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Thirty - Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

11/7/2021

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Brothers and Sisters,
​
Several of you have asked that I share a bit about the time spent in the Holy Land with the priests and bishop and  so I will relate a bit about the pilgrimage here. The time spent in the Holy Land was broken into two parts, the first half we stayed in Galilee on the Mount of the Beatitudes. The place we stayed was a bit of a monastery and every room had an outside terrace that looked onto the Sea of Galilee. The place is somewhat remote, so there was a silence in the mornings and evenings that was very peaceful. Everyday that we were in Galilee we visited one or two places mentioned in the Gospels. Galilee is particularly important as Jesus spent the vast majority of his time ministering in that area. Due to the pandemic and lack of tourists, we were able to spend time in Capernaum, Korazim, Nazareth, and other places in prayer without the distraction of many groups coming in and out. Having lived in the Holy Land myself, I was amazed at how few people there were.  In addition to visiting the Holy Places and celebrating Mass together either there, or at the monastery, we took all our meals together, often at one table. It was a great opportunity for priests who knew each other superficially to spend some time to get to know each other. It also allowed for us to discuss some difficulties we face in ministering in the 21st century and how we might address those difficulties.
We spent the last half of the pilgrimage in Jerusalem and visited the Mount of Olives (and Gethsemane), the Pool of Bethesda, Church of the Holy Sepulcher and the cenacle, where we renewed our priestly vows. It was incredible to be in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher while it was almost entirely empty. In all the times I have been there, it has never really been a place I could pray. It is usually full of people walking around, or spending an hour or two in lines waiting for the 10 seconds you get to spend in prayer at the place of the crucifixion or the place of the empty tomb. We spent hours in the silent church with the freedom to sit in front of these places and pray, contemplating the events that happened there.            It was a real gift from the Lord and an experience I don’t think I will ever have again in my life.
In Jerusalem we took some time to gather in small groups to discuss our own histories and where we each                         encountered Christ and to again reflect in a more systematic way on where we are as a diocese and how to address the  challenges we face. It also allowed the priests the opportunity to share with the bishop any questions or concerns they had regarding administrative or pastoral matters. Listening to each other helped created a sense of fraternity in our common mission in the diocese.
I will obviously not be able to list all the places we visited, or experiences we shared, but suffice it to say that the pilgrimage allowed the priests everything the bishop intended: times of prayer together, times of solitude with the Lord, times to share and build fraternity, and a time of rest. I believe that the time away together will bear fruit for the diocese and in the vocation of each priest. Please know that I prayed for the parish and all of you while in the Holy Land and continue to do so. Don’t forget to pray for me!

In Christ,
Fr. Kevin                      

                                             ​











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Thirty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time

10/31/2021

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                                                                                    From the desk of Fr. Trinidad
​

On December 25, 2005, Pope Benedict XVI wrote his first encyclical letter title Deus Caritas  Est (God is Love). Personally, I believe that this little church document, is one of the most beautiful and easiest encyclicals to understand. If you ever have a moment to reflect upon your life and the world that surrounds us, I strongly encourage you to read it. I decided to include the first paragraph of the opening introduction in this week’s bulletin. It describes perfectly the formula on how to become a saint and ultimately, reach our final destiny, our eternal dwelling place in heaven.
 
Pope Benedict writes: “God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in  him” (1 John 4:16). These words from the First Letter of John express with remarkable clarity the heart of the Christian faith: The Christian image of God and the resulting image of mankind and its destiny. In the same verse, St. John also offers a kind of summary of the Christian life: “We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us.” In these words, the Christian can express the fundamental decision of his life. Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea but the encounter with an event, a Person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction. St. John’s Gospel describes that event in these words: “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should… have eternal life” (John 3:16).
 
I hope that as we celebrate All Saints day and All Souls, we can come to a deeper appreciation, of the greatest event, that has ever happened in human history, our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the only reason why we have existence, why we can come together as a community, why we can walk in one  faith, one hope and one love. Heaven is knowing that to be loved by God and loving others, gives us our very existence. Some may say the reaching of heaven is a lifelong uphill task, others may that trying to be holy is only for the saints. What I am certain of, is that for those of us who have a soul, Our Lord is slow to anger, kind of heart and merciful. Aim for heaven, but just in case we choose the bumpy road out of negligence or procrastination, there is always purgatory. Hopefully, some kindhearted soul will pray for us when we are there.
 
Pax et bonum
Fr. Trinidad




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Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

10/24/2021

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From a treatise on John by Saint Augustine, bishop

No one comes to me unless the Father draws him. Do not think that you are drawn against your will; the will is drawn also by love. We must not be afraid of men who weigh words but are far from understanding what belongs above all to divine truth. They may find fault with this passage of Scripture and say to us: “How can I believe of my own free will if I am drawn to believe?” I answer: “It is not enough that you are moved by the will, for you are drawn also by desire.”

What does this mean, to be drawn by desire? Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. The heart has its own desires; it takes delight, for example, in the bread from heaven. The poet could say: “Everyone is drawn by his own desire,” not by necessity but by desire, not by compulsion but by pleasure. We can say then with greater force that one who finds pleasure in truth, in happiness, in justice, in everlasting life, is drawn to Christ, for Christ is all these things.

Are our bodily senses to have their desires, but not the will? If the will does not have its desires, how can Scripture say: The children of men will find their hope under the shadow of your wings, they will drink their fill from the plenty of your house, and you will give them drink from the running stream of your delights, for with you is the fountain of life, and in your light we shall see light.

Show me one who loves; he knows what I mean. Show me one who is full of longing, one who is hungry, one who is a pilgrim and suffering from thirst in the desert of this world, eager for the fountain in the homeland of eternity; show me someone like that, and he knows what I mean. But if I speak to someone without feeling, he does not understand what I am saying.

You have only to show a leafy branch to a sheep, and it is drawn to it. If you show nuts to a boy, he is drawn to them. He runs to them because he is drawn, drawn by love, drawn without any physical compulsion, drawn by a chain attached to his heart. “Everyone is drawn by his own desire.” This is a true saying, and earthly delights and pleasures, set before those who love them, succeed in drawing them. If this is so, are we to say that Christ, revealed and set before us by the Father, does not draw us? What does the soul desire more than truth? Why then does the soul have hungry jaws, a spiritual palate as it were, sensitive enough to judge the truth, if not in order to eat and drink wisdom, justice, truth, eternal life?

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice, that is, here on earth. They shall be satisfied, that is, in heaven. Christ says: I give each what he loves, I give each the object of his hope; he will see what he believed in, though without seeing it. What he now hungers for, he will eat; what he now thirsts for, he will drink to the full. When? At the resurrection of the dead, for I will raise him up on the last day.
 
Pax et bonum
Fr. Trinidad





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St. Albert the Great Newman Parish
2615 S. Solano Dr
Las Cruces, NM 88005
​575-522-6202

Mass Schedule
Monday - Friday:  5:30 pm
Saturday:  5:30 pm
Sunday:  8:00 am, 11:15 am, 

Confessions​: Saturday 4 pm