En la Solemnidad de la Ascensión del Señor (2019)

Oh Gracia contemplarte en tu Ascensión,

subir contigo al círculo divino,

y con los santos ángeles gozarte

en la beata paz de tu destino!

Tu mano izquierda tiene la Escritura,

cumplido entre nosotros tu designio,

y con la diestra imperas y bendices,

¡oh Luz de Luz que brillas por los siglos!

A tu fuerza se acoge en esta tierra

la Iglesia santa, en ti los ojos fijos;

irradia tu hermosura y te proclama

por las voces de apóstoles testigos.

Oh Madre del Señor, santa María,

imagen fiel del pueblo redimido,

reúnenos con mano intercesora

y muéstranos el rostro de tu Hijo.

Venga el oculto Espíritu a nosotros,

dador de fe y amor hasta el martirio,

y el que es la caridad y unión perfecta

nos haga un corazón todos unidos.

Te alabamos, oh santa Trinidad,

misterio revelado en Jesucristo;

por él, con él y en él, nuestro Señor,

por su excelsa Ascensión, te bendecimos. Amén •

Tiempo pascual 1984, R. M. Grández (letra) – F. Aizpurúa (música), capuchinos, 

Himnario de las Horas, Ed. Regina, Barcelona 1990, pp. 109-112.

light and the breath of life (The Ascension of the Lord. 2019. Cycle C)

The Gospels offer us different keys to understanding how the first Christian communities began their historical journey without Jesus’ presence, without him leading them. Perhaps, it was not all as simple as we sometimes imagine. How did they understand and live out their relationship with him, once he had disappeared from the earth? Good point! Matthew does not say a word about Jesus’ ascension to heaven, his gospel ends with a farewell scene on a mountain in Galilee. There Jesus makes this solemn promise to them, "Behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age". The disciples must not feel his absence. Jesus will always be with them. But how? Luke offers a different vision. In the last scene of Luke’s Gospel, Jesus parted from them and was taken up to heaven. The disciples have to accept very realistically the separation: Jesus now lives in the mystery of God. But he blesses his disciples as he goes up to the Father. Jesus’ followers begin their journey protected by that blessing with which he healed the sick, forgave sinners and embraced the children. John the Evangelist puts in Jesus’ mouth some words that offer another key. Saying goodbye to his disciples, Jesus tells them: "Because I told you this, grief has filled your hearts. But I tell you, it is better for you that I go.  For if I do not go, the Advocate will not come to you". The disciples’ sadness is understandable. They want the security that Jesus’ nearness provides. It is the temptation to live in an infantile manner under the protection of the Teacher. Jesus’ response reveals a wise way of teaching. His absence will make his followers grow in maturity. He leaves them the seal of his Spirit. The Spirit will be the one to foster, in Jesus’ absence, adult and responsible growth in his followers. It is good to remember this when growing among us, it seems, is a certain fear of creativity, the temptation to inaction or a nostalgia for a Christianity designed for other times and another culture. We Christians have fallen more than once throughout history to the temptation of living out our following of Jesus in infantile ways. The Feast of the Ascension of the Lord reminds us that, with the end of Jesus’ historical presence, we now are living “the time of the Spirit,” a time of creativity and of responsible growth. The Spirit does not provide Jesus’ followers with “eternal prescriptions.” The Spirit gives us light and the breath of life, so that we may always keep looking for new ways to reproduce his action today. That is how he leads us to the full truth of Jesus • AE

Schedule for June 1-2, 2019 (Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord)

Fr. Agustin is going to be out of town this weekend. The parishes will continue with their usual schedule of Saturday evening and Sunday Masses.

Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church

(Saturday) 4.30 p.m. Sacrament of Reconciliation.

5.30 p.m. English Mass

10.30 a.m. English Mass

12.00 p.m. English Mass

St. Peter Prince of the Apostles Catholic Church

(Saturday) 4.30 p.m. Sacrament of Reconciliation.

5.30 p.m. English Mass

9.00 a.m. English Mass

11. 00 a.m. English Mass

5.30 p.m. English Mass

Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church

(Saturday) 4.30 Sacrament of Reconciliation.

6.00 p.m. English Mass

8.30 a.m. Misa en Español

10.00 a.m. English Mass

11.30 a.m. English Mass

La soledad fecunda (Solemnidad de la Ascensión del Señor. Ciclo C)

Qué bien describió el buen fray Luis de León la soledad de aquellos que ven marchar a Jesús!: «¿Y dejas, Pastor santo, tu grey en este valle hondo, escuro, con soledad y llanto…? ¡Cuán tristes y solos, ay, nos dejas!»[1]. Sabemos que el Señor no nos deja solos, y que la suya es una presencia, digamos, diferente, en realidad misteriosa, pero al mismo tiempo se trata de una presencia que tiene mucho qué ver con la soledad. Con esa soledad que es como una navaja de doble filo. Y es que hay una [soledad] que es mala y que empobrece y destruye, y una [soledad] que es enriquecedora, fecunda, que ayuda a crecer. Unas personas sufren la soledad, otras, la buscan. Lo que parece claro es que podemos hacer de ella algo luminoso y positivo. La soledad ayuda a serenarnos, a meditar en nuestra vida, a descubrirnos más auténticamente, a escuchar lo que hay en nosotros. Ayuda a madurar, a acoger mejor a los otros, a atender más y mejor a las necesidades del prójimo y a descubrir los profundos lazos que nos unen a los demás. En ese silencio interior que trae la soledad podemos vivir la presencia del Espíritu de Dios. El mejor ejemplo que tenemos es María Santísima. Ella, representada en el arte cristiano como la Virgen de la Soledad, es modelo de fe y fortaleza, y ejemplo de una soledad fecunda. Como madre María sufrió la separación de su hijo, pero como primera creyente aprendió pronto, y como nadie, a ver a su hijo de otra manera, a descubrirle, a gozar su soledad porque estando sola no se encontraba sola sino llena del Espíritu del Señor[2]. La pregunta que escuchamos en la primera de las lecturas el día de hoy regresa y viene directamente dirigida a cada uno de nosotros: «Galileos, ¿qué hacen allí parados, mirando al cielo? Ese mismo Jesús que los ha dejado para subir al cielo, volverá como lo han visto alejarse»[3]. Es ahí, en el camino, siguiéndole, donde podemos experimentar que su Espíritu nos habita y sostiene, aunque encontremos momentos de soledad en nuestra vida. La Virgen santísima vivió una soledad confiada sin estar nunca sola, es la llena de gracia y estuvo siempre llena del Espíritu Santo. Junto a ella nada podemos temer • AE

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[1] Se Trata de la Oda XVIII en la Ascensión del Señor, de Fray Luis de León quien fuera teólogo, poeta, humanista y religioso agustino español de la escuela salmantina, junto con Francisco de Aldana, Alonso de Ercilla, Fernando de Herrera y San Juan de la Cruz. Su obra forma parte de la literatura ascética de la segunda mitad del siglo XVI y está inspirada por el deseo del alma de alejarse de todo lo terrenal para poder alcanzar lo prometido por Dios, identificado con la paz y el conocimiento.

[2] Cfr. Lc 2,19.

[3] Cfr. Hch 1, 1-11.

Jesús concordia de los hombres (VI Domingo de Pascua)

Oh Rey de paz, hermano de los hombres,

que en sangre de terror moriste un día,

tú vives, tú intercedes, tú nos oyes,

delante de tu Padre tú palpitas!

Tú amas a raudales en el cielo

y en ese mar sin fondo purificas;

tú eres el perdón y el fuerte abrazo

que enlaza en ti a hermanos fratricidas.

Tú eres nuestra causa ya ganada,

tú eres la condena en cruz vencida,

tú eres el futuro que anhelamos

la paz, divina paz, que nos fascina.

Tú eres nuestro Yo y Tú ceñidos,

la nueva humanidad en ti nacida,

¡oh Cristo de esperanza y de victoria,

oh Cristo allí y acá la misma vida!

¡A ti, Jesús, concordia de los hombres,

perdón de Dios, y luz amanecida,

a ti la gratitud y eterna gloria,

a ti que del mortal abismo libras! Amén •

P. Rufino María Grández, ofmcap,

Cuautitlán Izcalli, Día de la Primavera 2004. 

U-turn to Jesus (Sixth Sunday of Easter. Cycle C)

The Lord repeats to his apostles up to five times that they can count on the Holy Spirit. The Spirit will defend them, since the Spirit will keep them faithful to Jesus’ message and his project. That is why he calls him the Spirit of the truth. At some point, Jesus explains to them better what will be the Spirit’s task: “The Advocate, the Holy Spirit … will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you”. This Spirit will be the living memory of Jesus. The horizon that he offers his disciples is expansive. Jesus will give birth to a great spiritual movement of men and women disciples who will follow him: Christianity, and the Holy Spirit will be their Advocate. They will remain in his truth, for this Spirit will teach them everything that Jesus has been communicating with them as they walked along the roads of Galilee. The Spirit will defend them in the future from confusion and cowardice. Jesus wants them to grasp well what the Spirit of the truth and Advocate will mean for them: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you”. He does not just wish them peace. He gives it to them as a gift! If they live guided by his Spirit, remembering and keeping his words, they will know peace. It is not just any peace. It is his peace. That is why he tells them: “Not as the world gives do I give it to you”. We do not build Jesus’ peace by making use of strategies that are inspired by lies or injustice, but by acting with the Spirit of truth. They need to be firmly grounded in Spirit: “Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid”. In these difficult times when we are suffering discredit and confusion in the Church, it would be a serious mistake to try to defend our credibility and moral authority by acting without the Spirit of the truth promised by Jesus. Fear will keep penetrating Christianity if we seek to establish our security and our peace by distancing ourselves from the path he laid down. When the Church loses peace, she cannot recover it in just any manner. Just any strategy is not useful either. It is not possible to bring in Jesus’ peace when our hearts are full of resentment and revenge and blindness. With repentance and humility, we need to turn to Jesus’ truth and mobilize all our strength in order to walk away from wrong paths and allow the Spirit that animated Jesus’ whole life to guide us • AE

Fr. Agustin's Schedule for May 25-26, 2019 (Sixth Sunday of Easter)

Saturday May 25, 2019.

4.30 p.m. Sacrament of Reconciliation 

@ Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church.

6.00 p.m. Vigil Mass 

@ Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church.

Sunday May 25, 2019.

10.00 a.m. Quinceñera mass 

@ St. Anthony High School Montevista.

12.00 p.m. English Mass 

@ Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church.

Paz para todos (VI Domingo de Pascua. Ciclo C)

El evangelio de éste domingo, el sexto en el tiempo de Pascua, es el discurso de despedida de Jesús centrado en el regalo de la paz, de una paz proviene de él, la única auténtica y duradera; la paz como la da el mundo por lo general no es más que un armisticio precario o incluso una guerra fría. Es en medio de ésta paz que los apóstoles deben dejar marchar a su Maestro, y además deben hacerlo con alegría. Hoy los cristianos -y en nuestro caso los católicos- hemos de ser un ejemplo de paz en medio de un mundo que no la tiene, superando con amor y perdón problemas y tensiones; lo podremos lograr bajo la guía del Espíritu Santo, en la oración y en la obediencia a sus designios. Ya en vida de los apóstoles la Iglesia naciente tuvo qué luchar para lograr una convivencia pacífica entre el pueblo elegido, que poseía una revelación divina milenaria, y los paganos que empezaban a incorporarse a la Iglesia y que en realidad no aportaban nada de su tradición. Conseguir una convivencia verdaderamente pacífica exigía renuncias por ambas partes, y las decisiones de los apóstoles fueron muy concretas, y no fáciles de entender: los paganos no tenían necesidad de seguir importantes costumbres judías, por ejemplo la circuncisión; pero en contrapartida debían hacer algunas concesiones a los judíos en lo referente a ciertos usos alimentarios[1].Estos compromisos, que quizá hoy pueden parecernos extraños, eran entonces de palpitante actualidad, y debemos tomar ejemplo de ellos para todo aquello a lo que nosotros hemos de renunciar necesariamente aquí y ahora para que entre las diversas tendencias de la Iglesia reine la verdadera paz de Cristo, y no nos contentemos con un simple armisticio. Nunca un partido tendrá toda la razón y el otro ninguna. Hay que escucharse mutuamente en la paz del Señor, meditar en las razones de la parte contraria, no absolutizar las propias y permitir el diálogo y la sana discusión. Esto puede exigir verdaderas renuncias hoy como ayer, pero solamente si aceptamos estas renuncias encontraremos la paz de Cristo, la auténtica, la que realmente calma el corazón[2] • AE

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[1] Cfr. Hech 15. 

[2] H. U. Von Balthasar, Luz de la Palabra. Comentarios a las lecturas dominicales A-B-C, Ed. Encuentro, Madrid 1994, p.  248 ss.

Easter sequence: Victimae Paschali Laudes.

Christians, to the Paschal Victim

Offer your thankful praises!

A Lamb the sheep redeemeth:

Christ, who only is sinless,

Reconcileth sinners to the Father;

Death and life have contended

In that combat stupendous:

The Prince of Life, who died,

reigns immortal.

Speak Mary, declaring

What thou sawest wayfaring:

“The Tomb of Christ, who is living.

The glory of Jesu’s Resurrection;

Bright angels attesting,

The shroud and napkin resting.

Yea, Christ my hope is arisen:

To Galilee he goes before you.”

Happy they who hear the witness,

Mary’s word believing

Above the tales of Jewry deceiving.

Christ indeed from death is risen,

our new life obtaining.

Have mercy, victor King, ever reigning! •

Victimae paschali laudes is a sequence prescribed for the Catholic liturgy on Easter Sunday. It is usually attributed to the 11th century Wipo of Burgundy, chaplain to the German Emperor Conrad II, but has also been attributed to Notker Balbulus, Robert II of France, and Adam of St. Victor. Victimae Paschali Laudes is one of only four medieval sequences that were preserved in the Missale Romanum published in 1570 after the Council of Trent (1545-63). The three others were the Veni Sancte Spiritus for the feast of Pentecost, Lauda Sion for Corpus Christi, and the Dies Irae for the Requiem Mass (a fifth sequence, the Stabat Mater for the Feast of the Seven Dolours of the Blessed Virgin Mary, was added to the missal by Pope Benedict XIII in 1727. Victimae Paschali Laudes is one of the few sequences that are still in liturgical use today.

The certainty of the company (Fifth Sunday of Easter. cycle C)

The community is small and fragile. It has just been born. The disciples are like little children. What will become of them if they are without the Teacher? In today's gospel Jesus is saying goodbye to his disciples. Very soon, they will no longer have him with them. Jesus speaks to them with special tenderness: “Little children, I shall be with you only a little while longer”. And Jesus gives them a gift: “I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another”. If they like each other with the love with which Jesus has loved them, they will never fail to feel his living presence among them. The love they have received from Jesus will keep spreading among them. That is why Jesus adds: “This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another". What will allow people to discover that a community that calls itself Christian is really Jesus’ will not be the confession of a doctrine, or the observance of some rituals, or the following of a discipline. Rather, it will be the love lived out with Jesus’ spirit. In such love lies the identity of the community. We live in a society where the “culture of exchange” continues to be imposed. People exchange objects, services and provisions. Frequently, they exchange feelings, bodies and even friendship. In order to live out Christian love today, we need to withstand the atmosphere that envelops today’s society. We cannot practice the kind of love that is inspired by Jesus without distancing ourselves from the style of relationships and self-interested exchanges that frequently prevails among us. If the Church is losing its importance in today’s society, it is not just because of the profound crisis affecting religious institutions. In the case of Christianity, it is also because many times it is not easy to see, in our communities, disciples of Jesus who are characterized by their capacity to love as he loved. We lack the characteristic that identifies us as Christians. We Christians have talked a lot about love. However, we have not always gotten it right, nor have we dared to give it its true content, starting from the spirit and from the concrete attitudes of Jesus. Today more than ever we need to learn that he lived out love as an active and creative way of life that led him to an attitude of service and of struggle against everything that dehumanizes and makes human beings suffer. The challenge is certainly huge, and our strength limited. The apostles experienced the same thing, but the certainty of the company of the Lord made them go to work. We can do the same • AE

V Domingo de Pascua

J. Correa de Vivar, La Resurrección de Cristo (1566), 

temple sobre madera de pino, Museo del Prado (Madrid).

...

El amor es más fuerte que la muerte

y tu cuerpo viviente lo proclama;

tú traspasas, Señor, lo que fenece,

desde siempre y por siempre tú nos amas.

Por tu amor, oh Jesús, eternos somos,

del amor increado das tu gracia;

convocados por ti, por ti vivimos,

del amor que te sacia tú nos sacias.

Oh Jesús Nazareno y peregrino

de la humana y doliente caravana,

del dolor te levantas y nos muestras,

cual trofeo de amor, tus santas llagas.

Oh pasión amorosa que es saeta,

oh sediento deseo que no calla,

reposad en el cuerpo sacrosanto

del que ofrece el abrazo de llegada.

Es más grande que el tiempo y el espacio

el amor que en Jesús es nuestra alianza;

por tu amor se crearon cielo y tierra,

por amor del que es Hijo en carne humana.

Esta ofrenda de amor recibe, oh Cristo,

de la Iglesia, tu esposa bienamada;

para ti nuestro gozo y alabanza

en la espera de verte cara a cara. Amén.

• R. M. Grández (Letra) y F. Aizpurúa (música), capuchinos, 

Himnario de las Horas, Ed. Regina, Barcelona 1990.

Fr. Agustin's Schedule for May 18-19, 2019 (Fifth Sunday of Easter)

Saturday May 18, 2019.

4.00 p.m. Sacrament of Reconciliation.

@ St. Peter Prince of the Apostles Catholic Church.

5.30 p.m. Vigil Mass and Confirmation Mass

Presider: Bishop Mike Boulette

@ St. Peter Prince of the Apostles Catholic Church.

Sunday May 12, 2019.

9.00 a.m. Spanish Mass @ 

St. Peter Prince of the Apostles Catholic Church.

11.00 a.m. English Mass @ 

St. Peter Prince of the Apostles Catholic Church.

5.30 p.m. English Mass @ 

St. Peter Prince of the Apostles Catholic Church.