Emmaus Blog

Saturday, July 11, 2026: Join us Tomorrow :  Sunday July 12, 2026 for our Emmaus Celebration.  Liturgy (the work of the people) by Denise and Patti We start at 3:45 with a joyful community greeting followed by liturgy at 4:00 Yummy Potluck following the liturgy Join us In person at Christ Church United Methodist in Classroom 8 1717 Yulupa Avenue, Santa Rosa, California 95403 or Join us on Zoom using this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/5193158573?omn=81768824354 Passcode: 1234 Meeting ID: 519 315 8573 Passcode: 1234 By Phone: One tap mobile +16699006833,,5193158573# US (San Jose) +16694449171,,5193158573# US Theme: Witness Presence Denise: It has been almost 2 months since Pentecost. I’d like us to check in whether the Spirit is still with us. So many of our religious upbringing entailed talking about dogma and rituals but little about experiencing our connection to God. So today, let’s start our service with a bit of an experiential exercise. Many of you may be familiar with ...

Friday, July 10, 2026: Announcements and a reflection on the Beatitudes: " The Beatitudes remind us that blessing and justice are inextricably linked." Through Jesus’s example, we learn that the Beatitudes are a vocation for our lives.  Jesus acts. He doesn’t simply speak blessing; he lives it. Through his words, his hands, his feet, his life, he brings about the very blessings he promises. Insisting that pain in and of itself is neither holy nor redemptive in the Christian story, Jesus works to bring healing, abundance, liberation, and joy to everyone who crosses his path. This is the vocation we are called to. The work of sharing the blessings we enjoy is not the work of a distant someday. It is the work we’re called to now. The Beatitudes remind us that blessing and justice are inextricably linked. If it’s blessing we want, then it’s justice we must pursue. Announcements: Emmaus is forming a Care & Concern Committee Our Emmaus Community is growing older and may be in n...

Thursday, July 9, 2026:  Sister Thea Bowman: the woman who made the church sing. In 1989, a Black Catholic nun sat in a wheelchair facing 250 white bishops. She was dying. They were losing her people. The setting was Seton Hall University in New Jersey, and the audience was the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. The problem was a quiet exodus: the Catholic Church in America was bleeding Black parishioners. For decades, the liturgy had remained strictly European and the hymns rigid. The physical space of the mass demanded a quiet, restrained reverence that left no room for the cultural expression of Black Americans. To many, the pews felt like a foreign country. Sister Thea Bowman knew exactly what the church asked her people to leave at the door. Born Bertha Bowman in 1937, her grandfather had been enslaved. Her father was a physician and her mother a teacher, anchoring a vibrant Black community in Canton, Mississippi, that was systematically locked out of white institut...

 Wednesday, July 8, 2026: 4 Announcements! Count 'em 4! Announcement #1: Emmaus is forming a Care & Concern Committee Our Emmaus Community is growing older and may be in need of accompaniment that is caring and compassionate. We are all community. All kin.Forming this new committee is an acknowledgement of our needs but also of our shared love for one another. It’s purpose is  to provide practical, emotional and spiritual support during times of crisis, transition and celebration. This is facilitated by sharing information so that needs and concerns are known to the larger community and support can be offered. It includes working with David to publish updates through the community blog. Individual privacy is always respected.  The response can be an offer of physical help, such as a ride to the doctor, a text, email, card, or phone call to let someone know you are thinking about them.  Coordinator:  Marcie Dahlen 303-330-2804 marciedahlen@me.com Announcement...

Tuesday, July 7, 2026: Important Announcements and a Reflection on the 250th   Announcement #1: Emmaus is forming a Care & Concern Committee Our Emmaus Community is growing older and may be in need of accompaniment that is caring and compassionate. We are all community. All kin.Forming this new committee is an acknowledgement of our needs but also of our shared love for one another. It’s purpose is  to provide practical, emotional and spiritual support during times of crisis, transition and celebration. This is facilitated by sharing information so that needs and concerns are known to the larger community and support can be offered. It includes working with David to publish updates through the community blog. Individual privacy is always respected.  The response can be an offer of physical help, such as a ride to the doctor, a text, email, card, or phone call to let someone know you are thinking about them.  Coordinator:  Marcie Dahlen 303-330-2804 marciedah...

Monday, July 6, 2026: Jesus Came for Everyone The brilliant British missiologist Lesslie Newbigin said these words [in Genesis 12:1–4] addressed the greatest heresy (or dangerous idea) in the history of monotheism. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed .- Genesis 12:1–4  Because of this scripture many people understand being blessed by God as an exclusive matter , Newbigin said, as if God blesses some to the exclusion of others. But no, Newbigin says. From the very beginning in the creation story in Genesis 1, when God blesses all creation - both day and night, both land and sea, both plant and animal, both animal and human - God’s blessings have been universal, because that is who God is and how God lives, an overflowing fountain of blessing. When God calls Abraham (then ...