Real Women's Voices

REGINA Inspiring. Intelligent. Catholic.

Real Women’s

Voices

Volume 12 | February 2015 www.reginamag.com

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Real Women’s Voices The Women of St Edward’s Speak The Old-Timers Joan Schultz has been a parishioner at St. Edward’s in Newark, California for 52 years. She lives a little over a mile away, and she has been active in the parish for decades. Lucena Nenet C. Francisco and her family have been parishioners for more than 25 years, where she has been a Sacristan since 2000. Joan and Lucena recently told REGINA Magazine why they think St Edward’s is an ‘amazing’ parish.

JOAN: Over the years my husband and I were very active in church. Our four children graduated from St Edward’s school. During that time I acted as school secretary, school nurse, counted money, served lunches, etc. I have been one of the money counters for about 20 years.

LUCENA: I’ve been Eucharistic Minister, Lector, member of the Legion of Mary; volunteer office staff when needed. Literally, whatever it is that I can contribute to support my Parish. My mind, my heart, my whole being always long to be in the service of my Lord. I’d rather be in the House of the Lord than a thousand elsewhere. I thank God for making it possible for me to get involved & support my Parish.

JOAN: Now that we are in our 80s, we are not so active. We now attend Mass, Liturgy of the Hours, First Friday mass and we are Third Order Carmelites.

LUCENA: St. Edward Church is very important to myself, my family and to the community. Speaking for myself, this is where I get most of all my spiritual nourishment. Just like the body which needs food and nourishment to survive; my soul, our soul needs to feed on spiritual foods.

JOAN: Since Fr Keyes became pastor I like the way he handles the money financially so we have increased our donations.

LUCENA: I am very grateful to have a Pastor, Rev. (Fr.) Jeff Keyes who provides this nourishment. The

The Newbies Maria Silmaro and her family have been at the parish for over seven years. Cristina Navarro has been a parishioner only since 2011.

Tes Yabut joined the parish fairly recently, too. All three ‘newbies’ have a different take on the parish, but they all think it’s ‘amazing.’

Holy Eucharist, the Sacraments, the education, all the opportunities for us to grow in spirit are made available to us. Our Lord, always present in the Tabernacle is always waiting for us.

drive 20-25 minutes each way to St. Edward’s. Except when I am sick, out of town, or really busy, I come almost daily: in the morning for Lauds, adoration and Holy Mass, and in the afternoon for Vespers and adoration.

JOAN: This parish is the only real Catholic Church in the area. I attended Fr Jeff ’s Bible Study for over four REGINA: Are you involved with activities in supyears and feel safe in his knowledge and teachings. He port of the parish? is not afraid to speak out about abortion, homosexuality. He feels responsible for our souls and he is a Cristina Navarro: I attend lectures, Faith Formation dedicated 24/7 priest.”

Classes, Parish Mission, Walk for Life, St. Vincent de Paul Christmas Drive, even Apologetics Academy. I LUCENA: Our Parish needs our support. Our Pas- also support book sales, religious film presentations, tor and Priests do everything. They depend on us to sacred relic exposition, the parish festival, fish fry, and extend the Church to the rest of the people. On the other fundraisers. If my work schedule allowed it, I other end, I want the parishioners to realize how im- would be teaching CCD classes now. Soon, I will be portant their support is to the Parish. It’s a collective participating in pilgrimages too. effort wherein everybody is just as important.

Tes Yabut: There are many ministries and activities in JOAN: We feel very blessed by this parish. Having the Parish. But I am not a member of any of them. confessions every day has brought the people from My support comes very quietly, in the background. nearby churches, especially my friends the Carmel- Modesty aside, I help when I can, I sense when there ites.” is a need to “tidy-up” the Church, the Chapel, the restrooms, fixing flowers, picking up trash on the floor, LUCENA: I praise and thank God for St. Edward and fixing books for the Liturgy of the Hours after prayers, our Pastor. I hope and pray that our Parishioners will helping fix the pews to clear with un-necessary have the gift to see the immense goodness around us clutter, set aside the Missals, pick up music sheets and partake of these. which will not be needed in the next Mass, help and guide new-comers to the Morning and Evening REGINA: Do you travel on Sundays to be there? prayer, or the EF Mass.

Cristina Navarro: Yes. There is a Catholic church three blocks from my house, but I travel about 10-15 minutes (6 miles) to St. Edward to attend mass and services. I was looking for a Catholic school for my son and St. Edward’s happened to be in a convenient location.

Tes Yabut: While my home Parish is just one mile away, and there are others within short distance, I

REGINA: What has drawn you to St Edward’s?

Cristina Navarro: I kept coming back afterwards.

Weeks later, I decided to register as a parishioner, despite being a parishioner in another parish for 20+ years. I am now on fire for God and the faith, driven by a desire to have others experience the same. I have gone from years of feeling obligated to go to Sunday Regina Magazine

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Real Women’s Voices mass, to looking forward to meeting and receiving Christ in the Eucharist each Sunday.

Tes Yabut: Most importantly, Father has tried to impart to the people to avoid profane greetings and actions but instead to learn the value of maintaining a holy silence and learn to be recollected in the Church.

For me personally, I recognize that we come to Church for Sacred Worship which demands a decorum commensurate with the dignity of our Worship. Silence is a sign of respect for the place and the meaning of the place. Catholics likewise need to know the sacredness of the liturgical “work” which they do. Their dress, their demeanor, their discipline, ought all to speak of their recognition of that sacredness. They ought to manifest a genuine respect for Jesus present, as well as for the values of the Catholic Church. It was not easy to do all these with limited resources. I must not forget to acknowledge all the families and the many men and women who have donated their time, money and efforts to accomplish all these.

REGINA: Why do you support the parish to the degree that you do?

Cristina Navarro Supporting St. Edward Parish is a major priority for me because it was instrumental in bringing me and my family closer to Christ in a deep and dramatic way. It is my greatest hope that by supporting the parish and its mission, other families will be drawn closer to the Lord as it did mine.

Tes Yabut: First, Father Keyes has raised the level of quality to serve as inspiration for all things liturgical here, and he has put a particular emphasis on the Holy Mass itself: that it be celebrated “worthily, attentively and devoutly” according to the mind of the Church.

This is very important and dear to my heart. I am aware that it was not easy for Fr. Keyes when he first got into the Parish. But he knew that the only way to achieve reform is to have the courage to begin it, and to continue it in a consistent and principled way.

REGINA: How does St Edward’s practice the Christian virtue of charity?

Cristina Navarro: The parish practices charity with the many available services that are rooted in service, self-sacrifice and love. The opportunities for prayer

are many, with the ordinary and extraordinary form of mass, lauds, vespers, and Eucharistic Adoration.

The priests untiringly remind us of these resources and challenge us to live out our faith in the way we think and act.

REGINA: Can you tell us how St Edward’s has affected you?

Cristina Navarro: You see, I was a cradle and nominal Catholic for the first 40 years of my life, and like many others, I unknowingly bought into the temporary pleasure and lies of the secular and material world. I was finally awakened after attending a very solemn and deeply reverent Sung Mass at St. Edward almost four years ago. For the first time in a very long time, I worshipped and focused only on God for the entire duration of the Mass.

Tes Yabut: I have to give a little background on why I left my home Parish and why I have tried different Churches around the area for months before I found my way back to St. Edward’s, as I mentioned above.

In the past years, I have witnessed not a few of the liturgical minimalism and irreverence that have come to characterize the celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in so many places.

At St Edward’s (in contrast) in 2008, our pastor had our Chapel renovated with a simple Crucifix and images of the Divine Mercy and Our Lady of Guadalupe on either side, with donated and refinished pews from the old cathedral. This Chapel is a sacred place for us.

Father Keyes starts the day at 5:30 am for our daily Eucharistic Adoration & Lauds at 6:15 a.m. In the evening, we also have our daily Eucharistic Adoration from 4:15 p.m. to 5:15 p.m. and Vespers is sung at 4:30 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays have a slightly different schedule to allow time in between Masses. There is a steady number of people who attend these daily. This has become a source of piety and nourishment for our personal prayer.

REGINA: Cristina, you mentioned your family as well. Has St Edward’s helped your family?

Cristina Navarro: The parish also aided in bringing back a family member whose last recollection of receiving the Eucharist was once, when he was 10 years old. Fifty years later, after only a year of attending

St. Edward, this family member went back to Confession, is now regularly receiving the sacraments, and continue to grow in his faith and love of God.

REGINA: Why do you think that this parish is important?

Cristina Navarro: This parish is important to me, my family and the community because it provides so many meaningful opportunities to help grow in our relationship with Christ and deepen our understanding of our faith in a manner that is true to the Magisterium.

It teaches us effectively by exposing us to the wisdom and works of religious men and women, theologians and scholars through the Parish Mission, lectures, Bible studies, Faith Formation Classes, good book sales, religious film presentations, sacred relic expositions, and other media, like Catholic Radio and websites that keeps us involved in socially relevant issues, and enables us to easily help others.

Maria Silmaro: St Edward’s is the beacon of light here in the east Bay and the whole Bay Area. It is building families, educating the children and the adults in their Catholic faith and its liturgical celebrations are the most beautiful ‘heavenly’ experience an faithful and grateful Catholic could want. St Edward’s is very active in social justice works in the community.

REGINA: You sound like you have learned a great deal in the last four years.

Cristina Navarro: What we learn from the church pew at St. Edward opens our eyes, minds and hearts to the Truth. The priests here, especially Fr. Jeffrey Keyes, propagate the faith in a way that is focused on Christ and prayer first and foremost. The church building itself is an ideal environment for prayer, self-reflection, and the sacraments.

REGINA: Any last words?

Cristina Navarro: This parish converted me from years of being Pro-Choice to being an active Pro-Life advocate, from being a nominal Catholic to an active one, from an empty person to one filled with hope and love. It did so not by telling me to be one, but by giving me practical ways on how to be one.

Maria Silmaro: When we encountered our pastor we saw his faithfulness to God, in his priesthood, in the sacraments, in faith formation and most of all in prayer. We decided that our family will always support this faithful priest.

Tes Yabut: I’d like to quote Bishop A. Saratellli on this: “Walk into any church today before Mass and you will notice that the silence that should embrace those who stand in God’s House is gone.

Even the Church is no longer a sacred place.

Gathering for Mass sometimes becomes as noisy as gathering for any other social event.

We may not have the ability to do much about the loss of the sacredness of life in the songs, videos and movies of our day. But, most assuredly, we can do much about helping one another recover the sacredness of God’s Presence in His Church.” “[…] In church, we need to cultivate a sense of God who is present to us. This is why we are called to observe moments of silence, both before Mass begins and during Mass. Liturgy is much more than our joining together. It is our opening ourselves to God. By our singing and praying, we respond to the God who addresses us in Liturgy. A constant torrent of words and songs filling every empty space in the Liturgy does not leave the heart the space it needs to rest quietly in the Divine Presence…”

So, I make Bishop Saratelli’s words mine too: We can do much about helping one another recover the sacredness of God’s presence in His church. •

R.

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