Our Mission
Emmanuel Youth Choir was born on September 22, 2018, after Father Loi Huynh, our Pastor, and Father Thong Nguyen, our Chaplain, realized the need for an English mass for the Vietnamese youth at Our Lady of La Vang church in San Jose. We celebrated the choir's first feast day on December 24, 2018. Our choir chose the name "Emmanuel", meaning "God is with Us" to remind all of us that we need God at every step of our life and with every breath that we take each day. With Him beside us and within our hearts, we can conquer any obstacles in our life. And every time we come together, we come to Him with a humble heart to thank him for everything that He has given us and we praise Him for His Greatness and His Love with songs and music.
Our Mass Time and Practice Schedule:
Our choir sings every Saturday at 4:00 PM at Our Lady of La Vang Church (located at 389 E Santa Clara St, San Jose, CA 95113 (corner of 9th Street and Santa Clara Street). We practice 1/2 hour before and 1/2 hour after mass. If you love to sing, play music, and/or would like to serve the Church in the Church music ministry, please come and join us in singing hymns of thanksgiving and praise to Our Lord Jesus Christ.
“My secret is simple: I pray”
— Mother Teresa of Calcutta
Weekly Reflection
Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A Sunday, October 1, 2023
Gospel Reading
Matthew 21:28-32
Jesus poses a question to the chief priests and elders on the meaning of obedience.
Background on the Gospel Reading
The context for today’s Gospel is the mounting tension between Jesus and the Jewish religious leaders. Jesus has entered Jerusalem and overturned the money changers’ tables in the Temple. Jesus has caught the attention of the religious authorities; the chief priests and elders question Jesus about the source of his authority. Jesus refuses to name for these religious leaders the source of his authority. Instead, he questions the priests and elders through the parable we hear in today’s Gospel. The answer given by the religious leaders is correct, but it convicts them for their failure to heed the call of John the Baptist and for their inability to recognize the Kingdom of God.
The situation Jesus poses is rather straightforward. Given the same task by their father, one son asserts his disobedience in words, but then obeys in his actions; the second son obeys with his words, but disobeys in his actions. The question that Jesus poses is pointed and direct: Which son did what the father wanted? All would agree that “actions speak louder than words” and that even if his words were disobedient, the son who did the work as ordered did the father’s will.
Jesus’ conclusion is also direct. The chief priests and elders, the ones who speak most often about God, did not act accordingly. They did not respond to the message of repentance announced by John the Baptist with a change of heart. Instead, John’s message was heeded by those one would not expect to repent—tax collectors, prostitutes, and other sinners. Because of their actions, these sinners will enter the Kingdom of God ahead of the religious leaders.
Jesus could ask us the same question. Do our words indicate our obedience to God? If not our words, do our actions? God desires a full conversion of heart, that our actions (and our words as well) will give evidence of our love for God.