OLMC ♥s OLQP

This weekend I traveled to Santa Barbara, which is about 90 miles north of Los Angeles. I lived in Santa Barbara for three years -- I did my doctoral studies at the Gervirtz Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Santa Barbara. During the last two years in Santa Barbara, I served as a weekend assistant at Our Lady of Mount Carmel church in Montecito. Even after moving to Los Angeles, I continued to help out occasionally. The parishioners are very dear to me, and I count many of them as friends.

The pastor, Msgr. Steve Downes, who was the pastor at St. Raphael's when I first arrived in Santa Barbara (where I presided at the Eucharist regularly in my first year and occasionally in the subsequent years), kinldy allowed me to preach at all the Masses.

This gave me not only a chance to say good-bye to the folks at OLMC but also a chance to invite them to participate in the wonderful things happening at OLQP, Dodoma. Here are the readings of the day that served as the basis for my homily. That John's account of the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fish was the gospel of the day was providential relative to this preaching:

So today I'm here to invite you to put on the eyes of Jesus, to look at the world with his eyes -- with the eyes of Jesus who saw the large crowd before him and asked, “Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?” I’m here today to ask you to do what you can, asking you to share your five barley loaves and two fish, inviting you to do what you can to help this important work for our brothers and sisters in Tanzania. We know -- having heard this gospel -- what Jesus does with our generosity: he multiplies it for the benefit of the least among us. The boy in today's gospel gave what he could, five barley loaves and two fish, and Jesus multiplied them to meet the needs of the hungry.

Thank you parishioners of Our Lady of Mount Carmel both for the privilege of praying with you these last years and for your support for the Our Lady Queen of Peace Educational Centre.
Those who want to send a check (made out to Detroit Province Jesuits, with OLQP in the memo line), may do so at the following address:

International Missions
Detroit Province Jesuits
7303 W. Seven Mile Rd.
Detroit, MI 48221

And here's the website for credit card donations (where you're asked about "honor or tribute" you can put "OLQP").

Thanks -- and God bless you.

Oh, two other things:

(1) At one of the Masses I prayed St. Ignatius Loyola's prayer for generosity, and folks asked me for the text:

Lord, teach me to be generous.


Teach me to serve you as you deserve;

to give and not to count the cost,

to fight and not to heed the wounds,

to toil and not to seek for rest,


to labor and not to ask for reward,

save that of knowing that I do your will.

(2) Here's how the story of my involvement begins.