During our daily alone-time together, we sat sipping our tea and talking about what is going on in the lives of some of our children and grandchildren. In doing this, we soon found ourselves feeling discouraged and worried. Negative imaginings filled our heads...the “what-ifs” took hold. We agreed that we cannot protect those we love from sorrow and pain. All we can do is be there for each of them; pray for them, support and encourage them. Most of all, we can and always will love them. Yet this didn’t seem enough.

To get our minds on something else, we decided to look at today’s Gospel reading. To our surprise, we heard Jesus say to us: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in Me.” What struck us both were the words: “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” The word ‘let’ must mean that we have a choice. We can choose to let ourselves worry and obsess over problems. Our other choice is not to let our hearts be troubled. We can let ourselves have faith in God and trust in Jesus. We can choose to get out of His way and “let go and let God” work within each of His children.

When our hearts are troubled, we can replace our negative thoughts with positive truths: God is in charge! Nothing can happen unless He allows it! He knows what He is doing and what is best for each of them! He loves them even more than we do and is taking care of them better than we ever could! Now we will let peace and serenity fill our hearts. Those we love are in good hands —God’s hands. Jesus has prepared a place for them and for us as well. Let this work for you too!

buy a Dinner Dance
$25 per person includes raffle prizes and silent auction.

Doors open at 6:30 p.m.
Dancing till midnight with music provided by
St. Robert’s own band
“BALL OF CONFUSION.”

As a spiritual gift to your mother, you will find cards in the vestibule of the Church to have her remembered in the Holy Sacrament of the Mass offered at St. Robert’s in observance of Mother’s Day, May 8th

CENTER PLATE VOLUNTEERS

 WE STILL NEED YOUR HELP FOR THE FOLLOWING
SF GIANT GAMES:

On April 27th we will be given extra points
for our sales
WHICH MEANS MOE PROFIT for us.
WE REALLY NEED YOUR HELP THAT DAY!!

If you can't meet us at the departure time
at St. Roberts you can meet us at a
later time at SBC Park.

Help raise funds for:
Classroom supplies, sports program,
parish maintenance fund and out door education.

MERCY CENTER
2300 Adeline Drive, Burlingame, Ca 94010
650-340-7474

June 3rd-June 5th
A Renewal for Busy People
Father DeMello

VALLOMBROSA
250 Oak Grove, Menlo Park, Ca
650-325-5614 ext. 14

May 7th - 9:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m.
Mary , Model of Contemplation
Suzanne Young

June 3rd-5th
Living the Beatitudes Today
Toinette Eugene, PhD.

June 17th-19th
Eucharist and Healing
A silent retreat for men and women.
Father Richard Bain

SAN DAMIANO RETREAT CENTER
P.O. Box 767, Danville, Ca 94526-0767
925 837-9141

May 6th - 10 a.m. –2 p.m.
A Mother’s Heart
A Retreat Day for Mothers
Denise Roy, LMFT, M. Div.

May 12th - 9:30 a.m.-3 p.m.
Women’s Spirituality
So little time, so many distractions
Kathy Miranda, MA

May 29th/1-5 p.m.
Day of Dialogue
Richard Purcell, OFM

Let Us Continue to Pray

God knows that our new Holy Father has quite a task ahead of him! His responsibilities to teach and learn, to listen and speak give us reason to remember him (and all the bishops and priests) every time we gather for the Eucharist. Those early believers were known as followers of “the Way” and their gathering for the Eucharist was known as the breaking of the bread, as we heard a few weeks ago. The Way is the gospel, the good news of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

This beautiful reading from Peter’s first letter asks us “like living stones, let ourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” We are to be the house of God, the body of Christ, the Church. Regardless of who the Pope is, our calling is the same: to be a presence of Christ Risen in our homes, our workplaces, our neighborhoods, our world. We are “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may announce the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” This insight forms the basis of the insight rediscovered by Vatican II that we are God’s people, a pilgrim people, un pueblo en marcha as our Spanish-speaking brothers and sisters say, on our way home.

The passage from John’s gospel today seems to be addressing the various responses to the choice of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as our Pope. “In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places.” There is a lot of room in this one billion strong family called the Church. There will inevitably be differences of opinion about many aspects of Church teaching and Church practices as well as differences of opinion about how much and on what topics faithful Catholics will be allowed to disagree. In his opening address at the Second Vatican Council, Pope John XXIII spoke of addressing errors. He said, “The Church has always opposed errors. Frequently, she has condemned them with the greatest severity. Nowadays, however, the spouse of Christ prefers to make use of the medicine of mercy rather than that of severity. She considers that she meets the needs of the present day by demonstrating the validity of her teaching rather than by condemnations.” (in Voices from the Council, p. xv)