Daily Mass is celebrated:
Monday through Saturday at 8 a.m.
The Sunday Mass schedule is:
Saturday at 5 p.m. in English
Sunday at 7:30 a.m. in English
Sunday at 9 a.m. in English
Sunday at 11 a.m. in English
Sunday at 1 p.m. in Spanish
Please contact the parish office at
949-494-9701 to schedule.
We commit ourselves to: being a welcoming sanctuary and a place of prayer and worship.
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Our greetings from the Basilica of St. Anthony of Padua.
Peace and all good❤
𝑺𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒂𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒂𝒓 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝑺𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒕 𝑨𝒏𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒏𝒚
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Today's moments with God: Impacting Generations
📖 Read: Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-10
🙏 Receive: Father God, please help me value, serve, and share you with people from all generations.
❓Respond: How can you invest in the spiritual lives of a younger person or a young family?
Check out today's full devotional on our website: ow.ly/HK5450Zt0jN or by using the app!
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✝️ WHEN GOD SEEMS SILENT: THE VOICE IN THE STILLNESS, THE STORM ON THE SEA, AND THE LOVE THAT REFUSES TO LET GO 😳🤔
At first glance, today's readings seem to speak about completely different things.
The First Reading speaks about Elijah hiding in a cave.
The Psalm speaks about mercy, faithfulness, justice and peace.
The Second Reading speaks about Paul's sorrow for Israel.
The Gospel speaks about Jesus walking on the sea and Peter sinking into the storm.
Four different stories?
Not at all.
The Church has placed these readings together because they reveal one profound truth:
God does not always reveal Himself in the way we expect, but He never abandons those who seek Him.
Sometimes God is found in silence.
Sometimes He is encountered in a storm.
Sometimes He is recognized in a word.
And sometimes His presence is discovered precisely when everything around us seems to be falling apart.
Let us enter the readings.
✝️ THE FIRST READING: ELIJAH EXPECTED GOD IN THE EARTHQUAKE — BUT GOD WAS IN THE SILENCE
The First Reading takes us to Mount Horeb.
Elijah has fled there because his life is in danger.
But something is important here.
Elijah is not simply running away from Jezebel.
He is a prophet who has reached a point of profound exhaustion.
He has fought.
He has preached.
He has witnessed God's power.
And now...
he is tired.
He enters a cave.
And God asks him:
"What are you doing here, Elijah?"
That is a strange question.
God already knows why Elijah is there.
So why ask?
Because sometimes God asks questions not because He needs information...
but because He wants us to confront what is happening inside us.
Then God tells Elijah:
"Go out and stand on the mountain before the LORD."
And then something extraordinary happens.
✝️ FIRST CAME THE WIND
The text says:
"A great and strong wind tore the mountains, and broke in pieces the rocks before the LORD."
This was powerful.
Dramatic.
Terrifying.
But Scripture says:
"The LORD was not in the wind."
Then came an earthquake.
But:
"The LORD was not in the earthquake."
Then came fire.
But again:
"The LORD was not in the fire."
Then...
silence.
And this is where the Hebrew becomes fascinating.
The Hebrew expression is:
"Qol demamah daqqah."
Literally, it can be rendered something like:
"a sound of a thin silence."
Some translations call it:
"a still small voice."
Others:
"a gentle whisper."
But the Hebrew is even more mysterious.
It is almost an audible silence.
Elijah encounters God not in the spectacular...
but in the quiet.
✝️ WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?
Because Elijah had just experienced spectacular manifestations of God's power.
Fire had fallen from heaven.
The prophets of Baal had been defeated.
Everyone had seen God's power.
Yet when God wanted to speak personally to Elijah...
He did not need thunder.
He did not need fire.
He did not need an earthquake.
He came through silence.
This is one of the great spiritual lessons of Scripture:
God can reveal His power through spectacular events, but He often reveals His presence through quietness.
We sometimes expect God to shout.
God whispers.
We expect lightning.
God gives silence.
We expect an earthquake.
God gives peace.
And because we are listening for the noise...
we sometimes miss the voice.
✝️ THE PSALM EXPLAINS WHAT ELIJAH HEARD
Now the Responsorial Psalm begins to make sense.
It says:
"Let me hear what God the LORD will speak, for he will speak peace to his people."
Notice the words:
"Let me hear."
The problem is not always that God is silent.
Sometimes...
we have forgotten how to listen.
The Psalm continues:
"Mercy and faithfulness have met; justice and peace have kissed."
What a beautiful expression.
Mercy.
Faithfulness.
Justice.
Peace.
These are not enemies.
In God...
they meet.
In God...
they embrace.
The Psalm is showing us the character of God.
He is not merely powerful.
He is merciful.
He is faithful.
He is just.
He is peaceful.
And the Psalm concludes with something extraordinary:
"Faithfulness will spring up from the ground, and righteousness will look down from the sky."
Earth and heaven are meeting.
God is bringing His peace into human history.
And eventually...
that meeting will have a face.
Jesus Christ.
✝️ THE SECOND READING: PAUL'S HEART IS BREAKING
Then we move from Elijah's loneliness...
to Paul's sorrow.
And this is perhaps one of the most emotionally powerful passages in Paul's writings.
Paul says:
"I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit—that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart."
Why?
Because Paul is grieving for his fellow Israelites who have not accepted Christ.
And then he says something astonishing:
"I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brethren."
Think about that.
Paul loves his people so deeply...
that he is willing even to imagine losing his own salvation for their sake.
Of course, Paul cannot actually exchange his salvation for theirs.
But his language reveals the depth of his pastoral heart.
This is not theological theory.
This is love that hurts.
✝️ PAUL SHOWS US THAT LOVE CAN BE PAINFUL
We often think that loving someone means feeling happy about them.
Not always.
Sometimes love means carrying sorrow for someone.
A mother may cry for a child.
A father may pray for a son who has abandoned the faith.
A priest may suffer because someone he has served has rejected God.
A catechist may carry the burden of people who refuse to listen.
Paul teaches us something profound:
If you truly love people, their distance from God should matter to you.
Christian love does not say:
"That is their problem."
Christian love says:
"Their salvation matters to me."
✝️ AND NOTICE WHAT PAUL DOES NOT DO
Paul does not hate Israel because some Israelites have rejected Christ.
He does not insult them.
He does not deny their dignity.
Instead, he remembers everything God has given them:
"Theirs is the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises."
Paul remembers the history of salvation.
And then he says something even greater:
"From them, according to the flesh, is the Christ."
Jesus Himself comes from Israel.
The people Paul is grieving for...
are the people through whom God prepared salvation.
This is important.
God does not throw away His promises.
God is faithful.
✝️ NOW WALK INTO THE GOSPEL
And suddenly...
the scene changes.
Jesus has sent His disciples into a boat.
He goes up the mountain alone to pray.
Meanwhile...
the boat is far from land.
The wind is against them.
The waves are beating against the boat.
And Jesus is not physically with them.
Do you see the connection?
Elijah is alone.
Paul is grieving.
The disciples are struggling in the darkness.
Three different situations.
One human experience:
"Where is God?"
✝️ THE FOURTH WATCH OF THE NIGHT
Matthew tells us that Jesus came to them during the fourth watch of the night.
That means roughly between 3:00 and 6:00 in the morning.
Why does Matthew mention the time?
Because this is the darkest part of the night.
The disciples have been struggling for hours.
The storm has not stopped.
And then...
Jesus appears.
Walking on the sea.
This is not merely a miracle designed to impress the disciples.
Matthew is revealing something about who Jesus is.
✝️ JESUS WALKS ON WHAT TERRIFIES THEM
In the Old Testament, the sea often represents chaos and forces beyond human control.
And who alone has authority over the sea?
God.
The Book of Job says of God:
"He alone stretched out the heavens and trampled the waves of the sea." (Job 9:8)
Psalm 77 speaks of God making His way through the sea.
The disciples therefore see Jesus walking upon the waters...
and Matthew is quietly telling us:
The God who rules the waters is standing before them.
Jesus is not merely someone who performs a miracle.
He is Lord over the chaos.
✝️ THEN JESUS SAYS SOMETHING STRANGE
The disciples are terrified.
They think they are seeing a ghost.
Jesus says:
"Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid."
But the Greek is fascinating.
Jesus says:
"Egō eimi."
Literally:
"I am."
Of course, in ordinary Greek conversation, this can simply mean "It is I."
But Matthew's Jewish audience would know the biblical significance of "I AM."
In Exodus 3:14, God reveals His divine name to Moses.
"I AM WHO I AM."
Jesus comes walking across the waters...
and says:
"I AM."
The One who comes to them in the darkness...
is the Lord.
✝️ PETER THEN ASKS FOR THE IMPOSSIBLE
Peter says:
"Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water."
Notice something.
Peter does not say:
"Let me walk on water."
He says:
"Command me."
Peter understands that this miracle depends upon the word of Jesus.
Jesus says:
"Come."
And Peter steps out of the boat.
For a moment...
Peter does the impossible.
He walks on the water.
But then he notices the wind.
And suddenly...
he begins to sink.
✝️ PETER WAS NOT DESTROYED BY THE WATER — HE WAS DISTRACTED BY THE STORM
This is where the Gospel becomes painfully personal.
Peter was walking toward Jesus...
until he began looking at the storm.
He had been focused on Christ.
Then he focused on the waves.
And when his eyes moved from Jesus to the storm...
fear took over.
How many times do we do the same thing?
We begin with faith.
Then we look at the diagnosis.
The bills.
The rejection.
The betrayal.
The uncertainty.
The unanswered prayer.
The future.
The storm becomes bigger than the One standing in front of us.
And we begin to sink.
✝️ BUT LOOK AT PETER'S PRAYER
Peter does not give a long theological speech.
He simply cries:
"Lord, save me!"
Three Greek words:
"Kyrie, sōson me."
"Lord, save me."
And immediately...
Jesus stretches out His hand.
Immediately.
Not tomorrow.
Not after Peter proves himself.
Not after Peter stops doubting.
Immediately.
Jesus catches him.
This is the Gospel.
Your faith may be weak...
but His hand is strong.
✝️ "WHY DID YOU DOUBT?"
Jesus asks Peter:
"O you of little faith, why did you doubt?"
Notice that Jesus does not say:
"You have no faith."
He says:
"Little faith."
Peter had faith.
It was simply not yet mature.
This is comforting.
Sometimes we think that because our faith trembles...
we have no faith at all.
Peter's faith trembled.
But Jesus did not abandon him.
The same hand that called Peter onto the water...
was the hand that pulled him out of it.
✝️ NOW THE FOUR READINGS BECOME ONE
Elijah teaches us:
Learn to hear God even when He is silent.
The Psalm teaches us:
God's voice speaks peace.
Paul teaches us:
Love can carry the pain of another person's salvation.
The Gospel teaches us:
When the storm comes, keep your eyes on Christ.
And suddenly...
everything comes together.
The God who speaks in the silence...
is the same God who speaks peace.
The God who speaks peace...
is the God Paul loves.
And the God Paul loves...
is revealed in Jesus Christ walking upon the waters.
The silence of Horeb...
the peace of Psalm 85...
the anguish of Paul...
and the storm of Galilee...
all lead us to one reality:
God is present even when His presence does not look the way we expected.
✝️ SOMETIMES GOD IS IN THE SILENCE
Maybe you are in an Elijah season.
You have prayed...
but heaven seems silent.
Do not assume God has left.
Perhaps you are being invited to listen more deeply.
Maybe you are in Peter's storm.
You stepped out in faith...
and now everything is shaking.
Do not look only at the waves.
Look again at Christ.
Perhaps you are in Paul's situation.
You are praying for someone you love...
and they seem far from God.
Do not give up.
Your tears may be part of your prayer.
✝️ THE MOST BEAUTIFUL DETAIL IS AT THE END
After Jesus gets into the boat...
the wind ceases.
And the disciples worship Him.
Then they say:
"Truly you are the Son of God."
Notice the progression.
They entered the storm knowing Jesus...
but they came out of the storm knowing Him more deeply.
Sometimes God does not immediately remove the storm.
Sometimes He reveals Himself in the middle of it.
And when the storm is finally over...
you discover that you did not merely survive.
You encountered Christ.
✝️ THE REAL QUESTION
What are you listening for?
Are you waiting for God to speak through thunder...
while He is whispering in the silence?
Are you waiting for God to remove the storm...
while Jesus is already walking toward you on the water?
Are you asking why God has not changed someone...
while God is asking you to love and pray for that person?
Are you looking at the waves...
when Christ is standing right in front of you?
Today's readings give us the answer.
Listen.
Trust.
Love.
Look toward Christ.
Because the God who was present in the silence of Horeb...
is the God who walks upon the waters of Galilee...
and He is still the same God who reaches out His hand when His children cry:
"Lord, save me."
And perhaps the greatest miracle is not that Jesus makes the storm disappear.
It is that...
even in the middle of the storm, He makes us discover that He was never absent.
God bless you. 🙏
Augustine Ikegwu
#CatholicsOnlineClass ✝️
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