The apostles once turned to Jesus with a disarmingly honest request: “Increase our faith.” His answer, however, did not point to quantity but to quality. Faith does not need to be vast like the ocean; it can be as small as a mustard seed and still move what seems immovable. This Gospel invites us to reconsider our expectations. Faith is not magic, nor is it a transaction where we “earn” miracles by our efforts. Instead, faith is trust—trust that God’s word is enough, that His promises hold, even when our lives seem to contradict them. But Jesus does not stop there. He adds a teaching that sounds almost jarring to modern ears: the parable of the servant. After working all day, the servant does not expect praise but fulfills his duty. Here lies the paradox of discipleship: faith and humility are inseparable. True faith does not demand recognition; it simply serves, trusting that God sees and God remembers. The novelist Georges Bernanos once wrote: “Faith is not a thing which one ‘loses’; we merely cease to shape our lives by it.” In other words, faith withers when we stop letting it define our choices, our words, and even the hidden attitudes of our hearts. Perhaps that is why Jesus links the mustard seed with obedience. A small seed of faith, lived daily in humility, has a hidden power that astonishes. It reshapes not only trees and mountains but the heart itself. To pray with this Gospel, you might listen to Coldplay’s Fix You. Its refrain—“Lights will guide you home, and ignite your bones, and I will try to fix you”—is not theology, but it resonates with the experience of faith. God’s grace works quietly, often in our weakness, guiding us when we stumble, lifting us when we fall. The song’s slow build mirrors the life of faith: fragile at first, then stronger, radiant, and unstoppable. Faith as small as a mustard seed, offered in humility, can indeed change everything • AE

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St. Joseph Catholic Church (Dilley, TX) • Weekend Schedule

Fr. Agustin E. (Parish Administrator)

Saturday, October 4, 2025.

10.00 a.m. Sacrament of Baptism

5.00 p.m. Sacramento de la Confesión

6.00 p.m. Santa Misa.

7.00 p.m. Bendicion de los animales (fiesta de San Francisco de Asis)

Sunday, October 5, 2025

8.00 a.m. Sacrament of Reconciliation

8.30 a.m. Holy Mass.

10.30 p.m. Sacrament of Reconciliation.

11.00 a.m. Holy Mass.

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XXVII Domingo del Tiempo Ordinario

Cuando los apóstoles le piden al Señor que les aumente la fe, esperaban quizá un don visible, algo extraordinario. Pero Jesús respondió con la paradoja de la semilla de mostaza: lo pequeño, lo escondido, lo humilde tiene un poder desproporcionado ante Dios. La fe no es un espectáculo. No se mide por demostraciones exteriores, ni por discursos encendidos, ni por emociones pasajeras. La fe se vive como servicio silencioso, como el siervo del Evangelio que cumple su tarea sin esperar recompensas. El padre Leonardo Castellani lo expresó con palabras inolvidables:

«La fe es interior, la fe no ama los alborotos, la fe no hace aspavientos, la fe se nutre en el silencio: ella es callada y operosa, es sosegada, es modesta, es fecunda, es más amiga de las obras que de las palabras, es fuerte, es aguantadora, es discreta. Es pudorosa. Los hombres profundamente religiosos no ostentan su religiosidad, como los Don Juan Tenorio de la religión, porque todo amor profundo es ruboroso; lo cual no impide que reconozcan a Cristo ante los hombres cuando es necesario.»

Esta visión coincide con el Evangelio: la fe verdadera no se gasta en adornos, sino en frutos. No busca reconocimiento, pero sostiene la vida y transforma el mundo desde dentro. Para acompañar este pasaje, vale la pena escuchar el Pie Jesu del Réquiem de Fauré. Su dulzura sobria refleja la fe humilde: no clamorosa, no ruidosa, sino confiada en la misericordia. Es música que no invade, sino que abre espacio al silencio fecundo donde la fe crece. La fe callada es la que dura. Una semilla humilde, nutrida en el silencio, puede sostener toda la esperanza de la Iglesia • AE

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Lecturas de Otoño

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