Sunday Gospel Reflection, April 12, 2026: All who believed were together and had all things in common...

All who believed were together and had all things in common…
 Do we find our common identity in Christ? 

   When, in John’s Gospel, the resurrected Jesus appears to the disciples behind locked doors, he enters into a community of believers, but believers wracked by fear. Peace be with you, he says to them (twice). Jesus wants to put his faithful flock, those who have maintained their faith in him and remain true to him, at ease. Breathing on them, Jesus invites them into new life in him: Receive the Holy Spirit. This gift will allow the disciples to be the first community through whom God will be revealed; their faith – including Thomas’ – will allow them to believe past the limitations we normally place on our world, so that they might bring his mercy to that world. For this, they will, as Psalm 118 states, give thanks to the Lord for he is good, his love is everlasting. 

    It is the union that grows among this community of believers that we find depicted shortly thereafter, in the Acts of the Apostles. They devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles and to the communal life, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers, Luke tells us. That communal life becomes integral to their identity; the meals they share are celebratory, exultant, for in them they express true devotion to each other and and to the common good, growing in their identity as the Body of Christ. 

    By the time of the writing of the First Letter of Peter, the Christian community is one that has not known Jesus firsthand: although you have not seen him, you love him. Yet, through baptism, a new birth to a living hope, they too have been transformed through the death and rising of Jesus. Their communal identity develops both from the trials they are facing together and from their indescribable and glorious joy at knowing they are saved. Like this community, we have not seen Christ yet we love him. And like them, we too can give thanks to the Lord for he is good, his love is everlasting!

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture Class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com

A faithful priest (1 Samuel 2)

I will choose a faithful priest who shall do
what I have in heart and mind.
I will establish a lasting house for him
and he shall serve in the
presence of my anointed forever.

--1 Samuel 2:35 

   Gracious and loving God, we thank you for the gift of our priests, particularly Fr. Bill Brown, who celebrates the anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood today. 

   Through him, we experience your presence in the sacraments. 

   Help him to be strong in his vocation.
   Set his soul on fire with love for your people.
   Grant him the wisdom, understanding, and strength he needs to follow in the footsteps of Jesus.
   Inspire him with the vision of your Kingdom.
   Give him the words he needs to spread the Gospel.
   Allow him to experience joy in his ministry.
   Help him to become an instrument of your divine grace. 

We ask this through Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns as our Eternal Priest.
Amen. 

We are so grateful to OLMC Priest-in-Residence
Fr. Bill Brown,
for all of his loving care for our parish! 

Fr. Brown, you are a wonderful example of
what it means to be a dedicated servant to the Lord.
God bless you on this milestone of devotion and service! 

Source of images: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1398170109015066&set=pcb.1398170242348386
Prayer source

Resurrected (S.D. Gordon / J. Barrie Shepherd)

Easter spells out beauty,
the rare beauty of new life.

 --S. D. Gordon

Our Christian symbols seem, at times, not quite
appropriate to the meaning that they bear.
For instance, take the Easter lily, white
and fragile sign of resurrection. Rare,
its graceful silent trumpet greets the light
of March or April only under glare
of florists’ lamps, unnaturally bright.
You never find them in the open air
before July. A better flower for Easter Day
would be, as every angry gardener knows,
the dandelion, seeded by the gay
abandoned wind that, as it listeth, blows.
No matter how we weed out every stray,
digging as deep, the root still deeper goes.
And when, at last, we quit and go away
the rain falls, and a host of fresh bright foes
stands resurrected, and the garden glows. 

--J. Barrie Shepherd,
Hope Weed 

Image source: https://www.yinovacenter.com/blog/dandelions-recipes-from-a-foraging-herbalist/
Quotation source 1
Quotation source 2

Go to my brothers and sisters (Jackie Bacon)

    Mary of Magdala, follower of Jesus… Mary, whose life was changed by Jesus… Mary, who was saved by Jesus… Mary had witnessed her Lord, her friend, ridiculed, beaten, whipped, and then, as she stood at the foot of the cross, she saw Jesus crucified. And Mary knows: she is so very helpless. She can do nothing. 

    It is little wonder that Mary is called to the tomb of her best friend. Rising early, eager to be with the crucified Jesus, Mary is the first to see the stone of the sepulchre has been moved. Mary runs back, telling Peter and the other disciples what she saw. Peter and the other disciple race to the tomb, finding indeed that Mary is correct: the tomb is open and Jesus is not there. 

    Quickly, the two disciples retreat from the tomb, trying to make sense of this open, empty tomb. Mary, still driven by her love for Jesus, returns to the tomb a second time, desperate for understanding. This first appearance of the resurrected Jesus might have included his Mother Mary, or Peter, the head of the disciples, or the Beloved Disciple. But no: this first sighting of the resurrected Christ is the honor given to Mary of Magdala, Mary, who has lived a life of sorrow and of loss, a woman who recently (because of the presence of Jesus in her life) knows of beauty and knows the joy of life. She is changed – hers is a life reclaimed, because of Jesus. 

    At the tomb, Mary sees the risen Christ, and Jesus speaks to Mary, calling her by name. He says, Stop holding onto me. Go to my brothers and sisters. And what does Mary do? Having longed to see the body of her Lord, to minister to him, what does she do? Mary does what is asked of her, and races to tell the other disciples what she has seen: Jesus, risen! Mary becomes the apostle, the messenger, to the other apostles. 

    We, like Mary of Magdala, are asked to go and tell our brothers and our sisters. Go, make a difference! We are the hands of Christ, reaching out to those in need, gentle, focusing hands, hands that will be of help to others, asking, what do you need? Do you need to be heard? Do you need to be hugged? Do you need to be helped? We are the face of God for all to see. Go… 

    Go, make a difference in our world, because the world needs you. 

--Jackie Bacon,
OLMC Communion Service,
 April 2, 2024 

Image source: https://cbn.com/article/salvation/why-jesus-chose-mary-magdalene-proclaim-his-resurrection

Can we imagine? (OLMC Reflection)

Jesus said to her, “Mary!”

John 20: 16

    Consider Mary Magdalene as that most remarkable day breaks. She has gone to the tomb early in the morning, has called the disciples – and they have come and gone, yet she remains there, weeping. And when Jesus asks her, Woman, why are you weeping? she mistakes him for the gardener. She doesn’t know him, at least not at first; he has to call her name for her to know – to recognize him. But then he says her name: Mary! 

    Can we imagine how beautiful the sound of our own name would be, when said by Jesus? 

    The Resurrection restores Jesus to Mary Magdalene, to us, to the world, so that we might be moved by the imagination of joyful companionship with Christ… so that we can and must imagine what it would mean to know him, to recognize his presence in our lives daily, in one other, in Eucharist… so that we can and must imagine what is would mean to be known by him, to know intimately the love he holds for us, its extravagance, its wonder, as reflected by the love he shared on the cross… 

And he walks with me, and he talks with me,
and he tells me I am his own…

 And the joy we share as we tarry there,
none other has ever known… 

    For God did so love the world, so extravagantly, so wondrously, that he gave his only Son, gave him not to take him away again, but to make him present in our lives. Yes, God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus who was crucified for us. God has made him the bearer of God’s forgiveness, and the source of the gift of the Holy Spirit in our lives. 

    And while we, like Mary, cannot hold onto him in his resurrected form, we can choose to live in him, to walk with him, to embrace his gift of the Spirit, allowing our soul to wait for the Lord, allowing our soul to open to his presence, allowing our soul to know the joy that comes of knowing the Lord, and being known by him. 

    Happy Easter! 

--Suzanne,
OLMC Reflection,
March 29, 2016

Image source: Bruce Wolfe, Jesus with Mary Magdalene (detail), Mission Santa Barbara, https://smecsundaymorningforum.org/tag/bruce-wolfe/

Christ is Risen! (Fr. Gerhard Lohfink / Fr. Ron Rolheiser)

The experience of the Risen One
must have been shocking,
deeply moving, and all-shattering.

 --Fr. Gerhard Lohfink,
Jesus of Nazareth

      Christ is risen, though we might not see him! The miraculous doesn’t force itself on us. It’s there, there to be seen, but whether we see or not, and what precisely we do see, depends mainly upon what’s going on inside our own hearts. 

--Fr. Ron Rolheiser OMI 

Easter Blessings from
Our Lady of Mount Carmel,
Mill Valley!
May your heart be full!

Image source: Resurrection, Church of Lord Jesus the Good Shepherd, Krakow, Poland, https://www.themayor.eu/en/a/view/krakow-now-boasts-the-world-s-largest-stained-glass-window-12495
Quotation 1 source
Quotation 2 source 

Love triumphs! (Fr. Ron Rolheiser)

   Despite every appearance to the contrary at times, in the end, love does triumph over hatred. Peace does triumph over chaos. Forgiveness does triumph over bitterness. Hope does triumph over cynicism. Fidelity does triumph over despair. Virtue does triumph over sin. Conscience does triumph over callousness. Life does triumph over death, and good does triumph over evil, always. The resurrection, most forcibly, makes that point. In the end, God has the last word. 

--Fr. Ron Rolheiser OMI

He is Risen!

Love has triumphed!

Alleluia! 

Image source 1: La Rédemption, St. Mathieu-de-Flône, Amay, Belgium, https://www.facebook.com/agencewallonnedupatrimoine/posts/%EF%B8%8Fde-nouveaux-vitraux-pour-l%C3%A9glise-saint-matthieu-de-fl%C3%B4ne-amayau-printemps-2019-/1236792545159212/
Image source 2: Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Mill Valley, Easter Vigil, April 2025, https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1123838136448266&set=a.1116337687198311 Quotation source