Our Vision Statement: ‘With the heart and mind of Christ, we transform the world.’

Reflections from our Pastors

Tuesday, October 28, 2025

Shame Transformed: Peter at the Fire

Jim Berry, Deacon Candidate, Mary of Magdala, ECC

“When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon, son of John, do you love me?’” — John 21:15

Last week we sat with our shame in Christ’s light. This week, we return to that same fire with Peter — to discover how love turns our failure into calling.

Peter stands beside a small fire on the beach. The smoke curls into the morning air — the same smell that once filled the courtyard where he denied Jesus. John wants us to notice that. The scene of Peter’s deepest failure has been gently set again before him, but this time by the One he betrayed.

There’s no scolding. No, “How could you?”

There is breakfast. Bread. Fish. And one question: “Do you love me?”

Jesus meets Peter’s shame not with punishment but with tenderness. Three denials answered by three chances to say yes. Each one rewriting the story Peter thought was over. The sound of the rooster is gone; in its place is the quiet crackle of mercy. The fire that once burned with fear now becomes the place where love begins again.

That’s how Jesus works. He doesn’t pretend the failure never happened. He turns it inside out. What once broke Peter’s heart now becomes the doorway through which grace enters.

Shame has power because it makes us hide. It tells us to keep our distance, to prove we’re better, to put on a brave face. But Teresa of Ávila reminds us that even that undoing can become holy when we let God hold it. She said that true humility comes from God’s light — it may embarrass us, but it never destroys us. When love gets close enough, shame starts to melt.

That’s what happens at this fire. Jesus refuses to leave Peter in the dark. He draws him back to friendship, back to his work, back to himself. “Feed my sheep,” he says. Love me by loving them.

And maybe that’s what healing really is — not forgetting, but being able to stand where we fell and find God waiting there.

We, too, have our fires — those moments we wish we could rewrite. But the Gospel’s gift is this: what once silenced us can become the very place from which we speak healing to others. Peter’s voice, once broken by fear, becomes a voice of kindness. “Clothe yourselves with humility,” he later writes, “for God gives grace to the humble.”

That’s the sound of shame, changed into love.

Blessing:

May you find the courage to return to the fire, to hear Christ’s question with an open heart, and to discover that love is the answer waiting there.

*This concludes the two-part reflection “Grace and Shame.”*

Family Housing Network of Fort Collins Thanks You!



This week, our FHN families were blessed by the service of these MoM volunteers. Heartfelt thanks to David & Cindy Cloyd; Joan Chapman-Smith; Mary Anne Heyman; Lisa Jones; Denise Mayer; Tom Moos; Julie Quihuiz; Liz Urban; Mary Vogl; Lynne Barnes; and Jean Christen. Your kindness & welcome to our families is more appreciated than you can know.

Weekly Evening Peace Prayer 

Join us in a prayer for peace in the world and within ourselves. 20 minutes every Monday and Tuesday via Zoom. (Families invited!)

Tuesday Evening Peace Prayer

At 7:00 pm on this Zoom Link < New Zoom Link

Meeting ID: 881 2656 0118 Passcode: 295075

May Mary, Mother of the World, who abhors all violence, pray for us. Rev. Jane

Join Us & Pray the Rosary!

As October, the month of the rosary, soon comes to an

end, Mother Rosean would like to invite you to join her in

praying a rosary on Thursday, October 30, at 7 PM. We

will pray for all God’s creation.

To pray together, please use this link.

Meeting ID:854 9515 8228

Passcode: MMECC

Looking for Greeters!

MoM is asking for several members to be dedicated "Greeters" at Mass. The idea is not only to greet new individuals who attend Mass (which we collectively do well) but also to interact with and direct transient individuals who may be unhoused and seeking support or use of the restrooms and perhaps the showers. Please contact Kerri Anderson or David Cloyd at marymagdalafc@gmail.com if you are interested in serving.

For anyone interested in how we might better interact with the unhoused, an inservice will be provided by Lisa Dunworth from Outreach Ft. Collins. The event will be on the 22nd of October at noon in Room 2 here at TLC. All are welcome with no obligation to provide service as a "Greeter". 

Commemorate all souls that have gone before - Saturday, November 1, 10:30 to 12 NOON

We will commemorate all the souls that have gone before us, and in particular, those we have loved and who have touched our hearts.

Some of our loses need not have been an actual death but the loss feels like a death. Bring your feelings of sadness and joy, pain and healing – all of which make us part of humanity.

Liturgy includes prayer, silence, one presentation on grief and loss and one on journeying through death into the beyond, candle lighting, and music.

Please bring a representation(s) of those you are remembering – a photo, a name, a list, a gift received, any image you create or that comes to mind.

Let us pray in thanksgiving for the peace of the Spirit that comes from loving entanglements.

The zoom link will be the same as our Sunday Masses: Here

Meeting ID: 431 502 8167

No password

Questions? call Cindy Cloyd, 970-481-3703 or Rev. Jane, 973-61-6104 (Yes, 973)

Urgent request from Church World Service in Fort Collins Below!

Hi friends,

I am writing with a sincere and urgent request for assistance for the families we are working with who received notices this week that their November SNAP benefits will be “held” while the government shutdown continues. Most of them have no idea what a government shutdown is or means and are calling us to find out what to do. It is heartbreaking as many rely solely on this program to feed their families and had very little time to plan.

We are raising funds for emergency food assistance for just under 100 families in our program who rely on SNAP. The best way is to provide this through an online grocery store gift card that we purchase through our company credit card and email to them directly. This allows them to purchase culturally appropriate food items at their convenience. If you would prefer to drop off actual cards we can certainly figure out how to distribute them. For food donations please work through the food banks and pantries as they are more equipped to handle food items. We are providing resource lists but worry the pantries may be overwhelmed.

While we knew this was a possibility the reality is sobering. This program is a lifeline for so many people! Talk to your congregations, your friends, your acquaintances, and anyone who will listen - and donate what you can online Give Now | CWS Fort Collins. If you have ideas for a local campaign or other innovative ways to get people engaged in this, please let Jason (jmorgan@cwsglobal.org) or I know how we can assist.

Thank you!

Kristy

Kristy Beachy-Quick (she/her)

Office Director

Fort Collins, Colorado

Church World Service

kbeachyquick@cwsglobal.org

Service Recordings

30th Sunday in Ordinary Time

The recording of the readings and homily for the 30th Sunday of Ordinary Time, October 27th, has been uploaded here.

Associate Pastor Jane Reina presided and delivered the homily.

Missed a homily or readings? Here is the link to past recorded services.

Social Justice Reflection

Presented by Jared Orsi

In late September 2025, Trump proposed “we should use some of these dangerous cities [like Los Angeles, Chicago, and Portland] as training grounds for our military National Guard.” The national guard being used again American citizens for political goals is not new. Colonists in the 1770s objected to British troops occupying Boston and southerners chafed until army occupation during Reconstruction. Colorado once tried deploying the armed military with live ammunition into a volatile situation, and the results were gruesome.

Recently, after giving a public talk in Fort Garland, I stopped on my drive back to Fort Collins at a site on the windswept prairie a mile east of I-25. There in 1913 coal miners and their families took refuge for the winter at the foot of the mountains, with 200 tents, housing more than 1200 people. It was a glorious mélange of America—Greeks, Mexicans, Slavs, Cornish, Italians, and others. But their common plight as exploited workers for Colorado Fuel and Iron (CF&I) enabled them to bridge the ethnic, linguistic, and religious differences that divided them.

Work in the CF&I mines lasted 12-14 hours per day, six days a week. Illness from breathing toxic air and dust afflicted many of the miners. They were paid in scrip, good only at the company store, where high prices were the norm. Many of them paid high rents in company housing. Fatality rates were 10x the national coal worker average. 

In September, they went on strike. CF&I immediately evicted them from the company town and locked them out of the store. Aided by the United Mine Workers of America, they built the tent city and hunkered down for the winter. What they didn’t know was that they and their families were not only taking on Colorado Fuel and Iron, but the National Guard as well.

In October, CF&I hired a car to drive slowly and spray bullets into the camp. One person was killed. Several were wounded. Hundreds terrorized. As miners began to arm themselves in response, the governor sent in the national guard to control the tent city. Ostensibly neutral peacekeepers, the guardsmen were paid by CF&I and for months behaved in a clearly partisan and menacing manner.

Early in the morning of Monday April 20, 1914, the day after an interethnic celebration of Orthodox Easter, gunfire broke the morning silence. No one knows who fired first or why, but these were two heavily armed camps, each believing the other intended to do them harm. The tinderbox was bound to explode. The guardsman mounted machine guns from a high point and began firing indiscriminately into the village. Residents fled and the national guard rushed in and burned the tents and families’ belongings. By the time the smoke cleared, at least 19 people were dead, easily the bloodiest day in American labor history. One national guardsman perished. Two strike leaders were executed, shot multiple times in the back. Thirteen mothers and children, suffocated to death after taking refuge in this root cellar below a tent the military burned above them.

Violence erupted for weeks, multiplying the deaths on both sides beyond the original casualties of April 20. In the end, none of the strikers’ demands were met. But they did win something of a public relations victory. The bad publicity of the armed men murdering women and children contributed to a broader swing of public support toward organized labor that eventually led gains for workers elsewhere. It also made public officials in the future slower to use the police and military to quell labor unrest. Perhaps it provides a lesson today in restraint in using military force to control domestic unrest.

If you want to read a short article about Ludlow, visit ColoradoEncyclopedia.org, and if you’d like a good book, try Thomas Andrews' Killing for Coal. Trump quote can be found here.

Prayer Requests

Praying for peace, health and well-being through challenging times.

+Deborah Hughes, for healing, spouse of Laura Templet, member

+Len Russ, member

+Fr. Frank Quintana, ECC priest

+Kendal, daughter of Steve and Lisa Jones, member

+Zoe Wahl, sister of Kristina Bulik-Hocum, member

+Colleen DeMuth, member

+Courtney and Cache, family of Jean Christin, member

+Jane Kommrusch, spouse of Richard Kommrusch, member

+ Jeff Klein, son of Debbie Klein

+Mary Powers and Katie Richards, members healing from long COVID

+Milo Pasquale Cushman, brother of Liz Urban, member

+Julie Lucas, daughter of Bruce & Carol Yeazell

+The Grant and Cloyd families, for healing

+Pastor Rick Reiten, Pastor at Trinity Lutheran

~~~~~~~~~~~

A blessed and peaceful repose of souls for those who've passed and comfort for the friends and families.

+Lois Hug, mother of MaryAnne Heyman, member

+Richard Life, member of Mary of Magdala

+Donald Sherlock, brother-in-law of Dori Healy

+Joseph Grant, nephew of David and Cindy Cloyd

+Dennis Healy, Tom Healy's brother and Dori's brother-in-law

+Pauline Devlin, David Devlin's mother

+Jim Carroll, husband of member Dori Carroll

Please send prayer requests to marymagdalafc@gmail.com. Prayers will be listed for one month unless requested for longer. Prayers for the repose of souls will be listed for six months unless requested for a longer time.

Wednesday - Weekday Mass

October 29, 11:00 am

• Weekday Mass in the Fireside room
• No Zoom available
• Mother Rosean Amaral presiding

Sunday Mass -

November 2, 12:30 pm

• In person and Zoom available (see above for Zoom link)
• Mother Rosean Amaral presiding

Wednesday - Weekday Mass

November 5, 11:00 am

• Weekday Mass in the Fireside room
• No Zoom available
• Mother Rosean Amaral presiding

Sunday Mass -

November 9, 12:30 pm

• In person and Zoom available (see above for Zoom link)
• Rev. Jane Reina presiding

Did you miss an article or announcement?



Past e-bulletins are posted on our website here. Below are links to some key articles:

• Read the Sept 29th pastoral letter from Bishop Pablo here.
• August ECC News from the House of Laity here.
• Read the ECC statement on immigration here.
• Ongoing Giving Opportunities in Fellowship hall; see list here.
• Dedicating Altar Flowers? Contact Joan Stepleton at JoanStepleton@gmail.com or 864-650-2816. A $25 dollar donation is kindly requested.

Mary of Magdala Parish Community

Members: Need to view, update information or download a copy of the member directory? Just click here.

-->If you are in need of a picture for the directory, contact David Cloyd via this email. Put 'Need Picture for the Directory' in the subject line and include your name and telephone number in your email <--

CONTRIBUTIONS TO MARY OF MAGDALA

If you would like to contribute to Mary of Magdala,

click here to schedule a single or recurring Sunday offertory.

All are invited and ALL are welcome to join our parish community. Here is the webpage with more information on membership

The ECC Regional Website - View here.

Newsletters of Trinity Lutheran Church and the St. Paul's Episcopal  

Click here for the Trinity Lutheran Church monthly newsletter, "Tidings". And here is St Paul's weekly bulletin.