1st Sunday in Lent
Friends,
Yesterday in the dining room at St Joe’s we celebrated what Rachael said was the most hilarious Ash Wednesday service she’d ever attended. I forgot to distribute the ashes after the homily, one of the guys offered as his suggestion for ways to observe Lent that we go to the library and get all the free stuff we can, and at the end, Rachael got a fit of the giggles. Wonder why!
I’m glad we had a joyful Ash Wednesday Mass because I think Lent is great. It’s a chance to strip down, get rid of whatever is keeping us from being our truest and best selves, and grow closer to God. Lent gives me the kind of feeling that I get from cleaning out a closet. Doesn’t it feel great when you get rid of a lot of stuff you don’t need, and things are clean and orderly again?
This Lent, as we practice the disciplines of fasting, prayer and almsgiving that hopefully help us to grow and to be more fully alive, I invite you to look outside yourself and to be aware of the ways that we as a society need to grow. Look at our dependence on oil, and what that is doing to our planet, both in destruction of the environment and in the wars in the middle east. Look at the way that we in the first world use so much of the earth’s resources, and the price people in other parts of the world pay for our excess. And with the awareness we have at St Romero’s because of our migrant ministry, perhaps this Lent is a good time to examine and work to change the terrible system that has people working ten hour days, six days a week, for heartbreakingly little money, terrible living conditions, and on top of all that, getting punished for being here. Along with our personal repentance and turning to God, let’s look at how we as a society need to turn around.
Following Jesus is about a whole lot more than feeling good about our own relationship with God. We’ve got to transform the world. Like Dorothy Day said, the whole problem with the world is our acceptance of this filthy, rotten system. Let’s repent that acceptance, and work for change. Here’s God’s word on that:
"Is not this the fast I choose:
To loose the bonds of injustice,
To undo the thongs of the yoke,
To let the oppressed go free,
And to break every yoke?"
Isaiah 58:6
A blessed Lent to you. May it be a time of life, growth and transformation!
Love and light to all
Chava
Here are some ideas for Lenten reading:
"The Irresistible Revolution" by Shane Claiborne. Also "Jesus for President."
"Jesus and Nonviolence" by Walter Wink
"Becoming Who You Are" by James Martin
If you’d like some meaty Biblical scholarship, "Come Out, My People!" by Wes Howard-Brook or "Parables as Subversive Speech" by William Herzog
And finally, an excellent and very readable book by one of the leading Black theologians of our time, James Cone, on one of the most terrible and most overlooked occurrences in American history:
"The Cross and the Lynching Tree."
Have a blessed Lent, and come visit us, any Sunday!
__________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Community of Liberation, Justice and Joy
Worshiping in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620
Monday, February 27, 2012
Monday, February 20, 2012
Bulletin for Sunday, February 19, 2011
7th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Friends,
With all the snow we had on Sunday morning, I didn’t think anyone would show up for Mass. Surprise! We had most of our usual folks plus someone new. Annie and Mike O’Reilly were there, all the way from Coneseus!
As we drove up South Ave under the bridge, Capo said "Isn’t that our friend from church?" I was surprised to see one of our regular guys trudging through the snow, thinking the weather was too awful for him to be out in. He is a man who often mentions his brushes with the law. He’s in and out of jail, he says, and has a testy relationship with the police. I never understood it, and wondered what he was doing to get in trouble.
I would have stopped to pick him up but that underpass isn’t a safe spot for stopping. So we went on to St Joe’s and found the parking lot clear, thanks most likely to Rich who works so hard to keep St Joe’s running smoothly. Coming around to the front door, what do we see in the block ahead but our friend, standing in the middle of the intersection at South and Mt Hope, waving his arms and yelling for all he’s worth at the people driving by: "SLOW THE F*** DOWN!!! SLOW THE F*** DOWN!"
On the one hand, it was a public service. And on the other, now I get the in-and-out-of-jail thing. By the time he made it in to Mass, he was calm and there was no hint of what we’d just seen outside.
So that’s one of the things I love about St Romero’s. You just never know what’s going to happen on Sunday morning.
In this week’s Gospel, we see people taking apart a roof to make a hole to get someone in to Jesus. There’s something glorious about those times we jump over barriers for love. Our God does it all the time, trying to get to us. How wonderful when we do it, trying to get to God. And though I don’t recommend standing in the middle of an intersection, waving your arms and shouting at people, how wonderful to break out of our predictable normal to help in whatever way we can. Jesus seems to have accepted that moment of breaking through barriers and destruction of property with total equanimity! I’ll bet all he looked at was the love.
And friends, please do drive carefully in the snow. You are worth so much more than getting someplace on time.
Love and light to all
Chava
"This is what God says, "Forget about what's happened;
don't keep going over old history.
Be alert, be present. I'm about to do something brand-new.
It's bursting out! Don't you see it?
There it is! I'm making a road through the desert,
rivers in the wasteland"
Isaiah 43:18-19 (The Message).
Ash Wednesday Mass with distribution of ashes, Wednesday February 22, 4:30 pm in the St Joe’s dining room. Come celebrate the start of Lent with us!
____________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Community of Liberation, Justice and Joy
Worshiping in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11 am
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620
Friends,
With all the snow we had on Sunday morning, I didn’t think anyone would show up for Mass. Surprise! We had most of our usual folks plus someone new. Annie and Mike O’Reilly were there, all the way from Coneseus!
As we drove up South Ave under the bridge, Capo said "Isn’t that our friend from church?" I was surprised to see one of our regular guys trudging through the snow, thinking the weather was too awful for him to be out in. He is a man who often mentions his brushes with the law. He’s in and out of jail, he says, and has a testy relationship with the police. I never understood it, and wondered what he was doing to get in trouble.
I would have stopped to pick him up but that underpass isn’t a safe spot for stopping. So we went on to St Joe’s and found the parking lot clear, thanks most likely to Rich who works so hard to keep St Joe’s running smoothly. Coming around to the front door, what do we see in the block ahead but our friend, standing in the middle of the intersection at South and Mt Hope, waving his arms and yelling for all he’s worth at the people driving by: "SLOW THE F*** DOWN!!! SLOW THE F*** DOWN!"
On the one hand, it was a public service. And on the other, now I get the in-and-out-of-jail thing. By the time he made it in to Mass, he was calm and there was no hint of what we’d just seen outside.
So that’s one of the things I love about St Romero’s. You just never know what’s going to happen on Sunday morning.
In this week’s Gospel, we see people taking apart a roof to make a hole to get someone in to Jesus. There’s something glorious about those times we jump over barriers for love. Our God does it all the time, trying to get to us. How wonderful when we do it, trying to get to God. And though I don’t recommend standing in the middle of an intersection, waving your arms and shouting at people, how wonderful to break out of our predictable normal to help in whatever way we can. Jesus seems to have accepted that moment of breaking through barriers and destruction of property with total equanimity! I’ll bet all he looked at was the love.
And friends, please do drive carefully in the snow. You are worth so much more than getting someplace on time.
Love and light to all
Chava
"This is what God says, "Forget about what's happened;
don't keep going over old history.
Be alert, be present. I'm about to do something brand-new.
It's bursting out! Don't you see it?
There it is! I'm making a road through the desert,
rivers in the wasteland"
Isaiah 43:18-19 (The Message).
Ash Wednesday Mass with distribution of ashes, Wednesday February 22, 4:30 pm in the St Joe’s dining room. Come celebrate the start of Lent with us!
____________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Community of Liberation, Justice and Joy
Worshiping in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11 am
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Bulletin for Sunday, February 12, 2011
6th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Friends,
“The Only Solution is Love.” That’s the slogan on one of my favorite Catholic Worker t-shirts and I absolutely believe it to be true. How are we going to heal the world unless we just love each other? Forgive, leap over our differences, find the person on the other side… and take the adventure that you find there. Quit hanging on to what we’ve got and give our open hands to God. Let God lead.
This week, God’s been leading me into court rooms. A new experience for the guys, and for me. On Friday when Capo and I walked into the waiting room outside of the immigration court in Buffalo, we encountered a roomful of anxious-looking people, all waiting for a hearing, as we were. We stood by the door, waiting for what seemed an awfully long time. Finally the door opened and a group of people came out. Among them was a young woman who looked at Capo with recognition and apparent relief. She was the cousin of someone in our community, and I had been trying unsuccessfully to find her in the system. Now we could tell her cousin we’d seen her. I hope that was a God-moment for her, one of those times when God whispers, “don’t worry! I’m here!”
In that moment I also thought of how Capo is viewed in the Mexican community, the respect and trust that is so different from the way the government views him. Things like integrity and character don’t get measured by the presence or absence of a passport. In the same way, the young man in our community who will have his day in immigration court at the end of the month has sterling qualities that won’t show up, there. The government looks at him and sees his immigration status. I look at him and see a young man carrying the responsibilities of someone much older, working so hard, not even out of his teens.
In the Gospel this week, Jesus breaks the rules of his time and place and reaches out to touch a leper. The encounter changes both of them. The person with leprosy gets healed, and starts telling people about it. Things change for Jesus, too, because since he touched a leper he’s ritually unclean. Now he’s hanging out with the people on the fringes. Personally, I like hanging out with the people on the fringes. Things look different from here.
So we went to court, and it all happened as we were told to expect. Capo was given a date to return, in April 2013. We were the last called, and so watched person after person go before the judge. He seemed reasonably kind. I heard him speak sympathetically to several people. On the other hand, a number of people were chided for showing up in court without their Notice to Appear in hand. Capo had his because I’d thought there was a chance it would be necessary. But how were they supposed to know that? The system is so appallingly unfair to people on the outside of it.
Last night I was visiting as I do every week, to have some Religious Ed time with the youngest member of our community. We noticed lights outside, whirling around. There were two police cars over at the next-door-neighbor’s house, police officers walking around a truck with flashlights. Looking out the window, I noticed the cat was trying to get in, and went to open the door for her. “No, Pastora!” shouted several voices. Good grief, pastor! Don’t open the door when the police are outside! Two realities, two world-views: that on the inside like most of us reading this have, and that of people locked out of the system. Jesus reached across that divide for healing and life, and got changed. Let’s us do the same.
Love and light to all
Chava
PS Ash Wednesday Mass with distribution of ashes, Wednesday February 22, 4:30 pm in the St Joe’s dining room. Come celebrate the start of Lent with us!
PPS Breakfast after Mass will resume when Linda comes back from Ireland in a few weeks.
Come visit us, any Sunday!
___________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Community of Liberation, Justice and Joy
Worshiping in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11
St Joseph's House of Hospitality
402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620
Friends,
“The Only Solution is Love.” That’s the slogan on one of my favorite Catholic Worker t-shirts and I absolutely believe it to be true. How are we going to heal the world unless we just love each other? Forgive, leap over our differences, find the person on the other side… and take the adventure that you find there. Quit hanging on to what we’ve got and give our open hands to God. Let God lead.
This week, God’s been leading me into court rooms. A new experience for the guys, and for me. On Friday when Capo and I walked into the waiting room outside of the immigration court in Buffalo, we encountered a roomful of anxious-looking people, all waiting for a hearing, as we were. We stood by the door, waiting for what seemed an awfully long time. Finally the door opened and a group of people came out. Among them was a young woman who looked at Capo with recognition and apparent relief. She was the cousin of someone in our community, and I had been trying unsuccessfully to find her in the system. Now we could tell her cousin we’d seen her. I hope that was a God-moment for her, one of those times when God whispers, “don’t worry! I’m here!”
In that moment I also thought of how Capo is viewed in the Mexican community, the respect and trust that is so different from the way the government views him. Things like integrity and character don’t get measured by the presence or absence of a passport. In the same way, the young man in our community who will have his day in immigration court at the end of the month has sterling qualities that won’t show up, there. The government looks at him and sees his immigration status. I look at him and see a young man carrying the responsibilities of someone much older, working so hard, not even out of his teens.
In the Gospel this week, Jesus breaks the rules of his time and place and reaches out to touch a leper. The encounter changes both of them. The person with leprosy gets healed, and starts telling people about it. Things change for Jesus, too, because since he touched a leper he’s ritually unclean. Now he’s hanging out with the people on the fringes. Personally, I like hanging out with the people on the fringes. Things look different from here.
So we went to court, and it all happened as we were told to expect. Capo was given a date to return, in April 2013. We were the last called, and so watched person after person go before the judge. He seemed reasonably kind. I heard him speak sympathetically to several people. On the other hand, a number of people were chided for showing up in court without their Notice to Appear in hand. Capo had his because I’d thought there was a chance it would be necessary. But how were they supposed to know that? The system is so appallingly unfair to people on the outside of it.
Last night I was visiting as I do every week, to have some Religious Ed time with the youngest member of our community. We noticed lights outside, whirling around. There were two police cars over at the next-door-neighbor’s house, police officers walking around a truck with flashlights. Looking out the window, I noticed the cat was trying to get in, and went to open the door for her. “No, Pastora!” shouted several voices. Good grief, pastor! Don’t open the door when the police are outside! Two realities, two world-views: that on the inside like most of us reading this have, and that of people locked out of the system. Jesus reached across that divide for healing and life, and got changed. Let’s us do the same.
Love and light to all
Chava
PS Ash Wednesday Mass with distribution of ashes, Wednesday February 22, 4:30 pm in the St Joe’s dining room. Come celebrate the start of Lent with us!
PPS Breakfast after Mass will resume when Linda comes back from Ireland in a few weeks.
Come visit us, any Sunday!
___________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Community of Liberation, Justice and Joy
Worshiping in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11
St Joseph's House of Hospitality
402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Bulletin for Sunday, February 5, 2012
Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Friends,
Each time we meet for church, we also meet for fellowship. Since the earliest days at St Romero’s we have shared breakfast after Mass on Sundays. Sometimes it was a pretty fancy breakfast, with eggs and sausage and fruit, and other times just toast and coffee. At Iglesia de San Romero, we always sat and shared cookies together after Mass (remember the story of the time a raccoon ran off with three dozen cookies?) and talked together. Now on Thursday nights, when I go out to have religious ed with the youngest member of our community, I always bring some cookies or something to share. Sometimes we eat together (last week it was tamales!) and sometimes it’s just the cookies, but I do think that sitting and eating and talking is an important part of community life, just as it’s an important part of family life.
Sometimes we learn things. For example, I never knew that tortillas are used to eat lots of things, not just as a wrap for burritos or tacos. Last week I made my own tortillas for the first time. Our young friend was very surprised to learn it was the first time I had made tortillas. "How do people eat eggs at your house?" he asked. "What do they use, a fork?!"
I love that the learning and growing goes both ways. And on Sunday mornings, I love sitting around the tables, just chatting. It is life-giving for the community and for all of us, I believe.
So, it is with sadness that I tell you that we’ve decided not to serve breakfast on Sundays for a while. We’re getting into a situation lately where people are arriving part way through Mass, apparently expecting breakfast, and we are not in a position to feed them. There is a free meal at St Joe’s later in the day, and the house opens at 1:30 for hospitality. Knowing that makes it more comfortable to say, "Sorry, not now." But I am sad to leave off our lovely habit of fellowship, for a while. Hopefully we’ll be able to bring it back in a few weeks.
We extend our deepest sympathy to the family of Sue McVey, and to all who grieve for her. Sue and her husband, George, have been part of the extended community at St Joe’s since the late 1980’s, and losing her is like losing a part of our family. She served on the supervisory committee when I did my field ed at St Joe’s in 2006. What a blessing it has been, to know her. St Joe’s will be closed this Thursday so that the community can attend her funeral, at 10:30 at Spiritus Christi.
We’d also like to ask your prayers this week for our Capo, who goes to immigration court on Friday. We know he is as much in God’s hands as he has ever been, and all is well.
Blessings and love to all,
Chava
________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Community of Liberation, Justice and Joy
Worshiping in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11 am
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620
Friends,
Each time we meet for church, we also meet for fellowship. Since the earliest days at St Romero’s we have shared breakfast after Mass on Sundays. Sometimes it was a pretty fancy breakfast, with eggs and sausage and fruit, and other times just toast and coffee. At Iglesia de San Romero, we always sat and shared cookies together after Mass (remember the story of the time a raccoon ran off with three dozen cookies?) and talked together. Now on Thursday nights, when I go out to have religious ed with the youngest member of our community, I always bring some cookies or something to share. Sometimes we eat together (last week it was tamales!) and sometimes it’s just the cookies, but I do think that sitting and eating and talking is an important part of community life, just as it’s an important part of family life.
Sometimes we learn things. For example, I never knew that tortillas are used to eat lots of things, not just as a wrap for burritos or tacos. Last week I made my own tortillas for the first time. Our young friend was very surprised to learn it was the first time I had made tortillas. "How do people eat eggs at your house?" he asked. "What do they use, a fork?!"
I love that the learning and growing goes both ways. And on Sunday mornings, I love sitting around the tables, just chatting. It is life-giving for the community and for all of us, I believe.
So, it is with sadness that I tell you that we’ve decided not to serve breakfast on Sundays for a while. We’re getting into a situation lately where people are arriving part way through Mass, apparently expecting breakfast, and we are not in a position to feed them. There is a free meal at St Joe’s later in the day, and the house opens at 1:30 for hospitality. Knowing that makes it more comfortable to say, "Sorry, not now." But I am sad to leave off our lovely habit of fellowship, for a while. Hopefully we’ll be able to bring it back in a few weeks.
We extend our deepest sympathy to the family of Sue McVey, and to all who grieve for her. Sue and her husband, George, have been part of the extended community at St Joe’s since the late 1980’s, and losing her is like losing a part of our family. She served on the supervisory committee when I did my field ed at St Joe’s in 2006. What a blessing it has been, to know her. St Joe’s will be closed this Thursday so that the community can attend her funeral, at 10:30 at Spiritus Christi.
We’d also like to ask your prayers this week for our Capo, who goes to immigration court on Friday. We know he is as much in God’s hands as he has ever been, and all is well.
Blessings and love to all,
Chava
________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Community of Liberation, Justice and Joy
Worshiping in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11 am
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620
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