Dear Prince of Peace Parishioners:
- As Christians, we enter the Second Week of Ordinary Time and recalled that after Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist at the Jordan River and the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus in bodily form like a dove and he heard the voice from heaven: “You are my beloved son; with you I am well pleased”, Jesus was led by the Spirit to the desert for forty days and then back home to Nazareth where began his public ministry of proclaiming the Kingdom of God.
Just as the Spirit called Jesus to new ministry, so now the Spirit was calling his disciples and all of us. Some would be called to proclaim the Good News beyond their local communities and others would be called to serve local communities in various roles. But all calls came from the same source, the Spirit.
Last Sunday gave us an opportunity to reflect on Jesus' baptism in the Jordan, and our own baptismal commitment. The wedding feast of Cana of today's Gospel John 2:1-11 is a manifestation of God's glory and it continues the theme of Christ's Epiphany and Baptism, Jesus begins His Divine mission on earth.
Let us ask the Lord and his Mother, Mary, to make us faithful stewards, ready to do whatever Jesus tells us and eager to share with others the wine he provides. When we listen to the Lord and do whatever he tells us, the ordinariness of our lives becomes extraordinary, the empty jugs of water become filled with new wine, and we become the feast for one another.
- Friday, January 21, a “March for Life” will be held in Washington D.C. and will be the forty-ninth anniversary of the U. S. Supreme Court Decision. This year’s March for Life to be historic, with the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case before the Supreme Court, it’s closer than ever to building the culture of life since Roe v. Wade nearly 50 years ago.
The Bishops of our nation have asked all Catholics to fast and do extra penance as small reparation for the millions of abortions committed in our country, and for the legal approval of these actions.
While, we Christians can and ought to build a pro-life culture through many avenues, and not only through changes in law, it remains the case that as Christians and as Americans, “in God we trust”. God expects us to make needed changes in our world, but we can only do so through God’s truth and grace.
Christ’s Peace,
Fr. Phuong Hoang