Returning Catholics

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Welcome home! If you've found the "Returning Catholics" page on our parish website, we're guessing you've been away for a bit, and are thankful that the Holy Spirit has lead you here to this moment with us. Please peruse some of our thoughts below written by St. Philip's' parishioners which aim to address a number of questions and concerns we have had on our walks with Christ. God bless, and we hope to see you this Sunday!

Struggling with the Catholic Church and Her Past

Luke Shalz, student, parishioner, organist

Most of us, including myself, have struggled with our Church's past before. It is right and just to be angry about the many times when men of the Church have failed her throughout history. In times past and not-so-past the Church's shepherds have participated in and allowed great evils - men in white collars have abused the financial generosity of the faithful, denied the dignity of the indigenous man and woman, commit unspeakable acts against our most vulnerable, turned away the queer person, and alienated the divorcee, but

these sins of men do not define our Catholic faith.

They do not discredit our Holy Mother the Church. Rather, they corroborate this which She teaches: man is sinful by nature, and yet is free to walk towards Holiness by his desire, ignited God's grace. The mystical, sacramental life of the Church established by Our Lord and the sins of her faithful are two separate things.

This knowledge defines my relationship with the Church. Others' sins are not my focus. I have enough brokenness of my own to offer to Christ through His Church for healing.

I focus on Christ's love for me, His love unto death on a cross. St Philips' window of the Sacred heart of Jesus, depicted on this page, is a special reminder to me of this love. In an apparition to St Margaret Mary Alacoque, our Lord said that His most Sacred Heart is "so passionately in love with humanity. . . that it cannot keep back the pent-up flames of its burning charity any longer. They must burst out.” He was speaking to the great saint at a time when Jansenism, a heresy that denied the existence of any goodness in the human soul, had spread like wildfire. At this time the whole of Europe had fallen into the belief that they were too broken, too "far gone" to deserve Christ's love. They did not frequent the Holy Eucharist and acted out large penances for small sins. Our Lord does not want this though. Rather, He wants us to live in Him: to talk to him, to visit Him in the Eucharist, to serve Him in the poor and forsaken, to love him back.

How do I seek to live this out? I take account of my own human weakness. I'm a 21 year old church musician and university student in the San Francisco Bay Area. My life is fast-paced, tightly budgeted, and moderately unpredictable. As I walk the path my Lord places before me, the only constant is Him, waiting for me in the little golden box upon the high altar of St Philips', present in the Eucharist. I frequent the confessional, try to serve Jesus in every person I meet, and bear witness to the freedom and peace that He offers through His Holy Church. I shift my focus from the sins of the Church's shepherds to the weight of my own sins. God gave me one life, one soul to care for, one person to be: my own. It makes no sense to for me to reject Him because others have.

Christ and I offer each other to one another in confession and the Holy Eucharist, and day by day He reveals Himself to me a little more. I offer Him my broken soul, and He offers me his broken Body as a remedy. I pray you'll find Christ's joy here at St Philip's as well. Peace be with you.

Devotion to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, depicted in this window found at St. Philip's, is a spiritual practice inspired by the visions of St Margaret Mary Alacoque and focused on Christ's unfailing, ardent love for us, despite our human failings.