By Bishop Gerald Barnes

“This is the first day of the rest of your life.”

One of the most popular sayings for moments of change and transition in our lives is also one that we might think of in the context of our faith this time of year.

We are in the Season of Easter. Christ is Risen. Alleluiah! Alleluiah!

By Bishop Gerald Barnes

 It’s been written as a both a scientific fact and a poetic observance that the darkest hour of the night is just before the dawn.

 In a spiritual sense this also speaks to the rhythm of the Holy Triduum that we will enter in a matter of days. The pain and desolation felt by our Lord Jesus in His Passion (Good Friday) gives way to the great victory of His rising from the dead (Easter Sunday) and with it the promise of our salvation.

   By Bishop Gerald Barnes

 The following is taken from Bishop Barnes’ homily at the World Youth Day Send-off Mass held at Our Lady of Hope Church in San Bernardino on January 12.

 The day is coming fast. The year has passed. The year of thinking, of planning, of worrying, of wondering, of fundraising, of learning and of praying.

By Bishop Gerald Barnes

 The following is an excerpt from Bishop Gerald Barnes’ address at the Combined Vicariate Meeting of the San Bernardino Pastoral Region on February 13.

 We had a great opportunity during our 40th to look at our history. We are grateful for the past and we learn from the past; we live in the present with all the blessings and challenges that face us; and we walk to the future where our God already awaits us. He has already pitched his tent. That’s why we always say Siempre Adelante - always forward.

By Bishop Gerald R. Barnes

“No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God.”

 The Lord Jesus challenges us in Luke’s Gospel to focus on what lies before us rather than on the familiarity of what has happened to us in the past.