Come, Holy Spirit!

Pentecost Sunday
June 9, 2019 – Year C
Readings: Acts 2:1-11 / Ps 104 / 1 Cor 12:3B-7, 12-13 / Jn 20:19-23
by Rev. Mr. Eddie Craig, Permanent Deacon

Good morning and Happy Birthday! Because it is our birthday. Now you are probably thinking, “Deacon Eddie, it’s not my birthday!” But you would be wrong, because it is your birthday. Because, you see, at your baptism, something special happened. At your baptism, a change took place in your very being. Each and every one of us who has received that sacrament became a son or a daughter of God, we became a temple of the Holy Spirit, and collectively we became a part of the Body of Christ, or in other words, the Church. (more…)

First Communion

Third Sunday of Easter
May 5, 2019 – Year C
Readings: Acts 5:27-32, 40B-41 / Ps 30 / Rev 5:11-14 / Jn 21:1-19
by Rev. Mr. Eddie Craig, Permanent Deacon

How many of you can remember your First Communion? Now I want you to think about how you felt the first time you received. Now think how you felt the last time you received. It was probably a little more exciting the first time.

Today, at the next Mass, a group of children will receive the Holy Eucharist for the first time. So I started thinking that I get a much better view of this event than you because I get to stand up here, and I get to see their nerves, but I also see their excitement. So I wonder, how can we maintain that excitement? I thought that maybe we need to review it just a little bit. (more…)

Desert Experience

Second Sunday of Lent
March 17, 2019 – Year C
Readings: Gn 15:5-12, 17-18 / Ps 27 / Phil 3:17 – 4:1 / Lk 9:28B-36
by Rev. Salvador Añonuevo, Pastor

In my first few years in the priesthood, I had the privilege to minister to the residents of a remote, small, country town in the Pacific. It happened to be within my parish jurisdiction, so I had to be there quite often. People who have never been there consider it to be a God-forsaken place because there are no hospitals, no department stores, and yes, no electricity. But the folks that live there are the happiest and healthiest people in that region. Those who happen to visit that place, usually by accident, often have a desert experience. As a side note, one hundred percent of the residents there are Roman Catholics. When they have difficulties, their only recourse is to turn to God, since they are miles away from modern civilization. (more…)

Discerning Your Role

Fourth Sunday of Advent
December 23, 2018 – Year C
Readings: Mi 5:1-4A / Ps 80 / Heb 10:5-10 / Lk 1:39-45
by Rev. Mr. Eddie Craig, Permanent Deacon

If you go to daily Mass, and you were at daily Mass on Friday, you should be experiencing a little deja vu. The gospel today is exactly the same as the gospel we had on Friday, and Bishop Barron had a wonderful reflection on it. No, I’m not just going to read you his reflection, but it got me thinking, and sent me down a different path than I was planning to go. I will share with you a little bit of his reflection.

Bishop Barron writes, “I’ve always been fascinated by Mary’s haste in this story of the Visitation. Why does she go with such speed and purpose? Because she found her mission; her role in the Theo-drama.” (more…)

Marriage and the Church

Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
October 7, 2018 – Year B
Readings: Gn 2:18-24 / Ps 128 / Heb 2:9-11 / Mk 10:2-16
by Rev. Mr. Eddie Craig, Permanent Deacon

Today’s talk will be less a homily and more a catechetical teaching. I will be pulling most of the information from “The Catechism of the Catholic Church.” If you don’t have one of these, you need to get one. This is a brilliant piece of work. Any question you have about the Faith is covered in this book. It’s very well written and easy to understand.

As I was trying to think how to condense the Sacrament of Marriage down into the length of a homily, I decided to narrow it down to three different points. These are the three things that you need to understand in order to understand the Church’s teaching on marriage. This is not exhaustive; this is just the tip of the iceberg. (more…)

Moral Scope Creep

Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
September 30, 2018 – Year B
Readings: Nm 11:25-29 / Ps 19 / Jas 5:1-6 / Mk 9:38-43, 45, 47-48
by Rev. Mr. Eddie Craig, Permanent Deacon

Many of you know that I actually earn my living as a mechanical engineer; that’s my nine-to-five job. You may not know that the way I exercise my engineering degree is as a machine designer. I build custom machines. Customers come to the company I work for with a problem; we put together a solution; they give us a purchase order; and then we build a machine to solve their problem.

But invariably, during that design process, we’ll stumble across something that really wasn’t included in the quote. Maybe it’s some little problem that we didn’t foresee when we were preparing the quote, or maybe it was something that the customer didn’t convey fully to us. Quite often, these are just small things, maybe a fifty-dollar sensor and a five-dollar bracket takes care of the problem, and we just do it. (more…)

Showing Our True Colors

Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
September 23, 2018 – Year B
Readings: Wis 2:12, 17-20 / Ps 54 / Jas 3:16-4:3 / Mk 9:30-37
by Rev. Salvador Añonuevo, Pastor

At 9:54 last night, we officially began the season of Fall. In just a few days we will begin seeing the beauty of God’s creation here and in the glorious mountain area. The different colors of leaves will remind us that our God is indeed almighty.

We know that leaves don’t change colors during autumn. Because of the change in temperature, the lack of sunshine, and other environmental factors, the leaves are no longer able to produce chlorophyll, which gives them their green color. Because of this seeming deficiency, the leaves will be showing their true colors, as the Lord God created them to be, and they are beautiful. (more…)

You Will Know Him

Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
September 16, 2018 – Year B
Readings: Is 50:5-9A / Ps 116 / Jas 2:14-18 / Mk 8:27-35
by Rev. Salvador Añonuevo, Pastor

The song, “If You Don’t Know Me by Now,” which was first released in the early seventies, has sold millions of records and CDs worldwide and been downloaded hundreds of thousands of times on iTunes and Google Play. Even Carrie Underwood sang this song when she joined America’s Got Talent.

But scripture scholars would attest that the Lord Jesus would never have said or implied the words of the refrain: “If you don’t know me by now, then you will never, never know me.” (more…)

Be the Face of Christ

Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time
September 9, 2018 – Year B
Readings: Is 35:4-7A / Ps 146 / Jas 2:1-5 / Mk 7:31-37
by Rev. Mr. Eddie Craig, Permanent Deacon

For those of you who follow us on Facebook, you already know where I was on Friday evening: in Richmond. It was the Mass at which two of the men from our parish were invited into candidacy to the permanent diaconate. This was the first step of what is almost a five-year journey from the start of discernment through four years of education, with ordination as the goal. The two men are Mark DeLaHunt and Tony Rivera.

These gatherings are like a homecoming for me. Because we have a large diocese, I don’t get to see the men I studied with, and this is an opportunity to catch up with them. We get to talk about what we are doing — both good and bad — and it is a reminder of the broader meaning of being a deacon. (more…)

Go, You Are Sent

Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
July 22, 2018 – Year B
Readings: Jer 23:1-6 / Ps 23 / Eph 2:13-18 / Mk 6:30-34
by Rev. Dan Kelly, Guest Celebrant

In today’s first reading, Jeremiah the prophet is addressing two groups of people. First, he’s addressing the leaders of Israel, who have abandoned their people and sought their own way, avoiding God’s commandments. The people, as a result, were also forgetting what God’s commandments were. Jeremiah is also addressing the people themselves, who have been led to follow foreign and non-believing peoples from other nations.

We’ve heard that story before in the scriptures, especially in the Old Testament, when God promised and sent someone to renew His people. God promised, through Jeremiah, that He would raise up new leaders for the Jewish people, who would bring them back to their faith. That is the first connection with the gospel: leadership. (more…)