Our Pastor's Corner
From this week's Sunday Bulletin
Dear Parishioners and Visitors:
Peace of Christ.
In today’s First Reading we see how the Apostles were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in foreign languages as the listeners understood them well with astonishment. What is most important here is not in what language they spoke but WHAT they spoke about. The last verse in today’s First Reading says, ‘....we hear them telling in our own tongues the MIGHTY WORKS OF GOD.’ They were not speaking about their problems, difficulties, etc., but about the MIGHTY WORKS OF GOD. This is what our Mother Mary proclaimed in her ‘Magnificat’: My soul MAGNIFIES the Lord. I am an ordinary woman. He has done mighty things in my life. Holy is His name. What is the meaning of ‘magnify’? As the magnifying glass makes to appear big that which is small, so did Mother Mary ‘make big’ what God had done to her. In my life, in my waking moments, what do I speak about to others? Possibly I speak about the climate, Church leaders, political leaders, perhaps even negative things about others. May the Holy Spirit help us to see what we, others, our children, our family members, people of other religions have and magnify God for ‘His greatness’ in us.
The Second Reading tells us, “No one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord’ unless he or she is under the influence of the Holy Spirit.” In Philippians 2:11 St Paul writes, ‘And every tongue should CONFESS that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father.’ The late Bishop John Mulagada of Eluru Diocese in Andhra once in his homily narrated an incident. One day, as he was going by a cycle rickshaw in his cassock, the rickshaw puller told him, ‘Sir! God is so kind, so generous, etc.’ This Priest asked him, ‘Are you telling me all these because I am a Priest?’ This simple, ordinary man replied, ‘No Sir! I have been pulling this rickshaw for the last 12 years. I say the same thing to whoever rides on my rickshaw.’ This man is ‘confessing’ the greatness of God to anyone as he goes about his daily routine work.
In the Gospel we see Jesus sending the Apostles out on a MISSION: ‘As the Father has sent me so I am sending you,’ and for this MISSION he breathed on them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’ The first mission Jesus is giving them is, ‘For those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven; for those whose sins you retain, they are retained.’ To forgive others or to retain their sins – the choice is mine. When is it possible for me to forgive others?
– Fr. George Stephen, SJ
In the Lord,
Fr. Cecilio T. Moraga, Pastor
From this week's Sunday Bulletin
Dear Parishioners and Visitors:
Peace of Christ.
In today’s First Reading we see how the Apostles were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in foreign languages as the listeners understood them well with astonishment. What is most important here is not in what language they spoke but WHAT they spoke about. The last verse in today’s First Reading says, ‘....we hear them telling in our own tongues the MIGHTY WORKS OF GOD.’ They were not speaking about their problems, difficulties, etc., but about the MIGHTY WORKS OF GOD. This is what our Mother Mary proclaimed in her ‘Magnificat’: My soul MAGNIFIES the Lord. I am an ordinary woman. He has done mighty things in my life. Holy is His name. What is the meaning of ‘magnify’? As the magnifying glass makes to appear big that which is small, so did Mother Mary ‘make big’ what God had done to her. In my life, in my waking moments, what do I speak about to others? Possibly I speak about the climate, Church leaders, political leaders, perhaps even negative things about others. May the Holy Spirit help us to see what we, others, our children, our family members, people of other religions have and magnify God for ‘His greatness’ in us.
The Second Reading tells us, “No one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord’ unless he or she is under the influence of the Holy Spirit.” In Philippians 2:11 St Paul writes, ‘And every tongue should CONFESS that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father.’ The late Bishop John Mulagada of Eluru Diocese in Andhra once in his homily narrated an incident. One day, as he was going by a cycle rickshaw in his cassock, the rickshaw puller told him, ‘Sir! God is so kind, so generous, etc.’ This Priest asked him, ‘Are you telling me all these because I am a Priest?’ This simple, ordinary man replied, ‘No Sir! I have been pulling this rickshaw for the last 12 years. I say the same thing to whoever rides on my rickshaw.’ This man is ‘confessing’ the greatness of God to anyone as he goes about his daily routine work.
In the Gospel we see Jesus sending the Apostles out on a MISSION: ‘As the Father has sent me so I am sending you,’ and for this MISSION he breathed on them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’ The first mission Jesus is giving them is, ‘For those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven; for those whose sins you retain, they are retained.’ To forgive others or to retain their sins – the choice is mine. When is it possible for me to forgive others?
– Fr. George Stephen, SJ
In the Lord,
Fr. Cecilio T. Moraga, Pastor
Comments: pastor@stelizabethjulian.org
