Thanks for your thoughts and prayers – I am back!

The last 2 weeks had been a blessing – to be able to celebrate my 6th anniversary as a priest at Quiapo Church, to have a private Mass honoring the life of my maternal grandmother who passed 2 years ago, and to spend time with families and close friends! A special treat was to have quality time with my paternal grandmother who just turned 96 years old last month (photo attached)!

The last time I visited home was before the pandemic, and for sure, a lot of things had changed since, but this one remains – the joy of communion which I definitely experienced with the people I have been blessed to encounter during my trip.

Like the prayer of communion Jesus directed to God the Father: “I made known to them your name and I will make it known, that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them”, may we all find in our families and every encounter a God who desires to be with us, to fill us with His grace and life.

This Ascension weekend, providentially World Communications Sunday, we pray in a special way for soon-to-be Father Ramon who will be ordained by Bishop Michael Barber, SJ this Saturday at the Cathedral of Christ the Light in Oakland, and is set to celebrate the Youth Mass here at Saint Raymond’s on Sunday at 5PM!

What a blessing for us, and to the people he has touched in his ministry; and we look forward to more acts of communion the Lord will allow our new priest to have in the vineyard, and experience the the gift of being able to listen to his parishioners and discover how to better minister to them!

Sempre grato,
Father Erick

For Ascension Sunday, 2022