2022 First news to share is that we moved! Our new address is 602 Ruby St., Redwood City, CA, 94061. Kristin had asked me to get this news out a lot sooner (especially before Christmas cards were getting mailed out). As you can see this letter is now serving a dual purpose. In the midst of settling into our new home, we have had many park dates, lots of baseball, soccer, and football games, dinners with cousin Tristan, travel north to Nana and Papa’s, travel south for a vacation with Nona and Pouli, and travel to the southwest for an Easter visit to Uncle Ben and Aunt Kelly. More and more our life centers around our parish, St. Charles. We feel so blessed to be a part of this church and school community, where we continue to teach the Con rmation program. William received the Sacrament of Reconciliation and First Communion this year, and Mateo graduated from Pre-School. Kristin has embraced her expanded role at Mitty as the Adult Spirituality Coordinator, and I continue my work in Campus Ministry at Serra. I recently led students to the Kino Border Initiative along the Nogales Arizona/Mexico border, where we got to listen to and accompany asylum seekers. This powerful immersion trip and the people we met has remained with me as the border situation intensi es. This year was marked by too many untimely deaths of friends and family. A verse from Psalm 30 rings true, “At nightfall weeping enters in, but with the dawn, rejoicing. You changed my mourning into dancing. My God, I give you thanks.” It is in this Advent season we are reminded that despite the darkness of death, depression, anxiety, and war, light always prevails. As people of faith we remain hopeful, since scripture reminds us of God’s liberating power to lift up the lowly. On December 12, the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, I read a re ection by Cecilia González-Andrieu, PhD. She writes that the spirit who beckoned Juan Diego from the hillside some 500 years ago, was the same spirit who had done something similar 1,500 years earlier in the small town of Nazareth. Cecilia asks us to “envision young Mary, tending to her chores, maybe covered in dust from sweeping or in our from baking. See her frightened face (similar to Juan Diego’s perplexity,) as the veil between this world and God’s suddenly opens and a messenger enters. The gospel tells us she is scared and confused, but somehow (like Juan Diego would also learn to do), she trusts the mystery of a cosmos that swirls around them both, a mystery that tells them (and us) of a God wanting to be known.” Then Cecilia nishes: “Mary walks to Juan Diego and as time opens up, she reaches you. As the sun shimmers this morning, she asks you to not be afraid but to trust, heaven is opening up all around you. Stop. Listen to the birds. There’s something God needs you to do.” Amen, Amen! ~ Merry Christmas
CON AMOR- Bi y, Kris n, Wi iam, and Ma o
fl
fi
te
ll
ti
fi
ll
fl
fi
P.S. - If you are able to support young Nicaraguans seeking hope through education and a college degree, please donate to SNEF.