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Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church 

300 Fulton Street, Redwood City, CA 94062


MASS TIMES & More

  • Mass Times

    Saturday:

    5:00PM English Vigil Mass


    Sunday: 

    8:00AM English Mass

    10:00AM English Mass

    12:00PM Spanish Mass


    Daily Mass Monday-Saturday: 

    8:15AM English Mass


    Confessions: 

    3:30PM-4:30PM Saturday in the Church


    Eucharistic Adoration: 

    After the 8:15AM Mass on First Fridays

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The Gospel of St. Luke provides us a description of the reaction from the older son after his father excitedly shared with him the news that his younger brother came back. As a loving father, he was planning to have a feast that they would celebrate together as one happy family. But the older brother was ‘angry.’

 

The older brother’s reaction was followed by a response to his Father: “Look, Father, all these years I have served you and not once did I disobey your orders.” His response speaks so much about his ‘own view’ of his relationship with his father.

 

Let us unlock an insight from the older brother’s response by using the very words of Jesus to his disciples during the Last Supper: “I do not call you servants any longer, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you my friends, because I have revealed to you everything that I have heard from My Father” (Jn. 15:15).

 

Jesus makes a distinction between a servant and a friend in their relationship with their masters. A servant simply follows what his master is asking him to do. The former does not know other personal matters about the latter. The servant’s concern is simply to follow his master’s commands. There is a relational distance between the two. On the other hand, a friend knows what his Master is doing. They enjoy their friendship. There is a relationship, a communion between two persons.

 

Going back to the older son’s reaction in the parable, we could say that all these years, he views his relationship with his father simply within the mechanisms of the household duties, tasks and obligations unconcerned about a deeper relationship with his Father and even with his younger brother. He himself formed a distance between his Father and his younger brother.

 

It was a relationship without a heart.

 

Yes, you can obey your father and be with him all the time and yet, there is no love. When you live in this kind of relationship, come a time, when you start to feel that you are a slave. While doing your duties, you are dragging yourself, forcing yourself to finish the job without a deeper level of happiness and even satisfaction. Everything is mechanical. There is no internal drive, no internal push. The free-flow of love is lacking from the heart of the older son.

 

What the older son had been doing all these years was mechanical, devoid of the heart.

 

If we do things out of love, there is a deeper relationship and communion between us and our master. We know what the master is doing. We talk, eat, laugh, share stories and walk together. If we do things out of love, we will experience a deeper level of happiness that the world cannot give.

 

St. Paul reminds the Corinthians: “Let all that you do be done in love” (16:14). Amen.


FR. IAN


El Evangelio de San Lucas nos ofrece una descripción de la reacción del hijo mayor después de que su padre, emocionado, le comunicara la noticia del regreso de su hermano menor. Como padre amoroso, planeaba una fiesta que celebrarían juntos como una familia feliz. Pero el hermano mayor estaba enojado.


La reacción del hermano mayor fue seguida por una respuesta a su padre: «Mira, Padre, todos estos años te he servido y nunca desobedecí tus órdenes». Su respuesta dice mucho sobre su propia visión de la relación con su padre.


Descubramos una perspectiva de la respuesta del hermano mayor usando las mismas palabras de Jesús a sus discípulos durante la Última Cena: «Ya no los llamo siervos, porque el siervo no sabe lo que hace su amo; pero los he llamado mis amigos, porque les he revelado todo lo que he oído de mi Padre» (Jn. 15:15).


Jesús distingue entre un siervo y un amigo en su relación con sus amos. Un sirviente simplemente sigue lo que su amo le pide. El primero desconoce otros asuntos personales del segundo. Su única preocupación es seguir las órdenes de su amo. Existe una distancia relacional entre ambos. Por otro lado, un amigo sabe lo que hace su amo. Disfrutan de su amistad. Existe una relación, una comunión entre dos personas.


Volviendo a la reacción del hijo mayor en la parábola, podríamos decir que durante todos estos años, él consideró su relación con su padre simplemente dentro de los mecanismos de las tareas y obligaciones del hogar, sin preocuparse por una relación más profunda con su padre e incluso con su hermano menor. Él mismo creó una distancia entre su padre y su hermano menor.


Era una relación sin corazón.


Sí, puedes obedecer a tu padre y estar con él todo el tiempo y, sin embargo, no hay amor. Cuando vives en este tipo de relación, llega un momento en que empiezas a sentirte esclavo. Al cumplir con tus deberes, te arrastras, te obligas a terminar el trabajo sin un nivel más profundo de felicidad e incluso satisfacción. Todo es mecánico. No hay impulso interno. Falta la fluidez del amor en el corazón del hijo mayor.


Lo que el hijo mayor había estado haciendo todos estos años era mecánico, carente de corazón.


Si hacemos las cosas por amor, existe una relación y una comunión más profundas entre nosotros y nuestro amo. Sabemos lo que hace el amo. Hablamos, comemos, reímos, compartimos historias y caminamos juntos. Si hacemos las cosas por amor, experimentaremos un nivel más profundo de felicidad que el mundo no puede dar.


San Pablo recuerda a los corintios: «Que todas sus obras sean hechas con amor» (16:14). Amén.


View our Mass times and special services

Get directions to our Parish to come visit

See our religious education classes

Upcoming events and services in our bulletin

Bible Study with Deacon Ray Smith

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God bless you!

“Lord, we are the People that long to see Your face.” - Psalm 24

Mission Statement :

Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Parish is a Christ-centered community in the Roman Catholic tradition.  We try to share the Good News of salvation with others. As a diverse community, we value and respect individual differences.  As God’s people, we gather in the Spirit to pray, to celebrate the sacraments, to teach, to learn, to console, to rejoice, to minister, and to renew our faith with one another.

The Angelus


in English and Spanish with Msgr. Loi, Fr. Ian and Magdalena

A Prayer to the Blessed Virgin,

 Our Lady of Mt. Carmel


O most beautiful Flower of Mount Carmel, Fruitful Vine, Splendor of Heaven, Blessed Mother of the Son of God,

Immaculate Virgin, assist me this my necessity. O Star of the Sea, help me and show me herein you are my Mother.  O Holy Mary, Mother of God, Queen of Heaven and Earth, I humbly beseech you from the bottom of my heart, to succor me in this necessity; there are none that can withstand your power.

O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee. (3 times)

Sweet Mother, I place this cause in your hands. (3 times)

Amen.

Oración a la Santísima Virgen,

Nuestra  Señora del Monte Carmelo


Oh, flor más hermosa del Monte Carmelo, vid fecunda, esplendor del cielo, madre bendita del hijo de Dios, virgen inmaculada: ayúdame en mi necesidad. Oh estrella del mar, ayúdame y muéstrame, aquí tienes a mi madre.

Oh, santa María, madre de Dios, reina del cielo y de la tierra: te suplico humildemente desde el fondo de mi corazón que me socorras en esta necesidad. No hay ninguno que pueda resistir tu poder.

Oh María, concebida sin pecado, ruega por nosotros que recurrimos a ti.  (3 veces)

Santa madre, pongo esta causa en tus manos. (3 veces)

Amén.

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