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Catholic Church / Pacoima, CA

Why Am I a Catholic? – Part IV

Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time

We have come to the fourth week of our series of “Why am I a Catholic?”. For those who have just joined us or have not read the bulletin for the last three weeks, I have written some basic principles of our faith in order to have a better understanding of our faith and our Catholic church.

In summary, we have discussed three points: a) There is within the human the capacity to transcend beyond time and space; the capacity to search and have a relationship with God. b) God is more than we can say and think about him; that God “is”. and c) That even when we cannot “define” God, we can experience his love manifested in Jesus Christ, the incarnated love of the Father. For all of this we can come to the conclusion of that God is love and out of love He has created us to live in this love. We hear from the prophet Jeremiah: “Even before I formed you in the womb I have known you; even before you were born I had set you apart.” (5:1) God Knows us well. So well that He even knows the count of our hair (Luke 12:7) God, then, is not someone far away seating in a throne nor a distant God who orders and rules.

King David has an amazing, powerful description of God when he says in psalm 23: “goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.” I just love it! God is goodness; God is mercy. This is my favorite part: He will follow me. Have you ever envision that kind of a God? A God who follows us; who chases us; and wins us over. I know, it is hard to trust but when you really think about it is not that hard. I invite you to give it a try. Let us just open our hearts to the gentle, patient God who is who ‘he is’. Be open to his goodness and mercy; be open to the God who wants to be with us all the days of our lives. To be continued…

Blessings,
Fr. Abel Loera, Pastor

Readings for the Week

Monday: Rom 4:20-25; Lk 1:69-75; Lk 12:13-21
Tuesday: Rom 5:12, 15b, 17-19, 20b-21; Ps 40:7-10, 17; Lk 12:35-38
Wednesday: Rom 6:12-18; Ps 124:1b-8; Lk 12:39-48
Thursday: Rom 6:19-23; Ps 1:1-4, 6; Lk 12:49-53
Friday: Rom 7:18-25a; Ps 119:66, 68, 76-77, 93-94; Lk 12:54-59
Saturday: Eph 2:19-22; Ps 19:2-5; Lk 6:12-16
Sunday: Ex 22:20-26; Ps 18:2-4, 47, 51; 1 Thes 1:5c-10; Mt 22:34-40

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