
Grocery gift certificates will be awarded to first, second & third place, but first place will also get a feature on the web page with the option to post their recipe.
 
Rules:

1. Bake a sweet treat you love to make for your family and friends at Christmas. Cookies, empanadas, fudge, Yule logs…if you make it for Christmas, you can enter.
2. Bring your treat to the parish hall kitchen BEFORE Mass so it can be given a number for a blind taste test. The priests will not know who baked what.

 
-Fathers Michael, Vladimir, & Ivanildo will be given a bite or small portion of your dessert.
-They will score each dessert on a scale of 1-10. Lynn & Kellie will add up the scores at the end, & the top 3 will win!
-The rest of your Christmas treat will be shared with the parish during the St. Nicholas Day festivities.
 
PLEASE FILL OUT THE ENTRY FORM BELOW & CUT ON THE LINE. FORMS MUST BE TURNED IN TO THE OFFICE NO LATER THAN NOVEMBER 25. Your name & dessert will NOT be shown to the judges. This form is only so we can assign a random number and award prizes to the correct person.
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 Name______________________________________________________
 
 
 
Christmas sweet:_______________________________________________________
 

Today we celebrated Christ the King with our guest, Franciscan Brother Desmond. He delivered a beautiful homily about the kingdom of God on Earth, citing the homeless feeding program and Count Your Blessings campaign among some of the things we do at St. Nicholas in service of the Kingdom.

He drew comparisons and made contrasts with the legend of King Arthur, highlighting that the pinnacle of Christ’s glory in the Gospel of John is Christ asserting the Kingdom of God to Pilate.

Here are 2 very similar pictures from the day, because we couldn’t get 2 smiling holy men to keep their eyes open at the same time.

We are grateful for our clergy and visiting clergy! It was quite a festive Thanksgiving Mass when Father Ivanildo turned up with two Roman Catholic priests. We all went home with blessed wine and bread for our Thanksgiving table, calling to mind the one out of ten healed lepers who came back to thank Jesus.

Father Michael recounted all the many heath benefits of gratitude, & told the parish how grateful he was for them — especially for Father Vladimir Divas, who also delivered a stirring homily.

James and John were anything but humble in the account recorded in the Gospel Of Mark, 10:35-45. The Sons of Thunder wanted to have places of importance with Jesus in his glory.

Father Michael asked us how we would respond if Jesus asked us, as he did those two apostles, “What do wish me to do for you?” He also asked who is the most humble person you know, & what did they teach you?

When have you found it most difficult to heed Jesus’ words “It shall not be so with you?” Following Christ isn’t always the easiest road, and we frequently do things for others without credit or reward. In this world, this is seen as weakness, but with Christ, “Whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant.”

Father Ivanildo Cavalcante delivered the homily today on the Gospel reading from Mark 10:17-30, combined with the reading from Wisdom 7. This is an oft quoted Gospel teaching because it is so memorable: “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God.”

People usually forget the next section, where Jesus says that with God, all things are possible. Father Ivanildo discussed this and the love of wisdom leading to a better understanding of God’s love for us.

Father Cooper and Father Vladimir Divas also marked the canonization of Oscar Romero today by passing out prayer cards in Spanish and English. Father Vladimir was honored to know Saint Oscar Romero personally, and our parish enjoys visits from another associate, Bishop Barahona, at least once a year. Saint Oscar Romero, pray for us.