The Christmas Story

Great preview of this weekends Gospel reading...  LUKE 1:26 

The Christmas Story

Jesus Didn't Care About Correct Doctrine, and Neither Should We

 "It seems to me that if we truly want a life full of loving relationships, we need to care less about what doctrines or world views people believe and more about the actual person".
Read the full story on  The BLOG 

A Beautiful Santa Barbara Wedding!

Congratulatons to Jessica and Eric for a lifetime of happiness!

Trust in Your Experience of God

Father Richard Rohr explains our need to trust our soul in our experience of God.

TRUST YOUR OWN EXPERIENCE

Congratulations to Lupe Kovalesky on her baptism!

Blessings to Dolores and Brian Kovalesky on the baptism of their beautiful little daughter Guadalupe!

Lupe loved her baptism! 

The whole family gathered around to celebrate. 

Congratulations to proud parents Brian and Dolores
and to the godparents. 

Happy grandma! 

Sister Stella and the Daughters of Mary and Joseph

Here is the beautiful video that was produced for the Sister Stella and Daughters of Mary and Joseph Gala held on May 2, 2014 at the Beverly Wiltshire Hotel: Sister Stella Video

Mindfulness

Great article on MINDFULNESS.

Discharging Your Loyal Soldier

Richard Rohr shares a beautiful message about how to move from the first stage of life to the second. "Discharging the Loyal Soldier"

Married Catholic Priests

For the first time in a very long time, the idea of a Roman Catholic married priesthood is a topic that is being discussed by the Catholic Church. 

An article today in the National Catholic Reporter details where this issue is heading. 

A recent article in the Harold Review outlines some of the current married priests in the Church.  

St. Paul's Welcomes Aurelia!

St. Paul's welcomed Aurelia Edwards into the community at an exquisite baptism. Aurelia's proud parents Ben Edwards and Anouska de Georgiou were surrounded by family and friends who traveled from far and wide to celebrate this beautiful sacrament. Aurelia's godmother came all the way from London! Aurelia's father Ben Edwards is a former student at St. Paul's and is thrilled to welcome his own daughter into our community. Blessing to Aurelia and her entire family!

Ben and Anouska each read a beautiful
love letter to Aurelia.

Massive Group at Sandwich Builders!

Many thanks to the hundreds of parents and children who showed up last night to volunteer at Sandwich Builders! It was one of the biggest groups we've had and it was a ton of fun. With the music blaring and everyone pitching in we made over 900 complete lunches and over 1,200 sandwiches in just under one hour! Great job everyone! All of those goodies are being delivered this morning all over Los Angeles to people who need a little help and a little hope. Your delicious lunches and beautiful prayer cards are just what is needed. Blessing to all!

And a special BIG THANK YOU to Jim & Elizabeth Burgess who have been running Sandwich Builders now for so many years! Thier countless hours of dedication have been a true blessing to our St. Paul's Community as well as to people all over the city. Did you know that through their leadership Sandwich Builders programs have been started at Fox Studios and USC! Jim & Elizabeth, you are a shining example of God's light in this world! Thank You!

Dualistic Thinking

Dualistic Thinking 

"Transformation is a different path than mere education. Someone can be highly educated and still be totally dualistic and arrogant about it, while an uneducated janitor or motel maid can be non-dualistic because the suffering of life leads her or him into problems they cannot solve. Such people often tend to learn surrender to soul much more quickly and easily. Jesus says this in many ways."

I love receiving these daily meditations of Father Richard Rohr. I thought I would share this one with you. To read the rest of it click here: Dualistic Thinking.  

Mindful Lenten Transformation

Lent is starting off with a bag for me and I've got to share this with you! Last night when I was at our St. Paul's Sycamore and Romaine outreach project my dear friend Mary McCoy mentioned to me that UCLA Mindful Awareness Center offers free walk-in classes at the Hammer Museum in Westwood. The Hammer is across the street from my office so I was over at lunch today to try it out. Wow! It was fantastic!

You can see the schedule of free classes here: UCLA Mindful Awareness. They offer them at the Hammer and several other places.

Thanks for the tip Mary!

Sycamore and Romaine Volunteers Rock!

Thank you to all of the St. Paul's volunteers who came out on Ash Wednesday to serve a delicious hot meal to so many at the intersection of Sycamore and Romaine.

Cole and Patty Kerrigan served it up!

Matt and Mary McCoy
were experts serving the soup and drinks!

Rick Bisetti had the sweet spot with cookies and cupcakes! 

And several hundred enjoyed an excellent meal on Ash Wednesday! 

Then Mary decided to take off! 

...but Patty and Cole saved the day! 

Many thanks to the entire St. Paul's crew for your service to others. Great way to start the journey of Lent to transform the world and making it a better place. Grace + Peace!

New Church - Old Church: Bishops Opinions Differ on Family, Marriage & Sexuality

It is an exciting time in the Catholic Church!  All Catholics in the world were recently asked by Pope Francis to complete an online questionnaire about the dynamics of family, marriage and sexuality.

The results will be discussed by the Bishops of the world in October. Results have been slowly trickling out and have stirred a wave of new discussion about how our Church should change to make it self more relevant to the needs of today's world.

Click here to read the article:
"CHURCH TEACHINGS MUST CHANGE ON SEXUAL MORALITY" 

Some of the Bishops quoted in the article demonstrate the difference of opinions on these issues between the younger and older Bishops. In a quote from 50 year old Bishop Stephan Ackermann he states: "The responses showed “quite clearly” that for the majority of the faithful the church’s teaching on moral sexuality was “repressive” and “remote from life.” 
But 71 year old Bishop Heinz Algermissen responded by saying that "the questionnaire on his own was “counterproductive." 

Looks like this Lent will be a time of great meditation and reflection for all! 

For more about responses to the questionnaire see this article: NCR

Some Priests Didn't Get the Memo!

Pope Francis is transforming our Church. It is a beautiful time to be a Catholic. Here are some amazing (although sad) stories of some folks in the Church who apparently are having a hard time understanding what Pope Francis is teaching...
        click here:  NATIONAL CATHOLIC REPORTER

Come Explore the Worry Free Zone! (update)

Sunday Gospel of Matthew 6:24

Are you stressed out? Do you worry about the future?

This past Sunday we explored some ideas on how we can get into a Worry Free Zone this Lent. In our Gospel we hear Jesus teaching us how to live our lives - without worrying so much! We tend to worry about all sorts of things that don't really matter, and the worrying doesn't help us live a more passionate life or enjoy a single second more of our life, it actually brings us down.

In order to stop worrying about things - I like to use what I call the MIG Method.
It stands for Mindful, Intentional and Grateful.

Mindfulness is about slowing down and having a greater sense of focus about life. This Lent I am going to try to be more mindful by putting my iPhone away when I am with someone. I tend to have it out all the time, checking emails, or texts or Facebook, and it distracts me from being really present for the people who I am talking to. I'm not going to worry about what might be on my iPhone and I am going to make a more conscious effort to really focus on the people around me.

Intentional means saying a big YES and being deliberate and purposeful about decisions. And when we say YES, it also means saying NO to many other things. For me, I have wanted to listen to some incredible lectures given by Father Richard Rohr that are on CD, but I find that I never get to them because I waste so much time watching ridiculous things on TV when I come home from work. So I'm going to try to not worry about what I might be missing on TV and hopefully I will  actually finally listen to these great CD's and experience something really  transformational in my spirituality this Lent.

Gratitude is truly the antidote to worry and stress. You can't be filled with gratitude and worried or stressed out at the same time! I've noticed that when I come home from work I talk to my wife about all the stress and bad things that happened that day. For Lent I am going to stop worrying about whatever may have gone wrong at work and instead focus on being grateful for the sacrament of my marriage. I've been blessed to be married to my best friend, soul mate and lover for 33 years (this July 11th) and I am going to focus on how grateful I am to have Stacey in my life and what a blessing she is to me.

So this Lent I am giving up worrying!

I hope that you and your family come up with some great ideas that will make the 40 days of Lent a time of great peace and meditation and transformation in your life. And I'd love to hear what you are doing this Lent so feel free to send me an email at danny@deacondanny.com or to post something on the Deacon Danny Facebook!

Blessings to you and your family!
Grace + Peace,
Danny Amos

Great Concert on Sunday Night March 16th

On Sunday night March 16th there is going to be a great concert of some of the musicians whose music we hear almost every Sunday at the 5:00 mass. These three incredible musicians are in town for the Religious Education Congress and have joined forces to play an awesome gig on Sunday night at St. Agustine's Church in Culver City across from the Sony Studio. Chris Fagan is the pastor there. He is a former St. Paul's parishioner and a super incredible guy!  
BUY TICKETS HERE

Radical Compassion: Richard Rohr

Father Richard Rohr, a man of radical compassion, gives an insightful interview.
Listen to the interview by clicking here.
Richard Rohr is the founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation.