Dear St. Joseph Family,
As schools kick it into high gear, and our Faith Formation program gets going again, I am filled with immense sense gratitude to God. I am thinking specifically about our catechists. We have been blessed with some extraordinary volunteers who lead the faith formation program, from the little kids to the teens. If there is one issue that causes pastors to stress, it is finding good volunteers to be catechists; our Director of Faith Formation, Anne Marie might agree. But God has been so good. This year we have some returning catechists for the kids’ faith formation: Molly Rodgers, Melanie Lee, Phyllis Jones, Ka Kay Achacoso, Janice Craig, Thanh Chang. And we also have some new ones Fabiola Macias-Tellez and Cecile de la Cruz. Thank you all!

For teen Confirmation, we welcome Janely Gomez, Dominic Lunde and Marie Brickner. This team will be led by our new Coordinator, Rafael Rosado Moreno, whom I met in the Gathering Space after Mass one Sunday evening. A brief introduction to Rafael: Rafael is originally from Mexico and has been living in the Bay Area since he was seven years old. He is a product of OUSD schools and has worked in education for OUSD and nonprofits for the last nine years. Rafael was the Catechetical Coordinator as Saint Louis Bertrand in Oakland, where he was also was the Altar Server Coordinator. He is committed to providing youth with a great quality education and creating a safe and inclusive environment for all students and families. Rafael is very excited to be joining Saint Joseph Basilica.

As we welcome these new members to our family, I want to extend my most sincere thanks to those catechists who have moved on from this ministry. These individuals were heroic in ministering to our youth: Natalie Ackerman, Dr. Terecita Dean,  Ernie Mahr, Tina Landess Petrich and Kimberly Aumack Yee. Thank you all so much!

If you’d like to volunteer to share the faith with our youth, please contact Anne Marie.

A brief facilities update, as this is the first Sunday of the month when we take up a collection for the maintenance fund. About a month ago, I noticed some water puddling by the pastor’s parking spot. We shut off the irrigation to see if that made a difference, and the puddle stopped forming. But we found that water was leaking into the basement of the rectory behind the fountain in the Gathering Space. So, I arranged for a leak detection specialist to come out and it looks like we will need to dig behind the fountain to locate and repair the leak. This will likely mean tearing up some of the bushes around that area. After the leak issue is resolved, I plan to get the fountain up and running again, which has been off due to an unrelated problem, an old motor.
Lastly, October is the Month of the Rosary. I can’t stress how important this prayer is, even if it seems like it is rote repetition of formulas. When prayed in silence and peace, Mary takes us by the hand and leads us into the most profound moments of her life with her Son. In doing so, we meet Him, and in meeting Him, we’re changed. Pray the Rosary, especially with your children if you have them! Even if it seems boring at first, you’ll find it in an indispensable means of grace.

As a reminder of the importance of having a relationship with Mary, please review my expectations for the community:
1. Read the Sunday Mass readings during the week to prepare yourself to hear them proclaimed at Mass.
2. Wear your “Sunday best” to church. If we prepare the exterior well, the interior will follow.
3. Arrive to Mass early to calm your heart and mind with prayer.
4. Participate at Mass by singing and saying all the responses with boldness. This means every “Amen” “And with your spirit” “Thanks be to God” etc.
5. Have some kind of devotion to Mary; e.g. pray the Rosary weekly as a family, or daily if you can.
6. Stay close to the Eucharist.

With much love,
Fr. Mario

Dear St. Joseph Family,

Happy “Pledge Sunday!” Today is the day we all submit our pledges for the capital campaign to renovate the sanctuary and restore it to a state worthy of the title of “Basilica.” Thank you to all who made the sacrifice to give to this historic project. Here is an updated image of the proposed altar of sacrifice.

I write this letter from my annual retreat, which is required by the Bishop. This year I am at Villa Maria del Mar in Santa Cruz with about 30 other priests from our diocese. While here, I am reading a book entitled “The Grace of Ars,” which is a compilation of 10 talks given by Fr. Frederick Miller to the priests and seminarians he has taken on pilgrimage to Ars, the famous city in France where St. John Vianney ministered for 41 years. I’d like to share one passage from the book that stood out to me, which comes from a letter written by Pope St. John Paul II to priests on Holy Thursday in 1986. The Pope, writing about St. John Vianney, says:

The Curé of Ars [John Vianney], was particularly mindful of Christ’s real presence in the Eucharist. It was generally before the tabernacle that he spent long hours in adoration, before daybreak or in the evening; it was towards the tabernacle that he often turned during his homilies, saying with emotion: ‘He is there!’ It was also for this reason that he, so poor in his presbytery [rectory], did not hesitate to spend large sums on embellishing his church. The appreciable result was that his parishioners quickly took up the habit of coming to pray before the Blessed Sacrament, discovering, through the attitude of their pastor, the grandeur of the mystery of faith.

 John Vianney is known as the patron saint of parish priests. This is because Ars was a town in spiritual turmoil. Ravaged by the philosophical errors of the French Revolution, which led to the abandonment of the faith by even many members of the Church’s hierarchy, the faith in Ars was decimated. Yet John Vianney was up to the challenge. He was convinced that the priceless gift of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist was enough to turn people back to their faith. And it was. Through his reverent celebration of the Mass, his steadfast commitment to catechizing his parish, his devotion to hearing confessions (sometimes up to 16 hours a day), and his ardent service of the poor, John Vianney transformed Ars into a spiritual powerhouse.

I was blessed to have been ordained a deacon on St. John Vianney’s feast day (August 4, 2017). He has inspired me to offer you more time for confession, now on Saturday mornings, and I am considering offering it on the evening of First Friday Adoration before Benediction at 7pm. He inspired me to offer more adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, which is now offered each Friday from 1pm to 7pm. I am sure he had a hand in me moving out of the old priest’s residence on San Antonio Avenue and offering it to the Oakland Catholic Worker, who decided to move to a different residence. Now it is being rented by ordinary tenants, and the rent is being used to fund two scholarships per grade at SJND.

Perhaps John Vianney is inspiring us in this task to embellish our church, so that, like his parish in Ars, ours will continue to become more and more a place for people to encounter Christ and experience spiritual revival and rejuvenation.

With much love,
Fr. Mario
 


 

Dear St. Joseph Family,
Thank you for your attention last Sunday when I spoke about the sanctuary renovation during the homily. I think that clarified some questions people had. I’d like to reiterate those points I made here:

1. One of the main reasons for the renovation is to clean up the sanctuary floor. The floor is marked with patches and bolt holes from previous renovations and is discolored from where the altar platform used to be. The plan is to replace all of the tile in the sanctuary with a new tile, a combination of “fior di pesco” and Carrara marbles.

2. There will be a new “altar of sacrifice” to replace the wood altar in the middle of the sanctuary. This new altar will be made of marble, which will likely be red. I got this inspiration from the Ghent altarpiece (see image to the right). To me, this invokes the Blood of Christ that was shed to take away our sins. In the Ghent altar piece, blood from the lamb’s wound is being poured into a chalice. I’d like to use the image of the Lamb of God in our altar, especially to tie together the six mosaics of the Sacraments, and the mosaics of Mary and Joseph. The façade of the altar will have a mosaic of the Lamb of God (see image below as an example). On the sides of the Lamb, the Greek letters, alpha and omega, will remind us of Christ, the first and the last, the beginning and the end (cf. Rev 1:8, 2:8, 21:6; Isaiah 41:4, 44:6). The shape of our proposed altar is meant to match the architecture of the building, employing several columns and arches. A rendering is forthcoming.

3. The reredos (the piece around the tabernacle), is based entirely off of the photos we have of the original sanctuary. This piece will be made of the same elegant white marble that will be on the floor. It is a highly decorative piece, which draws our attention to three saints: St. Joseph in the center, and two others on the sides. I am thinking of St. Peter, who represents the title of Basilica. Basilicas are churches with a connection to the Pope, Peter being the first one. Another saint I was thinking of is St. Kateri Tekakwitha. Kateri was a Native American born in 1656 in modern day New York. She was a member of the Mohawk tribe. Having met the Jesuit missionaries, she chose to become a Catholic despite opposition from her family. To me, Kateri fits in well with our community. She was a young convert, who will speak to our youth. She chose Catholicism despite opposition, which is what we need to do in our day in age. She unites us to the Native American peoples who inhabited Alameda and the surrounding areas of the Diocese. And she represents the contribution women have made in the life of the Church.

Thank you again for considering giving a gift to this campaign. As I said, I am going to pledge $10,000 to the project, in addition to the $2,500 I gave to the first phase. I believe in this project, and I am in a position to give, as I do not have a lot of the expenses many of you have. If you can join me in giving a sacrificial gift, please return your pledge forms by “Pledge Sunday,” Sunday, September 25.

With much love,
Fr. Mario

Dear St. Joseph Family,

A quick update on some facilities projects. Last month I wrote about the sound system, the vestibule tiles, the Flower Room cabinets, and the security cameras.

The sound system is up and running. After a small hiccup with the electrical last weekend, the problem has been resolved. We will continue to monitor the system and tweak it in the upcoming weeks to optimize the sound quality. The sound designers will be in on Wednesday the 14th to make some adjustments. I want to give a special thank you to Alex Ramos and Bob Heimbichner. Alex and Bob graciously stepped up to lead this project a year ago and have honored their commitment. Bob has been coordinating with the sound installers with precision, and Alex was at many of the Masses on Sunday, listening to the lectors, singers, and priests, and taking copious notes for the sound designers. Please join me in thanking them, as well as Michael Chinnavaso, our 7 pm choir director. Both Michael and Alex lent us their speakers the week the new system was being installed.

The vestibule tiles are complete. A word on the pattern. I chose the terra cotta red and the sand colors to not only go with the mission architecture, but also to make a theological point. In the Church’s tradition, we distinguish between two groups of martyrs, the red and the white. The red martyrs are those who literally shed their blood for the faith. The white martyrs are those who did not shed their blood, but who nevertheless laid down their lives, in an unbloody way, for the Gospel. As we enter the Church, I hope that the mixture of tiles reminds you that we are called to follow in the footsteps of these martyrs, which is the Greek word for “ witness.

The Flower Room cabinets are nearly complete; all that remains are the knobs for the cabinet doors, and a countertop for the sink unit. And lastly, the security cameras; I am still working on these and getting close to signing a contract.

This week, a couple of new projects came up, we replaced the bench and planter boxes around the palm trees by the parking lot (which were pruned a little while ago), as well as filled some cracks in the brickwork in the Gathering Space to make it safer. In the future, I will be looking into digging a trench for the sump pump that is under the basilica. Right now, a hose empties the water right in front of the sacristy, which creates a mess for us and the high school students. I’d like to have that water empty directly into the sewer.

Thank you for giving to last week’s maintenance collection and thank you for giving to the capital campaign to restore the sanctuary to a more beautiful state. To those of you who have not given yet, thank you for taking the time to consider it. I hope you will choose to join me in making a pledge and will be able to return that pledge by the last weekend of September, which we are calling Sunday. ” Maintaining a 100year“ Pledge old building takes a lot of commitment and sacrifice, but it is worth it.

With much love,
Fr. Mario 

Dear St. Joseph and St. Barnabas Family,
Last Sunday we heard readings about the virtue of humility. In his book, “Priests for the Third Millennium,” a book composed talks given by then Father Timothy Dolan (now Cardinal Dolan of New York) to the seminarians studying at the North American College in Rome, Fr. Dolan wrote about humility, and quoted St. Augustine who said, “there are three ways to Christ. The first is humility, the second is humility, the third is humility.” This is because Christ personified humility, which is the recognition that we are not self-sufficient, that we are not the center of existence, that we are not God. When we recognize these things in humility, then our lives become rightly ordered, and God can provide, as He desires to.  St. Paul wrote about this in Jesus, “who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil 2:6-11).
This is why I shared with you in my homily the great Litany of Humility, composed by Cardinal Merry del Val. I share it with you again, and invite you to cut it out and keep it close, reciting it frequently. May it help you follow Christ and become like Him.
And don’t forget our hashtags #sjbalameda and #stbalameda
With much love,
Fr. Mario
 
 

Dear St. Barnabas and St. Joseph Family,

I don’t know about you, but I like the sound of that. Indeed, the two parishes have been a collaborative family for many years, and what we are venturing into with this clustering of parishes is really just a continuation of what we’ve been doing for a while. Indeed, I was pleasantly surprised to see some St. Barnabas parishioners at the BBQ in the quad last Sunday to celebrate the 87th anniversary of the consecration of St. Joseph’s church and altar. I hope to see more of that, which I have seen at the 5:30pm daily Mass at St. Barnabas, that mingling of parishioners.

As I write this midweek, the sound designer for the new speaker system at St. Joseph is beginning to program the system. My hope is that, by the time you read this on the weekend, the system is up and running, and that you can hear everything clearly, and your experience at Mass will be vastly improved. There are still some tweaks we need to be make with the wiring of the hardware. I was not satisfied with the way the wires were installed and have asked that they be installed so that they are less visible. Thank you for your patience as we get over these last hurdles.

Thinking about the clarity of the sound system, I wanted to revisit with the St. Joseph community, and introduce the St. Barnabas parishioners, to my expectations for Mass that I came up with, the first four in Advent of 2021, and have subsequently added to. Since you will be able to hear the priest easily, I want to make sure that the priests can hear you, which is one of my expectations, that you make all the appropriate responses during the Mass with conviction. Here is the list again:

1. Read the Sunday Mass readings during the week to prepare yourself to hear them proclaimed at Mass.
2. Wear your “Sunday best” to church. If we prepare the exterior well, the interior will follow.
3. Arrive to Mass early to calm your heart and mind.
4. Participate at Mass by singing and saying all the responses with boldness.
5. Have some kind of devotion to Mary; e.g. pray the Rosary weekly as a family, or daily if you can (added in May 2022).
6. Stay close to the Eucharist (added in June 2022).

In regard to the 5th expectation, one of the St. Joseph parishioners, Lilian Dubow, will be leading a communal First Saturday prayer group, beginning on September 3. The First Saturday devotion was revealed by our Lady of Fatima and consists of attending Mass on the first Saturday of the month for five straight months, reciting the Rosary, going to Confession, and meditating on the mysteries of the Rosary for 15 minutes. The group will meet at 7:45, and begin the Rosary at 8am, followed by the 8:30am Mass, and then the 15 minutes of meditation. Consider attending this devotion. Mary revealed to Lucia, one of the three shepherd children at Fatima, that she would assist those who pray this devotion at the hour of their death.

In regard to the 6th expectation, I asked in a bulletin several weeks ago if the community would be interested in more adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, not just on the first Friday of the month, but every Friday. My home parish, St. Monica did this when I was growing up there, and it helped me discern my vocation. Several people responded and said they would like this to happen here, so, beginning in September we will give it a try. Each Friday, from 1pm to 7pm, the Blessed Sacrament will be exposed for adoration, which will require that at least two people be present at all times. We will have the sign-up sheets available during the week in the basilica. Please consider giving our Lord some of your time. He will give you far more in return.

With much love,
Fr. Mario

Dear St. Joseph Family,
I asked our new priest, Fr. Kenneth, to write a little bit about himself for the bulletin. Although Fr. Kenneth will be living at St. Barnabas, he has already been to St. Joe’s a couple of times to assist us at Mass, and will be with us periodically, as I and Fr. Sunil will be at St. Barnabas.
What Fr. Kenneth doesn’t mention in his letter is that, while he served as vocation director, he supported me through my time at the seminary. Fr. Kenneth has always been gracious, hospitable, and encouraging to the seminarians and his brother priests. I look forward to ministering with him. Please enjoy his biography and join me in welcoming him with open arms.

With much love,
Fr. Mario

Dear Parishioners and friends,
First of all I am very happy and grateful to Bishop Barber in granting my request to be able to minister here as your priest in my favorite city of Alameda. I am very excited and look forward to all the possibilities and surprises that God has in store for us.

As a quick introduction, I am a native of Oakland and a graduate of St. Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park. Prior to entering seminary formation I concurrently owned and operated a general building contractor business as well as operated as an administrator for a mental health facility that specialized in dual diagnosis cases (persons with mental health illness along with substance abuse problems).

As a priest of the Diocese of Oakland, I have served at St. Joseph in Pinole, St. Joseph the Worker in Berkeley and St. Margaret Mary in Oakland. In addition to my parish assignments, I have also served as the Diocese’s vocation director for a few years and have served on various Diocesean committees such as the Bishop’s presbyteral council, Permanent Deacon Board, etc. For the past 10 years plus, I have been very active in the healing and deliverance ministry for our Diocese which by God’s blessings and grace I have been able to assist many people from all walks of life; Catholics and non-Catholics alike seeking spiritual, emotional and physical healing. I was fortunate to have completed a course of exorcism study at the Vatican’s Pontifical Regina Apostolorum in Rome and have been invited to various speaking engagements and healing services in various Catholic Dioceses and venues including the annual SCRC Conference at the Anaheim Convention Center.

My favorite activities are rather simple in that I really enjoy spending time with my family and friends, taking walks with my beloved miniature poodle “Theo” and I really enjoy cooking, especially outdoor grilling and BBQ.

Well, I guess that’s it for now. I look forward to meeting you all and please do pray for me as I do pray for all of you!

Blessings,
Fr. Kenneth Nobrega
 


 

Dear St. Joseph Family,
As we look forward to the celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the dedication of the Basilica on August 17, I would like to share a little bit about what basilicas are and their importance to the Church.
(from an unknown source found in the parish archives):
“Etymologically, the word, ‘Basilica,’ derived from the Greek means kingly or royal. In history, the term has both an architectural and a canonical meaning. Originally, the halls of justice of ancient Rome, oblong buildings, with three aisles, in which the center aisle was separated from the outside aisles by rows of columns and terminated in the apse, were basilicas, and later the term was applied in architecture to those churches constructed according to that definite floor plan.
Legal and general usage, however, considers the title, ‘Basilica,’ as a great honor which the Pope confers on relatively few regal churches around the world, a title which carries with its special Papal and canonical privileges.

Major Basilicas
Canonical Basilicas are divided into two principal categories, major and minor. The Major Basilicas par excellence are the four patriarchal Basilicas in Rome, those traditionally regarded as the Sees of the great ancient Patriarchs, namely, the Lateran and Archbasilica of the Most Holy Savior and St. John the Baptist, (St. John Lateran); The Vatican Basilica of St. Peter; the Liberian Basilica of the Divine Maternity, (St. Mary Major); and the Ostian Basilica of St. Paul, (Saint Paul-outside-the-Walls).

The salient feature of these four Major Basilicas is their direct association with the Supreme Pontiff. All of them have permanent Papal thrones and are ‘Papal chapels,’ that is, churches in which the Pope is wont to preside, in the company of the Cardinals and the full prelatial entourage, at solemn pontifical ceremonies.
Each of these Basilicas has a ‘Porta Sancta,’ or ‘Holy Door,’ which is opened only during a Holy Year of Jubilee. Each one is richly endowed with extraordinary indulgences, and each has the privilege of displaying the ‘Insignia of a Basilica,’ the Basilican pavilion [umbrella] and the Basilican bell.

These Major Basilicas, for centuries repositories of Christian art, shrines of devotion for the whole Christian world, centers of pilgrimage from every continent, proclaim the universal pastorate of St. Peter and his successors, the Popes, the Bishops of Rome.

Modeled after the Major shrines, they, too, are centers of religious fervor and piety, places of local pilgrimage and extensive sacred art. After the official designation by the Pontiff, they are like sentinels, in various parts of the world, eloquently proclaiming in carved stone and stained glass: ‘Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church.’ (Mt 18:18).
Among the manifold distinctions of Major Basilicas, the Pope grants the following privileges to Minor Basilicas: the use of the Basilica insignia, the pavilion [umbrella] and bell; a coat of arms, the shield of which is timbered with, that is, set in front of, a representation of the pavilion, but without the crossed keys, the use of a distinctive corporate seal; and the display of the Papal coat of arms to publicize its special affiliation.”
As you can tell, the designation of Minor Basilica is a great honor, which brings with it a great responsibility. Basilicas stand out as centers of liturgical and pastoral activity, as well as places of noteworthy art and architecture. Since my arrival at St. Joseph, I have tried to live up to the title of Basilica by teaching on Facebook and YouTube, adding additional confession time on Saturday morning, refurbishing the Grotto with new art, chanting certain parts of the Mass and introducing the ancient form of celebrating Mass ad orientem, leading a Eucharistic procession to St. Barnabas, and hopefully soon, having adoration of the Blessed Sacrament each Friday.

Blessed Sacrament each Friday.
Now, we have the significant task of refurbishing the sanctuary so that it truly lives up to the title of Minor Basilica. Thank you for joining me, in not just contributing funds to the capital campaign, but in being an active member of the liturgical and pastoral life of the parish. If you are not involved in a ministry or activity, and would like to be, please do not hesitate to reach out to me.

With much love,
Fr. Mario
 




 



 

Dear St. Joseph Family,

As this is the first Sunday of the month, when we do our collection for the facilities, I’d like to update you on several projects.

First and foremost, the sound system. We were delayed as we waited for the arrival of the amplifiers. They have arrived! Thank you for your prayers. Now, all of the equipment is accounted for. During the week of Monday, August 15, the install crew will be here to install the speakers. You may have noticed some metal conduit on the outside of the Basilica; this is for them. They plan to work during that entire week and have asked that the church be closed to parishioners after daily Mass. I have agreed to this; the exception will be the special Mass on Wednesday the 17th for the anniversary of the dedication of the Basilica at 7 pm. The installers have also notified us that during the weekend we may be without a sound system. We will try to put together a modified, simplified system for you. I anticipate that everything will be installed and programmed for the weekend of the 27th and 28th.

Second, the vestibule and front entrance tile project is also progressing. The tile that we are using is known as quarry tile, which does not mean that it’s from a quarry, but that it contains a mixture of minerals that are quarried, which make the tile very durable, as well as very water resistant. I anticipate that this project will be completed by the end of next week.

Third, the cabinets for the Flower Room are ready to be installed. These cabinets will provide much-needed storage space for our liturgical articles and ministry supplies. They were designed to match the last remaining piece of original oak cabinet in the sacristy.

Fourth, I am currently working on obtaining bids for security cameras. I have two and hope to get one more. The cameras will be placed around the exterior of the Basilica as well as inside. You may remember that someone came into the Basilica and broke into several of the “poor boxes.”  Hopefully the cameras will dissuade acts like this from occurring again.

Lastly, the seminar on emergency preparedness, put on by parishioner Tim De Grano, and filmed by Alex and Victor Ramos is now available to watch on YouTube here (link: https://youtu.be/cmTcgDKUgj4). I would like all parishioners to watch this video so that we can all be prepared if and when “go time” occurs, as Tim says. Thank you for watching.

And thank you for your generous giving to the parish so that we can do projects like this.

With much love,
Fr. Mario Rizzo

Dear St. Joseph Family,

This week, Pope Francis is visiting Canada, on what he calls “a pilgrimage of penance.” I would like to write about that next week. For now, I have been saving the article below for a week (written by Bishop Barron – we’re watching his video series “Catholicism” on Tuesday nights) and wanted to share it as a kind of continuation of last week’s article on making summer a time of prayer. This article is about introducing our youth to objectively beautiful things as a counterbalance to the not-so-beautiful things they encounter online. As I write this, I sit in my sister’s house in Seattle, where I have a privileged view into the current challenges of raising kids in a time of inundating – and sometimes debilitating – social media pressure. Sometimes some screen time is called for, but there must be a balance. My sisters find this by exposing their kids to playing musical instruments, outdoor activities, art projects, and our Catholic faith. It is not an easy endeavor to compete with social media and gaming devices, but do your best, especially on Sundays, where we get that much needed contact with each other, and with God.

With much love,
Fr. Mario 

“Gun Violence and the Deep Sadness of Our Teens”
Bishop Robert Barron
July 12, 2022
https://www.wordonfire.org/articles/barron/gun-violence-and-the-deep-sadness-of-our-teens/ 

Like every other reasonable person in our society, I’m worried sick about the phenomenon of gun violence, and I’m especially concerned about what it reveals regarding the status of young people, particularly young men. Time and again, disgruntled, angry, depressed, self-hating men, boys really, are the perpetrators of these awful crimes. As I write these words, images of Robert E. Crimo, the twenty-one year old who has confessed to killing seven and wounding dozens more in Highland Park, IL, are circulating on social media, and his face has rather burned itself into my mind. He just looks so lost— physically, psychologically, and spiritually.  

Now, I fully realize that Crimo is exceptional and so I don’t intend to extrapolate from him to all young people, but evidence has been piling up for some time that youths, especially boys and young men, are suffering badly in our society. To give just one example, Derek Thompson’s article in the Atlantic, from April of this year, reveals that from 2009 to 2021, “feelings of sadness and hopelessness” among American teenagers rose, astonishingly, from 26 percent to 44 percent. And the increase in depression was consistent across all major categories: male, female, black, white, LGBT, etc. In Thompson’s words, “Since 2009, sadness and hopelessness have increased for every race; for straight teens and gay teens; for teens who say they’ve never had sex and for those who say they’ve had sex with males and/or females; for students in each year of high school; for teens in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.” Houston, we have a problem. 

What is causing this drastic increase in unhappiness? There is, obviously, no one answer, for the issue is multivalent and complex, but Thompson hazards four suggestions: social media use, a related decrease in real social contact, the stressfulness of the world to which contemporary media are giving young people far greater access, and modern parenting strategies. All are interesting and worth exploring, but I would like to focus on just one of his explanations and then offer a rationale of my own.

Social media are making a lot of people — but especially young men and women — crazy and sad. Period. This is the case, first, because social media produce an obsession with body image, looks, and popularity, and on the flip side, they give rise to a uniquely toxic atmosphere of judgmentalism, accusation, and criticism. Spend just a few minutes in comboxes and chatrooms on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, or God help us, Twitter, and you ’ ll immediately see what I mean. And what makes all of this worse is that the devices that communicate social media were designed to be addictive. As a result, even those who admit that Instagram and Facebook are making them sad cannot stop themselves from logging on.

A closely related problem is that social media are so dominant in the lives of kids that they effectively supplant activities that rather naturally bring joy. The average young person spends five or six hours a day on social media, and as a consequence, Thompson says, “ in the 2000s, today ’ compared with their counterparts s teens are less likely to go out with their friends, get their driver youth sports. ” ’ s license, or play Moreover, as sociologist Jean Twenge has shown, there is a tight correlation between screen time and depression, and for obvious reasons. One of the surest firewalls against feelings of sadness is steady contact with other human beings, but the social media preclude this, locking young people into a virtual world. I know this is oversimplifying a bit, but contrast the image of a young kid playing a lively game of baseball with his friends and that of a young kid hunched alone over his iPhone.

As for my own explanation of the phenomenon of teen depression, I would emphasize a theme that I have been harping on for years: the culture of selfinvention. It is now a fundamental orthodoxy of the culture that values within one ’ — epistemic [knowledge], moral [behavior], and aesthetic [beauty] — are generated from s own subjectivity. In a word, each individual determines what is right and wrong, good and bad, beautiful or ugly for her. There is no “ truth ”; only my truth and your truth. There is nothing that is objectively beautiful, only what I think is beautiful and you think is beautiful. But this attitude is disastrous both psychologically and spiritually, for it essentially locks a person into the narrow confines of his own range of experience. It prevents her from moving outside of the tiny ambit of what she can imagine or hope for. The best moments in life, in point of fact, are those in which objective values — real truths, real moral absolutes, real beauty — break through the carapace of one ’ s own subjectivity and lift one up to the contemplation of something new, something that stands wonderfully beyond what one even thought possible. More to it, objective goods connect us to one another. As long as we are under the tyranny of subjectivist relativism, we are each locked in the prison of our own psyches, perhaps tolerating one another from a distance, but experiencing no real bond. However, precisely because they stand outside of anyone ’ s private experience, objective values can bring a plethora of people together in a common love and devotion. Once again, contrast two images: the first of an angry, isolated teen insisting that the world respect his private conception of truth, and the second of a group of teens, joyfully giving themselves together to a common purpose, a common good.

In addressing the plague of gun violence in our country, I do indeed think that sensible legislation is called for. But there are far deeper moral and cultural issues that have to be addressed, most notably that of depression among our young people. Two simple suggestions: we should set limits to the amount of time teens are spending on social media, and we should introduce them, any way we can, to the world of objective values.
 

Dear St. Joseph Family,
Periodically, I peruse several Catholic news sites to stay abreast of what is going on in the world. These sites include, Crux Now, Aleteia, The National Catholic Register, First Things, and Crisis Magazine. I found this article on the Crisis Magazine website, and thought it was interesting, and would be insightful for you too, especially you parents. I have been contemplating adding additional time for Eucharistic Adoration to aid us in our prayer. In addition to the First Friday adoration from 1-7 pm, I am thinking of having adoration of the Blessed Sacrament every Friday from 3-7pm. What do you think?
With much love,
Fr. Mario
 

“Will You Spend Time with Him This Summer?”
by THOMAS GRIFFIN (July 18, 2022)

 Summer can be a wasteland for spiritual growth. There are countless positives about summertime. Most people take the majority of their vacation time in the summer months because of the weather and because their children are not in school. That leaves more opportunity for fathers and mothers to be with their kids—something that our kids desperately need and desire. This is healthy and should be part of the routine for our families more often.

Summer means more time outside in the fresh air and in nature. Families are relaxing in the backyard more often and tend to be more active exercising as well as heading to the beach or simply being outside because they can. We have a much closer connection to God’s creation in the summer, and that is a beautiful thing.
 More social interactions are commonplace for most people because we speak to our neighbors more and host friends and family at the house frequently. Our net of community seems to widen when the weather is nicer and the days are longer. We need to be connected to each other more than ever, and summer supplies that opportunity for so many.

The positives of summer are plentiful. Many people point out, however, that the summer months are lacking in prayer and God. Personal prayer for many in the summer can be borderline non-existent. We travel the span of a few months and the only thing we have to show for it are some pictures on our phone and a sense that “the summer went too fast, now it is all over.”
 Great spiritual writers note that there are seasons in our lives of prayer and there are times when spiritual growth appears to be void. Difficulty in a focus on God in the summer is not the case of a dark night of the soul, however. For many of us, it is not that we prayed often and experienced no consolation in the process. The issue is that we simply did not sit down, stop everything, and turn to God.

For most Americans, the issue is found in how we describe our relationship with God. The spiritual life can become one aspect of the day on one day of the week because we are (accurately so) busy and tired from work and the stresses of life. The summer has a different challenge. We are not consumed by work but by the things that we want to do. It is not our career and our kids’ sports that consume us but the desire to finally have some time to do whatever we want and not have to worry about it.
 
Spending time with family that is increased in quality and quantity is a good and holy thing. So is spending time in nature and getting together with friends. Exercising more, taking care of our bodies, and being more active is something required of us as well. However, none of these activities is strictly prayer. They may lift the mind to God, and they may show us a side of Him that we do not even realize we are seeing, but they are not prayer.

If our vocation is married life, then we have a responsibility to care for our spouse and make them our priority. Serving them is serving the Lord. But going on vacation and to the beach with them is not prayer. 
We can encounter God in nature. The psalms and many of the saints note this reality. But hiking is not prayer. Sitting outside because that is what we want to do is not prayer. It might be fun, and it might be good for us in some ways, but it is not our prayer life. 

Now all of these accusatory remarks are not made out of anger or condemnation. They are simply what we know from the Christian tradition and from the words of Jesus himself: “But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you” (Matthew 6:6). 
 
The remedy is simply carving out time that can be spent with Him and Him alone. What habits can we begin in the summer that will help us throughout the year? Practical wisdom and the writings of many saints note that beginning our day with prayer is the best recipe for ensuring that we rely on God by making Him the focal point of our day through turning to Him first.

Practically speaking, if we do not wake up before the kids and pray first thing in the morning, we will very likely not have time once our other commitments begin. Turning to God in prayer through silence in the morning makes us prepared to take on the day because we were fed by Him. This might mean that we have to wake up earlier in the summer. It also means that we have to do our best to remain steadfast in keeping that alarm set and getting up when it goes off.

Starting our day with prayer, praying before meals slowly and intentionally, stopping by a local church to pray with the family, and doing some extra time of prayer on Sundays outside of Mass are all ways that we can sanctify our summer and begin the journey toward making Christ the center of all that we do, no matter what time of year it is.

Habits lead to holiness. Committing intentionally to being with God and spending more time in devotion will lead to a deeper conversion of life. Doing so will bring us into contact with the Savior and help us to remain in His presence no matter what we are doing. Then we can “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17) and fulfill the command of the Lord, which will lead us to the one thing that He wants most: to simply spend one-on-one time with you.
 

 




 

Dear St. Joseph Family,
Now that the Grotto is nearly complete (just waiting for new candle stands), I would like to explain the meaning of the room and some of its artwork.

We call that room ‘the grotto’ because its central piece is the statue of Our Lady of Lourdes and St. Bernadette. This is a rendition of the encounter that took place in 1858 in that small village in the mountains of Southern France. Walking along with a friend, the young Bernadette at first only saw Mary without exchanging any words. In subsequent apparitions, Mary spoke to Bernadette and revealed to her a spring of water, and Her desire for a chapel to be built there. The villagers thought Bernadette was mad and refused to believe her, but Bernadette persisted despite the unbelief of her community. Today, the grotto at Lourdes is one of the most popular pilgrimage sites in the world, renowned for the baths that flow from that same spring which Bernadette discovered at Our Lady’s instruction. The baths, however, are not ordinary baths, they are intended for the sick to bathe in. Lourdes is a place for those seeking healing, and many miracles have been attributed to that place. These physical miracles are very rare, however. And yet, what people say about Lourdes is that even if a physical miracle does not take place, everyone leaves with a spiritual one.

In light of this, I wanted to make the grotto a place for us to go to offer our prayers for healing – physical healing, but also spiritual. The artwork is indicative of this.

First, to the left as you enter the grotto is a picture of a lesser-known saint, Peregrine, the patron saint of cancer patients. “St. Peregrine was born in 1260 at Forlì, Italy to an affluent family. He lived a comfortable life as a youth, and politically opposed the papacy. After he experienced the forgiveness of St. Philip Benizi, he changed his life and joined the Servite order. He was ordained a priest and later returned to his home to establish a Servite community. There he was widely known for his preaching, penances, and counsel in the confessional. He was cured of cancer, after he received a vision of Christ on the cross reaching out His hand to touch his impaired limb. He died in 1345 and was canonized in 1726.” (EWTN, Novena to St. Peregrine).

Next to St. Peregrine is a picture of a woman, Saint Dymphna. Dymphna was born in Ireland sometime in the seventh century to a pagan father and devout Christian mother. When she was fourteen, she consecrated herself to Christ and took a vow of chastity. Soon afterward, her mother died and her father - who had loved his wife deeply - began to suffer a rapid deterioration of his mental stability. Unable to distinguish the appearance of his daughter from his deceased wife, Dymphna’s father attempted to marry her, but she fled. Dymphna’s father pursued her and killed her. Dymphna was only about 15 years old. She is the patron saint of those suffering from mental illness.

Across the room is an icon of the Archangel Gabriel. I chose this icon because of the window next to it depicting the baptism of Jesus by John. In the Gospel of Luke, Gabriel appears to the parents of both men announcing their births. This icon of Gabriel is meant for husbands and wives attempting to conceive a child, as well as for those parents who find themselves in a crisis pregnancy, that they be strengthened by God to choose life.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, is the picture of the Divine Mercy. This image of Jesus came about in 1931 when Our Lord appeared to the nun (now Saint) Faustina Kowalska, and asked for an image of Himself to be made. In her diary (which is in print), she tells how Jesus said, “Paint an image according to the pattern you see, with the signature: ‘Jesus, I trust in You.’ I desire that this image be venerated, first in your chapel, and [then] throughout the world. I promise that the soul that will venerate this image will not perish. I also promise victory over [its] enemies already here on earth, especially at the hour of death. I Myself will defend it as My own glory.” The pattern is of Jesus emerging from the tomb as He blesses the world. A red ray of light and a pale ray are seen coming from His heart, representing blood and water. As the Divine Mercy chaplet states, from the heart of Jesus, a fountain of mercy is made available to us sinners, which is the greatest healing of all.

It is from this healing of our souls that we are brought into the life and love of God. For this reason, I asked a local artist, Michael Stehr, to paint a sky on the ceiling, invoking our heavenly destiny. One stained-glass window shows Mary, assumed into heaven; she leads the way for us. The other window shows Jesus’ baptism, the day in which Jesus saw the heavens open up for him and heard the voice of the Father proclaim, “this is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Mt 3:16-17). The grotto used to be the baptistry (the place where baptisms took place). Through our baptism, the heavens are opened up for us, and we journey there together, looking to the saints for inspiration, and our Lord for mercy, which He so freely gives.

I hope you find in the grotto a peaceful place of healing. I’d like to thank Jim Snider, who helped me transport the tile, Brant Karstetter, who laid the tile, Michael Stehr, who painted the walls and ceiling, and my parents, Mario and Jessica, who contributed many hours to cleaning the grotto and helping Brant.

With much love,
Fr. Mario
 

Dear St. Joseph Family,
This weekend we listen to Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan. This is perhaps one of the most striking and beloved stories in all of Scripture, I believe because we all inherently recognize its truth amidst its difficulty. We are called to love everyone, even those we don’t identify with or agree with. In light of this, I asked one of our parishioners, Monica Ballerini, to share a bit of her story, which is one of recognizing a difficult truth and asking for God’s grace to live it out.
With much love,
Fr. Mario

Growing up in this area I was pro-choice by default; apathetic at best and encouraging at worst. I grew up hearing "reproductive freedom", "a woman's right to choose", the usual pro-choice platitudes, claiming false compassion toward women and their unborn babies. All I knew was what the abortion industry wanted me to know. I did not probe, I did not want or care to know the truth, because it didn't affect me, and it was none of my business. I was familiar with Planned Parenthood (who provide one-third of abortions in the U.S.) and I knew they offered essential health care services for women. Sounds like a great thing for women. How could anyone be against this?

I don't remember when exactly I came to the other side, the side of life amidst the culture of death. It was a gradual transformation, but I can absolutely say that it was with the guidance of the Holy Spirit and with the help of the Church and the truths she teaches. I had my daughter in 2016, joined St. Joseph's in 2017 and started attending a mom's bible study group shortly after that with women that I looked forward to spending time with each week. Sometimes we would get off topic and sometimes abortion got brought up. I kept my mouth shut and just listened. I didn't want to sound stupid defending my position with the only thing I knew: "But it's a women's right to choose!" I didn't know enough to enter the conversation especially up against these women who seemed so passionate about defending life in the womb. One of the women said she only votes for pro-life politicians, because that is the most important issue. I thought she was crazy! There're so many other issues that are worth considering when casting a vote! I knew this was my "Yes Lord, but..." I wanted to follow Jesus, but I did not agree with the Church's teaching on abortion. I needed to convince myself that it was right. There had to be exceptions!

I started doing a little research and confided in my pro-choice Catholic family, who were supportive of my decision to join the Church, but also assured me that I didn't have to change my pro-choice position. But when I started searching "pro-choice Catholics" online, there wasn't much to convince me. The more I educated myself on the truth about abortion, I uncovered things they don't want people to know: scandal; cover-ups; abuse; lies; death. The sheer number of lives lost to abortion since Roe vs. Wade in 1973 just in the U.S. was mind boggling. How could we explain sacrificing 64 MILLION LIVES in the name of "CHOICE"? I forced myself to look at the tiny (and some not-so-tiny) victims of abortion. If I was going to be a pro-choice Catholic, I needed to see what I was supporting. I owed myself that. What I saw was horrifying. I was sick to my stomach. The crushed faces, the mutilated bodies. Often visible were the faint life lines on tiny, perfect hands. What crime had these babies committed to deserve this? Their only crime was that they had existed in the wrong place and at the wrong time, unwanted by their mothers who were exercising their choice. I was realizing that abortion wasn't just a women's rights issue, but a human rights issue - the biggest human rights violation of our time.

Through St. Joe's I got involved with serving the homeless at the warming shelter, another group of unwanted people. I had been guilty of viewing them like this. I started to question how they were any different from me? A bad decision or two? A mental illness or physical disability? I wanted to see these people as Jesus sees them: worthy. Each of them is worthy and loved by God. Their lives had dignity because they were intentionally created by God. I started to see that there is no such thing as an "unwanted" person. God doesn't make mistakes. This all circled back to the abortion issue and left so many questions in my mind: If we can justify and even celebrate aborting unwanted children, how can we care for other unwanted people in our community? How can we grant the right to life for some but not all? If the right to life is taken away from some, then what other rights can also be taken? How can we trust those who advocate for the murder of the unborn to govern us, the born? I was starting to understand that abortion not only terminates the life of the unborn, but also devalues the humanity of all who live.

Taking this pro-life stance was easy. Taking action and speaking out, not so easy. I have lost friends, and have disappointed family, but I must say, it's never felt so good to be so hated! It took a lot of prayer and surrender. I set aside my pride and I can now confidently stand my ground, turn the other cheek, and use my voice to defend the voiceless. I can now say, "Yes Lord, and no buts about it!"  —Monica Ballerini

Dear St. Joseph Family,
Happy 4th of July weekend!
As I write this on Wednesday, June 29th, the Church celebrates the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul. This is not only a special day for the universal Church as she remembers her Apostolic foundations, but also for our parish in particular. As a minor basilica, there are several days throughout the year when the faithful – you and I – can visit the basilica and receive a plenary indulgence: this solemnity, the feast day of the title of the parish (St. Joseph, March 19), August 2 (the “Portiuncula” indulgence), and one other day of the year chosen by yourself.

So, what is an indulgence? An indulgence is a remission of the temporal punishment for sins. What this means is that, when we sin, an injustice occurs, and in order to repair that injustice, two things must take place. First, the sin must be confessed, or, to put it simply, we must say we are sorry. Then, the injustice must be repaired; we must make up for the wrong. If we steal $5 from our mom’s purse, we can’t just say sorry, we have to return the money. When we come to the Sacrament of Confession, we do both; we confess the sin, and we perform a penance given by the priest. However, it may happen that the penances we perform do not make up for the entirety of the injustice. Maybe we take $5 but can only return $4.75. With a plenary indulgence, however, the full balance is paid. If it is not paid in this life, then we have Purgatory, a place of final purification before entering into heaven.

Indulgences are not magic, and they should not be abused. They are medicinal. In the words of Pope St. John Paul II, indulgences are “the expression of the Church’s full confidence of being heard by the Father, when – in view of Christ’s merits and, by his gift, those of Our Lady and the saints – she asks him to mitigate or cancel the painful aspect of punishment by fostering its medicinal aspect through other channels of grace” (from the Foreword of the Manual of Indulgences). “Full confidence of being heard.” Jesus Christ has given indulgences to the Church so that we can have confidence in His mercy, which is infinite. This is why the Church gives them away so generously, with few requirements to earn one. Simply go to Confession, pray for the Pope’s intentions, and carry out the necessary work for that particular indulgence. Then we can be confident that our Lord has wiped away our sins.

As we celebrate our nation’s Independence Day on Monday, keep in mind that we are continually working out a sort of spiritual revolution within us. As we heard in the second reading last week, “For the flesh has desires against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that you may not do what you want” (Gal 5:17). But we have been set free. “For freedom Christ set us free” Paul says (5:1), “so stand firm and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery.” And how do we do this? “serve one another through love” (5:13).

We will never be truly free if we do not live lives of love. The saints, Peter and Paul especially, teach us this. Imprisoned for their faith, they experienced interior freedom. They knew the mercy of God; they themselves had been forgiven of terrible sins, and had thus committed themselves to making sure that the known world knew of this love, even if that meant dying for that message, the Gospel.

As we celebrate July 4th, we give thanks to the many men and women who fought for our freedom, especially those who died. Our country is still on the path of learning how to truly love, which is where we come in. To love the way Christ asks us to is countercultural. When the culture is telling us to love ourselves, our Lord empowers us to “love our neighbor as ourselves” (Gal 5:14). It is in doing this that we find true freedom.

With much love,
Fr. Mario
P.S. A plenary indulgence is also given to the faithful who visit a Church on the day of its dedication. August 17 is the date the Basilica was dedicated. I will make sure that we celebrate that day with due solemnity.

 

Dear St. Joseph Family,
Last Sunday, to enhance our celebration of the solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (aka Corpus Christi), we held a procession from our church to St. Barnabas. About 50 people walked the 1.6 mile route, singing and praying together. It was a special day, especially to have so many families there with our dads, celebrating Father’s Day.

Speaking of families, Pope Francis is currently celebrating the World Meeting of Families in Rome. This is an event that takes place every three years, the last one being in Dublin, Ireland in 2018. This one goes from June 22-26, and will consist of talks on the theme of family and gatherings for prayer. This year’s theme is “Family Love: a Vocation and a Path to Holiness.”
The Church holds the family in the highest esteem. In one of his documents on the family, Pope Saint John Paul II wrote:
"Since the Creator of all things has established the conjugal partnership as the beginning and basis of human society," the family is "the first and vital cell of society." The family has vital and organic links with society, since it is its foundation and nourishes it continually through its role of service to life: it is from the family that citizens come to birth and it is within the family that they find the first school of the social virtues that are the animating principle of the existence and development of society itself. Thus, far from being closed in on itself, the family is by nature and vocation open to other families and to society and undertakes its social role” (Familiaris Consortio, 42).

What this passage means is that family is essential to society. Without healthy (and holy) families, society cannot function; it will devolve. Just look at crime, for example. There is a definitive increase in crime amongst people raised in fatherless homes. Youth suicides are also higher in fatherless homes as well as occurrences of running away from home. Society needs families, and families need both parents, mom and dad. This is not to say that successful children do not come from single-parent homes or divorce; or that families with both parents only produce healthy children. What I am saying is that we should strive to promote the family unit as it was established by God. In the family, we glimpse an image of God, the Trinity, a community of life-giving love, in Whose image we are made. And this is how the Son of God chose to enter into the world, through the humble family of Nazareth.

This is why I have been focusing much of my attention on establishing a ministry for the men in our parish – married and single – to come together to pray and share their journey and their vocation as husbands and fathers (biological or spiritual). I have yet to begin a group for the women in our parish, but if this is something you want to help with, please let me know.

As that World Meeting of Families draws to a close on Sunday, I wish to extend a word of thanks to this family, made up of many unique and special families. May this parish continue to grow in holiness so that we may be a home for people who may not have the loving family they deserved.

With much love,
Fr. Mario

 



 

 

Dear St. Joseph Family,
I apologize that I was not able to write an article in the bulletin last week. On Monday and Tuesday, I was away at Villa Maria del Mar retreat center in Santa Cruz. I was invited to join a priest support group made up of some priests I know from the Diocese of San Jose. A few of the older members of this group have been meeting for around 30 years. They meet every first Tuesday of the month for prayer and reflection. It was a really powerful experience for me, which I think will help me to become a better shepherd for you.

That day together reminded me of the importance of community. Last week we celebrated the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, which is a reminder to us of Whose image and likeness we are made in. God is Trinity - three in one - which essentially means God is a community. God is not singular, alone, or isolated. God is always with and for the other. And so, in order for us to live up to our potential, to live happy and fulfilling lives, we must do the same; reach out to others, be with others, love others. Only when we lose ourselves in living for another do we find ourselves.

As I said in my homily on Trinity Sunday, the way to actualize this potential of the divinity within us, which often lays dormant, is to stay close to the Eucharist. As St. Augustine said in reference to the Eucharist, “become what you receive.” He didn’t mean this as some kind of pious sentimentalism. He meant it literally. This is because Jesus was speaking literally when He said, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me” (Jn 6:54-57). So, stay close to the Eucharist. In fact, let’s make that one of our expectations. As we enter back into the season of Ordinary Time, let us recall what those are, remembering that I added a 5th expectation at the start of May, which you might have missed, since the bulletins were not printed that month due to a paper shortage. They are:

1. Read the Sunday Mass readings during the week before Mass.
2. Wear your “Sunday best” to church.
3. Arrive to Mass early to calm your heart and mind.
4. Participate at Mass by singing and saying all the responses with boldness.
5. Have some devotion to Mary; e.g. the Rosary.

And now 6. Stay close to the Eucharist. When I was discerning priesthood, one of the single most important helps to me (in addition to the Rosary) was silent prayer before the tabernacle in my home church. There, in the silence, Jesus speaks, and teaches us how to become what we receive; a humble gift given to others. Can you benefit from coming into the Basilica for some silent prayer? How about 30 minutes per week?

Stay close to Jesus in the Eucharist. Through Communion with Him, He teaches us how to live in communion (community) with others, and that is what we want because that is what we were made for. This Sunday, we will have a procession of the Blessed Sacrament from our parish to St. Barnabas after the noon Mass. I, and the rest of your community, would love to see you there.

With much love,
Fr. Mario
 



 

Dear St. Joseph Family,
Happy month of June, the month dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus!
I would like to offer a few updates on some facilities projects since my last update at the end of March.

First is the sound system. I received word at the beginning of May that the last bit of equipment needed for our sound system upgrade is still delayed. These are the amps that are used to amplify the sound in the speakers. The delay is due to the microchip shortage that is affecting different industries worldwide. We ordered the equipment at the end of 2021 and almost all of it has arrived. After the initial delay, we were told that the amps would arrive in April/May 2022. Now we are being told August. After speaking to other people in different industries who are also waiting for their electronics to arrive, I learned that it is not uncommon for delays to last around a year. Let’s keep praying for those amps to arrive.

Second, the Grotto is almost done! For the past couple of months, work has resumed constructing new studs and drywall, followed by an application of a plaster coating on the walls and new paint on the ceiling. The installation of a new ceramic tile floor is being finished this week, as well as new electrical work and lighting fixtures. New artwork is also being prepared. I think you will apricate the design that I came up with. I wanted to honor the old design that took the grotto theme to the extreme. All of the old faux rock had to be removed for the retrofit of the belltower. Instead of replacing that, the plaster application provides an homage to the rock theme, without the heavy darkness that was present before. If you look at photos of the grotto in Lourdes, France, I think the new design does a good job of recreating that open, warm atmosphere. I would like to dedicate the new grotto on Saturday, June 25th, the Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Third, in my last update, I mentioned that a portion of the tile in the vestibule had begun to bulge. Now, a portion on the front steps has begun to do the same. We brought out a seismic engineer to look at the area under the first bulge after we tore up some of the tile. He did not notice anything out of the ordinary, no water damage or cracks. I believe the bulges are occurring in areas that were once patched. The slight difference in tile may be affecting how they expand and contract, causing the bulges. My sense is that we need to retile the entire entrance, inside and out. I am getting bids to see what a project of this sort will cost.

Lastly, work on the sanctuary renovation is moving along. Soon, the Capital Campaign Committee will present an update on where we stand. I will be honest, costs have increased significantly, but I feel that our space deserves a “facelift.” Although times are tight financially, I think we can all do our part to make these improvements a reality. Once the facilities planning group at the diocese approves our updated project, we will share the plans with you and begin the process of collecting new bids, as I know many of you missed out on the first round, which took place a few years ago. As always, thank you for your generosity to your parish.

With much love,
Fr. Mario
 

 

 

Dear St. Joseph Family,
I want to begin by thanking those of you who signed up for our special “First Responders” ushers training. We need it now more than ever. Please pray for the victims of the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas earlier this week. The date of the meeting will be coming soon.

I want to also thank you for your heartfelt birthday and ordination anniversary wishes. As many of you know, I celebrated my birthday on Tuesday and the 4th anniversary of my ordination to the Priesthood on Wednesday. Being a priest is an amazing experience, and I am grateful that I get to be a priest for all of you here at St. Joseph Basilica. Your love for Jesus and the Eucharist is inspiring, as is your love for one another. Deacon Dave Holland, who spoke at all the Masses last weekend on behalf of Catholic Funeral and Cemetery Services, was really touched by the welcome that you gave him. He commented that this is a really special community, and I agree.

Being a priest is a blessing, even if sometimes it brings with it some challenges. This past week you may have heard of a local priest, Archbishop Cordileone of San Francisco, and his announcement that he would be not be admitting the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, to Holy Communion. This decision came after the Archbishop spent many months trying to contact Speaker Pelosi to speak with her about her consistent support of abortion rights, which many times happens while invoking her Catholic faith.

The gist of the issue is this: The Catholic Church believes that abortion is a grave sin, since it is the direct and intentional killing of a human person. Thus, not only those who participate in the abortion directly (e.g. the mother, the doctors/nurses, the person who drives the mother to the procedure), but also those who work indirectly to promote/encourage it are complicit in this sin (e.g. the mother’s family/friends, the father, legislatures). Archbishop Cordileone’s concern is that Speaker Pelosi, in her legislative role, is cooperating (indirectly) with the sin of abortion. What’s more, due to the public nature of her role as Speaker, he has to be concerned with the scandal this is causing to the Catholic faithful. The Catechism of the Church is clear on the seriousness of the sin of scandal: “Scandal is an attitude or behavior which leads another to do evil. The person who gives scandal becomes his neighbor's tempter. He damages virtue and integrity; he may even draw his brother into spiritual death. Scandal is a grave offense if by deed or omission another is deliberately led into a grave offense” (#2284).

This is why Archbishop Cordileone is making it clear that this decision of his is not political, but pastoral. Speaker Pelosi’s words and actions are causing many of the Catholic faithful to believe that abortion is not a sin. At the heart of the issue, he has the care of Speaker Pelosi’s soul on his mind and heart, for it was Jesus who said, “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea” (Mt 18:6). By making this decision, Archbishop Cordileone is attempting to help Speaker Pelosi return to full participation in the life of the Church.

If you would like more information on the history of the events that led to this decision, I invite you to read the letters Archbishop wrote to the faithful in the Archdiocese, as well as his priests. If you would like to read the letter he wrote to her, you can find it here.

I have faith in Archbishop Cordileone. In 2011, he was our bishop in Oakland, and it was during that time that I applied for the seminary. Some people tried to dissuade Bishop Cordileone from accepting me into the program because to them, my application came in too late; they wanted me to wait a year. Bishop Cordileone met with me, prayed about this, and decided to accept me as a seminarian. I owe Archbishop Cordileone a lot. He is a man of compassion who cares for his flock. He is a good priest. Please join me in praying the Rosary at least once a week for him, for Speaker Pelosi, and for an end to abortion.

With much love,
Fr. Mario


 

 

Dear St. Joseph Family,

We continue to watch as our country grapples with the prospect of the overturning of Roe vs. Wade. We have seen protests outside of government buildings, protests outside of private residences, protests inside churches. As I met with some priests today for our monthly prayer gathering, I was startled to hear that some in favor of protecting Roe vs. Wade are planning to make this summer a “Summer of Rage.” Expect to see more protests. Expect to witness more anger. Perhaps even expect to be confronted at our church. When it comes to confrontation in churches, you may have heard of the shooting at the church in Orange County. I am not writing this to scare you. I just want you to be aware of the way in which our society is tending towards. When we have disagreements, we attack one another. This cannot stand. We must choose a different way.

As Christians, we have been shown this other way, this higher way. Jesus taught us in the Gospel passage last week, no, commanded us, to love the way that He loves us, which means compassion, mercy, forgiveness. We do not settle disagreements with attacks, but with charity. This is what St. Paul said, we live the truth in love and grow in closer conformity to Christ (cf. Ephesians 4:15).

This does not mean, however, that we lay down and take the attacks submissively. Jesus said to turn the other cheek, but what that presupposes is that we stand our ground. To turn the other cheek means not to run, but to face one’s oppressor so as to manifest the higher way to them. So, we won’t be closing our doors and stopping Mass, but we do need to be prepared. In the coming weeks, I will be working to put together a day of training for ministers so we can be better prepared if a disturbance occurs during Mass. I would ask you (especially the able-bodied men) to consider signing up to be ushers, and to be trained in how to better look after your fellow parishioners. Sign up sheets will be available in the back of the Basilica after Mass. Also, if you have pertinent experience in law enforcement/security or medical, please let me know.

As I was saying, we are called to a higher way. Below is a photo of the group who prays the Rosary outside of City Hall every 2nd Saturday of the month. Notice anything about them? They all look pretty happy. I have noticed this about pro-lifers; they’re happy, and they want others to be happy too (contrast that to the “rage” of the other side). I’ve noticed that in the people who work at pro-life pregnancy centers. They have joy. Expecting mothers and fathers need that. During a difficult time of welcoming an unexpected pregnancy, they need joy. A new life is a joy, even if for some it is the assurance of difficulties ahead. Yes, children require that sacrifices be made on their behalf, but they bring joy. That is why I have decided to assist a pro-life pregnancy group in our area, Birthright, by donating my paycheck for May to them (about $2,600). As I celebrate the gift of my own life by recalling my birthday on May 24th (the feast day of Mary, Help of Christians), the least I can do is give to an organization that is trying to help the lives of others.

With much love,
Fr. Mario
 



 

Dear St. Joseph Family,
This weekend we celebrate Fr. Sunil’s birthday. Please join me in wishing him a happy birthday. Although he would definitely shrug it off, I feel we owe him a huge thank-you, I know I do. Since I arrived at St. Joseph’s in 2020, Fr. Sunil has never hesitated to step up when I have needed a hand, and he does it always with a smile. Fr. Sunil definitely has the spirit of a missionary, which is one of joy, and this is important for all of us to remember since we are all called to be missionaries.

By virtue of our baptism, we have inherited the mission of spreading the Gospel, the Good News of Christ’s great love for humanity, made manifest through His Passion, death and Resurrection. And we share the Gospel – we evangelize – not only by sharing words, not merely by speaking to others about our faith, but by living lives of joy. And what is joy? As I mentioned in my bulletin article a couple of weeks ago, joy is not the same thing as happiness, which comes and goes based on external circumstances. Joy transcends external circumstances, even difficult ones, since it is based off on an unchangeable truth, we are loved by God.

Pope Francis mentions this in his letter Evangelii Gaudium (“The Joy of the Gospel”) when he says, “the joy of evangelizing always arises from grateful remembrance,” from remembering what God did for us long ago, and from remembering his abiding presence in our lives here and now. With three full weeks of Easter remaining, take some time to ask God to help you remember what He has done in your life, and to pour out within you an increase of joy. Joy, after all, is a fruit of the Holy Spirit. Let us never tire of asking for an increase in joy in our lives, since it will help us to become saints. By the way, Pope Francis is canonizing seven new saints for the Church this weekend. Read about them here:

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/251190/who-are-the-4-women-being-canonized-as-saints-this-weekend

 I thank Fr. Sunil for his joy; it is a reminder to me of how I can strive to be a more faithful shepherd and follower of Christ. Cheers to you, Fr. Sunil, and to you, my brothers and sisters called to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

With much love,
Fr. Mario

I mentioned this in my homily on Divine Mercy Sunday, when I noted how the “voice” of our culture will tell us that doing certain things, like having an abortion, are tolerable, even merciful. But the truly merciful thing to do is to step into the difficult experience with the other and do something for them. I said, “the world will tell a young mother and father with an unexpected pregnancy, ‘it’s ok to end this child’s life so that you can have your own,’ and claim that this is mercy. The truly merciful thing to do is say, ‘I will enter into this uncertainty with you, I will support you, and God will see you and your baby through it."

This is going to be a challenging time for us as a church going forward, but we can make a big impact. Life is precious. Life is sacred. We must ask ourselves, “what can I do to make someone’s life a little less difficult?” We can support mothers and fathers in the midst of unplanned pregnancies and help them to choose life, because this is what our faith asks of us, and this is what our country was founded on, “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” (The Declaration of Independence).

With much love,
Fr. Mario 
 

Dear St. Joseph Family,
May is a very special time in the Church because it is the month that is dedicated to our Blessed Mother, Mary. May 13 is the feast of Our Lady of Fatima, and May 31 is the feast of the Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth. A lesser-known feast day is May 24, the feast of Mary, Help of Christians, which is the main feast day of Fr. Sunil’s order, the Salesians. Mary has played such a huge role in helping so many Catholics grow in their faith, including me, that I thought, “devotion to Mary should be one of my expectations.” Remember that I wrote about these on the First Sunday of Advent. These expectations are that you will (1) read the Sunday Mass readings during the week before Mass. (2) Wear your “Sunday best” outfit to church. You all looked great on Easter; keep it up. (3) Arrive to Mass early. This one still needs some work. (4) Participate at Mass by singing and saying all the responses with boldness. Now, the 5^th expectation, you should have some devotion to Mary. I say the Rosary daily, which may be a little too much for some of you, but weekly should not be difficult, it only takes about 20 minutes. Parents (fathers especially), gather your family for the Rosary on Sunday, perhaps after dinner. Mary is the greatest guide for how to be a disciple of Christ. We need to turn to her, especially during this time when our culture is enticing us with so many lies. Mary, together with Joseph, will keep us grounded in the truth and love of Christ. Here is the Litany of Our Lady, which can be prayed by itself or after the Rosary (cut it out and put it on your refrigerator). May you grow closer to our Blessed Mother during her month of May.
With much love,
Fr. Mario

Lord, have mercy; (Response)
Lord have mercy. Christ have mercy; Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy;
Lord have mercy. Christ hear us; Christ, graciously hear us.
God the Father of heaven: (response) Have mercy on us. God the Son, Redeemer of the world: Have mercy on us. God the Holy Spirit: Have mercy on us. Holy Trinity, one God: Have mercy on us.

Holy Mary, Pray for us. (repeat after each title)
Holy Mother of God - Holy Virgin of virgins - Mother of Christ - Mother of the Church - Mother of mercy - Mother of divine grace - Mother of hope - Mother most pure - Mother most chaste - Mother inviolate - Mother undefiled - Mother most amiable - Mother most admirable - Mother of good Mother of our Creator - Mother of our Savior – Virgin - most prudent - Virgin most venerable - Virgin most renowned - Virgin most powerful - Virgin most merciful - Virgin most faithful - Mirror of justice - Seat of wisdom - Cause of our joy - Spiritual vessel - Vessel of honor - Singular vessel of devotion - Mystical rose - Tower of David
-Tower of ivory, House of gold
- Ark of the covenant - Gate of heaven, Morning star - Health of the sick, Refuge of sinners
- Comfort of Migrants
- Comforter of the afflicted - Help of Christians, Queen of Angels
- Queen of Patriarchs - Queen of Prophets - Queen of Apostles - Queen of Martyrs - Queen of Confessors - Queen of Virgins - Queen of all Saints - Queen conceived without original sin
- Queen assumed into heaven - Queen of the most holy Rosary - Queen of Families - Queen of Peace…

- Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, Spare us, O Lord.
- Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, Graciously hear us, O Lord.
- Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, Have mercy on us.

- Pray for us, O holy Mother of God, That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

- Let us pray, Grant, we beseech you, Lord God, that we your servants may rejoice in continual health of mind and body and, by the glorious intercession of Blessed Mary, ever Virgin, may we be delivered from present sorrow to delight in joy eternal. Through Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Dear St. Joseph Family,

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!
Last weekend was a really special time. Not only was it the celebration of our Lord’s Passion and Resurrection, it was the first time celebrating it together with no restrictions since the beginning of Covid, and boy, was it a special celebration. From Fr. Sunil washing the feet of our 9:30am Mass team on Holy Thursday, to the veneration of the Cross on Friday, to the Vigil on Saturday with all its many beautiful parts, most especially the baptisms of Lily and Liza, and finally, the Masses on Easter Sunday. Both the 9:30am and 12pm Masses were packed, so full was 9:30 that we ran out of hosts temporarily (Fr. Sunil ran back to the tabernacle to retrieve the ciborium full of Hosts). After Mass, one of the parishioners remarked to me that that is a good problem to have; better to have many people and run out of Hosts, than to not have many people at all. As I was celebrating the noon Mass with Fr. Sunil in a packed Church, I was thinking to myself, “how awesome would it be if the basilica was this full every Sunday?” And the question is, “why isn’t it?” That is a question for all of us to ask ourselves, because we all have a part to play in filling the Church, and the Easter season is an appropriate time to focus in on this question, since the message of Christ’s Resurrection is why we are here in the first place.

On one hand, we fill the Church by being present ourselves, by bringing our families, especially our children, and why wouldn’t we be at Church every single Sunday? Every single Sunday is a memorial of Christ’s death and Resurrection, which means that every Sunday is a miniature Easter. At every Mass, Jesus enters into our midst and nourishes us with His Body and Blood. I once saw a meme that said, “Sunday Mass should be your excuse for missing everything else.” Too often it is the other way around.

On the other hand, we fill the Church with our proclamation of the Gospel. “I am called to proclaim the Gospel?” you ask? “Isn’t that Father’s job?” No! It is your job to proclaim the Gospel in your life, to your family and to your friends, to your coworkers and to the people you pass on the street, in the grocery store, and even while driving. And the way you do this does not mean that you open up the Catechism of the Catholic Church and start reading passages to them. You preach the Gospel by the way you live, and by the way you treat them, principally, by living a life of joy. Easter is above all a season of joy, which is distinguishable from happiness and pleasure. Those two things are contingent on external circumstances; “I am happy when I have this…” “It is pleasurable to have that…” These things are fleeting. Joy is not, because joy is based on an unshakeable truth, that God loves you with an infinite love, and nothing and no one can change that. This was proven true 2,000 years ago when God became incarnate, gave Himself to humanity, was put to death by them, rose from the grave and said to them, “peace be with you.” Joy is the bedrock of our lives, and shouldn’t we want to share that with others?

The reason you are reading this letter is because the early Church deemed it important enough to share this message, even to the point of death, and little by little, century by century, that message arrived to us. Now, who are you going to share this message with? Again, you do not need to be a theologian or even a catechist to share this. You simply need to have had an encounter with Christ who loves you. Many of us have had these encounters and can recall them with intense clarity, like Thomas in this Sunday’s Gospel (See painting below, “The Incredulity of Thomas” by Caravaggio). If faith has become rote, then we can struggle to pinpoint a precise moment of encountering God; but we can have them. These moments come in many ways, but here are some tried and true ones: Eucharistic adoration, prayers like the Rosary, the Sacrament of Confession, reading Sacred Scripture especially the Gospels, and the Corporal Works of Mercy. Christ will meet us in these moments, just as He met the women and the Apostles after the Resurrection, and when He does, get ready for what the Living God, Jesus Christ will do through you.

May this Easter Season continue to be a time of great joy for you.

With much love,
Fr. Mario

Dear St. Joseph Family,

A blessed Easter to you all! What I should really say is, a blessed Easter to you all! I season m always excited for the Easter season because it is 50 days, culminating on Pentecost Sunday, June 5th. The 50 days commemorate the 40 days Jesus remained with His Apostles from the time of the Resurrection to His Ascension, and the 10 days after when they waited for Him to send the Holy Spirit. That’s the historical-biblical reason for the 50 days. I remember a priest once quipped that the Easter Season is 50 days because Lent is 40 days, and so Easter just needed to be longer to draw attention to the joyousness of the Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus; the simple quantity of days (10 more days than Lent) was a way to remind us that Easter joy outweighs everything. I think so too.

If you think about it, it should make you pause a little bit, 50 days! Wow. And as I just stated, this aren ’ t just any normal days, these are days of great rejoicing. These are the days when the Alleluia returns (and should be sung by all with intensity). Alleluia is a Hebrew word that means “ praise the Lord. ’ ” And why do we praise Him? Because He has risen from the tomb, thus putting an end to eternal death. What lies in store for us now is eternal life, life which we will fully experience after we pass from this world, but a life that we begin to experience now. This is a life that comes from following Christ who shepherds us through life s most difficult problems; it is He who shows us that, even amidst these trying times that we all face, we will not be overcome. In fact, it is in the darkness of those times that we see Him so very clearly, for the light shines brightest in the darkness. Our faith teaches us that, even in those dark times, we can still rejoice and sing Alleluia.

During the Cold War, one of the darkest times our world has ever seen, Pope John Paul II reminded the Church of this truth:

We do not pretend that life is all beauty. We are aware of darkness and sin, of poverty and pain. But we know Jesus has conquered sin and passed through his own pain to the glory of the Resurrection. And we live in the light of his Paschal Mystery Resurrection. “ the mystery of his Death and We are an Easter People and Alleluia is our song! ” [quoting St. Augustine]. We are not looking for a shallow joy but rather a joy that comes from faith, that grows through unselfish love, that respects the “ fundamental duty of love of neighbor, without which it would be unbecoming to speak of Joy ”. We realize that joy is demanding; it demands unselfishness; it demands a readiness to say with Mary: “ Be it done unto me according to thy word ”.

It is good to be reminded of this now as we find ourselves in the midst of sin, poverty, and pain, in countries halfway around the world, and in our own. Our Easter joy cannot be shallow. People are suffering, physically, emotionally, and mentally. Some are confused about themselves and their identities. ’ They are starving for that quality of life and love that only a deep faith in Jesus Christ, risen from the tomb, can provide. Don t be overcome by the darkness of the world or let anyone convince you that the Church is uninspiring, boring, or irrelevant. Some people stay away from the Church because they say  "they don't get anything out of it. ”  Let's be clear about something, Christ has risen from the dead, and the Church invites us to rejoice and celebrate this truth, not just for one day, but for 50 days! My hope for us all this Easter season is that we will experience the light of Christ breaking forth into our own lives so that we will not hesitate to unselfishly and joyfully share what we have received and experienced, eternal life!

With much love,
Father Mario

Why?
On Palm Sunday we look back at our weeks in the desert where we have tried to follow Christ with varying degrees of success, to approach Easter with hearts renewed. A small group has been working for months or longer towards celebrating the Easter Season in a very special way, by Baptism or full initiation through Christian Initiation (RCIA) or Confirmation Preparation. I asked how they would respond if someone asked them “Why?" Why choose to commit time and energy to become Catholic or to receive the sacraments? Why might a newcomer consider that step? Their abridged answers follow although they'd be happy to share their longer answers if you ask:

• If asked why I started preparing for Confirmation the simple answer would be to get closer to Jesus. In the process, I have gained a love for him I didn’t even know existed. The knowledge and faith I have gained is unbelievable and a true blessing. It is never too late to let Jesus into your life completely. Striving to be like Jesus will change your life for the better and bring you an abundance of joy. --Andrea, preparing for Eucharist& Confirmation
• I have devoted so much time because loving Jesus and feeling loved by Jesus is such a powerful feeling. I go forward with this baptism not only to wash away original sin but to be welcomed into the Church community. In this process I have come across some great encounters with Jesus, feeling that Jesus has chosen me, as I am. My mother and I were talking about me getting baptized. Now that I am 17 years old it was my choice, one of the best choices I've made, to make a commitment to being Catholic and wanting Jesus as my Lord and Savior. I gain confidence in myself and go forward in my life with GOD's guidance. Trusting God gives me strength, blessings, and helps me overcome fear. -- Lilyana, to be baptized at Easter Vigil
• At first a curiosity to explore the spirituality that has been a pillar in my wife's life, it's evolved into an experience of enlightenment and self-reflection that become very therapeutic and makes me want to get closer to God and the Holy Spirit. -- David, candidate for reception into full communion
• Although not growing up in the faith, I have seen how being Christian has transformed the people around me. After hearing their stories and being prayed over for the first time, I felt such an overwhelming sense of comfort and protection that I knew this was the path I wanted to commit to. Through this experience and the RCIA process, I came to understand my purpose in life more, which is to share my faith and to serve others. I felt this was the right time to commit to Catholicism because especially after marrying the love of my life, I desired to have that relationship with God. I hope to raise a Catholic family in the future so that they may know God too. --Liza, to be baptized at Easter Vigil
• Catholicism is my history and I want it to be my future. I cherish my childhood memories, asking my mother questions about God and love and being a good person, and it is important to me to build my relationship with God and learn more about Catholicism so that I can one day share those same things with my own children. The process has been so rewarding. I look forward to each session not only learning and my own personal growth but getting to share the experience with others in the same place that I am. There is no age that is too late to build a stronger relationship with God. If I have learned anything it is that he has always been there waiting for me and is now supporting me proudly through this journey. --Veronica, preparing for Eucharist and Confirmation
• It is important for me because I want to become a fully committed follower of Christ. My journey through Confirmation has helped me to grow in my faith, in maturity, and continue to build a strong foundation towards living a life walking with Christ. --Jesse, preparing for Confirmation
• I have learned many things and I find comfort in listening to God's word. I'm a better person allowing myself to be giving, loving, and forgiving towards others. I have also learned it's up to us to spread God ’ s word. We are his messengers not only by words but through actions. I will encourage our children to follow in our footsteps not only being Catholic but living Catholic. --Judd, candidate for reception into full communion

Dear St. Joseph Family,

As we near the end of Lent (2 more weeks), I invite you to do a brief check How have the last four weeks been? Have you been able to fast, pray and give alms? Or have you fallen short of your intended Lenten plans? If you have, don worry. You still have two more weeks, and remember that one of the foundational principals of the spiritual life is that it isn’t about quantity, but quality. Consider what Jesus says in Matthew ’ s Gospel: “ In praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them ” return to our Lord; they ’ (Mt 6:7). The point of our Lenten disciplines is to help us make a re to help us become like Him, which doesn ’ t necessarily depend on how much we do. A few moments of honest and humble prayer, a simple fast, a sincere gift, these can have a profound effect on us and others. So, don ’ t feel down if you ate chocolate the day after Ash Wednesday, or if your Bible is collecting dust, or your Rice Bowl is empty. Start again. You can do it.

In the last couple of weeks we have introduced a couple of really easy, yet meaningful, ways to enter into the Lenten season. The St. Vincent de Paul Society and the Legion of Mary are collecting clothes to donate. St. Vincent de Paul is collecting for children and babies, while Legion of Mary is collecting socks for men and women. If you ’ re looking to pray more, the Thursday Gospel reflection group meets during Lent on zoom at 7 pm, and we have exposition of the Blessed Sacrament on Fridays from 17 pm. You ’6 pm during Lent, followed by the Stations of the Cross.  After Lent, Adoration is the first Friday of the month from 1 re in my prayers as we make this last push to Easter.

As this is the first Sunday of the month, we will be having the normal facilities collection. Your contributions to this collection will help with some new projects that have emerged. The light above the water fountain in the Gathering Space was fixed; I hope to add more lighting around the Basilica in the future to keep us safe and to show off the building at nighttime. One of the windows on the second story of the rector has cracked. The entire wooden frame needs to be replaced. Also, a mysterious bulge in the floor has emerged outside of the reconciliation room. We will have to do a little investigation to see what is causing this, and most likely, retile the floor. Lastly, I am working with a couple of parishioners to make the Flower Room more functional. We are gathering bids for cabinets, and are fixing the window in that room, which also requires custom work. On my wish list for the future are the main doors to the Basilica, which need to be refinished. Not directly connected, but somewhat related, work on the Grotto is progressing. We have sheet rocked the walls and are waiting to have them textured with plaster. Then we will paint the ceiling and refinish the floor. Just a few updates. Thank you for your generosity!

To conclude, I would like to congratulate two of our teens who have received the first ever Basilica Scholarship Award (name is still a work in progress): Ava Harbo and Nikko Flores. I decided to start this scholarship (with funds coming from the rental of the old rectory) in order to draw more of our Catholic families into the high school to keep the Catholic identity strong. This scholarship is awarded to students of this parish, or another local parish, who intend to attend SJND. These students participate actively in the life of the parish, by attending Mass regularly, and who exhibit a love for their faith and a desire to grow in it. Congratulations Ava and Nikko!

If you are a member of the parish and want to know more about our Catholic schools, and how we can help you send your kids to one of them, please reach out to me any time.

With much love,
Fr. Mario 

Dear St. Joseph Family,
I want to thank everyone who helped at the St. Joseph Feast Day celebrations last weekend, from the wine and cheese social, followed by David’s organ demonstration on Saturday, to the BBQ on Sunday. Thank you all! I need to call special attention to Gia De Grano, Eric Bertelsen, and Patrick Thong, the chairpersons for these events. In early February, the Pastoral Council briefly discussed the upcoming St. Joseph Day, but at that time, I didn’t have any plans to host a party. Gia and Eric offered to coordinate one if needed. Then a couple of weeks after that, Patrick asked me what I was planning for St. Joseph’s Day. I jokingly responded, “what are you going to plan?” He took me up on my challenge. And so, the four of us got together, and the rest is history. It was a really blessed weekend, and I hope you had an opportunity to enjoy a part of it, either the beautiful organ music, or the tasty food, but most importantly, our time together. Along with the Sacraments, the time we share together is crucial for our spiritual growth. Just as the Sacraments give us essential life-giving grace, so also, moments like the ones we enjoyed last weekend are critical to our development as persons. We need human contact, especially with people who share our faith. We need to laugh together, cry together, serve together, worship together. These are all moments of love, which point us to the Triune God, who is Love. I am so proud of this community for showing up for one another. 

Speaking of showing up for one another, we will be holding a communal penance service on Monday the 28th, beginning at 6:30 pm. This is a special time for us to gather together in the “wilderness” of Lent and support one another as we prepare our hearts and souls for a fervent celebration of Easter. We held a simple communal penance service in Advent, and it was beautiful. I’m sure this one will be as well. Over the last month or so I have spoken to four different faith formation groups on this amazing Sacrament (1st Communion prep, 1st and 2nd-year Confirmation, and Adult Confirmation). In case you have some trepidation about Confession, here is what I told those groups. First, Confession is not something we “have to do,” but something we “get to do.” Now, if we are aware of having committed grave sin, then we have to go to Confession, but Confession is still a gift. I invite people to think about it this way, look to John 20:19-23, the moment Jesus instituted this Sacrament. It came on the night of Easter, when the Apostles were still afraid for their own lives, and very much ashamed of having abandoned Jesus. What does Jesus say to them when He comes to them? “You messed up!”? No, rather, “Peace be with you.” Jesus gave this Sacrament to the Church not as a punishment, but as a healing remedy. He didn’t want the Apostles, or us, to be bound by the disappointment of our sins. He wanted us to be set free, He wanted us to have peace. So, He instructed us to confess our sins to priests, who is a representative of both Christ our Lord and the Church community. When we confess to a priest, a two-fold reconciliation takes place, with God and also with the other members of the community to whom we are so intimately bound. Even though our sins may be private, they affect the entire Body.  Confessing to a member of the Body restores Communion amongst us all.

No, we don’t have to go to Confession, we get to. When I spoke to those faith formation groups, I invited them to look up this image, Rembrandt’s painting, “The Return of the Prodigal Son” (see Luke 15:11-32). I told them, “this is what happens in Confession.” In the prayer of absolution, the Father embraces us through His Son, in the Holy Spirit. I told them to look up this image because this is the image I chose for my holy card for my ordination to the priesthood. I chose it to serve as a reminder to me of ministry as a confessor. But really, I chose it because this was, and continues to be, my experience when I confess my own sins. “He said to [the older brother]…but now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found’” (Lk 15:3132).  

You may have missed the St. Joseph BBQ, but now, take advantage of this opportunity to gather together once more, this time for a more important event. We are a community called to pray for one another, especially as we confess our sins. To prepare, you can find an Examination of Conscience here (https://sjbalameda.org/examination-of-consciencereconciliation). Go over this list slowly and prayerfully. If you recognize something on this list in your own life, don’t be afraid, confess it with courage, remembering that Confession is a healing remedy, an embrace from the Father that sets us on our feet, restores us to health, and gives us peace.  

With much love,
Fr. Mario 

Dear St. Joseph Family,

In my bulletin article last week (see March 13, 2022 message below), I wrote about the war in Ukraine and how in 1917 Our Lady of Fatima asked for Russia to be consecrated to her Immaculate Heart. On Friday, March 25, during the Penance Service in St. Peter’s Basilica (5 pm Rome time), Pope Francis will pray the prayer of consecration. The service is likely to be televised on the Vatican News YouTube channel here.

This weekend we celebrate the Feast Day of our patron, St. Joseph. We are blessed to be under his patronage, he who is the “Patron of the Catholic Church.” Wow, what a title. This title was given to Joseph by Pope Blessed Pius IX in 1870. Pope Francis celebrated the 150th anniversary of the giving of this title with “The Year of St. Joseph” in 2020. During that year several parishioners got together and read Fr. Donald Calloway’s book, “Consecration to St. Joseph.” They drew many benefits from this gathering. Their gatherings inspired me to start a gathering with the men in the parish, unofficially known as the “Men of St. Joseph.” This has led us to open the group up to the larger community as we go through the series “Into the Breach.” We have a lot to learn from St. Joseph. After all, he, along with Mary, was the main educator of Jesus Christ.

In his letter on the year of St. Joseph (Patris Corde, “A Father’s Heart”), Pope Francis notes two hallmarks of Joseph’s life: obedience and service. Faced with the challenge of Mary’s unforeseen pregnancy with a child not his own, Joseph is first of all attentive to God. Joseph could have succumbed to disappointment, rebellion, and fear, but he chose another path. Francis notes, “Even though Joseph’s fears, God’s will, his history and his plan were at work. Joseph, then, teaches us that faith in God includes believing that he can work even through our fears, our frailties and our weaknesses. He also teaches us that amid the tempests of life, we must never be afraid to let the Lord steer our course. At times, we want to be in complete control, yet God always sees the bigger picture.” Joseph was obedient. 

Joseph was also a servant, not passively, Francis notes, but courageously. Although the events unfolding around him were not what he had planned for, nevertheless, he embraced them, actively choosing to take responsibility for them, knowing that God would provide him with the strength he needed to see them through. Joseph chose to welcome Mary and her child and to protect them. Francis notes that this was the source of Joseph’s happiness, not that he got his way, not even that he sacrificed what he wanted, but that he chose to give himself away as a gift.

This is what Christ calls us to do, to become a gift to others. Here at St Joseph Basilica, there are many ways for you to do this. I hope you will join the community this Sunday at our St. Joseph Feast Day celebration in the high school quad at 1 pm. Many of our ministries will be present at tables to give you more information about what they do and how you can get involved. After two years of being distanced from one another, it is time to come together in the spirit of St. Joseph and serve. What’s more, some of our ministries are in need of replenishing their rosters. Like Joseph, who was courageous in his obedience, do not be afraid to heed the voice of God who calls us out to serve one another. 

Some updates on a couple of projects around the Basilica:

1. We have been receiving many parts of the sound system upgrade. Some of these parts are coming in ahead of schedule after being back-ordered. Some of the parts are still back-ordered. We will begin wiring the space for power soon. We hope to have the speakers installed by May.

2. Work to finish the Grotto has resumed, hopefully, to be completed within a month. The walls will receive a plaster finish that ties into the rock feature that houses the statue of our Lady of Lourdes. It will be a beautiful room for prayer and contemplation.

With much love,
Fr. Mario  

Dear St. Joseph Family,

As we watch the invasion of Ukraine unfold, we continue to pray for peace. Pope Francis has asked us to pray and especially fast for peace in Ukraine. One of the main messages our Lady shared with the shepherd children in Fatima was her desire for the conversion of Russia. Our Lady warned us then that, unless Russia was consecrated to her, peace would not be attained. That was in 1917. Obviously, our Lady’s request went unheeded. Last Friday, I was listening to a program on the Catholic radio station, Relevant Radio (1260 AM), called “Trending with Timmerie.” Timmerie is a young mother who offers insightful commentary on current events. She was talking about Ukraine and made a very compelling argument for why the Russian invasion is taking place. Here is the link to the 10 minute clip that I happened to hear: https://relevantradio.com/listen/ trending-with-timmerie/ 

If you scroll down to March 5, click on the link entitled, “Abortion’s Role in the Russia-Ukraine Crisis and China’s.” You read that right, abortion’s role. In a nutshell, Timmerie argues that Russian’s widespread use of abortion during Soviet rule has led to a “demographic winter,” which means that the rate of procreation is below the rate of replacement, meaning, children are not replacing their parents. This has happened in China as well, which is known for its 1 child policy (recently repealed), which resulted in untold forced abortions. During the 1960’s in Russia, 3 out of 4 (75%) children lost their lives to abortion. In the 1980s, 2 out of 3 (66%) were victims of abortion. In places that have experienced this “demographic winter,” where there aren’t enough people, where there aren’t enough women for the men to marry, history has shown us that war is a typical outcome. Ultimately, Timmerie concludes that Russia is invading Ukraine because “Russia needs people.” 

Timmerie says that the issue is a three-prong ideological problem that we must learn from and fight against. In places like Russia and China, (1) the dignity of the human person has been rejected, the result of a denial of God, which is a tenant of Socialism/Communism. (2) These Socialist societies have rejected the family and parents’ role in educating their children, resulting in the State’s authoritarian interventions, which (3) promote the widespread acceptance of abortion and contraception. Timmerie noted a staggering statistic, that in 1960, the worldwide average of children per mother was 5; now the worldwide average is 2.4. Some people argue that there are too many people on the Earth. The actions of Russia seem to point to a conflicting reality, there aren’t enough people. Whether this is correct, I do not know, but she makes a compelling argument. 

I bring this up (perhaps a little late if you’re reading this on Sunday) because there is a shared ministry between the Catholic Churches in Alameda that is standing up for the God-given dignity of the unborn and against the proliferation of abortion. Each second Saturday of the month, this group meets outside of City Hall to protest abortion generally, but also locally, an entity known as Advanced Bioscience Resources, a former government contractor who supplied fetal tissue procured from aborted babies to be used for research. The federal government worked to limit research done on fetal tissue in 2018; these restrictions were undone in 2021. You are invited to join this group in prayer every second Saturday at 9:30 am. 

As Timmerie says, “God’s vision for the human person, God’s vision for marriage, God’s vision for our children, is what will protect us from what’s happening in Russia, with what’s happening in China, and what will help us to be defenders of other nations, and not succumb to the same ideologies and theologies that are destroying people and the world today. This is how we will have peace, by yes, praying and begging for God’s help, but also by living out God’s vision for the human person.” 

This is one of the reasons why I wanted to host the men of the parish to watch “Into the Breach”, the video series produced by the Knights of Columbus. On Monday, about 20 of us watched the first two videos (“Masculinity” and “Brotherhood”), followed by a good discussion. Catholic men, you are invited to join us for the remainder of the sessions. Your role in your family and the community is critical. As Pope Saint John Paul II once said, “As the family goes, so goes the nation, and so goes the whole world in which we live.”  

With much love,
Fr. Mario 

Dear  St.  Joseph Family,
The last couple of weeks I have forgotten to write a bulletin article. The articles are due Wednesday morning, and the days have been moving so quickly I have just lost track of time. The week of Valentine’s Day was especially difficult for me. As you may be aware (since I announced her name at several Masses), a member of our parish passed away that week. Her name is Molly. She was 23 years old. Molly and her fiancé Drew had joined our parish about a year ago and attended the 9:30 am Mass. I was close to them especially because they were beginning marriage preparation. I was very excited to start this with them, as they were going to be the first couple to kick off the new program I had written about, Witness to Love. During that week, I visited Molly in the ICU at Washington Hospital in Fremont and prayed with her and Drew’s family. It was an exhausting week for them, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. I want to thank you for your prayers. One of the mysteries of this tragic event is that Molly’s mother was getting word that people from all around the world were praying for her recovery. Sometimes life throws us for a loop. The events that confront us can sometimes be absurd and make no sense. But for those with faith, we know that even the worst tragedies can lead to something good. Molly was an organ donor. We were told that by her death, she will save six people.

During that week, I spoke with my sister about the events that were transpiring. She has an extensive background in ministering to grieving people, having worked many years at Children’s s Hospital Seattle as a social worker, and now as an advisor at a life life ’-- span navigation firm, helping families to gracefully navigate s most challenging circumstances. In our talks, we reflected on suffering, its meaning, and even its value yes, value. In moments like these, as we are confronted by our smallness and fragility, we are reminded of our need for God and our need for one another. It is in those moments that suffering points us to what is of value, the truth that even if we have to walk through crises, we are never abandoned or forgotten by God; He walks with us every step of the way. My sister opined,  “ I don’t know how secular people deal with grief."

In the midst of struggles, as they are happening, it can be so difficult to see God present. There were times that week when my prayers felt futile, but being with that family, praying with them, praying over Molly, sharing stories about her, it became clear that our prayers were being heard. I will hold that week close to my heart for the rest of my life. I shared with some of you that I felt like I learned more about being a priest in that week with that family than I did in seven years at the seminary. Thank you again for walking through it with us.

I share this story with you as we begin Lent because Lent can serve to remind us of similar truths. During Lent, we voluntarily practice mortifications (from the root word mort meaning death). We enter into the desert with Jesus with increased fasting, prayer, and almsgiving. We willingly choose to let go of life’s comforts as a way of reorienting ourselves to what is of value, friendship with God, and the life of faith, hope, and love. Don t be afraid of the desert in your life. Don’t be afraid to be uncomfortable in your fragility, or to sit with your own struggles, and those of others. It is there that you will find God, and in doing so, find yourself.

With much love,
Fr. Mario

Dear St. Joseph family,

My apologies for not writing a bulletin letter the last two weeks. Time has been sneaking up on me. As a consolation, I wanted to share my homily from last Sunday with you. I think it will provide a helpful lens through which to view the upcoming season of Lent. As a season of penance, we are called to fast, to give things up. Why? These losses help focus us on what is truly important, that what we already possess - a relationship with God - is worth far more than the temporary things we cling to. Periodically in life, we lose things, or things are taken from us. That's ok. God is with us. We will never lose him.

Since the time I was ordained a deacon in 2017, I have never titled a homily, but I think this week I will. Maybe it has something to do with the Superbowl taking place last week, but I thought an appropriate title for this homily would be “The Biggest Loser.”
In actuality, this title is inspired by the Gospel passage from today, which is a continuation of last week’s passage from Jesus’ the Sermon on the Plain. In that passage last week, we heard Luke’s version of the Beatitudes (cf. Luke 6:17-23), in which Jesus drew our attention to several rather peculiar groups of people: the poor, the hungry, those who are weeping, those who are hated, excluded, insulted, and denounced on account of Him; the losers of the world. And I don’t mean that in a demeaning sort of way. I mean it quite literally. These people have all lost something, possessions, pleasure, power, prestige. And yet, the paradox of the Beatitudes is that each time Jesus mentions one of these groups, he pronounces them Blessed, meaning, that they are the truly happy ones. In a world that elevates these passing things to god-like status, Jesus says that the one who has lost all of them is the one who has actually won.

And now this week, Jesus continues this lesson (cf. Luke 6:27-38) by telling us that we ought to love our enemies, and do good to those who hate us, to bless those who curse us, and to pray for those who mistreat us. He tells us that we should allow people to strike us on one cheek and then offer the other one as well, and then let them take from us without asking for anything back. Not a very attractive offer if you ask me. It would be like an NFL scout saying to a young man coming out of college: you’ll practice all day, lift weights and do conditioning until you puke, get beat up by guys who are bigger, and stronger and faster than you, and we won’t pay you anything thing for it. Who would choose this? Jesus’ sermon on the plain confronts us with the same reality. He makes it sound like following Him is a constant and relentless uphill climb in which so much must be sacrificed, compared to so many other options in life that promise us a much easier way. And so, the question we have to ask ourselves is why should I choose this Christian way of life which inevitably leads to these voluntary humiliations and losses?

The short answer is because Jesus told us to, and what Jesus tells us to do is good. The more thorough answer, however, is that he is preparing us for something. Much like that football player, Jesus is training us, getting us into shape, putting us through practice. That’s why we “practice” our faith. We are preparing for something, but what? For life, for life out there, which confronts us with challenges, with temptations, with attacks, and with losses. Jesus is preparing us for these things, because despite them, He promised us something good, “I came that they might have life, and have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). That life, abundant life, is a quality of life that comes only from following Jesus and allowing him to shape, and reshape us, into his own heavenly image, as St. Paul says in the 2^nd reading today.

This is why we come here, to be ready for out there, and if we make it out there, we’ll be ready for up there. Ultimately, heaven is what Jesus is preparing us for, which is the experience of being in God’s presence, of seeing Him face to face, the God who is love. And it’s these daily trials, these losses, that get us ready. Think about it this way: Jesus tells us to love our enemies and pray for those who mistreat you. Well, do you think that in heaven, in the presence of our God, who is perfect love, there is anyone who is angry? Jesus tells us to stop judging. Do you think that while in God’s presence in heaven there is anyone judging someone else, asking, “Why are you here?” Jesus tells us to forgive. Do you think that looking upon the One who forgave His Son’s betrayers and executioners (Luke 23:34), there is anyone in heaven who is holding a grudge? Jesus commands these difficult things from us, because He is getting us ready for the life to come, and in order to do that, he asks that we let some things go, that we surrender some things, that we practice losing.

Looking to St. Paul again, we find an apt image to help explain this mystery, the mystery of loss and gain. Paul was a man who willingly let go of much, a comfortable life; he willingly endured much suffering, all the while boasting in his trials and weaknesses, saying that it was when he was weak that he was truly strong (2 Cor 12:9-10). In his second letter to the Corinthians, he wrote to his community, reminding them that they were earthen vessels (cf. 2 Cor 4:5-7) who hold within themselves the treasure that is the Gospel; the good news that God has revealed himself to us, shining on the face of Jesus Christ. And this glorious light, as St. Paul says, shines within our hearts. What a gift. But being earthen vessels, we recognize that we have finite space to keep close the things of value, the things we desire. Paul’s radical message that changed the face of the earth was that it was Christ who lived in him (Gal 2:20), which was only possible after much practice emptying himself out (cf. 2 Tim 4:6).
 “He must increase. I must decrease” (John 3:30), said John the Baptist. That requires a loss of something, an emptying out of ourselves, our desires, our passions, our sins, even our plans, and sometimes our dreams, as good and holy as they oftentimes may be. When Jesus was ministering to the crowds, he told them, “whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it” (Mt 10:39). What a loss, and yet, what a victory.

And our Catholic Church is not short of victors, who like St. Paul, let go, not without struggle, but with courage and grace, nonetheless. These are the saints, the blessed ones, who knew that when the vessel of their life was emptied of something, it didn’t have to stay that way; that something else, something good, perhaps even something better, could take its place. I often think of St. Maximillian Kolbe who was sent to Auschwitz during WWII. He sacrificed himself, willingly giving up his own life so that a father could live, and when Maximillian was insulted by the guards, “who is this dog?” they asked him, he did not return an insult, but replied, “I am a Catholic priest.” What love. “No greater love has a man than this, to lie down his life for his friends” (John 15:13), Jesus told us. What victory, what gain. Maximillian was ready for heaven, because he had already been living it on earth.

   Is it easy to be a Catholic? No, it is difficult. In a world that offers us so much, we are asked by our Lord to deny ourselves, to empty ourselves, to lose ourselves, to die to ourselves. This takes humility. When someone slaps us on the face, we are humbled, we are embarrassed, we lose something: our confidence, our self-esteem, our pride. But Jesus tells us that we are not to try to replace what has been taken away, because in that fragile vessel of our heart where that thing once lived, a space has been created for the Gospel, for the light that is Christ to take possession of. A place for love, for goodness, for blessing, for generosity, for mercy. And when this happens in our own lives, this repetition of emptying and filling up with the things of God we draw closer to heaven.

So, I ask you, have you lost something in your own life? Has something been taken from you? Have you ever felt like a loser? Well, it’s ok to admit that. Jesus lost something too. He was struck on the cheek; He had his cloak torn from his body; He was judged unjustly and condemned. We could say that He was the biggest loser of us all. But because he lost so much, he was free within to be completely filled with what truly mattered, His Father’s love. And in turn, He loved those people who mistreated him, he forgave them, and in doing so, he showed us that he hadn’t lost anything at all. He had brought heaven down to earth.

So remember, if life knocks you down,  if it chews you up and spits you out, if it takes away something, you have not lost everything, God is with you. And if you let go of these things, trusting in Him and his light, then the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you. A good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap.

Dear St. Joseph family,
Last week we had some problems with our bulletin. Apparently, the company that prints the bulletins ran low on ink and was unable to deliver the usual number of bulletins. Thus, I would like to recap a little of what I shared last week. Last week I shared an article from the SF Chronicle about the family from Haiti that will be living in our community, in one of the apartments above Blue Dot Café. Here is the original article in case you missed it.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/eastbay/article/A-Haitian-family-risked-their-lives-to-make-it-to-16695358.php

And here is a second article, which gives an update on the mother’s birth:

https://www.sfchronicle.com/eastbay/article/Is-a-Haitian-family-s-struggle-to-reunite-in-16827232.php

As you read these articles, it is crucial to keep in mind a couple of the key tenets of Catholic Social Teaching, the dignity of the human person and solidarity. Why do we help people in need? Because of our inherent dignity. We are made in the image and likeness of God (Latin, imago dei), which means we are made for God, to know God, to know God’s love for us, and to make a free choice to love God in return. Each and every person is created for this purpose and for this end. When we look at one another, especially the poorest and most neglected, we ought to see each other the way God sees us, with this inherent dignity; we were made for God, who cherishes each of us with an inestimable love.

From this truth flows the principle of solidarity. Being made in the imago dei, being made for God who is Trinity, we are made for community. The Trinity is a community of persons who give themselves to others completely. God the Father and God the Son give themselves to each other completely, and as a result a third Divine Person, the Holy Spirit, proceeds. Being made in the imago dei, we have an innate desire to live in communities, to give ourselves to others, and to receive the gift others make of themselves to us. Solidarity is a recognition of this interdependence, that we cannot exist on our own, that we need one another. The poor, the refugee, the isolated need us, and in a mysterious way, we need them, for through them, we learn to love and in doing so, meet God.

On a separate note, you may have heard of Governor Newsom’s decision to let the mask mandate expire for vaccinated persons. See the website for Alameda County’s Public Health Department and how this decision affects us:

https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DCDC/Pages/COVID-19/guidance-for-face-coverings.aspx

This means that next Sunday you may see many people inside the basilica not wearing masks. This doesn’t mean you have to stop wearing your mask, only that it is no longer required for vaccinated people. As for the outdoor quad Mass, masks are not required for anyone, but if you wish to continue to wear your mask, please feel free. At this time, I am not sure how the Diocese will respond to this news and if they will require masks for certain ministers; I will keep you posted on this.

Lastly, the furnaces in the basilica have been installed and are working. Thanks be to God!

With much love,
​​​​​​​Fr. Mario
 

Dear St. Joseph Family,

Several months ago, I wrote to you about a plan to rent out the San Antonio house (formerly the priests’ residence) to a local group, The Oakland Catholic Worker (OCW). For several months in the Fall, OCW resided there, but decided it would be better for them to rent a place closer to their main facility in Oakland. Since then, God has provided us another opportunity to participate in the spreading of the Gospel. In early January, I notified you that a local Alameda ministry, Shelter in Peace, would be renting an apartment from the parish that is above Blue Dot Café. We now know who the family is who will be residing in that apartment, a Haitian Mother and three children, who fled Haiti in 2016 for Chile, and came to the United States in the Fall via the Southern Border, a perilous six-week journey through 10 countries. Here is the link to the entire article about them from the SF Chronicle. Please read it to learn more about them and their journey.

(Photo: Gabrielle Lurie/The Chronicle)
https://www.sfchronicle.com/eastbay/article/A-Haitian-family-risked-their-lives-to-make-it-to-16695358.php#photo-21817639

This family’s story fits in well with something the Church is celebrating this week, National Marriage Week. Their story is about a husband and wife who are risking literally everything for their children. This is what husbands and wives are called to do; it is their mission, to give of themselves to their spouse, and to their children. And this is a difficult task; marriage is hard! But when God created marriage, He endowed it with special gifts and graces to help couples carry out their mission. Those who are bound together in the Sacrament of Matrimony especially, are united in a special way to Christ so that their love is taken up into His own. So, let us pray for our married couples who have been entrusted with the task of being mothers and fathers, and of leading each other to heaven.

Last week I notified you about the rollout of a new marriage preparation ministry. Holy marriages are obviously something that I want to foster here at St. Joseph. But really it is all the vocations that we should be praying for and encouraging, which include the religious life, single life and priesthood. At the end of the month, St. Patrick’s Seminary will be hosting a discernment retreat for young men who are thinking about priesthood. If you are one of these men or have any questions about discerning your vocation, please do not hesitate to reach out to me. This is what I am here for.

Lastly, we have finally begun installing the new furnaces in the Basilica. It took some time to get the contract worked up from the Diocese, but work has started! Thank you for your patience.

With much love,
Fr. Mario

Dear St. Joseph Family,

In my bulletin article for the Feast of the Epiphany (the first weekend of January), I mentioned how I would be working to implement a new marriage preparation ministry called Witness to Love. You can explore the website here. I am happy to announce that the ministry is up and running. It is important for me to bring this to your attention because, as I mentioned in that bulletin article, the genius behind Witness to Love is that it revolves around the engaged couple choosing a mentor couple to walk with them, and this mentor couple can be any couple from the parish. If you are a married couple in the parish, that could be you. On the website, the creators of the program explain the importance of a mentor-based program this way:

In the most recent Synod [on the family] there was a call for a Marriage Catechumenate to address the reality of isolation and lack of parish involvement that is leading to so many divorces of today’s young couples. Witness to Love addresses this urgent pastoral issue so engaged couples experience the Church not as strangers, but as a committed and life-giving family of faith. Mentors who meet the basic requirements of this model become an essential part of the catechumenate team as the “trusted” means of communicating what must be revealed about marriage through Jesus to the engaged couple. Trust is required to believe that marriage is a means of salvation that should always be indissoluble, unitive, and procreative. It is within the trusted relationship between the mentors and the engaged that the marriage remains strong, is formed from love, is strengthened by good catechesis and is nourished by prayers and a sacramental life. Deep conversations, encounters with Christ, and renewal are available consistently for both the mentors and engaged couple.

If you are asked to be a mentor couple, and feel unprepared, do not be afraid. The program has everything you need. You do not need to be a theologian or expert in marriage counseling. The main requirement is that you are committed to supporting the engaged couple.

These are the other “basic requirements” for being a mentor couple. A mentor couple is a couple:

• Whom the engaged couple both admire.
• Whom the engaged couple both are comfortable with. 
• Who practices and is active in their Catholic Faith. 
• Who attends church regularly. 
• Who has been married in the Church for five years or more. 
• Who are in good standing with the Church (i.e., married in the Church). 
• Whom the engaged can look at and say “I would be happy to have a marriage like that,” or “I love the way they talk to each other and to their kids.” 
• Who attends the same parish where the engaged couple will be attending after the wedding. 
• Whom the engaged couple feels will hold them accountable, inspire them, and challenge them. 
• Who is, preferably, not an immediate relative. 
• Who will take their role seriously. 
• Who is not a peer or a “buddy.”

Dear St. Joseph Family,
I would like to share the “poem” by Howard Thurman that I mentioned in my homily last weekend. Feel free to cut it out and put it on your refrigerator or use as a bookmark.



I am really impressed by this idea of prolonging the Christmas message. Personally, I find it hard to move away from the Christmas season, but if you are like me, this truth, which Thurman speaks of, can help. The message, and the work, of Christmas continue because the work of Christmas is the work of salvation. This is why Jesus Christ was born, to save us, which, on the one hand, He did once and for all 2,000 years ago, never to be repeated. And yet, in a mysterious way, He calls us to experience this work anew, to be witnesses of it unfolding in our lives, and on a deeper level, to also be participants in His work. Not that we are to be the saviors of others, but rather, conduits of Christ’s saving love. Through our concrete acts of love (kindness, patience, mercy, etc.), which can be the ordinary, daily tasks we carry out, the love of God flows, which in turn draws people into an encounter with the Savior, much like what happened with the shepherds, who, after encountering the Christ child, went and proclaimed this news to their region (cf. Luke 2:20). This work is ongoing, and you are called to participate in it fully. Don’t lose sight of this mission now that the Christmas season has passed. There are many lost still to be found; many broken that need a healing touch; many hungry (both physically and spiritually) who need to be fed. Sometimes, these people are in our own homes.

Having shared this poem, I would like to also remind you of my four expectations for Mass for this new year, as I see them as simple ways to enter more fully into this mission of participating in the work of salvation. Mass is where Christ draws us most completely into this work, and so, we must prepare well. If we do, then we will have a more fruitful celebration of Mass, which in turn leads to a more fruitful sharing, and proclamation of the Gospel.

You can find my longer explanations of these expectations from the original bulletin on the first Sunday of Advent, which can be found on our website.

1. Read the readings sometime before Mass, preferably several times throughout the week. God speaks to us through Scripture, and He will say something to you as you read ahead.
2. Wear your “Sunday Best.” Be intentional about picking special clothes to wear to the most special thing you will do all week, Mass. Yes, Mass is the most special thing you will do all week!
3. Arrive to Mass early. At Mass, Christ enters into our midst and presides over our ceremony. We have to be prepared to welcome Him into our church and into our hearts. Try your best not to rush to Mass, but prepare a calm heart for Him with a few minutes of silent prayer in the church.
4. Participate boldly. This is the fruit of prayerful preparation. If we are conscious that Christ is leading us in worship, we won’t be able to resist singing and saying our responses with joy! Do not be shy about participating in Mass. The world does not need shy Catholics, but joyful ones.

With much love,
Fr. Mario

Dear St. Joseph Family,

My prayers are with you as we continue to forge further ahead into this surge of the most recent Covid variant, Omicron. I ask that you increase your prayers for health care workers especially. We have many of these valiant people in our community, and I know that the stress they are under at this time is a significant burden to bear. Pray for them, and reach out to them, offering words of encouragement, as well as other forms of support, like a homecooked meal. During this time, we may feel the temptation to further distance ourselves from one another, and while we may need to be more cautious when it comes to physical distancing, we should not sacrifice the social connections that are so vital to our wellbeing, connections that, at a minimum, can be easily maintained through the technology we all possess.

I would like to take this time to focus on a special group of people who have helped me through the pandemic since its beginning; you know them as the BRAT (Business Resumption Advisory Team). For almost two years now the BRAT has helped me wade through the plethora of public health and diocesan notifications and regulations in order to come up with protocols that fit our parish. They helped me design drive-through Communion, and the return to indoor Mass, which to my knowledge, did not result in one outbreak of Covid, unlike at some other religious institutions around the area. This was due to the BRAT’s diligence. What other parish had three separate seating sections, as we had at our outdoor Mass, to give at-risk persons a little extra buffer of protection?

It may seem counter-intuitive, but at this time, I have decided to bring the BRAT to a close. After nearly two years, I, like all of you, have developed a greater knowledge of the virus and of what steps we can take to mitigate its spread. With the measures we have in place, thanks to the BRAT’s assistance, and with the medical interventions available to us (vaccines/therapeutics, effective masking), we will make it through this surge.

This does not mean that I am letting my guard down. I will continue to monitor the circumstances closely, as well as consult with trusted individuals on a needs-be basis. Together, we will use the knowledge we have acquired to keep ourselves and others safe, and remember, the obligation to attend Mass does not apply to those who are sick. Stay home if you develop cold/flu-like symptoms.

Please join me in thanking the BRAT, all of whom not only volunteered for this ministry, but also either had another position in the parish, or volunteered to take on other volunteer positions. They are Eric Bertelsen (usher coordinator), Teresa Courville (usher at 9:30 Mass), Gia DeGrano (usher at 9:30 Mass), Anne Marie Fourre (director of Faith Formation), and Stan Schonberg (Business Manager). Thank you all!

Switching gears, I want to mention the Walk for Life, which will be held on Saturday, January 22. The Walk, which began in 2005, has steadily grown. Beginning with roughly 7,000 attendees, it has reached an estimated 50,000 in recent years. The message of protecting the life of the unborn is not going away, but is only getting stronger, as people come to see that abortion not only ends the life of an innocent individual, but also hurts the parents as well. As an educated, advanced society, we should be able to offer more choices for these parents, choices that seek to preserve life and prevent a lifetime of emotional pain. This is a tragic issue, but you should feel a sense of pride that many of the leaders of this movement are Catholics, especially Catholic women. These people are guided by our faith, which sheds light on the fundamental truth that all people, no matter how young or how old, deserve respect, since they are made in the image and likeness of God. All people have an inherent dignity and value that is priceless and must be preserved. Unfortunately, not everyone, not even all Catholics, are in accord with the Church’s teaching on this issue. Thus, I would like to suggest that, if you are in this group, you consider attending the Walk, which begins with a rally in Civic Center Plaza on Saturday the 22nd at 12:30 pm, followed by the walk to the Ferry Building on the Embarcadero. Come and experience the people (whose numbers may be diminished this year due to the Covid surge). Come see the families, the young adults, the women, who are there to pray for those who have been impacted by abortion, and for its end.

If you cannot make it to the Walk, or are not comfortable attending, then consider joining us for an evening of Eucharistic Adoration the week leading up to the Walk, or for silent Adoration on the day of. You might even look into the leading ministries of the pro-life movement, like Students for Life and Liveaction, or the life of some of the leaders of the pro-life movement, like Abby Johnson, a former employee of Planned Parenthood, who left that job after what she experienced there. Her testimony led to the creation of the movie, Unplanned, which is available on Amazon.

The Church teaches that this issue is the preeminent issue because it is a direct attack on human life. Therefore, let us pray for the courage to face this issue, and to do what we can to help make a difference, by prayer, and by reaching out to help parents who find themselves faced with an unplanned pregnancy. Three local ministries you can get involved with are 40 Days for Life, Birthright of Concord, and Options Health. These people and their child deserve our help, and we have much to offer them.

With much love,
Fr. Mario

Dear St. Joseph Family,

Happy Solemnity of the Baptism of the Lord. With this celebration comes the conclusion of the Christmas season. As I remarked in my bulletin letter for Christmas Day, it is a peculiar notion for the Church to include our Lord’s baptism in the season that focuses on his birth. And yet, this is what the Christmas season is all about. It is about orienting us to the reason why He was born, why he was sent to us by the Father, his mission, which is what we profess every Sunday in the Creed: “For us men, and for our salvation, He came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit, was incarnate of the Virgin Mary and became man.” He was born to save us. C.S. Lewis, the 20th century English author put it this way, that Christ’s coming as a child in the outpost of Bethlehem was akin to a ruler sneaking behind enemy lines to reclaim his rightful rule. And this did not happen right away; the Christ child needed time to grow and mature, but when the time had come, Christ was baptized as a sign that it was time to accomplish His mission of salvation.

As we celebrate our Lord’s baptism, I invite you to ponder the meaning of your own baptism. Pope Saint John Paul II once said that his baptism day was the most important day of his life. Why? Because this day marked a new beginning for us, and set us out on a new trajectory. For one, our baptism conformed us more to Christ as we became adopted sons and daughters of the father; we inherited His Holy Spirit and became His temple. What’s more, we became like Christ in that we too were given a mission, a mission that we hear proclaimed by the Prophet Isaiah from Sunday’s first reading: “Comfort, give comfort to my people” (Is 40:1). We are called and sent like Christ to be heralds of the Good News that God has come to us to comfort us, to shepherd us, his flock, whom he gathers, carries and leads with care (Is 40:11). This message is yours to share. It was tasked to you on the day of your baptism, that most important day of your life, which is why I always encourage people to find out the day of their baptism and to celebrate it. Mine is December 20th.

As your shepherd, I am always looking for ways for us to participate in the mission given to us by our Lord. Last year I notified the parish that we would be partnering with the Oakland Catholic Worker (OCW) by offering them the old rectory residence on San Antonio Avenue. I moved out of that residence about a year ago and moved into the residence above the offices in hopes to put that space to better use. In August OCW moved in; you may remember meeting the family one Sunday after Mass. Since then, the community there has discerned that the San Antonio house does not satisfy their housing needs. They relayed to me that it is a lovely residence, but it is just a little too far away from their community in Oakland. Thus, they will be moving out shortly. Although I was saddened to hear this, I believe this is the right move for OCW, and we will continue to support them however we can as they will now try to find housing closer to their headquarters.

Moving ahead, the plan is to place the San Antonio house on the market for any interested party to rent. But this does not mean that our charitable mission has come to an end, quite the opposite. Toward the end of November, the Welcome the Stranger ministry approached me and asked if they could temporarily use one of our apartments above the Blue Dot café to house a refugee family from Afghanistan, a family which had been evacuated from the Kabul Airport in August. I let them use the apartment for $1. This arrangement has worked out so well, that Welcome the Stranger has asked to rent the apartment long-term, for slightly more money.

As a parish, we have been blessed with these commercial and residential properties; I am not sure of any other parish that has something like this. We could take full advantage of these and rent them to obtain maximum profit, but our mission as a Church calls us to something different. Our faith teaches us that material goods are not ends in themselves, but are to be used for the good of other people. We are called to be stewards of these things, of property and money so that they can further the proclamation of the Gospel. God gives them to us so that He can help us to bring that mission to fulfillment, to comfort the people who are in need, as Christ comforts us.

With much love,
Fr. Mario

P.S. As the Coronavirus continues to surge, the recommendation to wear N95 or KN95 masks is becoming more prominent. Besides those, surgical masks are recommended. Cloth masks do not provide as much protection as these. Consider making the change to a more protective mask, as well as taking a supplement of Vitamin C, Vitamin D and Zinc (in consultation with your doctor).

Dear St. Joseph Family,

Happy New Year! The new year is always an exciting time because of the implied potential for all of us to make a new start. Although a new start can happen at any time during the year, there is something about a new calendar year that inspires us to make the necessary changes; to eat better, to exercise more, to turn off the tv and read a book periodically. The question is, will we stick with these resolutions? As we make these important changes in our daily lives, consider making some spiritual changes as well. Don’t just eat better food at mealtime, come to daily Mass if you can and be nourished by the Bread of Life. Don’t just exercise your body, exercise your spirit with increased daily prayer; start small, five minutes a day. You can try sitting in a quiet place, and lighting some candles before a crucifix or an icon, and simply repeating in your mind the name of Jesus. This is an ancient practice that I practice in my daily prayers. Lastly, get involved, volunteer for something, join the Knights of Columbus or St. Vincent de Paul, or even usher at Mass. When I finished college, I began to participate more at church, attending daily Mass and singing as a cantor; this changed my life for the better. More frequent participation in the life of the Church, in the Sacraments, in prayer, will change your life too.

As we enter into the new year, I have two ministries I would like to start to help our parish grow, which I will need your help to get going. The first is called Alpha. Alpha was developed in England and has grown worldwide. It is an evangelization ministry that takes place over 11-weeks, consisting of a meal, followed by a short video on the faith, and concludes with a discussion. Alpha provides a casual, non-judgmental environment for people to explore Christianity, and can take place in the parish, homes, cafes, or restaurants.

The second ministry is a marriage preparation program called Witness to Love. Marriage prep is one of my favorite things to do as a priest, but couples preparing for marriage need guidance from married couples. Witness to love does this, and in a very unique way, by having the engaged couple choose a mentor couple who will walk with them through the program. Parishes that have implemented Witness to Love have seen much growth and invigoration, not just in the couples preparing for marriage, but in the entire community, since mentor couples are chosen from any willing couple in the parish.

These programs will keep us busy growing spiritually, but we have to continue to grow physically, and by that, I mean the physical property. We have several maintenance projects on the horizon in addition to the replacement of the furnaces and the ongoing sanctuary/altar project. This project will resume shortly with a second round of presentations for those who are new to our parish. Our sound system project hit a snag when we found out that the speakers would be delayed due to the microchip shortage. We expect to resume work on updating the sound system in the Spring. The roofs on the belltower and the office/rectory have leaks, and maintenance will be taking place to fix these. As for now, I am making periodic trips into the attic to empty buckets of water after it rains. It goes without saying that this will be a busy new year. At one point, this parish had a facilities committee; I think now is the time to begin that again, and so, if you have experience in building construction/maintenance/contracting, I welcome your assistance.

When you have a 100-year-old building, you have issues like these, which all require significant amounts of money. If only we had a wise man to bring us a gift of gold now as he did for Jesus at His birth. Alas, we do not; but we have each other. And so, I end this letter at the beginning of the year with a word of thanks. Thank you for giving so generously to the parish. Your generosity allows us to maintain this historic building that so many have called home for so long, and that many more will be able to call home for years to come. I look forward to growing with you spiritually in the new year. Happy New Year!

With much love,
Fr. Mario