Last week, Richard and Jeri Gardini, long time members of our parish were killed in a horrific car accident in Fresno. We want to extend to their family and friends our heartfelt condolences. They were regular members at our Saturday evening Mass. May God grant them eternal rest. Please keep Richard and Jeri and their family in your prayers.
I returned on Saturday from a few days of rest and reflection at the Abbey of New Clairvaux in Vina, CA. The abbey is a Trappist Monastery, where I made a retreat thirty years ago before I entered the seminary. It was nice to return to the quiet countryside of northern California near Chico. The monastery was once a part of the Leland Stanford Ranch and given to the Trappist monks who came from Gethsemane Abbey in Kentucky over a hundred years ago. The monk's ranch and farm is on 500 acres on which they pray, work, and study. I am grateful for their prayers over the years. I then went to Yuba City/Marysville area to celebrate a Basque Mass before driving home. I thank Father Ricardo Magdelano for celebrating the Saturday 5:00 pm Mass. Father Ricardo is a hospital chaplain to Kaiser and Children's Hospital in Fresno.
Recently a joint meeting of the Pastoral Council and the Liturgy Committee was held at the Bass Lake facilities. The two groups joined me to review and look at our recent experience of Lent, Holy Week, Triduum and Easter. As mentioned in the recent bulletins, so many people make things happen. So many people work hard to make our churches beautiful, the liturgies meaningful and dignified, and take the time to do the scheduling and training of all the liturgical ministries that serve our parish community. While we are not always as happy as we want to be, since this is not paradise (that will coming soon enough for all of us), we attempt to listen, to evaluate what we hear, make no immediate decision, and carefully consider what we might do better in the future. It was also an opportunity to affirm what was done well. Overall the consensus was that the liturgical events went well and that all those who participated worked well and did a fantastic job. There is room to correct, grow, and improve what we all try to do. We continue to work on better communication. We thank everyone and we hope that our Liturgy Committee can continue to improve our quality of service. I also ask you to notice that our ushers now have all purchased and wear blue blazers and their badges so they can be identified if they are needed. They are also going through training to handle medical emergencies should they be needed at the Masses they serve.
I am sure you may have heard in the news recently that Pope Benedict XVI has appointed Archbishop Jose Gomez, the Archbishop of San Antonio, TX as the new Coadjutor Archbishop of Los Angeles. Archbishop Gomez will officially take over the Archdiocese of Los Angeles on March 1, 2011, upon the retirement of Cardinal Roger Mahony, who retires on his 75th birthday, February 28, 2011. The Diocese of Fresno is a suffragan see under the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, making Archbishop Gomez our new Metropolitan at that time. That means he leads the Provence of Los Angeles. He will not have any direct jurisdiction over this diocese, but gathers all the bishops of the Los Angeles Provence for two meetings annually to discuss the issues of the Catholic Church of Southern California. This also means that Cardinal Mahony who has a residence in our parish at Fish Camp may be helping us more when he has the time to come to the mountains.
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