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Making New COnnections
StreetCode Academy:
Awarded 2021 #1 Non-Profit in the CA Senate 13th District!Are you looking for ways to contribute "Good" to the challenges of racism? The St. Thomas Aquinas parish Human Concerns Committee is highlighting for you Street Code. They seek to empower communities of color in Silicon Valley with access to the era of technology through skills training, design, coding, entrepreneurship and other pathways to better job opportunities.
These highlights may appeal to your desire to learn more, support with personal engagement and possibly provide financial assistance. It is another way we can become more aware and actively involved improving the lives and future opportunities for these local youth.
Let us work together translating our faith into making a "GOOD" difference for all people!
(here)
Girls to Woman provides media and visual arts workshop, leadership training,summer program, ongoing, gardening, nutrition and environmental education, after school programs for young women of color in East Palo Alto. Information (here)
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Bulletin
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Today's Readings
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Prayer Requests
Prayers to Kay Williams,
Rosanna Madrigal's special intentions; for Rudy Bahr who passed away 5/11/21 and for Fr. Russ Roide who passed away 4/13/21. -
Letter From Fr. Larry Percell
September 21, 2021
Dear Friends at the Thomas Merton Center,
With the exception of a hiatus while we were all sheltering-in-place, I have been joining you for the celebration of the Eucharist once a month for several years. It has been a joy and a privilege to celebrate with a community so dedicated to the Eucharist and to an adult experience of Catholic practice, which includes a commitment to adult education and social justice. I shall always be grateful for this opportunity.
Since restrictions were lessened so that we could once again gather for Mass in person, I have discovered in several settings that I do not have the energy and stamina I had before the pandemic. Consequently, after prayer, reflection and conversation with my spiritual director, I have decided to significantly reduce the number of public Masses I celebrate.
Although this decision means I will not be able to continue celebrating with you at the 9 o’clock Sunday Mass, I will join you on Oct. 10, Nov. 14 and Dec. 12 to give time to find other priests to celebrate with you. One priest you have already met is Father John Auther, S.J. from the Jesuit Retreat Center in Los Altos.
Looking back, my years in active ordained ministry went quickly (12 years at St. Nicholas, 3 years at El Retiro, and four years as a sacramental supply priest). I now feel the Lord is beckoning me to a more settled time of retirement with its opportunities to be with family and for prayer and contemplation. I shall miss you, and I will pray for you. Please pray for me as well.
Your friend, Larry Percell
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Options for Weekly Reflection
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Zoom/webinar events
Retired Stanford Professor David Abernethy will speak on, “American Race Relations in Global Perspectives,” on Wednesday, October 27th at 7:30 p.m. A specialist in sub-Saharan Africa, Abernethy received his PhD degree from Harvard and an MA from Oxford University.
Zoom meeting ID 872 0817 2815
Passcode 850
Link: (Here)The Sentencing Project’s webinar Tues. Nov. 9th, 4:30 p.m. Pacific/7:30 p.m. Eastern. Discussion & awards to Desmond Meade, 2021 MacArthur Fellow and President of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition. Mr. Meade nominated Chainless Change for an organization award. Led by Marq Mitchell, the organization seeks to support justice-involved individuals and their families.
Register (Here) -
Pope Francis synod on synodality
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Climate change
Study: Most US Catholic bishops kept silent on Francis' climate change push
Oct 19, 2021
Daniel R. DiLeo, Sabrina Danielsen, Emily E. Burke, Religion News Service
This weekend, Pope Francis published a series of tweets that linked environmental and social crises. This connection embodies the "integral ecology" that is a refrain of his 2015 encyclical "Laudato Si', on Care for Our Common Home."
Its publication was a landmark moment in the fight against climate change. Secular environmentalists were encouraged to see such a prominent global leader devote one of his most powerful tools to their cause. Many American Catholics hoped the encyclical would inspire their bishops to make climate change a priority.
Almost as soon as the document was published, however, the U.S. bishops showed signs that they would largely ignore the pope's exhortation in their teachings and action.
Read full article: (here)
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Masks, vaccines and rights in the land of freedom and liberty
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