Our Vision Statement: ‘With the heart and mind of Christ, we transform the world.’ | | |
Reflection from our Pastor
Tuesday, July 15, 2025
First Reading: Deuteronomy and the Place of an Open Heart
This past Sunday’s first reading begins with Deuteronomy 26: 1-2 and blends as its ending Deuteronomy 30:10-14. The translation in the Hebrew Study Bible reads, “When you come into the land, take some first fruits of your harvest and place them in a basket. Then go to God’s dwelling place….And [God] will delight in your well-being, as [God] did in that of your fathers, since you will be heeding [God] and keeping his commandments and laws that are recorded in this book of the Teaching – once you return to [God] with all your heart and soul.“
Jesus was a devout Jew. He lived the Torah as prescribed in his time. He also knew that there are universal meanings for humans in these words that have survived over 5800 years. Jesus used his own knowledge of Abba and his religion to teach. How might we interpret the first Deuteronomy reading?
As Rabbi Shefa Gold explains, we can begin by considering that we are the living evidence, the meaning, of God’s love. We yearn to meet God from whom we originate. In that yearning, in our consciousness of this, we bring ourselves into a sacred space and we find “God’s dwelling place” within ourselves. Within ourselves we join in covenant with God only when we bring forth all of ourselves, “including all our disparate parts – from the elder and honored aspect of self, to the most-lowly woodcutter/water-carrier aspect.”
The spiritual challenge is to claim who we truly are means reclaiming those parts of us that are splintered off, suppressed from trauma, “all the places of self that we project on the ‘other’, all the parts of self that lie hidden behind wall of shame or pride.” As we stand up in our integrity, the blessing of covenantal love begins to shine through our lives.
“These blessings of covenantal love come as we stand before God and rise to the challenge that has been put before us. We grow into spiritual adults by standing up to face this challenge and not shy away from it.” This is not an easy or simple task. The world and our busyness get in the way of conscious living, as do our rationalizing by ego, or failure to consider our defense mechanisms. Our hearts, once open to God now close. Upon reflection, we ask ourselves, ‘has my heart closed?’
God desires that we choose the path of an open heart, of an ever-deepening relationship, of an ever-increasing interior watchfulness, of our ever-widening embrace of pain and joy -- because God is love. In God’s dwelling place we have hope of experiencing God’s desire for our well-being, our wholeness.”
When we deeply see ourselves, we know what James Baldwin means
when he says, “Love takes off the masks that we know
we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.”
Reverend Jane Reina
Sources:
The Jewish Study Bible 2004. Adele Berlin, Marc Zvi Brettler, editors. Oxford University Press, Inc.
Rabbi Shefa Gold. Torah Journeys: The Inner Path to the Promised Land 2006. Ben Yehuda Press.
Cole Arthur Riley. Black Liturgies: Prayers, Poems, and Meditations for Staying Human 2004. Convergent Press.
| | This week at Mary of Magdala | | |
Helping Others
On July 30, Kennedy Musyoka will be arriving in Ft. Collins from Kenya. He recently received his PhD from James Madison University in Virginia and just received a job at CSU as Lecturer of Management in College of Business.
He is looking to rent a small house, apartment, basement or just a room. If you know of something that might work, or are personally able to help out please contact Margie Karuzas, 970-988-1520, Margaret.marshall@comcast.net
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The Feast of Saint Mary of Magdala - July 20 - Potluck
Please join our community as we celebrate the feast day of Saint Mary of Magdala on Sunday July 20th, with a Summer Salad Potluck after Mass.
Please bring a salad to share and enjoy visiting with other Mary of Magdala friends and members. The Hospitality Ministry will provide bread, beverages & dessert & looks forward to celebrating with you!
Open to all!
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Caregiver Support Group
Har Shalom, in partnership with the Alzheimer's Association, is proud to offer a new Caregiver Support Group open to members and friends in our community. This group will bring together those caring for a loved one with dementia or other disability and offer support, insight and guidance with a trained facilitator.
Meetings will take place in person at Har Shalom:
There is no cost to participate and no registration is necessary. Find all the dates here.
In addition to the Caregiver Support Group, please join us for a class on Understanding Alzheimer's and Dementia on Wednesday, August 13 at 7:00pm. This class will be taught by Angel Hoffman, Director of Community Engagement at the Alzheimer's Association, Colorado Chapter.
You may join us in person or online via Zoom with login code 970 223 5191. Click here for all the details about this class.
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A Prayer to Share on Hope
"Loving God, I call you by many names
I come before you today in need of hope, as my companion on my journey."
Read the 'Hope Prayer' here.
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Weekly Morning and 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's 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
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15th Sunday in Ordinary Time
The recording of readings and homily for July 13, 2025, has been uploaded here.
Mother Rosean Amaral presided at the Mass and delivered the homily.
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Social Justice Reflection
July 14, feast day of
Saint KATERI TEKAKWITHA
by Mary Vogl
In a school essay my uncle, Richard Vogl, wrote in the 1940s titled “My Ancestors,” he said, “All my grandfathers and grandmothers were born in Germany. They settled in Milwaukee or on nearby farms. A great uncle came from Germany and went to live in Northern Wisconsin, which was a wilderness at that time. He built a cabin and cleared land for a farm. At that time, there were many Indians there.”
My Uncle Richard later became a professor of ecology and wildlife management.
My uncle Michael Vogl also grew up loving nature, paddling a canoe, and listening to birds’ songs. He was devoted to a patron saint for the environment and ecology (no, not Saint Francis) and for people with visual impairment, as he had (no, not Saint Lucy). My uncle’s devotion was to Kateri Tekakwitha, the first indigenous North American saint. He named his daughter after her, compiled prayers, poems, and reflections on her life into a book, and created a backyard shrine to her memory.
Who was Kateri Tekakwitha? Born in 1656 near what is now Albany, New York, she was the daughter of a Mohawk chief and an Algonquin mother who had been converted to Catholicism by French Jesuit missionaries. When she was four, a smallpox epidemic killed her parents and brother and left her scarred and partially blind. In her late teens, she was baptized and took the name Kateri, for St. Catherine of Siena. She died at age 24. Miracles are associated with her. More than three hundred years later, in 2012, she was canonized.
In her book Indian Pilgrims: Indigenous Journeys of Activism and Healing with Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, Michelle Jacob writes that “As a social, cultural, and historical figure, Kateri refuses to have a simple and unified fixed meaning” (13). Jacob shows that people can resist a colonial logic that views indigenous culture as inferior. Veneration for Tekakwitha helped indigenous Catholics revitalize their ancestral cultures and reclaim the native feminine as sacred.
When my uncle Mike died in 2023, his obituary suggested donating to his favorite charities – the Nature Conservancy and Catholic Relief Services. I admire my uncles for their environmental advocacy and my Uncle Mike for his devotion to an indigenous female saint. I also wonder what my uncles or parents thought about their ancestors displacing the “Indians” in the “wilderness” of Wisconsin and the genocide that enabled their settlement on its rich farmland and forests. Was Uncle Mike’s veneration an act of contrition?
Some Mary of Magdala members have served the community on the Pine Ridge Reservation. We can donate to CSU’s Native American Cultural Center. We can advocate for formal apologies, reparations, and resource and land allocation, for example, the former Hughes Stadium site.
Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, pray for us.
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Praying for peace, health and well-being through challenging times.
+Jeff Klein, son of Debbie Klein
+Mary Powers and Katie Richards, members healing from long COVID
+Milo Pasquale Cushman -- brother of Liz Urban, member
+Hope Kunze, granddaughter of Mother Rosean
+ Valerie Dorr, mother of Deana Andrist, TLC
+Cindy Cloyd, member
+Sandra Life, member
+Julie Lucas, daughter of Bruce and Carol Yeazell
+The Grant and Cloyd families, for healing
+Carolyn Sue Cecil and family, friends of Mary
of Magdala
+ Mary Lou and David Devlin, members
+Rachel, Ryan, & Chloe Honeybourne, family of Julia Morrow, friend of Mary of Magdala
+ Sharyl Hoepfinger, for prayers of healing
+ Jenny Witzke, for prayers of support
+Pastor Rick Reiten, Pastor at Trinity Lutheran
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A blessed and peaceful repose of souls for those who've passed and comfort for the friends and families.
+Donna Lusby, friend of Ralph, Anne, Debbie, Mark, Dori, and Tom, members
+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
+Barbara Lange, grandmother of Gray La Fond
+Leonard Urban, husband of member Liz Urban
+Tess Peters, friend of Mary Lou Devlin, member
+Kelly Cahill, friend of Ruth Alexander
+Pauline Devlin, David Devlin's mother
+James Lyons, brother-in-law of Mary Lyons, member
+Carole Lyons, sister-in-law of Mary Lyons, member
+Jessica Melton, family friend of Jane Reina
+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
July 16, 11:00 am
- Weekday Mass in the Fireside room
- No Zoom available
- Mother Rosean presiding
Sunday Mass -
July 20, 12:30 pm
- In person and Zoom available
- Mother Rosean presiding
- Join us for a salad potluck after Mass
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Wednesday - Weekday Mass
July 23, 11:00 am
- Weekday Mass in the Fireside room
- No Zoom available
- Mother Rosean presiding
Sunday Mass -
July 27, 12:30 pm
- In person and Zoom available
- Rev. Jane Reina presiding
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Did you miss an article or announcement?
Past e-bulletins are posted on our website here. Below are links to some key articles:
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ECC News from the House of Laity - May - here
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Spring News from the Office of Presiding Bishop - here.
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Read the recent ECC statement on immigration here.
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Ongoing Giving Opportunities in Fellowship hall; see list here.
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Dedicating Altar Flowers? Contact Joan Stepleton at JoanStepleton@gmail.com or 864-650-2816. A $25 dollar donation is kindly requested.
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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
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Our Vision – ‘Our guiding Light’
Weaving a tapestry of love, hope and justice for the world.
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The 301 Faith Partners--Mary of Magdala, Trinity Lutheran, St Paul's Episcopal --have a Vision, Mission and Values statement that guides our relationships, interactions, and shared projects and ministries.
Read about our Mission, Core Values and Covenant here.
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The ECC Regional Website - View here.
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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.
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