Monday, January 5, 2026Announcement about our dear sister Mary Dixon and a reflection on Salt and Light

Dear Sisters and Brothers of the Emmaus Community: We recently lost Mary Dixon, one of the brightest and kindest lights at St. Leo's, Emmaus and Saint Andrew Presbyterian Church in Sonoma where she and her husband Tom found a spiritual home. Here they are with us at St. Patrick's in Kenwood along with Jenny Janssen. 

We will miss Mary, her spirit and her commitment to creating a better world. (This is the only photo I could find of Mary. It was taken in 2014. If you have others and want to share them please email photos to me at kivamedia@gmail.com.) Thank you -- David

Mary’ Dixon’s Celebration of Life service is January 31 at 1:30 PM at Saint Andrew Presbyterian  Church Sonoma, 16290 Arnold Drive, Sonoma, California 95476

Carlos Rodríguez, founder of The Happy Givers nonprofit based in Puerto Rico, shares how he was challenged to be salt and light for an elderly man:

Don Héctor was at the hospital. He had pneumonia and it was terrible.... While he was at the hospital, a combination of my fear and my pride led me to not going to visit Don Héctor for a week as he was nearing the end of his life.

Don Héctor was an invitation that I was ignoring, so after a week of this internal struggle—of not being salt, of not being light — I challenged myself with some stern internal pastoring, some loving correction. I felt the invitation of the Spirit, not as accusation, not as condemnation, but as a frustration that became an invitation.

I went to see Don Héctor at the hospital. He was so happy to see us, and he immediately began to share the reality of being an elderly person in a hospital in Puerto Rico where we’re lacking doctors and nurses. The main thing he was frustrated with was the fact that he hadn’t had access to a shower for that whole week, and he took great pride in his appearance. 

I had this moment where his frustration became my invitation. I thought, “Okay, well, it’s time to give him a shower.” I was not honest with Don Héctor that day. I lied to him, and I said, “Don’t worry about it. I’m a pro at this. That’s part of what we do at the nonprofit.”

I took off his clothes, asked the nurse to show me what to do, and led him to a shower that was available. In what was quite possibly the most beautiful, the most awkward, and the holiest moment of my last year, I gave Don Héctor a shower. From the shame, it moved to a connection that was so meaningful to me. That in his most vulnerable moment, I was able to honor him….

There’s nothing like being salt and light. As Father Richard has said many times, “The best criticism of the bad is the practice of the good.” And giving Don Héctor a shower and spending time with him was the good….

We keep finding God in those showers. We keep finding God in these [things] that remind us of our childhood and our brokenness, but that also invite us into generational healing and transformation. There are so many good ethics and teachings and books, and there are so many good people speaking into microphones, but there’s nothing like just being present with the ones who need presence.

And so, for Don Héctor, who passed away a couple of weeks after that shower, and for every elderly person that we serve, and for every person in your community who is marginalized, who has been abandoned, who has been rejected, the invitation is to be salt and light. Salt, which both gives flavor and preserves, and light, which always shines brightest in the darkness.