December 24, 2023 | Bishop Oscar Cantú | Today’s Readings “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” (Luke 1:38) , In 2019, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a moratorium on the death penalty. He then ordered the transfer of death row inmates at San Quentin…
December 17, 2023 | Sr. Christin Tomy, OP | Today’s Readings “I rejoice heartily in the LORD, in my God is the joy of my soul.” (Isaiah 61:10) , One word echoes throughout the readings this Gaudete Sunday: rejoice! Isaiah “rejoices heartily in the Lord.” In the psalm, we pray along with Mary, “my soul rejoices in…
December 12, 2023 | Ellie Hidalgo | Today’s Readings | Leer en español She chose a hill at Tepeyac to make her appearance in 1531 – Santa Maria de Guadalupe, Mother of the Americas. She chose to encounter an Indigenous man, St. Juan Diego, consoling him and his people, survivors of conquest, who needed a Mother’s…
December 10, 2023 | Sr. Eileen Reilly, SSND | Today’s Readings “Prepare the way of the LORD!” (Isaiah 40:3) , There is a situation that I’m sure occurs in households everywhere when someone shares the urgent message, “We’re leaving at 3 p.m. so we won’t be late!” This announcement can mean many different things for…
Henry Ossawa Tanner, Mary, ca. 1914, oil on canvas December 8, 2023 | Mary Hallinan | Today’s Readings “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” , It was a fun Thanksgiving week this year for a group of mostly strangers who responded to a…
December 3, 2023 | Fr. George Williams | Today’s Readings “Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the time will come.” (Mark 12:33) , Last Sunday I said Mass at San Quentin, the California prison which houses the state’s death row. As I stood behind the altar, I looked out at a full…
Jesus came to be present with us. We can embody that presence in our ministry to others.
During his time as a prison chaplain, Dr. Arturo Chávez met many “Juan Diegos” — men lost in the darkness of personal shame and systemic injustice.
“Lord, come and save us” is a refrain prayed by crime victims, the incarcerated, and those burdened by our broken criminal legal system.
Mary is there to comfort any mother who has lost a child — whether to illness, death, or incarceration.
God promises a justice far greater than the one offered by our criminal legal system.
If we “stay awake” we may see the Son of Man coming in even the most unlikely of places — like on death row.
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