Emmaus Blog

Friday, October 9, 2026:  Across US, Catholics take to streets as momentum builds for immigrant solidarity On the last Sunday of September, Catholics marched through the city of St. Louis in support of migrants and refugees. The same day, St. Louis Archbishop Mitchell Rozanski for the first time called on U.S. leaders to end "indiscriminate detention and mass deportation." For Rozanski, the urgency was local and painfully concrete. He pointed to Nixon Perez and Glendy Gonzalez de la Cruz, a Guatemalan couple who had lived in the St. Louis area before Perez was deported and Gonzalez followed him with their family. Rozanski said the couple was later found murdered in Guatemala, their infant nearby in a severely dehydrated condition. The archbishop said their deaths deeply affected the parish community that had known them.  "I'm so proud of our pastors who are ministering in immigrant communities who are facing such difficult conditions because of the crackdown on immig...

Thursday, October 8, 2026:  Bring out Your Books -- There's a Book Sale happening and JoAnn needs your old books this Sunday! Bring out Your Books -- There's a Book Sale happening and JoAnn needs your old books this Sunday! Dear Sisters and Brothers of Emmaus - This announcement is late ... my fault for letting it slip by. From JoAnn Consiglieri: If our Emmaus members would like to liberate themselves from some books they've already read or have thought "Wow is that bbook still here gathering dust...  Well look no further than to Sonoma United Methodist Church.  The Church is having a Book Sale and are collecting books until October 12. JoAnn says "I will be happy to collect books from those bringing them to Emmaus on Sunday, October 11 if anyone would like to give me books.  See you on the 11th!" 

Wednesday, October 7, 2026:  Bring out Your Books -- There's a Book Sale happening and JoAnn needs your old books this Sunday! Dear Sisters and Brothers of Emmaus - This announcement is late ... my fault for letting it slip by. From JoAnn Consiglieri: If our Emmaus members would like to liberate themselves from some books they've already read or have thought "Wow is that bbook still here gathering dust...  Well look no further than to Sonoma United Methodist Church.  The Church is having a Book Sale and are collecting books until October 12. JoAnn says "I will be happy to collect books from those bringing them to Emmaus on Sunday, October 11 if anyone would like to give me books.  See you on the 11th!" 

Tuesday, October 6, 2026:  Francis and the Natural World: Rediscovering Our Connection to Nature  The sacramental nature of the world was largely lost until its more recent rediscovery by seers that we usually think of as “secular,” “mere” nature mystics, poets, and artists: people like Chief Seattle, John Muir, Rachel Carson, Walt Whitman, Wendell Berry, Annie Dillard , and others.  We Catholics ended up limiting “sacramentals” to things like religious medals, blessed candles, and holy water, instead of honoring the inherent holiness of the earth ores, beeswax, and water that actually formed them. Please think about that! [1]   We limited the official church sacraments to seven (six for women, subtracting the sacrament of Holy Orders) when “there should be seven hundred,” as an old man once said to me in Tanzania. We ended up actually desacralizing God’s world without realizing it.  The people we called pagans and animists actually had a head start on us, ...

 Monday, October 5, 2026: : March with Us! OCTOBER 10, 11, 12! SONOMA COUNTY SANCTUARY COALITION Dear Friends and Allies, We are happy to invite you and your organization to participate in the Sonoma County Three-Day Walk For Immigrant Rights, on October 10-12, from Petaluma to Cloverdale! As you know, Sonoma County still has much to do to respond to the attacks against immigrants, including stopping the Sheriff from continuing to turn people over to ICE, offering emergency aid to those who aren’t able to access State or Federal safety nets, and ensuring that immigrant surveillance through General Dynamics Corp. and flock cameras stops.  Cities in Sonoma County must also do more to defend the rights of immigrants. For these reasons, we are putting together a strong coalition of individuals and organizations who agree that we must show the urgency of this moment by organizing a more dramatic action. The demands of the Walk (“Caminata”) are: ● The Sheriff must stop collab...

Sunday, October 4, 2026: We Celebrate the feast of St. Francis of Assisi: “ Preach the Gospel at all times, and if necessary, use words.” Reflection by Sister of Mercy Kathleen Mary O’Connell, RSM Who is this man whose death 800 years ago is still being celebrated today? Why do ceramic statues of him decorate gardens around the globe? How is it that his feast day is the ending point for the Season of Creation each year? Just who is Francis of Assisi and why is he still so impactful for us today?  We have known the story of Francis since we were little children. But it is good to reflect upon it from time to time. To find the answers to my questions, I went back to an old favorite book about Francis, “I, Francis” by Carlo Carretto (published in 1982). It reopened my eyes to the spirituality of Francis that extends beyond the image of a garden ornament. As a result of his conversion, Francis saw the world with new eyes - God’s eyes. God was all around him, in every created being, eac...