Holy Angels Church

Profiles in Courage
May 31, 2020

It takes courage to live, it takes courage to do anything worthwhile.  Courage is the form of all virtues, a precious gift of God.

Dear Holy Angels. To limit the spread of Covid-19, we are working remotely from home, but we are here for you over the phone, email, and social media. Today, more than ever, your church needs your financial help. Please click "Online Giving" to donate. 

Dear Holy Angels!

The Sunday Gospel of a few weeks ago relates a story so important that it will be repeated very soon in the Gospel of Pentecost.  The apostles are under lockdown, and Jesus comes to join them.  He enters through the locked doors to bring a desperately needed message:  "Peace be with you!"

The worldwide experience of these present times has been different for different people.  Many are bored, some are frustrated, while others are worried, fearful, or lonely.  Many others have become far more spiritual than ever before and have discovered a whole new set of resources they never knew before, both inside and outside the cyber-world, both inside and outside of themselves.  Some have become irritable and some downright irrational, while others have become kinder, more loving, thoughtful and generous people.  Some have allowed their higher nature to shine through as never before, while others have given in to quite the opposite.  Some have been plunged into financial worries.  Nearly all have connected or reconnected with others on a much deeper level.

The experience has been varied, but it has been a changing one for you and for me and for all of us, in one way or another.  Of course ministering to the sick and witnessing the reality of the deathbed opens up eyes.  Talking with dedicated veterans of decades of spiritual and physical care in the hospital gives a whole new perspective, as they face a frightening challenge unlike any they have ever seen.  And hearing from friends in every corner of the globe puts our own situation into perspective, as they describe the far more extreme and far more strictly enforced restrictions in place long before ours, in the worldwide effort to halt the spread.  

How comforting the message that can penetrate locked doors and closed hearts:  Peace be with you!

These days will pass.  But it would be a shame to return to what was before, without holding on to some of the tremendous good that has come out of this.  Will we continue opening our hearts to others, lending a hand in extraordinary acts of generosity and kindness?  Will we continue treating people with the old-fashioned courtesy and consideration so many have rediscovered in these days?  Will we continue to nurture the wonderful connections we have discovered during these times of shared hardship?  Will we still take the time for those important things we used to neglect in the busy-ness of our life, things like home, family, undistracted conversation and undivided attention?  Will we continue to take the time to reflect and pray?

Or will we go back to cutting each other off on the roads, calling each other names?  Will we go back to ignoring each other, suing each other, stepping over and on one another to get ahead?  Will we begin once again to neglect those "unimportant" things that we have rediscovered now?

What will we be like afterwards?  That is the real question.  This has been a time when priorities and values have been rearranged, and that has certainly not all been bad!  Things once considered important are now no longer so, and things we had long forgotten or neglected have now occupied their rightful place in our life. 

As David Hollis has wisely admonished, "In the rush to return to normal, use this time to consider which parts of normal are worth rushing back to." 

Let us be Holier Angels than ever before!

Peace be with you!

Fr. Kevin

For so many parishioners and non-parishioners alike, our parish website has become the point of connectedness and spiritual nourishment.  We invite you to visit it often and share with your friends the messages you find there.

Remember, if you are not receiving our email messages, it is probably because we do not have your current email address.  Please do provide us with this information in order to receive our mailings.

Thank you for the tremendous support you continue showing your parish family during these times.  Without you we could not continue being the family we are.

STAY WELL!  STAY SAFE!  STAY IN!
Website:  www.holyangelsarcadia.org

“We need to be united in facing all these pandemics that are spreading. Not only that of the virus, but also those of hunger, war, contempt for life, and indifference to others.” - Pope Francis

Cathedral Live Stream Channel

Sunday Masses: 7:00 AM (Spanish) and 10:00 AM (English)
Weekday Masses: 7:00 AM (Spanish) and 8:00 AM (English)

A bedtime story of how it started, and why hindsight’s 2020.

(You can go to minute 20:50 to see Fr. Kevin's message). 

 FOX11 Los Angeles will air the weekly English Sunday Masses, at 10 a.m., from the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, through KCOP Channel 13, an affiliate station of Fox 11 Los Angeles, during the COVID-19 (novel coronavirus) pandemic. The broadcaster aired the Easter Sunday Mass in English celebrated by Archbishop José H. Gomez, which provided thousands of families, especially those with no access to the Internet, the opportunity to gather as a family to celebrate Mass in their home.

Since the unprecedented decision to suspend the public celebration of Mass to prevent the spread of COVID-19, Archbishop José H. Gomez continues encouraging the faithful to keep participating in the Holy Mass via television, radio and online.

“Even though we cannot publicly gather in communion to celebrate our faith, I encourage our faithful to continue to participate in the Holy Mass via television, radio and online so that we may continue to pray together for the Lord’s grace and mercy in our time of need,” said Archbishop Gomez.

Univision Los Angeles has been airing and will continue to air daily and Sunday Masses in Spanish at 7 a.m. from the Cathedral directly into homes over the air via Univision’s local UniMás KFTR-TV, Channel 46 since the Archdiocese announced the closure of parishes on March 16.

Catholic media are also helping to bring Holy Mass directly to Catholic faithful airing Masses in English and Spanish on cable, radio and via the internet on Relevant Radio (930AM), The Catholic Channel on SiriusXM, Guadalupe Radio and El Sembrador TV and Radio (ESNE).

Catholics can find a listing of available live streams and broadcasts of Masses in the Archdiocese at lacatholics.org/mass-for-the-homebound so that they may continue to pray at home with their families and join to the sacrifice of the Mass.

For more information on the efforts of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles to limit the spread of the pandemic, visit lacatholics.org/emergency/. 

Our Holy Father has been the model of strength and compassion during this pandemic.  He has offered us breathtaking liturgies, heartfelt homilies, memorable social media posts, and multiple resources for prayer.  He has offered courageous leadership to his Church and to the world.

Now the Vatican is offering a 192-page digital book for a FREE download -- Strong in the Face of Tribulation: The Church in Communion – A Support in Time of Trial.  It is a collection of the Pope’s homilies, prayers, and messages.  You may access the book at this link:

https://www.vaticannews.va/content/dam/lev/forti-nella-tribolazione/pdf/eng/strong-in-tribulation.-20042020.pdf

O Mary, you always shine on our path as a sign
of salvation and of hope. We entrust ourselves to you, 
Health of the Sick, who at the cross took part in 
Jesus' pain, keeping your faith firm. You, 
Salvation of the Faithful, know what we need, 
and we are sure you will provide so that, 
as in Cana of Galilee, we may return to joy 
and to feasting after this time of trial. 

Help us, Mother of Divine Love, to conform 
to the will of the Father and to do as we are 
told by Jesus, who has taken upon himself 
our sufferings and carried our sorrows to lead us, 
through the cross, to the joy of the resurrection. Amen.

Under your protection, we seek refuge, Holy Mother of God. 
Do not disdain the entreaties of we who are in trial, 
abut deliver us from every danger, O glorious and blessed Virgin.

Mary, Undoer of Knots, pray for us. 

We pray for our beloved deceased parishioners, family, and friends.

• Margaret Curley
• Bill Evans, father of Fr. Michael
• Henry (Hank) Wintercorn  
• Luz Marrero, Mother of Margarita Ortiz
• Earl Reifer
• Arie Sosropartono
• Tom Shannon

May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of Christ, rest in peace.
Amen. 

"Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints." - Psalm 116:15

Dear Holy Angels. To limit the spread of Covid-19, we are working remotely from home, but we are here for you over the phone, email, and social media. Today, more than ever, your church needs your financial help. Please click "Online Giving" to donate. 

Dear Holy Angels!

This is the church of the catacombs!  We are asked to stay inside our homes, for our own protection and the protection of others.  This is extremely vital, and we ask that you all do that.

But it is also a time to rediscover the home, to rediscover the hidden beauty of a life of intimate prayer, to rediscover God in the silence.  Free from the usual distractions of daily life, this can be a real moment of grace for us if we allow it to be.  Let the home become our church, a real house of prayer.

This time of the catacombs is also a time to think of others.  We have time now perhaps to reach out to people we have not spoken to in a long time.  Physical visits are not possible, but, thanks to telephones and computers, we can establish wonderful contact with people who are dear to us, or with people who need us.  Let us think of those who most need our love right now.  This, too, can be a moment of grace for us, if we allow it to be.

This is also an ideal time to reconnect with ourselves!  In the hustle and bustle of our lives, we often do not take time for ourselves.  Sometimes we, consciously or unconsciously, actually run away from ourselves, avoid time by ourselves, avoid encounters with the person in the mirror.  When we go on retreat, we are brought back into contact with that person.  This time of isolation is also a time of retreat, a real-time of grace.  Let us use it well, and let us get to know the person we find in the mirror.

Let us not allow this time to become a time of fear or a time of panic.  Let us rather allow it to be for us a time of grace, a time of strength, a time for opening our hearts to love.  Let us allow God to enter in!

PLEASE STAY AT HOME!!  PLEASE STAY WITH GOD!!

United in prayer,

Fr. Kevin