The Spiritual Life

3rd Sunday of Advent – The Priest as a Prophet

December 12, 2021

Epistle from the letter of St. Paul the Apostle to the PhilippiansPhil 4:4-7Brethren: Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice. Let your moderation be known to all men. The Lord is near. Have no anxiety, but in every prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your petitions be made known to God. And may the peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Gospel Continuation ✠ of the Holy Gospel according to St. JohnJohn 1:19-28At that time, the Jews sent to John from Jerusalem priests and Levites to ask him, Who are you? And he acknowledged and did not deny; and he acknowledged, I am not the Christ. And they asked him, What then? Are you Elias? And he said, I am not. Are you the Prophet? And he answered, No. They therefore said to him, Who are you? that we

Sermon for the Second Sunday of Advent.

December 5, 2021

Epistle Taken from the letter of St. Paul the Apostle to the RomansRom 15:4-13Brethren: Whatever things have been written have been written for our instruction, that through the patience and the consolation afforded by the Scriptures we may have hope. May then the God of patience and of comfort grant you to be of one mind towards one another according to Jesus Christ; that, one in spirit, you may with one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Wherefore receive one another, even as Christ has received you to the honor of God. For I say that Christ Jesus has been a minister of the circumcision in order to show God’s fidelity in confirming the promises made to our fathers, but that the Gentiles glorify God because of His mercy, as it is written, Therefore will I praise You among the Gentiles, and will sing to

Sermon for the Last Sunday after Pentecost.

November 21, 2021

On the temptation to not be a Saint. My dear friends, today we celebrate the Last Sunday of the Season after Pentecost, and with this, we put an end to the liturgical year. The next Sunday we will be beginning the Holy Season of Advent, which will lead us to prepare for the coming of our Lord. And as we finish this liturgical year, we are bound once again to look into our lives for reformation and improvement, as the Church guides us through these different stages of spiritual preparation. I have been talking about this a lot, and I will continue to do so, perhaps, because the Priest, as a good coach, is bound not only to give the right doctrine, and to provide correction when needed, but also to encourage and as it were, to push and continuously compel us to improve our lives. And on those lines,

On the 6th Sunday After Epiphany

November 13, 2021

Homily By fr. Carlos Zepeda. today I would like to talk about our daily prayers. But I would like to begin by telling you of the Prophet Daniel. But before I begin, I would like to bring back to our minds, that this story is not just a tale, it is a historical fact. In the last sermon we mentioned the first destruction of Jerusalem. When the Jews, about 3000 years ago, committed idolatry and apostatized from the true faith, God as a punishment allowed the pagan peoples, particularly the Babylonians, to come and destroy Jerusalem and the Temple. Many Jews were killed, and the ones remaining were deported, that is, they were brought to Babylon, or to other pagan nations. Among these Jews were four young men, who were of good manners, pius and exemplary. One of these was Daniel. Now, it was a custom among the Babylonians, to

On the Feast of All the Saints

November 1, 2021

Lesson from the book of RevelationApoc 7:2-12In those days, behold, I John, saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, having the seal of the living God; and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, who had it in their power to harm the earth and the sea, saying, Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads. And I heard the number of those who were sealed, a hundred and forty-four thousand sealed, out of every tribe of the children of Israel; of the tribe of Juda, twelve thousand sealed; of the tribe of Ruben, twelve thousand; of the tribe of Gad, twelve thousand; of the tribe of Aser, twelve thousand; of the tribe of Nephthali, twelve thousand; of the tribe of Manasses, twelve thousand; of the tribe of Simeon,

On Christ the King

October 30, 2021

Epistle taken from the letter of St. Paul the Apostle to the ColossiansCol 1:12-20.Brethren: We give thanks to God the Father Who has made us worthy to share the lot of the saints in light. He has rescued us from the power of darkness, and transferred us into the kingdom of His beloved Son, in Whom we have our redemption through His blood, the remission of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. For in Him were created all things in the heavens and on the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether Thrones, or Dominations, or Principalities, or Powers. All things have been created through and unto Him, and He is before all creatures, and in Him all things hold together. Again, He is the head of the body, the Church; He, Who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that