St Bernardine of Siena Catholic Church & School

St B school

Preschool

Dear Fellow Parishioners,

These four Sundays in a row – Ascension, Pentecost, Trinity (today) and Corpus Christi, are a challenge to preachers. Each of these Sundays focus on a belief of our faith and they invite a theological explanation, which of course can easily lead to boring preaching!

Since these are also mysteries of our faith, preachers like myself, attempt to explain them, which of course, being mysteries, is impossible. How does one explain the Trinity, a fundamental truth of Christianity? It challenges us mathematically. There are three persons in one God, the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit. Each one is God but there is only one God. Yet the Christian story is that God the Father loved us so much that he sent his only Son to show us how to live and how to die. Then when the Son returns to the Father (Ascension), the Spirit is sent (Pentecost) to be with his people. That presence is nourished in God’s people through the Eucharist (Corpus Christi) and that is the mystery (Trinity) that is our God.

Faith should always be seeking understanding and some analogies can be helpful in throwing some light on the mystery of the Trinity. At one time I really liked the water/ice/steam image. There is only one H2O but it can take different forms and fill different purposes. Today I prefer the daughter/wife/mother image – one person but alive and relating in very different ways. Yes, our God is one and he loves us very much. May his blessing be with you today and always in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen

God bless you,
Father McNamara

Bulletin

Coming up
@ St. B's

Dinner with Friends
Sunday May 19

after the 5:30pm Mass

Food Gathering:
June 15-16
Please bring your non-perishable items to benefit the Guadalupe Center food pantry.

Adult Faith Enrichment

Bible Study Groups Info

Parish Forms

Prayer For Priestly Vocations
Prayed at the Ordination of Fr. Eben McDonald and Fr. Nabor Rios on June 3, 2012

Father, in every generation you provide ministers of Christ and the Church. We come before you now, asking that you call forth more men to serve our Archdiocese in the ministerial priesthood.
Give us priests who will lead and guide your holy people gathered by Word and Sacrament. Bless us with priestly vocations so that we can continue to be a truly Eucharistic Church, strengthened in our discipleship of Jesus Christ, your Only Son.
Raise up, we pray, men who are generous in their service, willing to offer their lives and all their gifts for your greater glory and for the good of your people.
We make our prayer in the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, through Christ, Our Lord.

Amen