Emmaus Blog

January 1, 2026: New Year's Day! Happy New Year. May 2026 bring us more light, wisdom and willingness to engage in good trouble! On World Peace Day, the funding for war roars ahead Jan. 1 is marked each year as the World Day of Peace, a tradition begun by Pope Paul VI in 1967 and continued by every pope since. Across decades and vastly different global moments, each has insisted on the same foundational truth: Peace is not simply the absence of war, but the long and demanding work of building justice, protecting human dignity, fostering dialogue and addressing the conditions that give rise to violence. Now in its 59th year, the World Day of Peace was intended by Paul VI to serve as a moment of moral reckoning, not a ceremonial pause — an annual opportunity to examine whether public choices align with professed values. That question needs to be asked urgently today: How have we fared? Where are we now? Government priorities do not remain abstract. They are translated, year after yea...

Tuesday, December 30, 2025:  The world no longer trusts Christians who “love Jesus” but do not seem to love anyone else. He asked us several times to follow him, and never once to worship him. His only command: Love one another. We close our 2025 Daily Meditations reflecting on what “being salt and light” means for all people of good will. Father Richard Rohr writes: Have you ever noticed that the expression “the light of the world” is used to describe the Christ (John 8:12), while Jesus also applies the same phrase to us? (Matthew 5:14:) “You are the light of the world.” Apparently, light is less something we see directly, and more something by which we see all other things. Light reflects off objects and we see them - we see colors and textures and our fellow humans.  Jesus Christ seems quite happy to serve as a conduit, rather than a provable conclusion. (If the latter was the case, the incarnation of Jesus would have happened after the invention of the camera and the video...

Monday, December 29, 2025: Invitation for Tomorrow: The Poor Save Us with MEGAN MCKENNA. RSVP to Nancy Hello Everyone: Our Education Committee will present the 2nd video of a 4-part series on  Tuesday (tomorrow)  Dec. 30th,  1:00pm at Nancy and Bob’s.   Please  RSVP to Nancy at RNMCFAR1938@yahoo.com or text or call 707-280-4705.   Below is info on Meghan McKenna, the speaker, and a brief description of her talk. Contemplative Summit Day 1 Replay: The Poor Save Us  featuring MEGAN MCKENNA What if true wealth isn't what you keep - but what you give away? Join Megan McKenna as she invites us to rethink wealth, spirituality, and community through a contemplative lens. As she describes it, contemplation is a "long loving look at reality." especially the hard truths of poverty, injustice, and suffering Discover how being truly seen-and learning t o see others as God sees them-breaks down barriers o f "us versus them" and calls u s into compassionat...

Sunday , December 28, 2025: Please join us for our Emmaus Celebration  Today! We begin with a greeting at 1:45 followed by our Liturgy at 2:00 In person at Christ Church United Methodist 1717 Yulupa, Santa Rosa   Or On Zoom  Please join our Zoom Meeting using this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/5193158573?omn=82142452838 Passcode: 1234 Or start Zoom in your browser, Join meeting and type in the Meeting ID: Meeting ID: 519 315 8573 Passcode: 1234 One tap mobile for calling in: +16699006833,,5193158573# US (San Jose) +16694449171,,5193158573# US Emmaus Liturgy for December 28, 2025 Welcome: Dan Vrooman: John Steinbeck hid in a migrant camp under a fake name – just to see if America would treat him like one of its own. It didn’t. It was 1936, the heart of the Great Depression. Steinbeck kept hearing stories – families from Oklahoma and Texas, farmers who had lost everything to dust and drought, flooding into California in broken trucks. They came chasing a dream, but w...

Saturday, December 27, 2025: Please join us for our Emmaus Celebration  Tomorrow. We begin with a greeting at 1:45 followed by our Liturgy at 2:00 In person at Christ Church United Methodist 1717 Yulupa, Santa Rosa   Or On Zoom  Please join our Zoom Meeting using this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/5193158573?omn=82142452838 Passcode: 1234 Or start Zoom in your browser, Join meeting and type in the Meeting ID: Meeting ID: 519 315 8573 Passcode: 1234 One tap mobile for calling in: +16699006833,,5193158573# US (San Jose) +16694449171,,5193158573# US Emmaus Liturgy for December 28, 2025 Welcome: Dan Vrooman: John Steinbeck hid in a migrant camp under a fake name – just to see if America would treat him like one of its own. It didn’t. It was 1936, the heart of the Great Depression. Steinbeck kept hearing stories – families from Oklahoma and Texas, farmers who had lost everything to dust and drought, flooding into California in broken trucks. They came chasing a dream, b...

 Friday, December 26, 2025:  Seeing in the Dark To Know the Dark To go in the dark with a light is to know the light. To know the dark, go dark. Go without sight, and find that the dark, too, blooms and sings, and is traveled by dark feet and dark wings. - Wendell Berry SEEING IN THE DARK Our year begins in the dark, as do so many other generative processes. Seeds and bulbs grow in the soil of the earth, and embryos form in the womb. Animals and plants hibernate. Those who desperately needed a message of liberation in a world of conflict and power, like the shepherds and magi, were in the dark when they heard the good news.  In early Greek healing centers, the first thing doctors had patients do was bathe and then sleep. We all need sleep and renewal in the darkness, which is essential to our well-being. Home was described to me as a place you can walk about in the dark! We use the dark as shorthand for anything that scares us. But we can redeem the true meaning of dark...