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The Bible The Textbook of Stewardship The Month of Mary: A Time for Celebration and Joy Flame of Love Cenacle Bringing Group Members Together in Prayer and Fellowship The Rosary: Our Lady’s Lasso Trinity Bookstore A Wide Selection of Catholic Gifts and “Holy Reminders” Just a Quick Drive Away
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Holy Hour for Vocations
Fanning the Flames in the Hearts of Those Discerning their Call A
mber Vanderpol felt drawn to the ministry of praying for vocations. Unsure how to pursue this at first, she came across the idea of having a Holy Hour for vocations. When she brought the idea to Fr. Estrella, it turned out that he had been thinking the same thing. Amber volunteered her family to commit to a monthly Holy Hour. “Our Lord asks us to pray to send more laborers for the harvest,” Amber says. “We are in a time of such incredible need for priests and religious, but also for Holy Matrimony. The number of people marrying in the Church is going down. I think we as a parish need to increase our prayer for all vocations.” Before they began their Holy Hour prayers, Amber and her family invited the diocesan vocations director over for dinner. He had helped establish Holy Hours at other parishes and offered suggestions for a format to follow and booklets to assist parishioners in participating. The booklets available during the Holy Hour walk through different
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St.
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The Textbook of Stewardship
ave you ever wished that life came with an instruction manual? What a valuable resource that would be! Whenever you find yourself running in circles, this instruction manual would give you step-by-step instructions on how to fix the problem and reroute your course. Well, here’s some good news. For those living a Christian life, there is such a manual — the Bible. Sometimes referred to as the “textbook of stewardship,” the Bible is a bountiful resource for the present-day Christian. Written by anointed prophets and sages, this collection of divinely inspired parables, poems and letters is full of testimonials that express the blessings that come from true discipleship, conveyed through lives of stewardship. Stewardship is not a new concept. The Bible gives proof to this claim through passages such as the 26th chapter of the Book of Deuteronomy. We read Moses’ words, as he tells the Israelites to offer the choicest portions of their harvest to God: “When you have come into the land which the LORD, your God, is giving you as a heritage, and have taken possession and settled in it, you shall take some first fruits of the various products of the soil which you harvest from the land the LORD, your God, is giving you; put them in a basket and go to the place which the LORD, your God, will choose as the dwelling place for his name… ‘Now, therefore, I have brought the first fruits of the products of the soil which you, LORD, have given me.’ You shall set them before the LORD, your God, and you shall bow down before the LORD, your God” (Dt 26:1-2, 10). St. Paul briefly touches on the essence of stewardship when he said, “In every way I have shown you that by hard work of that sort we must help the weak, and keep in mind the words of the Lord Jesus who himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive’” (Acts 20:35). Again, in St. Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, we read about living a life of Christian stewardship: “Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each must do as already
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determined, without sadness or compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Cor 9:6-7). While this is well and good, what does it mean for the present-day Christian? Why should it matter that the Bible alludes to stewardship in various passages? It shows us that Christians and Jews have struggled with and benefited from the concept of stewardship for thousands of years. It ties the message of stewardship to the role of a Christian disciple. It gives proof that stewardship and discipleship go hand-in-hand. It offers encouragement to us, that stewardship is in fact a foundational component of the Christian life, a way of life that one of the founding fathers of the Church — St. Paul — preached about and advocated. The Bible is indeed the textbook of stewardship. It lays out the steps we must take to become true disciples of Christ. Reading and meditating upon God’s Word is always a fruitful exercise. Those who regularly delve into Scripture often develop a deeper understanding of Who God is, how and why He loves us, and how we can show Him our love in return. As you strive to become a grateful steward and live the life of Christian discipleship, develop a love for Sacred Scripture. Allow God’s Word to nourish your soul regularly, and watch as stewardship changes from a foreign concept to an integral component of your daily life.
A L e tt e r F r o m F ath e r
The Month of Mary:
A Time for Celebration and Joy Dear Family, n the Catholic Church, we designate a particular devotion for each month — and May is when we honor our Blessed Mother Mary. Thus, this is a good time for us to think about and concentrate on our devotion to the Mother of God. Perhaps we can add a few more Marian prayers to our daily routine. Praying the Rosary might become part of our daily prayers. Of course, that assumes that daily prayer is part of our daily routine — which it should be. Our Blessed Mother is important to our faith and our Church. Her willingness to serve in a way that allowed the Lord to take human form made our salvation a possibility. Because of her complete trust in God, she lived her life free from sin, and after her life, she was assumed into heaven by the power of God and crowned Queen of Heaven and Earth. She is, of course, not divine. We worship only our Lord Jesus Christ, but we honor Mary as a saint, and also in many other ways. We honor God when we remember the role of Mary in our salvation. Devotion to Mary always leads to Jesus Christ Himself. Mary was joyous when she said “yes” to God. That is the kind of joy we need to seek — and we, too, must say “yes” to the Lord. Let us be grateful to Mary for bringing us her Son. This is why we crown her on our Catholic version of Mother’s Day. Through Mary, we are given an invitation into the Catholic fold. Her feminine presence and the safety of her motherhood may help us grow. For most of us, this time of year is a month of growth in relation to nature. It is difficult not to have May as one of our favorite months for so many reasons. May is a beautiful time. We are called to make it even more beautiful, and we can do that as we serve and love one another. I am deeply blessed to be your pastor. I may say that often, but it is true. My priesthood has been a blessing and serving you all has made that blessing even more significant. I pray for you daily. Please pray for me. God bless you and keep you always.
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Your Father in Christ,
Fr. Estrella Pastor
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FLAME OF LO
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Bringing Group Members Toge
s Catholics, an important part of being “in the world but not of the world” is to have an active life of prayer. In light of everything going on in our world today, prayer is more important than ever. Our parish’s Flame of Love cenacle, or prayer group, follows the Flame of Love spiritual movement based on the diary of Hungarian Mystic Elizabeth Kindelmann. Through this group, members can unite in prayer for the whole world, and support each other in fellowship and friendship. “There is a great need to be in prayer right now — prayer is the basis for healing, for finding answers, and a means to grow in faith,” says group member Mary Anne Ettlin. “We feel a sense of support and community when we pray together.” Elizabeth Kindelmann was a laywoman from Budapest, Hungary who died in 1985. The Flame of Love movement’s foundation comes from her diary, in which she details how Jesus and Mary revealed to her a certain form of prayer and sacrifice. “The emphasis of the Flame of Love movement is that the Mother of God wants to gather souls who will pray with her for the battle that the Church is going through,” Mary Anne says. “The intentions of our prayer include: to save souls, to release souls from purgatory, for priests and new
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vocations in the Church, and last but not least, for the Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and to make reparations for sins.” The group meets once a week on Thursdays, after the morning Mass. While it has been active in its current form for about a year, it actually grew out of an existing Rosary group that had been active for over 10 years. This group would gather to pray the Rosary in group members’ homes. The group members became familiar with the Flame of Love movement about five years ago, and later on, decided to adopt that prayer format for the group. This includes several requests that Our Lady revealed to Elizabeth, which she recorded in her diary. “One of the requests she made was to go into the parish and pray in the parish, so we have now moved from meeting in homes to meeting in the church itself,” Mary Anne says. “In the diary, Mary makes a surprising statement to Elizabeth — she says the Flame of Love is the greatest grace given to mankind since the Incarnation. Mary has obtained this extraordinary grace from the Eternal Father through the merits of her Son. One way this grace is given to us is through the Blessed Mother ’s request to Elizabeth to have a new phrase added to the Hail Mary, ‘Spread the effect of grace of thy flame of love over all of humanity.’ “There is also a second prayer that Jesus gave to us called the Unity Prayer,” she adds. “Through these newly added prayers, we receive a special promise, an effect of the grace that is given to all of humanity. The promise is that these new prayers, if prayed, will make it so that Satan becomes blind to mankind and his influence over them, and then souls can respond with actual grace. So if we as a group commit to praying these
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ether in Prayer and Fellowship prayers, Satan will not have influence over us. So when we understand that promise, it’s really an incentive for us to pray.” Through Flame of Love, Mary Anne and her fellow group members have been able to grow in faith and in fellowship with one another. “When you pray with others and reflect or meditate on the prayers and teachings of the
Church with them, it’s a natural consequence to grow in faith,” she says. “We grow closer to each other — our friendships increase in love for each other. We also pray for each other — many people come with big burdens, a lot going on in their lives. When they know people are praying for their specific needs, it helps them to grow closer to each other. It’s a really special bond.”
If you would like more information on the Flame of Love movement, please visit the national website at www.flameoflove.us. To get involved, either join the group on Thursday mornings or contact the parish office at 530-273-2347.
Holy Hour for Vocations priests in our lives for whom we can pray, such as the priest who baptized us, gave us our First Communion, and the priest who will preside at our funeral. It reminds us to pray for those in our parish who might quietly be discerning the priesthood or religious life. The first Holy Hour for Vocations was held in September 2021. Amber's three sons are altar servers, and they assist the priest in the Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament and Benediction. The hour includes Scripture and a brief reflection, petition prayers, and quiet time for personal prayer. Amber sees the Holy Hour as more than just an opportunity to pray for vocations. “I think it’s a witness to the youth of our parish,” she says. “I would love to see more families bring their children before our Lord to pray for vocations. We tend to ask children what
continued from front cover they want to be when they grow up, but we don’t always talk about vocation and what God is calling us to do. I’d love to see it become more of a family ministry.” Amber realizes some families might hesitate to bring small children to an hour of quiet prayer, but she encourages them to come. “It’s okay if your kids make noise at a Holy Hour,” she says. “I bring my 4-year-old, and she’s not perfectly quiet the entire time. It’s so important to bring children there and teach them to be okay with the quiet, and they do learn. It’s not always perfect, but they deserve to be there, and our Lord wants them there.” Our prayer, our simple conversations, and witness to our children and the young people of the parish can fan the flame that the Lord has placed in the hearts of those discerning their call in life.
All are welcome to join in prayer on the first Thursday of the month at 7 p.m.
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The Rosary: Our Lady’s Lasso T
here was a priest who once said, “It is no coincidence that rosaries look like lassos, as Our Lady wraps them around lost souls and pulls them out of the depths of hell.” This thought is comforting but provokes inquiry — what exactly is the Rosary, how does one pray it, and why should one pray it? Since May is the month of Mary, this is a great time to consider the theology behind this intense spiritual weapon. There are two putative origins of the Rosary. For many centuries, it was believed that the Blessed Virgin appeared to St. Dominic and exhorted him to encourage the use of the Angelic Salutation — or Hail Mary — for the conversion of souls and comfort of the afflicted. Modern scholarship traces the Rosary back to Irish monasticism of the ninth century. Monks would pray all 150 psalms or “psalters” every day, a form of prayer too complicated for uneducated laypeople without access to copies of Scripture. So, many began reciting the Lord’s Prayer or the Angelic Salutation in response to each psalm, keeping count with pebbles or a knotted rope. Through many centuries, the Rosary evolved into three sets of five mysteries, each mystery consisting of 10 Angelic Salutations and one Lord’s Prayer recited while meditating upon the life, death or glory of Jesus Christ. In The Secret of the Rosary, St. Louis de Montfort expounds the dynamics of the Rosary. The prayer consists of both vocal or exterior prayer, and meditative or interior prayer. The first vocal component of the Rosary, the Creed, is important because faith is “the foundation of all Christian virtues, of all eternal virtues, and also of all prayers that are pleasing to Almighty God.” The Lord’s Prayer is the “perfect prayer” to the God of heaven because it was authored by Christ, is free of all human limitations, and “contains all the duties we owe to God, the acts of all the virtues and the petitions for all our spiritual and corporal needs.” The Hail Mary blesses the name of Mary and her Divine Son and implores her powerful
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intercession as mediatrix of graces. But the Rosary is not simply a physical incantation. Vocal prayer is accompanied by contemplation of the mysteries of Christ’s life and the virtues of the Virgin Mary. It is by lifting the incorporeal soul in prayer that one quiets the passions, tastes the peace of Christ, marvels at His loving plans and promises, and grows in the desire to emulate Him and His sinless mother. Because the soul animates the body, a strengthened soul means nobility of action and a will that is commensurate with the will of God. As St. Louis de Montfort says, “The Rosary is a blessed blending of mental and vocal prayer by which we honor and learn to imitate the mysteries and the virtues of the life, death, passion and glory of Jesus and Mary.” The Rosary’s emphasis on both vocal and meditative prayer caters to man’s nature as an embodied soul — one’s entire being, both physical and spiritual, cries out to God in praise, repentance, thanksgiving and supplication. Thus, it is no surprise that the magisterium and countless saints have encouraged devotion to the Rosary. Pope St. John Paul II said of the prayer, “The Rosary is my favorite prayer, marvelous in its simplicity and its depth.” The late pontiff also added five more “luminous” mysteries to the Rosary to help the faithful meditate upon significant moments in Christ’s earthly ministry.
T R I NI T Y B OOKS TORE A Wide Selection of Catholic Gifts and “Holy Reminders” Just a Quick Drive Away
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t this time of year, many families are looking forward to the celebrations of their children’s First Communion and First Reconciliation. These are joyous occasions that many want their children to remember in the years to come. Renee Galleo, owner of Trinity Bookstore at 1132 Lincoln Way, Auburn, offers some suggestions for lifelong keepsakes. “If it’s one thing, it would be a rosary for children,” she says. “I try to tell parents, people at my age, we all have kept whatever we received for our First Communion. My husband has his First Communion rosary. It’s very important. It’s such a milestone when they begin receiving the Eucharist.” Renee has owned the shop for the last four years. She believes there have been eight other women who have either taken on the ministry with combinations of sole ownership or partnerships for the past 35 years.
“The shop was already established when I purchased it,” Renee says. “I had been volunteering for the previous owners and saw areas that could be improved upon. When the shop went up for sale, I just couldn’t stop thinking about it as I just needed to give it a try.” She is hard-pressed to say what the most popular items are in the store. “It would be great if there was one thing that stood out,” Renee says. “I am asked this frequently by curious customers. It sometimes matches the seasons of the church year. Since owning the shop, I have brought in other ‘holy reminders,’ as I like to call them — gift-type items such as window charms, wind chimes, pocket tokens for adults and children, coffee from the Mystic Monks, and many other ‘gift’ type of items.” The shop has only 400-square feet, but Renee continued on back cover
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St.
Patrick’s P A R I S H 235 Chapel Street Grass Valley, CA 95945 (530) 273-2347 stpatrickgrassvalley.org
TRI N I T Y B O O KS TORE manages to display a wide variety of items, such as crucifixes, plaques, candles, statues, and books. “There are more than 5,000 items in the store,” Renee says. “The largest is a two-foot-tall statue. The crucifixes are the usual choice when someone is moving into a new home, and it is bought for a gift. If someone already has one, people look for a holy reminder — perhaps an image of a saint or apparition of Our Lady, or the Sacred Heart, so many devotional items. We have lots to choose from, for wherever their faith is taking them, and
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holy reminders to keep them on track. Renee encourages in-person visits to the shop that stands adjacent to St. Joseph Catholic Church. “I believe that seeing items in person is so much better,” Renee says. “Rosaries need to be held before being purchased as that is such a personal devotional. When customers look around the shop, they are amazed at how much has been ‘stuffed’ into the 400 square feet. Plus, it is a really fun experience to look around!”
“I try to tell parents, people at my age, we all have kept whatever we received for our First Communion. My husband has his First Communion rosary. It’s very important. It’s such a milestone when they begin receiving the Eucharist.” — Renee Galleo Trinity Bookstore is open from 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Tuesday through Friday, and 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday at 1132 Lincoln Way, Auburn, CA 95603. For questions or special orders, please call 530-888-7345.
MASS SCHEDULE Monday-Saturday: Daily Mass at 8:30 a.m. | Saturday Vigil Mass: 5 p.m. | Sunday Mass: 7:30 a.m., 9 a.m., 11 a.m., 1 p.m. (Spanish)
