Pastor’s Desk 08-29-2021

Pop culture has given us an unique idea of the term justice. Justice, we often think, is about taking. Taking what’s owed. Taking revenge. Taking what we deserve. This worldview tends to make mincemeat of our Catholic social teachings. Seeking the good of the poor, a...

Pastor’s Desk 08-22-2021

We aren’t comfortable with the idea of submission. Our society champions equality, and rightly so — but it’s a mistake to think that submission is at odds with equality. To submit ourselves fully, we must first be free. We must first be our own masters. God has...

Pastor’s Desk 08-15-2021

Today, Catholics and many other Christians celebrate the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This significant feast day recalls the spiritual and physical departure of the mother of Jesus Christ from the earth, when both her soul and her body were...

Pastor’s Desk 08-08-2021

This and ThatWe AskedLoving Creator,We asked for strength, and yougave us difficulties to make usstrong.We asked for wisdom, and you gave us problems tosolve.We asked for prosperity, and you gave us purposeand brains to use.We asked for courage, and you gave us fears...

Pastor’s Desk 08-01-2021

Practicing FaithQuestion:I’d like to make some new resolutions about practicing the faith in our family during the year. Do you have any suggestions?Answer:The family is the most essential space for the formation of values and character. Practicing your faith as a...

Pastor’s Desk 07-25-2021

St. Joachim, Father of the Most Blessed Virgin Feast: July 26th  St. Joachim was the ever-chaste husband of St. Anne, the mother of our Blessed Virgin. Though advanced in years, Sts. Joachim and Anne remained fervent in their prayers to be blessed with a child. God...

Pastor’s Desk 07-18-2021 (Message from Bishop Barber)

~ A Return to the Eucharist ~~ “How I have longed to celebrate this Passover with you” (Luke 22:15). When people ask, “Why should we go to Mass?” I answer, “Because Jesus is waiting for you there in the Church, and He wants to be with you — right there — in the Holy...

Pastor’s Desk 07-04-2021

Fr. Henry was appointed as the Pastor of St. Joachim Parish by Oakland Bishop Michael C. Barber, S.J. effective July 1, 2021. Fr. Henry was born in Poland in 1968 and ordained a priest for the Divine Word Missionaries on April 27, 1996. For two years he worked in the...

Pastor’s Desk 06-27-2021

While talking to me these days, quite a few of our parishioners have asked me to name one work of mine at St. Joachim in the last ten years that I feel so close to my heart. Without hesitation I have named the construction of the sanctuary in our church and bringing...

Pastor’s Desk 06-20-2021

Three years back, one day as I was walking back to the sacristy after the 12.15 pm Sundaymass, a Spanish speaking young lady who comes regularly to our Sunday Mass along with her husband and two sons came to me and said that her elder boy who was studying third grade...

Pastor’s Desk 06-13-2021

You remember David, a pre-teen shepherd boy, taking down the mighty soldier Goliath? You remember Moses, the stuttering herdsman who, in a personal interview with God, was directed to liberate his nation from a two-thousand-year-old nation? As a boy Thomas Edison was...

Pastor’s Desk 06-06-2021

The Lord's ensures that we can remember Jesus from any place. Apollo 11 landed on the moon on Sunday, July 20, 1969. Most remember astronaut Neil Armstrong's first words as he stepped onto the moon's surface: "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for...