I began my first position as a music director in late summer of 2008. I was not yet Catholic, and could not have dreamed that the community I was serving would take my life and completely redirect it.
The ministry of St. Phoebe is an example to all. She was a deacon of the early Church, sent by St. Paul from Corinth to the Christian community in Rome. We seek her guidance as the Global Synod works to prayerfully consider the roles of women in the Church today.
Many will remember our Home4Dinner Sundays back in late 2019 and early 2020, before they were interrupted by the pandemic. Well, they are coming back! We will have four Home4Dinner events, the first of which is Sunday, October 1. Mark your calendars today.
"On September 3rd, we commemorate the feast of St. Phoebe, deacon and benefactor to the early Church. We celebrate her gifts, her courage and, through her example, the contributions of all women to the Church. We seek Phoebe’s guidance and intercession as, throughout the Synod, we rethink women’s participation in the practices and structures of the Church." Read Worship Commission member Ruth Robinson's new article today.
"The heartbreaking news of sexual abuse claims that have led to the bankruptcy of the San Francisco Archdiocese and news about other claims of abuse that have recently come to light lead me to address our community and speak of how we are responding at St. Ignatius Parish." Read this important Pastoral Letter from Fr. Greg.
"Several weeks after his words dominated a news cycle, Pope Francis’s enthusiastic – and very clear – declaration that the Church is for todos, todos, todos continues to give me joy and hope. I also feel it as an affirmation; it is a message of confirmation and support of our own identity as a faith community, that in fact all are indeed welcome here, especially those who feel themselves standing on the outside or at the periphery." Read Fr. Greg's Pastoral Letter today.
Not far from the banks of the Tiber, in a working class district of Rome called Trastevere, in the Church of Santa Maria, a small but beautiful mosaic of the Assumption of Mary graces the wall beside the altar. In this image, apostles and disciples gather in sorrow at the death bed of the Virgin, while above her, surrounded by angels, Jesus stands and holds his mother in a pose reminiscent of many Madonnas—only now, she seems the child, and he the loving parent.
It was one of the most beautiful days I have ever seen—at a wisp below 80º, certainly an unusual day for the Central California Coast in the middle of February. The light was bright but gentle, without any of the haze or harshness one finds in summer. And the waves, large and wintry, ran deeply into the beach and glistened in the full winter sun.