Divine Mercy Catholic Church

Good afternoon DM parishioners and friends. Here is a message from Fr. Michael for the 5th Sunday of Ordinary Time... February 5, 2021 Dear Brothers and Sisters,... In the readings this week we hear from the Book of Job. It is a favorite of mine from the Old Testament. It tells a very important story which is both ancient and modern. It deals with the issue of theodicy, or why does God allow bad things to happen to good people, or why does God allow evil to exist. I don’t want to give away what happens here because I want you to read the Book for yourselves to discover some beautiful yet somewhat nuanced and disturbing answers to some of life’s most difficult questions. On a different topic, we are approaching Lent. Unfortunately, we are not able to hold Ash Wednesday Services at Clovis East High School because the school has indicated that they will have students present on campus at that time. Therefore, we will be celebrating Ash Wednesday services jointly with Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Clovis. Thank you to Father Robert for graciously allowing us to do so. The schedule of services will be made available as soon as it is finalized. We are planning to have a Mass scheduled with the distribution of Ashes at Infant Jesus of Prague in Prather, but it has also not been finalized. If you are unable to attend services, please try to participate at either another Catholic Church or at one of the online services that are available. Contrary to popular belief, Ash Wednesday is not a holy day of obligation. It is a holy day of opportunity which marks the beginning of Lent and the beginning of our preparation for Easter. It is a day of fasting and prayer, which means no meat and only minimal food. Do try and keep to the spirit of the day. When you receive ashes, you will hear one of two possible instructions, Repent and believe in the Gospel or Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return. Keep these instructions in mind. Finally keep our parish in prayer for the next couple of weeks. We are beginning interviews this week of those interested in being members of the Parish Finance Council, the Parish Pastoral Council, the Building Committee, and the Capital Campaign Committee. Please pray that the Holy Spirit guide me and all those interested in making the right decisions for the building up and the protection of Divine Mercy Parish. I think it is a good sign that forty-eight people expressed an interest in being part of these councils. Thank you to those forty-eight. To all the people of our parish, on behalf of the Lord, I thank all of you for your interest and for your dedication to our parish and for helping to build up the kingdom. You all remain in my prayers. Fr. Michael

Good Friday afternoon DM Parishioners and friends. Please read Fr. Michael's note for this weekend, the 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time. January 22, 2021 Dear Brothers and Sisters, As I am writing this it is Friday afternoon, and it is raining. I looked at the weather forecast, and it said there was only a 15% chance of rain on Sunday. I am hoping that Mass can go ahead as scheduled, 9:30 am and 11:00 am, but be aware that if it is raining Sunday morning, we may have to cancel. ...Please pray also for our Shaver Lake and IJOP communities as well. We are planning for outdoor services in Prather to begin soon. Also, Shaver Lake is expecting a great deal of snow. Pray that everyone is safe. Next week, please pray for Bishop Joe and all priests and deacons of our diocese. We will be having our annual convocation. That is a time when Bishop and all the clergy of the diocese gather for several days to pray together, to discuss important issues and to have some fellowship. Normally we do this at one of the hotels in Visalia, this year however, because of COVID, we will be meeting by Zoom in the afternoons. I don’t think any of us know what to expect. Pray that it goes well. Today, in the first reading, we hear from one of the most beautiful stories of the Old Testament, the story of Jonah. We only get to hear a little bit from it this week, so I encourage you to pull out your Bible and read the whole book. Not to worry, it is only about three pages long. In it Jonah does something common in human experience. He wishes that God would give people what they deserve but discovers instead that God is more merciful than expected. The story of Jonah has much to say about God and about us and does so in a very tight space. I wish I could get my homilies to be like that. Again, I encourage you to read it, maybe even read it with the family before or after dinner. I promise it will be worth it. Hopefully if the rain stays away, I will see you Sunday. Fr. Michael

A message from Fr. Michael... Dear Brothers and Sisters, This weekend we are celebrating The Baptism of the Lord. It is one of my favorite feast days. There is a lot to contemplate in this feast. Jesus allows himself to be baptized by John, but John’s baptism was for repentance, something Jesus did not need. I find it comforting to believe that Jesus allowed himself to be baptized so that he could experience humanity in the way I do. Since I have a need to repent, Jesus is ...in solidarity with me. I think also with most (all) of us. More importantly is that Jesus understood it was God’s will that he be in complete solidarity with humanity and so Jesus fully commits to God’s plan. Jesus is in complete harmony with the will of God and so when he is baptized, we are told in the Gospel, You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased. In our baptism, the one we get from Jesus not John, we are washed free from sin and we are reconfigured to be children of God. We are literally born again. We are put in good standing, but to be honest we still must do what Jesus did. We must persevere in submitting to the will of God. We must remain in harmony with it and not follow a different path. If we keep in harmony perhaps, we too will hear our Heavenly Father declare that in us He is well pleased. Brothers and sisters today ends the Christmas Season. It has been a tough one, and all too short. We are returning to Ordinary Time. Which does not mean ordinary as in unimportant or mundane. It means ordinal or counted time. We now begin the First Week in Ordinary Time and we will count these weeks throughout the year. We will shift gears on February 17th for Ash Wednesday and Lent and then Easter. In the meantime, we can remain healthy. We can practice our faith. We can build up the church and each other and we can hopefully keep that harmony befitting the Children of God. You are in my prayers. Father Michael

A message from Fr. Michael... January 3, 2021 Dear Brothers and Sisters, Happy New Year! ... Thank you to everyone for making this Christmas Season so enjoyable even though we have experienced some difficulties. I apologize to anyone who came out for the 11:00 am Mass last Sunday only to find nobody there. It was so cold and wet that we had to cancel. We were getting rain during the 9:30 am Mass but we were able to complete our celebration. Because people were freezing, I made the decision to pack it up for the day. Hopefully, this weekend we will have better weather. Thank you to everyone for the Christmas cards, prayers, gifts, and goodies. I very much appreciate your generosity. Now I must start my New Year’s diet! Thank you again. This Sunday we continue in Christmas with the Feast of the Epiphany of the Lord. One dictionary defines an epiphany as a sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience. Clearly the birth of a child is something that routinely happens and is common enough in our world. It must also be admitted that the birth of any child is miraculous and precious. In our feast today we celebrate that the Israelite people had an epiphany because they saw in the birth of Jesus the restoration of their people and nation to a place of prominence with God and the rest of the world. We celebrate that the gentile people, non-Israelites, had an epiphany. The three astrologers or wise men were not Israelites, they were foreigners. It was made known to them that Jesus was to be a universal priest, prophet, and king. Just as important as these historical pieces of information is our own encounter with the Lord Jesus. Each of us can have our own epiphany as we encounter Jesus born into our world and into our lives. Even if we already know a great deal about Jesus, there is something more that can always be revealed. He is one Christmas gift that keeps on giving. So, I pray that we all have an epiphany as we continue our Christmas celebration. Thank you to everyone who submitted a letter of interest to be a member of the Parish Council, the Finance Council, the Building Committee, and the Capital Campaign Committee. To date, I have received only a few letters -- please continue to pray on this and submit your letters to me before the end of this month. There is room for much more participation. Thank you, Fr. Michael See more

NEW INDOOR MASS SCHEDULE Beginning November 8th - Divine Mercy will move indoors Sunday Mass 7:30, 9:30 and 11:00 AM... GUIDELINES: ! Capacity limited to 100 per Mass ! Families will be seated a minimum of six feet social distancing ! The sign of peace will be omitted ! The Precious Blood will not be distributed ! No Communion on the tongue; reception on the hand only ! Face mask required for everyone over the age of 11 ! Chairs, door handles, etc. will be sanitized between Masses NOTE: Our ability to have indoor Mass is based on a week-to-week basis. If indoor Mass is again suspended, we will move to the outside (weather permitting).

Our friends at Our Lady of Perpetual Help are hosting a Silent Auction. Please consider supporting them! See the information below... https://betterunite.com/OurLadyofPerpetualHelp-olphfallpari

Mass updates for this weekend... Divine Mercy will continue outdoors, 7:30am and 9:30am Shaver Lake will open for outdoor Mass, Saturday 4:00pm Infant Jesus of Prague will open for indoor Mass, Saturday 6:00pm

A message from Fr. Michael... Dear Parishioners of Divine Mercy Parish, It is with great joy that I am writing to you for the first time! I just want to say how delighted I am to be your new pastor. I look forward to meeting each and every one of you, and I look forward to celebrating Mass with you this weekend. It will be a bit challenging due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but I will do the best I can. I am confidant that the Lord will bless us and that we will be able to mo...ve happily into the future. See you soon, Fr. Michael Cox

Welcome, to our new pastor!