All of this weekend and next week, I am away giving a retreat at St. Monica Parish, Santa Monica, CA. It will be the retreat I gave last year here at St. Simon, Cairns on the Second Mountain of Life, with some modifications to localize it. St. Monica Parish is a mega parish with over 8,500 parish families and over 500 of those families joining online from all over the country each week. It has an elementary school, high school, spirituality center and a coffee shop all on campus. It covers a full city block in size and is home to some of the greatest Catholic Music in the country. More Catholic artists and musicians find their beginnings here and then go onto other areas of the country to serve. I gave a condensed version of the retreat to the 120-person staff yesterday, Friday and I will preach at all 9 weekend Masses this weekend and preside at daily Masses followed by the retreat each evening. Please pray for me and the success of this retreat for the people of this parish to draw closer to Christ. You are welcome to join me on livestream on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, March 7, 8, 9 at 7pm-8:30pm with this link: https://stmonica.net/events/missionretreat
Speaking of retreats, we will have our own Lenten Retreat at St. Simon Parish on March 15, 22, 29, and April 12 at 7:00 p.m. – 8:15 p.m. It is called From Here to Eternity: How to Live and Die Well. Please note that March 15 will be from 7:30-8:30 because of our Candlelight Prayer for Peace that will be held from 7:00 – 7:20 p.m. (see below for details)
The core of our Christian faith is that Jesus was raised from the dead, and he promises us the resurrection when we die. If that be true, then we have eternal life now and our souls live forever. Our time here on earth is a preparation for eternity with God. That is the Easter message every year and we spend 50 days celebrating it in the Easter season.
In this retreat, I will go deeper into our belief in the resurrection and what our faith says about eternal life. Then I will share my personal experience with death. I will illustrate with up-close encounters with people who have died. There is a difference between dying well and dying badly. I have seen both and we ought to do everything possible to prepare to die well because the alternative is hard to witness. To die well, we need to live well. But it has nothing to do with how much money we have, what we own or what our job is. To live well is to live a life full of faith. Come and learn how to live and die well and help others to live and die well.
I hope you can join us each night live in person but if not then you can join us livestream here https://www.youtube.com/c/StSimonPresentations or (3) Saint Simon Catholic Church | Facebook. This is a great way to build community and grow in your faith.
As a reminder, we no longer require you to wear your face masks in the Church for Masses but we do recommend it out of an abundance of caution for those most vulnerable and not able to be vaccinated. Thank you for being so respectful over these last two years at St. Simon Parish. You have been amazing! It has been a long two years for all of us and we are ready to be done with all COVID restrictions, but we are not there completely yet. We still need to wear those masks in hospitals, retirement homes, schools (for another week) and public transit. Be patient as we are almost there and soon we will back to normal life.
I must confess that I am looking to seeing your faces. It is like a big reveal! I must get to know you all over again, but I am delighted to do so.
God Bless,
Fr. Brendan