Neli ML

Entradas

- junio 16, 2025

Holy Trinity Sunday 2025 John 16:12-15 Rev. Neli Miranda On Pentecost Sunday we experienced a re-creation when we received the visitation of the Holy Spirit. Also, we were reminded that we are a living community in the world empowered to continue Jesus’ mission of proclaiming the Kingdom of God in all languages, particularly in God’s language. Following the great feast of Pentecost, the glorious culmination of Easter Season, we now enter a new period of growth in our Christian spirituality, a season often called Ordinary Time or the Season after Pentecost. However, before we continue our journey, the Church invites us today to celebrate one of the fundamental Christian beliefs: The Holy Trinity. Throughout our journey with Jesus, we have learned that God is not a solitary, isolated, distant being, but a community, a divine family. In the New Testament we do not find the term “Trinity”, but in the Gospels we find Jesus speaking of God using familial language,...

- junio 09, 2025

Pentecost Day, June 8, 2025 Genesis, Acts 2,1-21; Genesis 11, 1-9 and John 14,8-17 Revd. Neli Miranda Shavuot, one of the principal pilgrimage festivals of ancient Israel was celebrated fifty days after Passover and from which the Greek name Pentecost (meaning "fiftieth") is derived. Originally, this festival marked the culmination of the barley harvest and the beginning of the wheat harvest, a festival of first fruits. In rabbinic tradition, Shavuot also commemorates the day when God gave the Torah (the Law) to the people of Israel on Mount Sinai. In Jesus’ time, this celebration attracted many pilgrims to Jerusalem, including Jews born outside Israel and proselytes , who were gentiles that had embraced the Jewish faith Today’s second reading taken from Acts Chapter 2 unfolds in Jerusalem during the festival of Shavuot or Pentecost. Following Jesus’ ascension, the community of disciples had remained in Jerusalem, just as Jesus had commanded them. So, during t...

- junio 01, 2025

Seventh Sunday of Easter 2025 John 17:20-26 Revd. Neli Miranda This past Thursday, we celebrated the Feast of the Ascension when Jesus, having conquered death, returned victorious to God His Father. Today, the Seventh Sunday of Easter, serves as a bridge between the Ascension of Jesus and Pentecost Sunday when we receive the manifestation of the Holy Spirit, promised by Jesus. Jesus has ascended to the Father; but first, he has recreated us and commissioned us to continue the proclamation of the Kingdom of God. Throughout these past weeks, the risen Jesus has been in our midst reminding us that we are a community of life, love, service, reconciliation, and restoration in the world. As our primary Advocate, Jesus has been at our side to comfort, counsel, and prepare us for the trials we face. He has also promised us the coming of another Advocate, the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, in a calm voice, Jesus has left us these words: “Peace I leave with you; my peace...

- mayo 18, 2025

Fifth Sunday of Easter 2025 John 13,31-35 Rev. Neli Miranda Following our recent celebration of Good Shepherd Sunday, we now turn to Jesus’ farewell discourse, a touching section of John’s Gospel that anticipates the upcoming celebration of Jesus’ Ascension and Pentecost Sunday. John’s Gospel dedicates a significant portion, chapters 13-17, to this intimate exchange between Jesus and his community of disciples. Here, embodying the roles of teacher, shepherd, and friend, Jesus comforts his disciples and instructs them on how to live as a community in the world upon his departure. His central teaching is about love! Today’s passage, John 13:31-35, is situated in the context of the Last Supper. It is here, after a profound act of service and in the shadow of betrayal, that Jesus tells his disciples, “. . . Love one another, just as I have loved you. . .” This commandment is given to a community of disciples whom Jesus loves deeply. In the preceding verses (13:1-17)...

- mayo 05, 2025

Third Sunday of Easter 2025 John 20:1- 19 Rev. Neli Miranda Last Sunday we heard the powerful conclusion of John the Evangelist’s Gospel, a testimony of the Risen Jesus’ manifestation to Mary Magdalene and those disciples who, though initially hidden in fear, were ultimately sent on the mission of reconciling and restoring the broken world. John, in bringing his Gospel to a close, declares, “ Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name” (20:30-31). Today we find that there is a Chapter 21, which appears to be a deliberate addition by the Johannine community to John’s account. This chapter preserves treasured memories of the early Christian community and highlights the roles of key figures within it. More importantly, it reaffirms the active and continuing...

- abril 20, 2025

Easter Day. April 20, 2025 Luke 24:1-12 Revd. Neli Miranda Today’s Gospel narrative opens with a group of women, disciples of Jesus, going to the tomb… It is the first day of the week, and in the wake of Jesus’ crucifixion, the first community of disciples is experiencing profound grief. As noted in the preceding chapter, after Jesus’ death all his acquaintances, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance observing these events. Luke also recounts that a righteous man named Joseph, from the town of Arimathea, approached Pilate and requested Jesus’ body. Joseph was a member of the council that had dissented from its plan and action to execute Jesus. Joseph took Jesus’ body down from the cross, wrapped it in a linen cloth, and laid it in a tomb hewn in the rock, where no one had ever been laid. Luke notes that the women who were Jesus’ disciples followed Joseph and observed the tomb where Jesus’ body was placed. As ...