Prayer for Mothers

Heavenly Father,
from the beginning you have chosen to entrust
the human person to mothers in a special way.
We thank and praise you for the gift of mothers;
for their tenderness, care, and compassion,
for their intuition and encouragement,
for commitment and sacrifice.
Bless all mothers this day.
Keep, strengthen, and refresh them
in your loving care.
May they be blessed by our open-hearted
love and gratitude. Amen.

Feast of the Ascension of the Lord

On this Feast of Ascension, Jesus is commissioning the disciples to go and proclaim the good news to the whole creation. A ‘commission’ means a task or matter entrusted to one as an agent for another. We are entrusted with a mission that Jesus himself wanted to do.

  “After speaking to them, the Lord Jesus was taken up into heaven and took his place at the right hand of God” (Mk 16:19). After the incident of Ascension, Jesus is no more present in this world in the physical human form. Today we are the ones who represent Jesus in this world. We are the ambassadors of Christ (2 Cor 5:20). We are to continue the ministry and mission of Jesus. In Luke 10:1, we read “the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go”. Whenever we preach the Good News to someone, we are continuing the Ascension experience that disciples had two thousand years ago and is making Jesus manifest in this world. Remember that “we are the aroma of Christ” (2 Cor 2:15).

 They will cast out demons, they will pick up snakes, and if they drink anything poisonous they will be unharmed, they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will be healed” (Mk 16:17,18). As Christians who are sent out to represent Jesus in this world, we are given the share of his power too and are offered victory over demons, sickness, and harmful objects and so on. We must live in this awareness that we are given the victory by the Lord already. We are a victorious people.

 “The Eleven went forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the wonders that accompanied it” (Mk 16:20).Wherever disciples preached the Good News, there were miracles too. By a word Peter cured the crippled beggar who was at the gate of the Temple (Act 3:1-10). But always remember that these wonders happened in the life of the disciples only after they started to preach the Good News. We too will be able to perform miracles if we begin to preach, not any time before that. Therefore, start to Act Now.

 The Feast of Ascension of our Lord is giving us the responsibility of representing Jesus in this world. Let us ask ourselves whether, in this life, have given Jesus to at least one person who was ignorant of Jesus; may be a shop keeper, or a car driver, or our co-worker in the office, or may be a student in our class. Let us be ‘proud of being a Christ-ian.

 Let’s make Jesus Christ visible in this world!

Dear St. Valentine Parish Member,

Each year, we have an opportunity to Unleash the Gospel through our support of the Catholic Services Appeal. The 37^th Annual CSA is now underway, and I am writing to ask you to once again reflect on God’s many gifts to you and in a spirit of Christian stewardship live out our theme of Opening Doors to Grow with Christ.

As many of you know each parish makes a contribution to the Archdiocese, to support various ministries and services the Archdiocese provides to catholic schools, parishes and programs that need support.

Our CSA goal for 2018 is $43,673.00. You have always been generous in the past so I would like to appeal to you this year too to help us meet our goal. Know that any contribution you make is most welcomed and deeply appreciated.

Please pick up your envelope in the vestibule in the back of church today after the Mass. Enclosed you will find a pledge card and a special envelope.  As you fill out the pledge cards please select the giving schedule that is most convenient to you.  You may return the cards and envelope to the Rectory or drop it off in the collection basket over the next few weeks. Please make your checks payable to “St Valentine Church – CSA”.

Thank you in advance for all that you are to the parish and for all the support that you give. May God Bless you for your generosity! 

Yours in Christ, 

Fr. Socorro,

Happy 19th Anniversary to the Priesthood!

This Sunday’s gospel today gives us one of the most striking images of the NT. Jesus is speaking to his disciples. He says, “I am the true Vine and you are the branches, my Father is the Vine grower, remain in me as I remain in you.” But he also tells us that there are unfruitful branches. They are taken away, cut off. Note that these are attached branches. They differ from the unattached branches (vv. 4-6). Jesus said that they are “in me,” but they have a problem: they bear no fruit.

 The unfruitful branches did become attached to Christ. They did have some organic relationship to Him. There was a time, a point, when they began to bud and sprout. They even grew into branches. They… listened to Jesus and the gospel, opened their ears, made a profession, were baptized, seem capable of bearing fruit, appeared to be fruitful branches.

The branches are unfruitful. They are “in” the vine, a part of it, but they simply bear no fruit. What does this mean? An unfruitful branch does not relate enough to Christ; they do not draw enough nourishment from Him, to draw life, to bear fruit, to continue in the Vine. Unfruitful branches are not genuine enough to bear fruit. Their profession is… more profession than possession, more pretending than being, more deception than truth, more counterfeit than real. Unfruitful branches become apostate and deserters – men and women who abandon the faith.

 God will “cut off” the unfruitful branches. The word  cut off means to take away and to remove. In relation to the vine, the branch is pruned removed, and taken away. This is a severe warning to every branch, “in” the vine, to make sure his profession is genuine enough to bear fruit.

 Scripture says at least two things about the judgment of unfruitful branches that sin. First, the unfruitful branches that sin are cut off and removed from the Vine and destroyed by fire. Secondly, the unfruitful branches that sin are chastened and disciplined by being cut off and removed through spiritual death.

The point must be heeded; for Scripture gives severe warnings to believers, that is, to the branches “in’ the Vine. The branches must make sure they are bearing fruit or else face severe judgment.