Posted on July 2, 2021 View all News
Dear brothers and sisters in Jesus and Mary:
This Sunday’s Gospel is quite curious and interesting because it tells us about the people of Jesus’ native place, those who, by their lack of faith, are blind to recognize His divinity. As a result, Jesus feels “despised,” they do not accept Him as the bearer of salvation. They have a different perception of their neighbor, Jesus, and they refuse to open up to the mystery that is enclosed in His person. Mark does not narrate this episode to satisfy the curiosity of his readers but to warn us that Jesus can be rejected precisely by those who think they know Him best: those who shut them-selves up in their ideas without opening themselves to the novelty of His message or the mystery of His person. The modern world is not far from acting like Jesus’ neighbors, claiming many times to know and follow Him, but the reality is that when the message is announced firmly to them, it is rejected and seen as something too outside of itself and ends up being discarded. Hopefully, today’s gospel helps us to accept the gospel as it is without any alteration and not fall into the temptation of ignoring Jesus and rejecting his message as His neighbors did.
Changing the subject, I inform you that on July 1st, Clarisa Meza became our new Director of Religious Education. She will be in charge of giving continuity to all the catechizing work that the parish carries out. Thank God the diocese ap-proved the hiring of her almost immediately. Clarisa has about five years of experience working in Religious Education, and I am confident that she will do a magnificent job with the families of our parish and all the catechists. So again, I welcome Clarisa to this new experience of faith.
In the last letter, I mentioned that on August 21st, we would hold a Family Festival that will be a big celebration, where everyone as a parish will enjoy different food, games, and entertainment for adults and children; for this, I have creat-ed a committee, and we are already working on the organization. As part of the festival, we will hold a raffle with three prizes of $ 5,000, $ 3,000, and $ 1,000. The raffle seeks to have a profit for the parish. The cost of the ticket is $ 5.00. In the next few days, you will receive a letter explaining the raffle details and ten tickets per family. I ask you to please participate and buy the tickets. The more we sell, the more profit we will have for our parish. If you want to vol-unteer on the day of the event, please call the parish office and put your name on the volunteer list.
Finally, this weekend we celebrate our Independence Day. I consider it a good day to pray for our nation, our leaders, and the needs that we as a country suffer. At the same time, give thanks to God for all that is great and beautiful in our country. As your pastor and on behalf of all the parish staff, I wish you all a happy Fourth of July! Enjoy it as a fami-ly, rest, and celebrate.
May God bless you all!
Fr. Alex
