7th Sunday of Easter
Friends,
Yesterday morning at St Romero's we were once again celebrating in the hospitality room instead of the dining room at St Joe's, this time because people were getting ready for the Memorial Day Picnic. I loved our Mass; because of the picnic we had more people than usual coming in off the street, and it was a lively bunch.
We talked about the difficulty of Memorial Day for pacifists: that desire not to glorify war, but at the same time to honor the choices and sacrifices made by our sisters and brothers --- often times quite literally our sisters and brothers --- and how very many of our guests at St Joe's are veterans. I talked about the man I met in El Salvador who had been a guerilla during the civil war there, who said, "During the war, I believed in what we were doing. But now, years later, I see that on both sides, rich people were profiting from the sale of arms, and poor people were killing each other. And in the end, things are not better for the poor."
This morning, Memorial Day, there was a "Memorial in Time of War" at the Sister Cities Bridge, led by Karen Keenan and Tom Moore. They have done this every year since the war began in 2003. There is a simple inter-faith service, then everybody lines up and takes turns reading out loud the names of people who died in the war --- soldiers from the U.S., children and adults from Iran and Afghanistan. As each name is read, a bell is rung. Then we go up on the bridge and drop roses in the river. It always seems such a waste, throwing that beautiful rose in the river. But the waste is nothing compared to the waste of the human lives we commemorate.
Life is hard. Honest people can disagree about how we go about solving the problems of the world. I want to be careful that, sure as I am about some things like that Jesus calls us to non-violence, that the way to change the world is the way that Jesus did, changing hearts, taking on pain instead of inflicting it sure as I am, I don't want to inflict more violence by disrespecting my sisters and brothers who believe in other ways. How do we live with each other? That seems to me both the most challenging and most exciting question there is. How do we love?
Here at St Joe's we have welcomed our second Muslim staff member in a year. Trying to find ways to pray together, we decided that while he is here, we will change our New Testament reading at morning prayer to one from the Sufi mystic, Hafiz. The Sufi poets are a great source of spiritual nourishment for me and I am happy to make the substitution. We heard from another Sufi, the poet Rumi, this morning at the memorial. Let me share that poem with you. (The translation is by Coleman Barks):
Out beyond ideas of wrong-doing and right-doing,
there is a field.
I'll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase each other
doesn't make any sense.
Much peace to you- however you believe. May we find that place beyond ideas and "isms," and live in respect and awe.
Blessings and love to all,
Chava
This Wednesday night, June 1 at 7 pm, the Rochester Committee on Latin America will be showing the movie, "Return to El Salvador" at Downtown United Presbyterian Church. This documentary features Ruth and Alex Orantes of Santa Ana; some of you met Ruth when she was here last year for my ordination. One of the issues featured in the film is that of gold mining. People are dying for their resistance to this ecologically disastrous exploitation of the land. After the film I'll talk about the visit Eli and I made to El Salvador in April, and the people we met there who are trying to stop the gold mining. Please join us, if you can.
Please keep our four RCWP ordinands in your prayers this week. Patti La Rosa, Ann Penick, Caryl Johnson and Marellen Meyers will be ordained to the priesthood in Baltimore this coming Saturday, June 4. I'll be there but will be back in time for Mass on Sunday at 11!
Please come and join us, any Sunday that you like! We would love to see you.
___________________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Church in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11 am
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14603
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Friday, May 27, 2011
Bulletin for Sunday, May 29, 2011
6th Sunday of Easter
Friends,
At a recent community meeting at St Joseph's House of Hospitality we realized that there was a need to look at one of our rules, which didn't seem to be working well. After talking about it for a while, we realized that the people who would be impacted by the decision needed, not just a voice in the decision, but as much as possible to make the decision themselves. So today we gathered the people most affected, and sat in a circle together. What a world of difference it makes, talking as equals. There's just a whole different spirit when we can say, "let's talk together and find a way that is just and that works for everyone," instead of one person or group imposing rules on others.
When we do that at St Joe's, we are not only making a decision that is owned by the people it impacts. We are also providing an opportunity for people who don't have much power in our society to see themselves as people who have an equal voice, who can make decisions. I hope that such a way of doing things not only has a positive effect on St Joe's, but on everyone involved, and that it plants a seed that will bear fruit in the slow, day-by-day transformation of our society.
I don't believe that the world will be healed without the empowerment and self-determination of the people who are currently on the bottom economically and socially. I don't believe that healing will happen without people like me and you sharing the power that we have. Very few of us are totally at either the top or the bottom of the heap. Most of us are somewhere in between, having more than some and less than others. We need to both claim our own power, never buying into seeing ourselves as "less than" because we are women or poor or physically challenged or young or old or because of the color of our skin or the language that we speak ---- and at the same time we need to be aware of our own power and not treat others as "less than" because of our own level of education or authority or financial comfort, and mindfully walk in equality with all.
This is why it is so important that as we move into a time of transformation in the church (and I absolutely believe we are in such a time!), we are not only about justice, inclusion of all, empowerment of women, but also about equality in the church. Healing is not going to happen without individuals discovering the power that is within them, and where better to nurture that discovery than in church? Let's see the gifts in each person and call them forth. Everyone has something to offer.
I am grateful for organizations like Call to Action, or We are Church over in Europe, where lay people are so clear that it is the people who are the church. I look forward to exploring what that means for us in practical ways as we grow at St Romero's. May our little church be whatever God is dreaming for it to be!
Come and celebrate with us some Sunday. It's different every week, but we are always here!
Blessings and love to all,
Chava
This coming Monday, May 30, is Memorial Day. Ever since the war in Iraq began in 2003, Karen Keenan and Tom Moore have been organizing "A Memorial in Time of War" at 9 am at the Sister Cities Bridge at Genesee Crossroads Park, behind the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Downtown Rochester. You are welcome to join in this moving ceremony and pray that it will be the last time we need to do it.
_______________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Church in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11 am
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14603
Friends,
At a recent community meeting at St Joseph's House of Hospitality we realized that there was a need to look at one of our rules, which didn't seem to be working well. After talking about it for a while, we realized that the people who would be impacted by the decision needed, not just a voice in the decision, but as much as possible to make the decision themselves. So today we gathered the people most affected, and sat in a circle together. What a world of difference it makes, talking as equals. There's just a whole different spirit when we can say, "let's talk together and find a way that is just and that works for everyone," instead of one person or group imposing rules on others.
When we do that at St Joe's, we are not only making a decision that is owned by the people it impacts. We are also providing an opportunity for people who don't have much power in our society to see themselves as people who have an equal voice, who can make decisions. I hope that such a way of doing things not only has a positive effect on St Joe's, but on everyone involved, and that it plants a seed that will bear fruit in the slow, day-by-day transformation of our society.
I don't believe that the world will be healed without the empowerment and self-determination of the people who are currently on the bottom economically and socially. I don't believe that healing will happen without people like me and you sharing the power that we have. Very few of us are totally at either the top or the bottom of the heap. Most of us are somewhere in between, having more than some and less than others. We need to both claim our own power, never buying into seeing ourselves as "less than" because we are women or poor or physically challenged or young or old or because of the color of our skin or the language that we speak ---- and at the same time we need to be aware of our own power and not treat others as "less than" because of our own level of education or authority or financial comfort, and mindfully walk in equality with all.
This is why it is so important that as we move into a time of transformation in the church (and I absolutely believe we are in such a time!), we are not only about justice, inclusion of all, empowerment of women, but also about equality in the church. Healing is not going to happen without individuals discovering the power that is within them, and where better to nurture that discovery than in church? Let's see the gifts in each person and call them forth. Everyone has something to offer.
I am grateful for organizations like Call to Action, or We are Church over in Europe, where lay people are so clear that it is the people who are the church. I look forward to exploring what that means for us in practical ways as we grow at St Romero's. May our little church be whatever God is dreaming for it to be!
Come and celebrate with us some Sunday. It's different every week, but we are always here!
Blessings and love to all,
Chava
This coming Monday, May 30, is Memorial Day. Ever since the war in Iraq began in 2003, Karen Keenan and Tom Moore have been organizing "A Memorial in Time of War" at 9 am at the Sister Cities Bridge at Genesee Crossroads Park, behind the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Downtown Rochester. You are welcome to join in this moving ceremony and pray that it will be the last time we need to do it.
_______________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Church in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11 am
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14603
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Bulletin for Sunday, May 22, 2011
5th Sunday of Easter
Friends,
When I was 12 or 13 I went with others from my church youth group one night to hear a Christian singer named Larry Norman. One of his songs stayed in my head, a song that said "The Christians in Russia all live underground" and went on to describe how it wasn't safe to be Christian in communist countries.
I was thinking of that today because I would like to tell you about the group I'm going to be speaking to on Saturday, but one of the other speakers would lose his job if his employer found out he had spoken at the same event as a woman priest. If that seems farfetched, well, think of Fr. Roy Bourgeois. The second phase of his trouble began when he was a member of a panel speaking about the documentary about women priests, "Pink Smoke Over the Vatican." One of the women who will be ordained a priest in Baltimore on June 4 lost her job at a Catholic college last year when someone found out she had been ordained a deacon. Last week a bishop in Australia was forced to resign for questioning whether perhaps women should be priests. There are women priests who have been ordained in South America, whose names and even the countries where they live are being kept secret.
Someone who is reading Matthew Fox's new book, "The Pope's War," which tells about Ludmila Javarova, a woman priest ordained in secret in Czechoslovakia in 1971 at a time when the church was persecuted there, said, "What's happening now is like what happened to the church under communism!"
Which is pretty ironic, isn't it? Our last two popes experienced the tyranny of communism as young men. It seems pretty clear that their opposition to Liberation Theology stemmed from a fear that what happened in Eastern Europe would happen in Latin America, without understanding the different situation there. And now here's this new movement for life and renewal in the church, being persecuted in turn. I don't mean to point fingers. What I do want to point out is the danger for all of us, of becoming like the thing we resist. That's a human trait, and it's not just limited to people in the Vatican.
We are part of a wonderful movement in the worldwide church a church that's bigger than Catholicism, bigger than the United States. God is doing something new in the world, with little communities all over that are empowering women, working with the poor, a church of equality that breaks down denominational boundaries. Let us be sure not to become the thing we resist. Let's be sure to be open, transparent, and unafraid to look at our shadow side. Let's celebrate the movement of the Spirit more than trying to control each other. Let's celebrate each other! and all the different ways the Spirit breathes in the world.
Each Sunday at St Romero's I include a prayer for our sister churches, Spiritus Christi, Mary Magdalene, and Shekina Baptist in El Salvador. Lately I've been adding Carpenter's Church in Lubbock, Texas, and The Simple Way in Philadelphia so many pockets of hope, lights for the world. We need to appreciate each other, encourage each other. We need to celebrate the different ways we go about building the Kindom of God, and learn from each other. We are part of a huge network of women priests and Catholic Worker houses and little Evangelical congregations, all on fire to change the world. God bless us all.
This weekend we will have a visitor from El Salvador, Pati Chacon from Shekina Church in Santa Ana. Come and welcome her on Sunday, and help to build those ties!
Blessings and love to all,
Chava
______________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Church in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11 am
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14603
Friends,
When I was 12 or 13 I went with others from my church youth group one night to hear a Christian singer named Larry Norman. One of his songs stayed in my head, a song that said "The Christians in Russia all live underground" and went on to describe how it wasn't safe to be Christian in communist countries.
I was thinking of that today because I would like to tell you about the group I'm going to be speaking to on Saturday, but one of the other speakers would lose his job if his employer found out he had spoken at the same event as a woman priest. If that seems farfetched, well, think of Fr. Roy Bourgeois. The second phase of his trouble began when he was a member of a panel speaking about the documentary about women priests, "Pink Smoke Over the Vatican." One of the women who will be ordained a priest in Baltimore on June 4 lost her job at a Catholic college last year when someone found out she had been ordained a deacon. Last week a bishop in Australia was forced to resign for questioning whether perhaps women should be priests. There are women priests who have been ordained in South America, whose names and even the countries where they live are being kept secret.
Someone who is reading Matthew Fox's new book, "The Pope's War," which tells about Ludmila Javarova, a woman priest ordained in secret in Czechoslovakia in 1971 at a time when the church was persecuted there, said, "What's happening now is like what happened to the church under communism!"
Which is pretty ironic, isn't it? Our last two popes experienced the tyranny of communism as young men. It seems pretty clear that their opposition to Liberation Theology stemmed from a fear that what happened in Eastern Europe would happen in Latin America, without understanding the different situation there. And now here's this new movement for life and renewal in the church, being persecuted in turn. I don't mean to point fingers. What I do want to point out is the danger for all of us, of becoming like the thing we resist. That's a human trait, and it's not just limited to people in the Vatican.
We are part of a wonderful movement in the worldwide church a church that's bigger than Catholicism, bigger than the United States. God is doing something new in the world, with little communities all over that are empowering women, working with the poor, a church of equality that breaks down denominational boundaries. Let us be sure not to become the thing we resist. Let's be sure to be open, transparent, and unafraid to look at our shadow side. Let's celebrate the movement of the Spirit more than trying to control each other. Let's celebrate each other! and all the different ways the Spirit breathes in the world.
Each Sunday at St Romero's I include a prayer for our sister churches, Spiritus Christi, Mary Magdalene, and Shekina Baptist in El Salvador. Lately I've been adding Carpenter's Church in Lubbock, Texas, and The Simple Way in Philadelphia so many pockets of hope, lights for the world. We need to appreciate each other, encourage each other. We need to celebrate the different ways we go about building the Kindom of God, and learn from each other. We are part of a huge network of women priests and Catholic Worker houses and little Evangelical congregations, all on fire to change the world. God bless us all.
This weekend we will have a visitor from El Salvador, Pati Chacon from Shekina Church in Santa Ana. Come and welcome her on Sunday, and help to build those ties!
Blessings and love to all,
Chava
______________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Church in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11 am
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14603
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Bulletin for Sunday, May 15, 2011
4th Sunday of Easter
Friends,
This is such a pretty time of year in Rochester! The magnolias are blooming, there are tulips everywhere, and we have the hope of lilacs very soon. There is a lilac in my back yard that is about to burst into bloom. It was planted for me by my friend Jimi Waffle before he died fifteen years ago of AIDS. I have often wondered how Jimi's life might have been different, had he grown up in a gay-friendly world -- or a gay-friendly church. Imagine a world in which every teenager growing up knows that their sexuality is a healthy and good part of the person that they are, and where there are good role models for healthy relationships of all kinds, among church leaders and other adults they know. Imagine a world in which the AIDS virus had been taken seriously right from the beginning and not dismissed as a “gay disease.” How many precious people like Jimi would still be here to grace the world?
The Presbyterian Church (USA) took a giant step forward this week by voting to allow gay and lesbian people to serve in ministry. There have been many long hard years of struggle by people like the Rev. Janie Spahr, who started a ruckus here in Rochester in the 1990's when she came out as a lesbian minister and Downtown United Presbyterian Church tried to hire her as its co-pastor. The highest Presbyterian court ruled that she could not serve. Janie and DUPC creatively found another way for her to minister, traveling around the country as an evangelist, in a ministry called “That All May Freely Serve.” In the early days of the 1998 struggle at Corpus Christi that led to the formation of Spiritus, Janie told us that in her travels around the country, she heard the name of Corpus Christi whispered with hope. And that gave me hope! Blessings and gratitude to Janie and all whose courageous witness has at last borne fruit in the Presbyterian Church (USA). May all of our churches be safe places for everyone.
One of the gifts of being a woman priest, and thus being on the outside and forced to find alternate ways to serve in ministry, is that I have sometimes found work with other denominations. For the past two years I've served the Presbytery of Genesee Valley as its Peacemaker. I've been so impressed by the way the Presbyterians do process. They are so careful to hear all the voices, to include as many voices as possible in their discussions. Every two months they have a big meeting with pastors and representatives of all the churches, and staff members like me. Those meetings have often felt as holy to me as any church service. The way we make decisions is an important part of who we are as church. I am delighted to see this wonderful new move toward justice for all in their denomination. Hooray for the Presbyterians!
Join us this Sunday for Mass at 11 am. We are enjoying the quiet space in between Easter and the beginning of our new ministry of bringing Mass in Spanish to migrant workers near Rochester. Let me know if you might be interested in participating in that!
Blessings and love to all,
Chava
“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
____________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Church in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11 am
402 South Ave. Rochester, NY 14620
Friends,
This is such a pretty time of year in Rochester! The magnolias are blooming, there are tulips everywhere, and we have the hope of lilacs very soon. There is a lilac in my back yard that is about to burst into bloom. It was planted for me by my friend Jimi Waffle before he died fifteen years ago of AIDS. I have often wondered how Jimi's life might have been different, had he grown up in a gay-friendly world -- or a gay-friendly church. Imagine a world in which every teenager growing up knows that their sexuality is a healthy and good part of the person that they are, and where there are good role models for healthy relationships of all kinds, among church leaders and other adults they know. Imagine a world in which the AIDS virus had been taken seriously right from the beginning and not dismissed as a “gay disease.” How many precious people like Jimi would still be here to grace the world?
The Presbyterian Church (USA) took a giant step forward this week by voting to allow gay and lesbian people to serve in ministry. There have been many long hard years of struggle by people like the Rev. Janie Spahr, who started a ruckus here in Rochester in the 1990's when she came out as a lesbian minister and Downtown United Presbyterian Church tried to hire her as its co-pastor. The highest Presbyterian court ruled that she could not serve. Janie and DUPC creatively found another way for her to minister, traveling around the country as an evangelist, in a ministry called “That All May Freely Serve.” In the early days of the 1998 struggle at Corpus Christi that led to the formation of Spiritus, Janie told us that in her travels around the country, she heard the name of Corpus Christi whispered with hope. And that gave me hope! Blessings and gratitude to Janie and all whose courageous witness has at last borne fruit in the Presbyterian Church (USA). May all of our churches be safe places for everyone.
One of the gifts of being a woman priest, and thus being on the outside and forced to find alternate ways to serve in ministry, is that I have sometimes found work with other denominations. For the past two years I've served the Presbytery of Genesee Valley as its Peacemaker. I've been so impressed by the way the Presbyterians do process. They are so careful to hear all the voices, to include as many voices as possible in their discussions. Every two months they have a big meeting with pastors and representatives of all the churches, and staff members like me. Those meetings have often felt as holy to me as any church service. The way we make decisions is an important part of who we are as church. I am delighted to see this wonderful new move toward justice for all in their denomination. Hooray for the Presbyterians!
Join us this Sunday for Mass at 11 am. We are enjoying the quiet space in between Easter and the beginning of our new ministry of bringing Mass in Spanish to migrant workers near Rochester. Let me know if you might be interested in participating in that!
Blessings and love to all,
Chava
“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
____________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Church in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11 am
402 South Ave. Rochester, NY 14620
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Bulletin for Sunday, May 8, 2011
3rd Sunday of Easter
Friends,
How has your week been? There are a lot of feelings in the air following the announcement of the death of Osama bin Laden: sadness, jubilation, hope, relief, confusion. For me, remembering all the deaths these past ten years, those terrible deaths on September 11, 2001, and all the deaths in the wars since, the children, families, soldiers, so many many lives ended by violence and hatred and fear and now the death of bin Laden, well, as one of the young men who went to El Salvador with Eli and me said, it makes my heart hurt.
But there is something that has given me hope, as well. On Monday, person after person posted on facebook, "I can't rejoice in the death of anyone." That's God's response! "As I live, says the Lord God, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live." (Ezekiel 33:11) God is always hoping that we will turn around and embrace life. God is love, remember, and we know what St Paul said about love: that it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and it never gives up. That needs to be our attitude with each other: don't ever give up on anybody. Ever. The deepest desire of God is for healing and life for all of us! No matter what we've done.
It was a beautiful thing, to read so many people expressing their confusion and pain as they watched people celebrating, and struggled with their mixed feelings of relief and sadness. I see the presence of God in our collective inner conflict, our struggle to know what is right. May that struggle lead us into the light.
Martin Luther King said, "The chain reaction of evil--hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars--must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation." My prayer following the death of bin Laden is to break that chain reaction in my own heart. May all of us break the cycle of hate and revenge and turn our minds and hearts to finding ways to bring peace. It is possible but each of us must turn from death to life in our own lives and hearts, and we must also do it together. Life! May there be life, and love, and healing for all. Amen!
We took some steps toward life and healing here in Rochester last week, walking with Myra Brown, Roseanne Fabi and Mike Bleeg as they led us to various sites around downtown to talk with community leaders about racism. Walks like that do make a difference. They make each of us who participate more aware and more committed to change. They help to bring the conversation out into the open. For me as an educated white middle class woman, that walk helped me to be more aware of the privileges I take for granted, the acceptance that comes my way every time I walk into a store or a hospital the privilege that is part of the air I breathe. Thank you, Myra, Roseanne and Mike, for your leadership!
This past Sunday about ten people gathered in front of the Cathedral to demonstrate support for Fr Roy Bourgeois and for the ordination of women. It was a peaceful and friendly demonstration and I'm grateful to Marilu Aguilar who organized it. It was for me a good way to mark the first anniversary of my ordination. I love being a priest and am grateful, grateful, grateful for every opportunity to serve --- and for this lovely community, Saint Romero's.
If you would like to join Mary Wilkins and me on Wednesday mornings at 8am at Pat's Coffee Mug on Clinton Ave, to eat breakfast and practice speaking Spanish, you are most welcome!
Blessings and love to all,
Chava
"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction."
Martin Luther King, Jr
_______________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Church in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11 am
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620
Friends,
How has your week been? There are a lot of feelings in the air following the announcement of the death of Osama bin Laden: sadness, jubilation, hope, relief, confusion. For me, remembering all the deaths these past ten years, those terrible deaths on September 11, 2001, and all the deaths in the wars since, the children, families, soldiers, so many many lives ended by violence and hatred and fear and now the death of bin Laden, well, as one of the young men who went to El Salvador with Eli and me said, it makes my heart hurt.
But there is something that has given me hope, as well. On Monday, person after person posted on facebook, "I can't rejoice in the death of anyone." That's God's response! "As I live, says the Lord God, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live." (Ezekiel 33:11) God is always hoping that we will turn around and embrace life. God is love, remember, and we know what St Paul said about love: that it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and it never gives up. That needs to be our attitude with each other: don't ever give up on anybody. Ever. The deepest desire of God is for healing and life for all of us! No matter what we've done.
It was a beautiful thing, to read so many people expressing their confusion and pain as they watched people celebrating, and struggled with their mixed feelings of relief and sadness. I see the presence of God in our collective inner conflict, our struggle to know what is right. May that struggle lead us into the light.
Martin Luther King said, "The chain reaction of evil--hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars--must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation." My prayer following the death of bin Laden is to break that chain reaction in my own heart. May all of us break the cycle of hate and revenge and turn our minds and hearts to finding ways to bring peace. It is possible but each of us must turn from death to life in our own lives and hearts, and we must also do it together. Life! May there be life, and love, and healing for all. Amen!
We took some steps toward life and healing here in Rochester last week, walking with Myra Brown, Roseanne Fabi and Mike Bleeg as they led us to various sites around downtown to talk with community leaders about racism. Walks like that do make a difference. They make each of us who participate more aware and more committed to change. They help to bring the conversation out into the open. For me as an educated white middle class woman, that walk helped me to be more aware of the privileges I take for granted, the acceptance that comes my way every time I walk into a store or a hospital the privilege that is part of the air I breathe. Thank you, Myra, Roseanne and Mike, for your leadership!
This past Sunday about ten people gathered in front of the Cathedral to demonstrate support for Fr Roy Bourgeois and for the ordination of women. It was a peaceful and friendly demonstration and I'm grateful to Marilu Aguilar who organized it. It was for me a good way to mark the first anniversary of my ordination. I love being a priest and am grateful, grateful, grateful for every opportunity to serve --- and for this lovely community, Saint Romero's.
If you would like to join Mary Wilkins and me on Wednesday mornings at 8am at Pat's Coffee Mug on Clinton Ave, to eat breakfast and practice speaking Spanish, you are most welcome!
Blessings and love to all,
Chava
"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction."
Martin Luther King, Jr
_______________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Church in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11 am
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620
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