Second Sunday in Ordinary Time January 17, 2021

Dear St Anthony’s and Blessed Sacrament Parishioners,

I hope you all are doing well, safe and sound!

At Blessed Sacrament, Sunday Mass will be celebrated at 4 PM Saturday in the ordinary form and at 10 AM on Sunday in the extraordinary form.
 

This will be our schedule of Masses at St. Anthony's:
         5:30pm Saturday evening
         10am on Sunday

We have also resumed the 8:30am Daily Mass Monday to Friday.

Please wear a mask and remain 6 ft apart from others.   Couples and family units can sit together.

There will be Lysol spray and paper towels in the back for wiping the pew you use. (What times we live in!)

If any one feels uncomfortable about coming back to church at this stage, please feel welcome to stay at home and know that our prayers will accompany you. We understand perfectly that certain parishioners might feel particularly at risk at this time.  

I hope you can remain close to our Lord during this time wherever you may find yourself.

My best wishes to you all !

Fr Rob

Dear Parishioners,

I sincerely hope you are all doing well!

We have seen some tumultuous times this year. First, the virus puts our health at risk and disrupts our lives and our economy.

Now, more recently, deep social questions are being asked and uprisings have occurred with people questioning the fondamental realities of our country.

Amidst all this turmoil, I, for one, hold that it is essential that we turn to our Mother in Heaven and ask for Her help. The Rosary has been a powerful means of pushing back the powers of darkness that may be present in our society and letting more light shine in our hearts and in the world around us.

We need to pray for our leaders that they make wise decisions that respect and appreciate the needs of all. By appreciating the problems that exist in their proper sense, orientations and dispositions can help to bring people together rather than separate and divide. The greatest enemy is evil which tears down and destroys rather goodness which builds up and unifies. But we must pray for this and now more than ever. We must pray as well that our children and grandchildren can grow up in society hasn’t been scarred by hatred and division. May our mother Mary show us the way and may she lead us along the path that leads to health, reason, peace, and unity in our country. I saw a handwritten sign recently that said: WE ARE STRONGER THAN HATE! Let us make this our motto too! (..../....)

I would encourage you all to reach out to each other over the phone and to support each other this way during these troubling times. If there is someone you haven’t talked to in a while please give them a call!

I myself have deeply enjoyed the conversations I have had with you with you all over the phone.

Once again, I would encourage you all to pray to Mary, our Mother in Heaven, that she might give us strength in this time and lead us along the path of light that leads to peace, harmony and unity in our country.

Thank you and may our dear God bless you!

Fr Rob

Father Arsenius, the resident Hermit Priest of the Annunciation Hermitage at Blessed Sacrament Church in Elk, CA, presents the Mass and vespers in Latin. 

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Many people have asked about where I come from so I thought I would give you a little bio of myself.

I was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1964. My father grew up in Chicago and was fascinated by electronics in his youth and went to work in avionics for American Airlines. He worked first in New York at La Guardia and then in Tulsa since the principal maintenance base for American was located there. My mother is from the South and her family goes back to Revolutionary times. She met my dad while working at La Guardia and entered the Catholic Church five years after they were married. We lived in Tulsa on Route 66 on an acreage my father had bought. Our parish, seven miles away, was run by the Polish Capuchins, the same ethnicity as my father. 

I went to parochial school and public school and then to Bishop Kelley High School in Tulsa. After graduating, I went with friends to the University of Kansas. It was there that I discovered Professor John Senior and his Great Books Program. There was also a swell of Catholic activity and I greatly deepened Faith as a student there. He recommended that I spend time in a Benedictine Abbey and suggested Fontgombault in France. I spent nine months there and was proposed the Carthusian life. The Carthusian Order imitates the solitary life of the monks in the desert. I practiced this life for 28 years most of which were in France and then came out of the life mainly for health reasons dealing with sleep apnea, fatigue, stress and tension.

I spent a year teaching St John’s Seminary in Camarillo, Ca and then 18 months at Mission San Miguel in the Central Coast region. This last year I was the chaplain at the Newman Center at Sonoma State Univ. while residing and helping out at the cathedral of St Eugene.

I am happy to be with you all here as we walk together in our Faith coming closer to God as a community each day.

Peace be with you, Fr Rob