COME ON DOWN TO OCTOBERFEST!!!

My dear brothers and sisters,

Hopelessness makes us less resilient.

One only needs to turn on the TV or watch videos on the internet to realize that people have become more aggressive and violent.  The political turmoil, the pandemic, and the crisis of Christianity have left the people of God hopeless.  The lack of hope makes people vulnerable to their darkest passions.  This sense of chaos lead people to believe in messiahs who are unable to provide the peace and order people need.  This desperate need to believe in “whatever,” usually leads people towards extremisms that complicate the situation by turning people into haters.  The fruits of the Spirit of the Risen Lord are unity and peace. The incapacity of religious leaders and the baptized to be resilient and work for unity is the clearest sign of hopelessness. Have Hope in the Lord hold dearly his commandment of love and you will be righteous and will inherit all his promises. True hope comes from knowing and allowing God to take control and from our part to work for what is good, pure, and holy. Holding God’s hands nothing is too painful, nothing is lost, nothing is useless. With God there is hope, life, beauty, and true joy. Your resilience lays in how much you hope in the Lord.

In the Love of Christ,

Fr. Nelson. 

 October 9/10 at all Masses we will celebrate and honor our patron saint, St. Denis. Denis of Paris was a 3rd-century Christian martyr and saint. According to his hagiographies, he was bishop of Paris (then Lutetia) in the third century and, together with his companions Rusticus and Eleutherius, was martyred for his faith by decapitation. Some accounts placed this during Domitian's persecution and identified St Denis of Paris with the Areopagite who was converted by Paul the Apostle and who served as the first bishop of Athens. Assuming Denis's historicity, it is now considered more likely that he suffered under the persecution of the emperor Decius shortly after AD 250. Denis is the most famous cephalophore in Christian legend, with a popular story claiming that the decapitated bishop picked up his head and walked several miles while preaching a sermon on repentance. He is venerated in the Catholic Church as the patron saint of France and Paris and is accounted one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers. A chapel was raised at the site of his burial by a local Christian woman; it was later expanded into an abbey and basilica, around which grew up the French city of Saint-Denis, now a suburb of Paris. Following all Masses, ALL are invited to join us in the coffee shop to share faith and fellowship.