- Please support us through online giving. Thank you!
- Por favor, apoya a través de donaciones en línea. Gracias!
- Xin vui lòng đóng góp trên mạng. Cám ơn!
Note:
The Church is closed - La Iglesia estrada Cerrada - Nhà Thờ đóng cửa:
10:00 am - 4:00 pm
Monday - Friday, Lunes - Viernes, Thứ Hai - Thứ Sáu
Pastor
Rev. Tuan Pham
Parochial Vicars
Rev. Ramon Cisneros
Rev. Danh Trinh
Rev. Anthony Vu
Deacon
Dcn. Francis Xavier Hao Nguyen
Saturday Vigil
4:00 PM
Vietnamese
5:30 PM
English
7:00 PM
Vietnamese
Sunday
6:30 AM
Vietnamese
8:00 AM
Vietnamese
9:30 AM
English
11:00 AM
Vietnamese
12:45 PM
Spanish
4:00 PM
Vietnamese
5:30 PM
English Youth Mass
7:00 PM
Spanish
PRAYER OF THE WEEK
CATHOLIC PRAYER CORNER
+++
The Hail Mary
Hail Mary, full of grace,
the Lord is with thee;
blessed art thou among women
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners,
now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
+++
FATHER ANTHONY’S WRITING THIS WEEK (Dec 04):
John the Baptist and Advent
~*~*~*~
In the season of Advent, we always have a chance to encounter a few familiar Biblical figures: the prophet Isaiah in the Old Testament, and John the Baptist and Mary in the New Testament. Today I would like to focus on John the Baptist. It is difficult to imagine the season of Advent and the coming of the Lord without mentioning his precursor, John the Baptist. In fact, Jesus and John have forever been linked with each other. In the Annunciation account in the Gospel of Luke (1:36), the Evangelist tells us that Elizabeth was Mary’s relative. Based on that account, we can obviously conclude that John and Jesus were cousins—another reason to link them.
In all four Gospels, John is always described as the one who is “less” than Jesus. In the Gospel reading for this second Sunday of Advent (Matthew 3:1-12), we hear these words from the Baptist: “I baptizing you with water, for repentance, but the one coming after me is mightier than I. I am not worthy to carry his sandals.” Here we have a picture of a very genuine person. John has been popular already with his preaching and baptism. In fact, some people already believed that he was the Christ! Had John himself claimed so, people would have believed him.
However, John knew his place in relation to himself and to the Lord. He did not take advantage of the favorable situation to make a name for himself… Some spiritual authors say that all sin is really a form of not knowing oneself. The ultimate example in this regard is the story of the prodigal son (Luke 15). His homecoming journey is one of coming to terms with himself and knowing himself. John the Baptist, for his part, does not have to deal with this lack of self-knowledge. He is a saint in the sense that he knows that his ministry does not revolve around him, but all that he does really points toward the Lord. One author says that a saint is only a minor character in the overall story that is fundamentally about God.
Throughout the ages, there have always been characters who, unlike John, tried to make a name for themselves—though, subtly in the name of God and religion. In our own age, they still exist: people who want to promote their own agenda, using religious platforms. How different they are from John the Baptist! The lesson we can all learn from John is that we, like him, must “decrease” so that the Lord can “increase” in us; for our life, our existence, and ministry ultimately do not belong to us, but to God!
LORD IS PRESENT IN OUR MIDST: We do remember the past, and we do look forward to the future. But Christians cannot be stuck between the past and the future: we also have to live in the present. We believe that Christ is here among us. He is present in the scriptures proclaimed and in the breaking of the bread. He is also present in each one of us. And yet, despite his presence there is still darkness all around. And not only within us, but also around us in our world, there is darkness. We just have to look at the events of the last century, the bloodiest century in the history of humanity: all the warfare and massive forms of genocide in the world. We also have to look at the recent events that happened in this country and around the world. There is still much darkness all around us. And yet in the midst of all this darkness from within and without, our Advent advice to all is: Let the Light of Christ dawn in your lives!
