City of Saints: Opening Remarks

Welcome — City of Saints

Most Reverend José H. Gomez
Archbishop of Los Angeles 

St. Monica Church
Los Angeles, California
August 1, 2020

Greetings, my friends!

And welcome to City of Saints 2020! It’s great to be with you all!

I’m so happy to be here, even if we are only able to gather “virtually.”

Jesus told us that whenever two or more are gathered in his name, he will be with us. So, he is certainly present as we “zoom” in from this beautiful parish, St. Monica in Santa Monica.

This is going to be a great day!

I know for all of us, these months have been challenging with the coronavirus. For you, especially, it has been challenging thinking about school and work.

So, we want to thank God today that we have this beautiful opportunity to spend these time reflecting on our relationship with Jesus and our responsibility for the mission of the Church.

You know that Pope Francis always says that young people are not the “future” of the Church, they are the “now” of the Church. That is so true!

So you are the Church — in the here and now.

And we all are people on a journey, this is who we are at Catholics. It’s not about traveling to a different place, it’s about becoming a different person. It’s about becoming the person that Jesus calls us to be. It’s about becoming saints! This is why he made us!

So, today, as you are listening to great speakers and programs that we are going to have this afternoon, let me suggest to you two things.

First, ask for the grace to deepen your relationship with Jesus Christ.

We need to make Jesus Christ the center of our lives. We need to walk with him in our daily life

We need to feel that we are in his presence all the time.

So ask for that grace today — to grow in holiness, to make progress in our journey to becoming saints. So that’s number one.

Number two is this: Let’s ask for the grace to continue his mission of love. As I was saying — we are all called to be missionary disciples, no matter how young or how old we are. If we follow Jesus we share in his mission.

And as you probably know, to be a missionary disciple means that we give life to others by giving them our own lives. That means giving people our time, our compassion. It means doing everything we can, being really creative, in sharing our faith and bringing people to the encounter with Jesus Christ.

So now we’re ready to get started! Let’s ask Mary our Blessed Mother to be with us today and every day.

God bless you all!