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Sunday, April 19, 2026: Emmaus:
 From Hopelessness to the Kin-dom of God By Yunuen Trujillo on April 19, 2026 “. . . We were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel . . . it is now the third day since this took place.” (Luke 24:20–21) If I asked you today how your heart feels about the state of the world, would you say hopeful or hopeless? If I asked whether you believe that women, the divorced, LGBTQ people and immigrants will soon be fully celebrated by the Church, what would you say? And if I told you that the Kingdom of God is already here, would you recognize it? In today’s Gospel reading, we meet two disciples on the road to Emmaus,  walking away from Jerusalem, walking away from what they had hoped for, walking in disappointment. They are downcast, discouraged, carrying grief. “We were hoping,” they say—past tense.  They had a vision of what the Messiah was supposed to be: a victorious king, a political liberator, a warrior who would defeat enemies and restore ...
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Tuesday, April 14, 2026: Update from Victoria regarding the Upcoming Retreat on April 25th, 2026: Please note: For those of us who will be attending by Zoom, here's the link (which is different from the link we usually use for our Sunday liturgies). Victoria also notes it in her revised update below. https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86104757626
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Monday, April 13, 2026: The wind blows where it wills, and you can hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes; so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." I love this reading and reflection because it is so human to ask questions --  especially at night when it's dark and the wind blows... we are all Nicodemus. There was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. He came to Jesus at night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one can do these signs that you are doing unless God is with him." Jesus answered and said to him, "Amen, amen, I say to you, unless one is born from above, he cannot see the Kingdom of God."  Nicodemus said to him, "How can a person once grown old be born again? Surely he cannot reenter his mother's womb and be born again, can he?" Jesus answered, "Amen, amen, I say to you, unless one is born of water and Spirit he ca...
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Sunday, April 12,   2026: Please join us Today - Sunday the 12th of April for our Emmaus Community Celebration.  We start at 3:45 with a community greeting followed by liturgy at 4:00 Potluck following the liturgy Join us In person at Christ Church United Methodist 1717 Yulupa Avenue, Santa Rosa, California 95403 or on Zoom using this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/5193158573?omn=87812850443 Passcode is: 1234 Or start Zoom from your browser and type in the Meeting ID and Passcode Meeting ID: 519 315 8573 Passcode: 1234 Emmaus Liturgy Celebration 2nd Sunday of Easter, April 12, 2026  Opening Song:     We have come to the Seashore   Refrain: O Lord, with your eyes set upon me, gently smiling, You have spoken my name; all I long for I have found by the water, at your side, I will seek other shores. Senor, me has mirado a los ojos, sonriendo has dicho mi nombre, en la arena he  dejado mi barca, junto a Ti buscare otro mar. 1. Lord, you have come...
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Saturday, April 11, 2026: Please join us tomorrow  - Sunday the 12th of April for our Emmaus Community Celebration.  We start at 3:45 with a community greeting followed by liturgy at 4:00 Potluck following the liturgy Join us In person at Christ Church United Methodist 1717 Yulupa Avenue, Santa Rosa, California 95403 or on Zoom using this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/5193158573?omn=87812850443 Passcode is: 1234 Or start Zoom from your browser and type in the Meeting ID and Passcode Meeting ID: 519 315 8573 Passcode: 1234 Emmaus Liturgy Celebration 2nd Sunday of Easter,  April 12, 2026  Opening Song:   We have come to the Seashore  Refrain : O Lord, with your eyes set upon me, gently smiling, You have spoken my name; all I long for I have found by the water, at your side, I will seek other shores. Senor, me has mirado a los ojos, sonriendo has dicho mi nombre, en la arena he  dejado mi barca, junto a Ti buscare otro mar. 1. Lord, you have come t...
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Friday, April 10, 2026: Trump's threats force Catholics to decide if we will be complicit. Editorial by NCR Editorial Staff They will go down as three of the most reckless and defining days in the history of the U.S. presidency, an anti-Triduum that began on Easter Sunday morning. Announcing to the world that we were willing to annihilate a civilization, Donald Trump led our descent into corporate evil. Those days and those words, fashioning an America we had not previously known, may also hold the potential for some long-term consequences that Trump could never have anticipated. Those days and words have brought us to yet another point in which we confront who we are as Americans and, more important for the Catholic community, who we are as believers. Some indications of the answers to those questions are already in play.  In his most outrageous tirade to date, Trump managed to inspire an unlikely coalition openly opposed to his intent and to him, personally, that crossed all mann...
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Thursday, April 9, 2026:  Scripture can never, as Hegseth does, be marshaled to sanctify hatred In the aftermath of U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's recent Pentagon prayer and Pope Leo XIV's Palm Sunday homily, much of the public commentary has settled into a familiar framework. A conservative official invoked God in the context of war and a supposedly liberal pope rebuked him. The exchange is then cast as a political disagreement, or at most as an instance of religion being deployed on both sides of a geopolitical conflict. This account is inadequate. What is unfolding is not a political dispute but a theological one, and its terms are ancient, not modern. In order to understand the public dialogue taking place between Hegseth and Leo, we need to turn to St. Augustine. To begin, it is essential to note that Hegseth's Pentagon prayer, widely circulated in recent days, is not original — either to him or to the chaplain who he claims sent it to him. It is, instead, a com...
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