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August 3, 2025 Eighteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time bulletin - Liturgy (continued)

Dear People of God,

Continued Series from July 27th…
There is a need for a lectionary and it was developed to make sure that the clergy did not only use Scripture passages that they liked. Rather, we are supposed to get a well rounded view of the Bible throughout the years by reading from a variety of places in Sacred Scripture. This way it is not the choice of any one person what is read at Mass, rather it is the choice of the Church as a whole. A liturgical principle that we should all keep in mind is that the things of liturgy are not supposed to be the ideas or choices of any one person. Instead, the components of the liturgy should be the Church expressing herself as a corporate whole and making informed liturgical choices that are truly helpful to Christian spirituality.

The liturgy is not about the personal expression of the cleric who is officiating at the liturgy. The liturgy is about Christ acting through the Church and the individual member of the clergy to authentically express the Truth which is, above all else, a person: Jesus Christ. This is why it is so crucial for clergy and laity alike to read the liturgical documents and to have a grounded understanding of them. In particular, we should also have a firm understanding of the documents of Vatican II and what they say about liturgy. So often people have claimed in the past that Vatican II did or said something that was not really firmly grounded in the documents of that Council. When we read those documents, we gain a stronger understanding of the nature of the liturgy and our shared worship of our God.
To be continued...

May Our Lord bless you all of your days,
Rev. Samuel Moses Brown

Querido Pueblo de Dios,

Continuado desde el 27 de julio...
Hay una necesidad de un leccionario y se desarrolló para asegurarse de que el clero no utilizara solo los pasajes de las Escrituras que les gustaban. Más bien, se supone que debemos obtener una visión completa de la Biblia a lo largo de los años leyendo de una variedad de lugares en las Sagradas Escriturass. De esta manera, no es la elección de una sola persona lo que se lee en la Misa, sino la elección de la Iglesia en su conjunto. Un principio litúrgico que todos debemos tener en cuenta es que las cosas de la liturgia no deben ser las ideas o elecciones de una sola persona. En cambio, los componentes de la liturgia deben ser la Iglesia expresándose a sí misma como un todo corporativo y tomando decisiones litúrgicas informadas que sean realmente útiles para la espiritualidad cristiana.

La liturgia no se trata de la expresión personal del clérigo que oficia la liturgia. La liturgia se trata de Cristo actuando a través de la Iglesia y del miembro individual del clero para expresar auténticamente la Verdad que es, sobre todo, una persona: Jesucristo. Es por esto que es tan crucial que tanto el clero como laicado lean los documentos litúrgicos y tengan una comprensión sólida de los mismos. En particular, también deberíamos tener un firme entendimiento de los documentos del Concilio Vaticano II y de lo que dicen sobre la liturgia. A menudo, en el pasado, las personas han afirmado que el Concilio Vaticano II hizo o dijo algo que realmente no estaba firmemente arraigado en los documentos de ese Consejo. Cuando leemos esos documentos, obtenemos una comprensión más fuerte de la naturaleza de la liturgia y de nuestra adoración compartida a nuestro Dios.
Continuará...

Que nuestro Señor los bendiga todos sus días,
Rev. Samuel Moses Brown

July 27, 2025 Seventeenth Sunday of Ordinary Time bulletin - Liturgy (continued)

Dear People of God,

Continued from July 20th… Early Christians seem to have adopted the notion that there should be some official way of doing things in the first few centuries of Christian history. However, we do not have much in the way of texts from this time period that record official liturgy as such. Instead, we see widespread evidence they had a definite understanding of how liturgy would go without having an authoritative source for that liturgy.

A good example of this is the lectionary. All historical Churches have a lectionary, meaning Catholics, Orthodox, and Coptic Christians all have a system of readings that are done every week on an official cycle that has been mandated by the authority of their Church. In our case, we have a three year cycle of reading which is framed by the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. We are currently in year C which is the year of Luke. We believe that in the first few centuries, Christians read from the Bible as they wanted without much system or direction. The priest or bishop of the Church would decide what was read based on what he thought was best. We can only imagine how this would actually take shape. Before too long, the cleric in charge of the Church would have the readings to be about what he wanted to talk about or for some specific social context of their Church. We can see that operative in the world today in some evangelical non-denominational churches wherein they may spend a significant amount of their time in Romans and Galatians. Many people in such churches gravitate toward those two parts of the Bible because they seem to support their understanding of Chirstian doctrine. This also allows people effectively to ignore parts of the Bible they do not like. To be continued...

May Our Lord bless you all of your days,
Rev. Samuel Moses Brown

Querido Pueblo de Dios,

Continuado desde el 20 de julio... Los primeros cristianos parecen haber adoptado la noción de que debería haber alguna forma oficial de hacer las cosas en los primeros siglos de la historia cristiana. Sin embargo, no tenemos muchos textos de este período que registren la liturgia oficial como tal. En cambio, vemos una evidencia generalizada de que tenían una comprensión clara de cómo debería llevarse a cabo la liturgia sin tener una fuente autoritaria para esa liturgia.

Un buen ejemplo de esto es el leccionario. Todas las iglesias históricas tienen un leccionario, lo que significa que los católicos, ortodoxos y cristianos coptos tienen un sistema de lecturas que se realizan cada semana en un ciclo oficial que ha sido mandado por la autoridad de su iglesia. En nuestro caso, tenemos un ciclo de lectura de tres años que está enmarcado por los Evangelios de Mateo, Marcos y Lucas. Actualmente estamos en el año C, que es el año de Lucas. Creemos que en los primeros siglos, los cristianos leían de la Biblia como querían, sin mucho sistema ni dirección. El sacerdote o obispo de la Iglesia decidiría qué se leía en función de lo que consideraba mejor. Solo podemos imaginar cómo se desarrollaría esto en realidad. Antes de mucho tiempo, el clérigo a cargo de la Iglesia tendría las lecturas sobre lo que quería hablar o para algún contexto social específico de su Iglesia. Podemos ver que esto opera en el mundo actual en algunas iglesias evangélicas no denominacionales, donde pueden pasar una cantidad significativa de su tiempo en Romanos y Gálatas. Muchas personas en tales iglesias gravitan hacia esas dos partes de la Biblia porque parecen respaldar su comprensión de la doctrina cristiana. Esto también permite a las personas ignorar efectivamente las partes de la Biblia que no les gustan. Continuará...

Que nuestro Señor los bendiga todos los días,
Rev. Samuel Moses Brown

July 20, 2025 Sixteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time bulletin - Liturgy

Dear People of God,

As we have wrapped up the bulletin series on the Desert Fathers and the Eight Deadly Thoughts, it is good for us to hold those lessons learned in prayer. I recently went to a liturgical conference at the Seminary (St. Patrick’s in Menlo Park) which was very interesting and educational. I would like to begin a new bulletin series on lessons learned at that conference and points for reflection for all of us.

The first point for reflection on liturgy is the general concept of liturgy itself. The word “liturgy” in English is actually a combination of two Greek words: laos meaning “people” and ergos meaning “work.” It means the work of the people. The liturgy is the work of the people in the sense of all of us people together in society. The Romans very much thought of public religion as a work of the people, but also a work for the people. Early Christians inherited this general concept.

We also inherited the general notion that there is an official way things are supposed to go. Living in a society in which people say things like “I’m spiritual but not religious” or “we can all worship God in different ways” runs very contrary to the notion that there is an official way in which we should “do church.” However, we have to start with a general concept that there is such a thing as good and bad, right and wrong, and that, therefore, there are some better ways than others. We would want to start with inherited practices and what we can learn from the New Testament. Then we turn our attention to our tradition as Christians and lessons that we have learned over the centuries.

To be continued...

May Our Lord bless you all of your days,
Rev. Samuel Moses Brown

Querido Pueblo de Dios,

A medida que hemos concluido la serie de boletines sobre los Padres del Desierto y los Ocho Pecados Mortales, es bueno que mantengamos esas lecciones aprendidas en oración. Recientemente asistí a una conferencia litúrgica en el Seminario (San Patricio en Menlo Park) que fue muy interesante y educativa. Me gustaría comenzar una nueva serie de boletines sobre las lecciones aprendidas en esa conferencia y puntos de reflexión para todos nosotros.

El primer punto para reflexionar sobre la liturgia es el concepto general de la liturgia en sí. La palabra “liturgia” en inglés es en realidad una combinación de dos palabras griegas: laos que significa “pueblo” y ergos que significa “trabajo”. Significa el trabajo del pueblo. La liturgia es el trabajo del pueblo en el sentido de todos nosotros, personas juntas en la sociedad. Los romanos pensaban mucho en la religión pública como un trabajo del pueblo, pero también un trabajo para el pueblo. Los primeros cristianos heredaron este concepto general.

También heredamos la noción general de que hay una forma oficial en que se supone que las cosas deben ir. Vivir en una sociedad en la que la gente dice cosas como “soy espiritual pero no religioso” o “podemos adorar a Dios de diferentes maneras” va muy en contra de la noción de que hay una manera oficial en que deberíamos “hacer iglesia”. Sin embargo, debemos empezar con un concepto general de que hay tal cosa como el bien y el mal, lo correcto y lo incorrecto, y que, por lo tanto, hay algunas maneras mejores que otras. Queremos nuestra atención a nuestra tradición como cristianos y a las lecciones que hemos aprendido a lo largo de los siglos.

Para ser continuado…

Que nuestro Señor los bendiga todos los días de sus vidas,
Rev. Samuel Moses Brown

July 13, 2025 Fifteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time bulletin - Ordinary Time

What is ordinary time?

In one sense, ordinary time is simply the time that is not one of the special seasons in the Church. It is not Advent, Christmas, Lent, nor Easter. It is all the other time of the year. In the past, this time was mainly thought of as the time after Easter Season, or after Pentecost. However, it has become much more.
First, the name makes it sound boring. It's just ordinary time, not anything special. However, it can also be viewed as ordinal time, as in time that counts through the weeks of the year. It is also the general season of growth and maturity as Christians. Hence that we have the color green as the color of growth and the color of pasture land. It is meant to remind us of our general obligation to grow in our faith during this time.
Then, that faith should blossom into holy fruit, such as good works, fervent prayer, knowledge of Scripture, and the like. So that when we meet Our Lord, we have something to show for our time spent on this earth.
Liturgically, this happens as we move to Christ the King in the end of the liturgical year and then we start over with Advent, our season of expectant hope for Christmas and the Second Coming of Christ.

May Our Lord bless you all of your days,
Rev. Samuel Moses Brown

¿Qué es el tiempo ordinario?

En cierto sentido, el tiempo ordinario es simplemente el tiempo que no es una de las temporadas especiales en la Iglesia. No es Adviento, Navidad, Cuaresma ni Pascua. Es todo el otro tiempo del año. En el pasado, este tiempo se pensaba principalmente como el tiempo después de la Temporada de Pascua, o después de Pentecostés. Sin embargo, se ha convertido en mucho más.
Primero, el nombre hace que suene aburrido. Es solo tiempo ordinario, no algo especial. Sin embargo, también puede verse como tiempo ordinal, como en el tiempo que cuenta a lo largo de las semanas del año. También es la temporada general de crecimiento y madurez como cristianos.
Por eso tenemos el color verde como el color del crecimiento y el color de las tierras de pasto. Se pretende recordarnos nuestra obligación general de crecer en nuestra fe durante este tiempo.Luego, esa fe debería florecer en frutos santos, como buenas obras, oración ferviente, conocimiento de las Escrituras, y similares. Para que cuando nos encontremos con Nuestro Señor, tengamos algo que mostrar por el tiempo que hemos pasado en esta vida.
Litúrgicamente, esto sucede a medida que nos movemos hacia Cristo Rey al final del año litúrgico y luego comenzamos de nuevo con el Adviento, nuestra temporada de esperanza expectante para la Navidad y la Segunda Venida de Cristo.

Que nuestro Señor los bendiga todos los días,
Rev. Samuel Moses Brown

July 6, 2025 Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time bulletin - St. John Cassian, Desert Father

June 29, 2025 Solemnity of Saints Peter & Paul - Spiritual Awakening

June 22, 2025 Corpus Christi bulletin - Transubstantiation

June 15, 2025 Holy Trinity bulletin - Eight Deadly Thoughts - Vainglory, Pride

June 8, 2025 Pentecost Sunday bulletin - Eight Deadly Thoughts - Sloth

June 1, 2025 Ascension of the Lord bulletin - Eight Deadly Thoughts - Sloth

May 25, 2025 6th Sunday of Easter bulletin - Eight Deadly Thoughts - Anger

May 18, 2025 5th Sunday of Easter bulletin - Eight Deadly Thoughts - Anger

May 11, 2025 4th Sunday of Easter bulletin - The Blessing of Mothers

May 4, 2025 3rd Sunday of Easter bulletin - Acknowledgments for our Holy Week liturgies

April 27, 2025 2nd Sunday of Easter bulletin - The 8 Deadly Thoughts (continued)

April 20, 2025 Easter Sunday bulletin - Easter Sunday Message

April 13, 2025 Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord bulletin - Lenten Series VI

April 6, 2025 Fifth Sunday of Lent bulletin - The Eight Deadly thoughts - Lenten Series V

March 23, 2025 Third Sunday of Lent bulletin - The Eight Deadly Thoughts - Lenten Series III - FOOD

March 16, 2025 Second Sunday of Lent bulletin - The Eight Deadly Thoughts - Lenten Series II

March 9, 2025 First Sunday of Lent bulletin - The Eight Deadly Thoughts - Lenten Series I

March 2, 2025 Eighth Sunday of Ordinary Time bulletin - Lenten Repentance - Fish Fry

February 23, 2025 Seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time bulletin - Lenten Penances

February 16, 2025 Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time bulletin - Marriage Week

February 2, 2025 Feast of the Presentation of the Lord bulletin - Church architectural terms

January 26, 2025 Third Sunday of Ordinary Time bulletin - Jesus’ Baptism - Acknowledgements

January 19, 2025 Second Sunday of Ordinary Time bulletin - Gospel of Luke - St. Patrick’s Gala?

January 12, 2025 The Baptism of the Lord bulletin - New Year’s Resolutions?

January 5, 2025 The Epiphany of the Lord bulletin - Christmas season end? - Jubilee

December 29, 2024 Feast of the Holy Family bulletin - Purple: Royalty + Penance

December 22, 2024 Fourth Sunday of Advent bulletin - Christian Peace

December 15, 2024 Third Sunday of Advent bulletin - Advent Joy + Preparation

December 8, 2024 Second Sunday of Advent bulletin - Advent - Loving Rescue

December 1, 2024 First Sunday of Advent bulletin - New Liturgical Year C - Advent Practices

November 24, 2024 Christ the King bulletin - Give Thanks to God

November 17, 2024 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time bulletin - Prayer + Sacrifice

November 10, 2024 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time bulletin - Penitential Rite

November 3, 2024 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time bulletin - Eucharistic Prayers (cont.)

October 27, 2024 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time bulletin - Eucharistic Prayers

October 20, 2024 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time bulletin - Do you believe? & Eucharistic Prayers

October 13, 2024 28th Sunday of Ordinary Time bulletin - All Saints’ Day & All Souls’ Day coming

October 6, 2024 27th Sunday of Ordinary Time bulletin - Prepare!

September 29, 2024 26th Sunday of Ordinary Time bulletin - Receiving Holy Communion

September 22, 2024 25th Sunday of Ordinary Time bulletin - Humility & Helping Hand

September 15, 2024 24th Sunday of Ordinary Time bulletin - Penitential Rite

September 8, 2024 23rd Sunday of Ordinary Time bulletin - Renew our faith

September 1, 2024 22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time bulletin - Kneeling during Mass

Special Feature in the bulletin for August 25, 2024 - Why Do We Venerate Relics?

August 18, 2024 20th Sunday of Ordinary Time Bulletin - Sunday is special

August 11, 2024 19th Sunday of Ordinary Time Bulletin - Holy Eucharist => Eternal Life

August 4, 2024 18th Sunday of Ordinary Time - Signs and Miracles

July 21, 2024 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time Bulletin - Ordinary Time

July 14, 2024 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time Bulletin - Seek God’s presence

July 7, 2024 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time Bulletin - Embrace Jesus

June 30, 2024 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time Bulletin - Jesus heals

June 23, 2024 Bulletin 12th Sunday of Ordinary Time Bulletin - Stewardship

June16, 2024 Bulletin - Father’s Day - Special Message: The Head of the Family

May 26, 2024 Trinity Sunday Bulletin - The Mystery of the Trinity

May 19, 2024 Pentecost Bulletin - Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Thy faithful
Del Pastor: Domingo de Pentecostés

May 12, 2024 Seventh Sunday of Easter - Ascension Bulletin - Follow Him to Eternity

May 5, 2024 Sixth Sunday of Easter Bulletin - Our Relationship with God

April 28, 2024 Fifth Sunday of Easter Bulletin - We are the branches

April 21, 2024 Fourth Sunday of Easter Bulletin - Jesus is Our Shepherd

April 14, 2024 Third Sunday of Easter Bulletin - Resurrection: nice idea or truth?

April 7, 2024 Second Sunday of Easter - Divine Mercy Sunday - Bulletin - Several titles - 2nd Sunday of Easter

Pastor’s Desk