Emmaus Blog

Tuesday, September 15, 2026:  What is Happening to Our Humanity? As war, division, and suffering fill our daily lives, Elaine B. Holtz asks what is happening to our humanity—and whether compassion, cooperation, and respect for one another can point us toward a different future. By Elaine B. Holtz Lately I find myself asking a question I never thought I would have to ask: What is happening to humanity? Every day we see images of war, children killed, families driven from their homes, people struggling to obtain health care, and communities facing an uncertain future. We seem to spend unimaginable sums preparing for conflict while too many people lack the basic necessities that make life worth living. I don't understand it. We often describe ourselves as a nation built on faith and moral values. Whatever our individual beliefs, many of us recognize the timeless wisdom of Jesus' words: "Love God with all your heart and love your Neighbor as Yourself.” Imagine if those princip...

September 13, 2026: Please join us today for our Emmaus Community celebration in person or on Zoom!  Emmaus Celebration for Sunday, September 13, 2026: Grateful for the World Dear Sisters and Brothers: Please join us today for our Emmaus Community celebration in person or on Zoom! In person: We meet in Classroom 8 of the Christ Church United Methodist 1717 Yulupa Avenue, Santa Rosa 95405 We begin at 3:45 with a joyful and exuberant welcoming. Everyone is Welcome! Or Join us on Zoom using this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/5193158573?omn=87234625262 Passcode: 1234 Or start Zoom and enter  Meeting ID: 519 315 8573 Passcode: 1234 Emmaus Celebration for Sunday, September 13, 2026: Grateful for the World Nancy: This afternoon’s we celebrate relationships - relationship to each other, to our neighbors to the earth we share with all its creatures. We take a few moments to take a deep breath and contemplate our interconnected world. Our liturgy reminds us to live in gratitude –...

 Emmaus Celebration for Sunday, September 13, 2026: Grateful for the World Dear Sisters and Brothers: Please join us tomorrow for our Emmaus Community celebration in person or on Zoom! In person: We meet in Classroom 8 of the Christ Church United Methodist 1717 Yulupa Avenue, Santa Rosa 95405 We begin at 3:45 with a joyful and exuberant welcoming. Everyone is Welcome! Or Join us on Zoom using this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/5193158573?omn=87234625262 Passcode: 1234 Or start Zoom and enter  Meeting ID: 519 315 8573 Passcode: 1234 Emmaus Celebration for Sunday, September 13, 2026: Grateful for the World Nancy: This afternoon’s we celebrate relationships - relationship to each other, to our neighbors to the earth we share with all its creatures. We take a few moments to take a deep breath and contemplate our interconnected world. Our liturgy reminds us to live in gratitude – to be grateful for our family, friends and our community.  How we relate to all of creation is a...

Friday, September 11, 2026:  9/11 Remembrance at  St. Patrick's Cathedral:  Written by  Christopher Hale From: Letters from Leo — the American Pope & US Politics Biden, Mamdani, and Hochul Join Archbishop Hicks’s 9/11 Mass. Trump and Vance Decline.  The White House declined the invitation from Pope Leo XIV’s new archbishop of New York. I interviewed both Mamdani and Biden, who told me his health is doing well. To read the full article please use this link: https://open.substack.com/pub/lettersfromleo/p/biden-mamdani-and-hochul-join-archbishop?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web Sep 10, 2026 Archbishop Ronald Hicks most impressive move on Thursday came before a word of the homily was spoken. He invited a Muslim mayor whom a Catholic pressure group wanted barred from the building, a Catholic former president, a Catholic governor, and the Republican president and vice president, and he put no conditions on any of them. When he arrived in New Yor...

Wednesday, September 9, 2026: In Praise of the Earth  by John O'Donohue Let us bless The imagination of the Earth. That knew early the patience To harness the mind of time, Waited for the seas to warm, Ready to welcome the emergence Of things dreaming of voyaging Among the stillness of land. And how light knew to nurse The growth until the face of the Earth Brightened beneath a vision of color. When the ages of ice came And sealed the Earth inside An endless coma of cold, The heart of the Earth held hope, Storing fragments of memory, Ready for the return of the sun. Let us thank the Earth That offers ground for home And holds our feet firm To walk in space open To infinite galaxies. Let us salute the silence And certainty of mountains: Their sublime stillness, Their dream-filled hearts. The wonder of a garden Trusting the first warmth of spring Until its black infinity of cells Becomes charged with dream; Then the silent, slow nurture Of the seed’s self, coaxing it To trust the act...

 Saturday, September 5, 2026: The Sacredness of Our Work By Matthew Fox When we do good work, we become midwives of grace and therefore priests in the fullest or archetypal sense of that word. Our work can be a way of bringing a sense of the sacred back to what is too often a flat and violent or uncaring world, one that is often out of touch with its own specialness and sacredness. The universe itself is busy, always busy, at doing its good work. It has been so for 13.8 billion years according to today’s science. We, our Earth and the creatures we share the Earth with, are recipients of this Great Work. Thomas Berry teaches that when a sense of the sacred has been lost, there is only one remedy: To rediscover the sacredness of the universe and our place in it. Can we recover this sense of the sacred? Is our work—for which we apprentice, go to school, struggle for years to be adept at— an avenue to the sacred? Along with the universe in which we live, move, have our being, and which...