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We acknowledge that the land on which this diocese is built is the traditional territory of the Paiute, Kawaiisu, Tubatulabal, Yokuts, Chumash, Miwok, Chukchansi, Western Mono, and Me-Wuk people.
Let’s take a moment to honor these ancestral grounds that we are collectively gathered upon and support the resilience and strength that all Indigenous people have shown worldwide.
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Reconocemos que la tierra sobre la que está construida esta Diócesis es el territorio tradicional de los pueblos Piaute, Kawaiisu, Tubatulabal, Yokuts, Chumash, Miwok, Chukchansi, Western Mono y Me-Wuk.
Tomemos un momento para honrar estos terrenos ancestrales en los que estamos reunidos colectivamente y apoyar la resiliencia y la fuerza que todos los pueblos indígenas han demostrado en todo el mundo.
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Friday Reflection
Among all the characters of the story of Salvation I have aways considered to Joseph, Jesus’ earthly father, to be one of the most forgotten. In contrast to his well-known and exalted mother, Mary, Joseph seems to be in the shadows or in the background of the story. What we know about him comes from the Scriptures, but there are also legends.
He appears as a descendant of the house of David, to fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah (9:6 and 11:1). The Gospel writers attest to this fulfillment, Matthew 1:1-16 and Luke 3:23-38, even though they have certain differences regarding his line of descent.
However, rather than being a proud and arrogant man because of his lineage, he was a Jew of faithful, humble and compassionate character. He is described as a carpenter by trade (Matthew 13:55, Mark 6:3), although his profession in Greek language is “Tekton” which means, “craftsman, builder, artisan, handyman and contractor”. Therefore, he is the Patron of carpenters, according to the tradition of many countries, and according to legends, he is also the Patron of the dying because he died before the public life of Jesus, he is also the Patron of the Universal Church, families, fathers, pregnant mothers, travelers, immigrants and of real estate agents. And he is also considered the Patron of many countries such as China, Mexico, Canada, Australia, Korea, Croatia, Vietnam and many more.
His name is very popular among Christian nations. Many children have been baptized with his name. There is an anecdote from Mexico that I always remember when it was a predominantly Roman Catholic country; when parents and godparents chose a name for a child that the priest who was going to baptize him did not consider a Christian name, he would baptize him with the name Joseph to avoid the supposedly pagan name. And they did the same with girls, baptizing them as Mary.
Saint Joseph’s biography is neither well known through the Scriptures nor documents of historians of the time, but the apocryphal Story of Joseph the Carpenter says Date for Joseph's birth is 90 BC in Bethlehem and that he died at the age 111 on July between 18 to 20 AD. His Celebration Day in our Liturgical Calendar is set as March 19 which has being the date for celebrating the “International Worker’s Day” as well.
I always remember St. Joseph in the services I preside over, both in English and Spanish, when the Prayers of the People or the Eucharistic Prayer give space to do so with the Ever-Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Michael and all the Saints. I do this because I want to make visible the most forgotten in the world. Those who are in the shadows of society around the world and perhaps in the shadows of devotion, even though their life example is an example to follow. I feel the need to remember every day in my prayers those who work so hard to provide what is needed on the tables of many families. Men and women who work in the most humble and hard and sometimes dirty jobs, in all countries, as day laborers, field workers, domestic workers and nannies, housewives, builders, slaughterhouse workers, longshoremen, health care workers, cooks, waiters and all others whose lives are dedicated to serving and caring for us.
Many of them are first-generation immigrants with or without legal documents to work, like many of our friends, relatives and congregants, who have left their countries of birth seeking what Joseph sought for his family, the Holy Family: a refuge, a home, work, security, food, healing, justice, acceptance, empathy and to be people who can live in freedom, but not in fear, with a clear and direct purpose of responsibility, to be providers, support and an example of life for their family and society.
Immigrants flee by crossing rivers, deserts, oceans, forests, jungles, walking, running, floating, swimming, on bicycles, on barges, on donkeys, on horses, on buses, trains, containers, climbing hills, walls, fences, trying to be invisible to kidnappers, rapists, cartels, immigration authorities, police and simple thieves on their journeys. And all this day after day throughout their journey to reach America, Europe or wherever their dream becomes a reality. They are immigrants because they have been displaced, persecuted, abused, impoverished, robbed, cheated, without opportunities to obtain a better life for their basic needs. I believe that too many are forced to become immigrants to survive, but not by choice. Immigrants come to work and serve where citizens do not want to. Immigrants come because they are needed to create wealth in countries where they can obtain a new life.
I believe that the immigrant Saint Joseph was and is a Herald of the history of Salvation and an example of humility to always be a pillar of Jesus' family wherever they were. He was behind the scenes, never well-known or recognized, but his faith, trust and obedience to God gave him the integrity and strength to always be the support that his family needed and in particular, Jesus, his son, to grow and become stronger until reaching maturity and the knowledge that he was the chosen one so that the world could achieve redemption and salvation.
Let us remember in our hearts, minds, prayers and works those whom the world and the powerful have ignored and forgotten because it is better and easier for their interests and ambitions not to see them, but God and we see them and it is our Christian commitment to make them visible and serve them until they obtain what they deserve as workers, human beings and children of God.
Padre Jorge Pallares is the Priest-in-Charge of St Michael's Ridgecrest
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We’re so excited to announce Immigrant Day of Action 2025! Last year, we brought together over 500 people to our state Capitol for our largest annual event.
This time around, IDA 2025 will be an even bigger and more powerful two-day event, bringing together people from across the state, including legislators, performers, and advocates, to make our voices heard!
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It's Women's History Month!
March 18-25
Spring House of Bishops Meeting
March 29
DC/SC Joint Meeting, 10am ZOOM
March 30
Bp David & Padre Nelson @ St Paul's Bakersfield
YELLOW BAGS!
March 31
Bishop David's Birthday!
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“…show me the road that I must walk, for I lift up my soul to you.”
Psalm 143:8
It is believed the Psalms were written about 2500 years ago. People have been looking to God for guidance and counsel for millenia, and those yearnings continue today. Most of us have wondered, at one time or another, What are God desires for my life? Am I on the right road? How do I know if God wants me to turn to the left, to the right, or keep going straight ahead? What about that curve in the road up ahead? What is on the other side?
I was in church one Sunday morning in September, 2006. Following worship, a friend and fellow parishioner invited me to join a Discernment Group. She said they had found a clergy person to lead the group, and were hoping they could find seven or eight people who were interested in meeting regularly and discerning together where God might be calling them. A couple of people in the group were wondering if God might be calling them to life as an oblate of a monastic order. A couple of others were committed to lay ministry, but wondering what that might look like, and how they could best use the gifts God had given them. A couple of others were wondering about ordained life. I had been leading Morning Prayer in the chapel a couple of days a week, serving as a Eucharistic Minister and Visitor, and helping teach a Confirmation preparation class. But deep down I had a feeling I was being nudged to “something more”, although I didn’t know what that “more” might be. I was working full-time as an audiologist. I was taking care of patients, being a mom, and hadn’t thought about taking time to consider where else God might be calling me. Looking back, perhaps this group was God’s way of helping me begin to see what might be down the road, despite it still being around the corner and only barely beginning to come into view.
The eight of us met monthly for a year and a half. We became close, eventually trusting each other enough to talk about our hopes, our dreams, our disappointments, our sorrows, and where we believed God was in all of that. We encouraged each other. We challenged each other to see truths about ourselves we likely were unable to see on our own. We each wrote a Spiritual Autobiography. When and if we were ready, we were invited to share our autobiography with the group. The writing of my Spiritual Autobiography helped me look back and see times in my life, some in the distant past, and some more recent, where God was “doing things,” active and working, but I hadn’t realized it at the time. And now, I came to believe, God was working through the people in our group. Through deep listening and deep sharing, we were helping and supporting each other respond to God’s nudgings.
In his book, Discernment, Henri Nouwen writes, “While discernment begins in solitude, individual seekers of God always come together in community, for the Spirit gathers all believers into one body for accountability and mutual support.
Sister Catherine McAuley, founder of the Sisters of Mercy in Ireland wrote, “The tender mercy of God has given us one another.”
We are all called to ministry, to somehow share the love we have been given. With God’s help, through prayer and with the help of our companions, we discern how God is calling us to do that, through our gifts and talents, living into our baptismal promises to seek and serve Christ in all people. With God’s help, we begin to see the world through God’s eyes. We wonder how we can serve God and help bring about the world of God’s dreams. The companions journeying the way with us change with time, as God brings new people into our lives to walk alongside us, support us, challenge us, and bless us.
Discernment is a life long process. It is never complete, in this life. It continues moment by moment, day by day, year by year. But we have God, and we have each other, as we discern whether to turn to the left, or to the right, or go straight ahead. And we never have to go around the curves in the road alone. Thanks be to God.
The Rev. Gail Bernthal
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Pro Beneficio Mundi
Latino USA is a long-running program on National Public Radio. It has been hosted by the esteemed Mexican-American journalist María Hinojosa. And its podcast is something that I have listened to for almost a decade now. This week’s episode by Cristela Guerra, a 40-year-old Panamanian American journalist, The Fight Over the Panama Canal https://www.latinousa.org/2025/02/23/panamacanal/ chronicles the long and complicated shared history between Panama and the US that in some ways has been made concrete in the Panama Canal itself.
The Panama Canal is once again in the headlines. In our current political climate, it has become a bone of contention between the two nations. The present US administration is pressing claims to the canal that the United States left behind decades ago. And it’s specifically pressing a moral claim that it was the US that built the canal through the blood, sweat and tears of the American people.
Guerra tells the story of the Panama Canal from the vantage point of her family history. How her Panamanian family lived and worked in the US-controlled Panama Canal Zone. Racism and racial segregation are not buried deep in these recollections but lie close to the surface. First, while the US did finance and supervise the construction of the canal, it brought in thousands of English-speaking Afro-Caribbean workers to do the actual construction. And secondly, as it built the Panama Canal the US created a segregated society in the Canal Zone reminiscent of Jim Crow in the southern United States.
Guerra’s aunt, a former Panamanian diplomat, recounts her memories of taking an accounting course in the Canal Zone. She recalls being relegated to the second-best seats, the middle ones, as the best seats by the windows were reserved for white Zonians (white US citizens). Black Zonians were expected to sit by the wall. Panamanian Society has been deeply shaped by this legacy left in the wake of the US occupation.
How can our Christian faith speak to our current situation? First, we must bear in mind our commitment to truth-telling. Jesus says in John 8:32, “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Second, we follow the one who embodied kenosis, the self-emptying being for others that is the mark of Christlikeness[1] and which we are called to imitate (see Phil. 2:5-9). In discerning the spirit of our times and the political and cultural currents, as Christians we are called to test them all by the Word and Spirit of Christ in community. So, come, let us reason together.
[1] See chapter 6 of Stephanie Spellers’ The Church Cracked Open.
Padre Toni is the Priest-in-Charge at St Francis in Turlock and a member of the Anti-Racism Commission & SJRAISE
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A prayer for the season of Lent
Almighty God, as we pray, fast and reflect during this season of Lent, help us remember the 40 days Jesus spend in the desert, tempted but without sin. May our eyes be open to the trials and fears of our refugee and immigrant brothers and sisters who also wander seeking a safe place to settle. Help us to open our hearts to love those we may see as strangers. Help us to freely give to those who are in need, not focusing on our own needs. Lead us to them so we may give them comfort to calm their fears and be the example of your love and mercy. Amen.
| | KNOW YOUR RIGHTS RED CARDS! | | |
A Word from Emily Burnias, co-chair of SJRAISE:
A phrase I have heard recently said a lot is “In these uncertain times”. What is so uncertain about it? I see the same human behavior that we see all throughout the Bible. I see people who want to keep their prejudice and also keep their friends. But all through the Bible we are told this is not possible. Jesus said during the sermon on the mount “Judge not, that ye be not judged” - [Matthew 7:1].
So here we are, in a nation that claims Christianity but does not want to fully embrace everything Christianity is about. We are divided along lines of race and where we are born. We are divided on just allowing others to be who they are.
We are hurting each other in the name of politics and claiming it's Christianity. My God would not want me to turn away any immigrant. Imagine if Joseph and Mary had been turned away or Jesus was taken away from them at the temple. It's devastating thought. I know My Jesus would want me to embrace the immigrant, feed the immigrant, clothe the immigrant and provide shelter to the immigrant. Even though we are a denomination that claims to believe in comforting the stranger, are we doing enough? Not just words. What are our actions? There are many denominations, many different brands of “Christianity” but few of those truly walk with Christ, including us.
How can we do better? How can we love more unconditionally? I don't claim to have the answers, but this is what I can tell you. Speaking for myself, you can’t worry about what others are going to think about you. You have to worry about doing the right thing. You have to reach deep into your heart and do what God would want you to do for your neighbor. Because God is in every single one of your neighbors.
“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’’ [Matthew 25:40]
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Sanctuary People Resource List
Below are resources to support the immigrant community. This resource list will be updated as more resources are created and needs changes.
https://bit.ly/SanctuaryPeopleResources
Family Preparedness: helping immigrant and mixed status families make a plan in case of family separation due to ICE arrest
Rapid Response:
Know Your Rights for possible encounters with immigration authorities.
Sanctuary Resources:
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4147 East Dakota Avenue
Fresno, California 93726
209-576-0104
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