Tuesday, May 24, 2005
Dear Parishioners and Visitors,

On Tuesday of last week, May 17th, I celebrated the 30th anniversary of my ordination at the 7:30 AM mass and we all had coffee and ginger-honey coffee cake afterwards. So my thoughts have naturally had a kind of reminiscing quality. Back in “the good old days” the friars found an ordination happening somewhere and just got at the end of the line. The two of us friars ordained that year got at the end of the line at the San Francisco diocesan ordinations, and since I’m from San Francisco it worked out pretty well for me. Immediately after the ceremony my family and friends headed to St. Anthony’s in the City for a reception and before I even got inside, some stranger on the street said, “Father, could you hear my confession?” Caught! Part of the bishop’s instruction at an ordination contains the words referring to scripture, “Believe what you read, teach what you believe, practice what you teach.”

All of the baptized people of God are baptized into Christ Jesus, who is the priest. I understand the ordained priesthood to be a ministry for the church and the priesthood of all the baptized to be a priesthood for the world. So I would pass on the bishop’s instruction to you, with a bit of a Franciscan twist. The “twist” is this: we have three books given us by God, the Book of Scripture, the Book of Creation, and the Book of our own personal experience. They kind of form a triptych style book for us. And since forgiveness and reconciliation has been so linked in my own life, I’d ask you to link the forgiving and removing divisions in you own bringing Christ to our world. Please pray we may encourage, inspire, and enliven each other in our mirroring the risen Jesus to the community of the church and to the world.

Peace and all Good,
Fr. Richard Juzix, O.F.M., Pastor Monday, May 09, 2005
Dear Parishioners and Visitors,

This weekend we celebrate Mother’s Day and we celebrate the Ascension of the Lord. At all the Masses, we will celebrate the Feast, and bless our mothers. The word “bless” has two meanings in our tradition. To bless means asking God to look with special favor on someone or something; and to bless means to give thanks to God for someone or something. Sometimes to bless means both at the same time. On Mother’s Day we do give thanks to God for our mothers, both living and dead, and we ask God to watch over them, and to fill them with joy and well-being. In Great Britain and Canada, Mother’s Day is called “Mothering Day.” We also pray for and give thanks to God for everyone who “mothered” or “mothers” us, the people who nurture us, encourage us, help us grow, urge us to soar and to fly.

One of the ancient titles of the Church is “Mother Church.” St. Cyprian of Carthage, who was martyred in 258, often referred to “mother church” in his writings as though it were already in common usage. So let us pray for and ask God’s blessing on our Holy Mother Church on this Mother’s Day, that after gazing up into the sky (in all the wonderful ways we wonder and dream) we can go about doing the work given to us…to proclaim the good news to all creation.

Happy Mother’s Day to all,
Fr. Richard Juzix, O.F.M., Pastor