Dear Friends in Christ:
Every year, we have some personnel changes to report. In our Youth Formation Office, we have said goodbye to Charisse Magsipok, Aileen Palomo, and Josh Castro. We wish them well and thank them for their service to our parish. We welcome Felicia Kucera and Kiran Younas to the Youth Formation staff. We also welcome Tom Marvil back to SJV as our principal organist. I am pleased to announce that Fr. Alfonso Fuentes, C.P. is now assisting us with our Spanish Mass. Fr. Alfonso, a native of Colombia, is a Passionist priest serving at Holy Name Retreat Center. Some of our staff members have some wonderful life events to report. Kari Artzer, Ashley Soriano, Henry Sustaita, and their families, have all welcomed newborns in recent months! God bless them all!
Nazareth Hall is undergoing final touches and will be ready for occupancy in the coming days. Nazareth Hall is the new home for our Youth Ministry. It will house a large gathering room, classrooms, offices, and conference rooms to better serve our teens. These spaces will also be available to other groups when not in use by Youth Formation. This will provide much-needed additional space for the many activities and groups in the parish. Construction is finally underway with our new Caritas Center, the home for our Social Services Ministries and Joseph’s Coat. The timeline has been adjusted and we are now expecting completion in Spring 2025.
This year, we are working to encourage all our wonderful parishioners to seriously re-commit themselves to weekly Mass. There is little good in crying over societal change, growing secularization, political polarization, or the lingering effects of COVID-19. In the history of the world, there are always challenges to keeping one’s faith strong. That is all the more reason to do so! Mass every Sunday and prayer every day, no excuses! I find the reasons that some people give for missing Mass to be interesting. Most people are pretty honest and say that when they don’t come to Mass it is because they are lazy. That is OK to say, but not OK to be. Laziness is a vice, not a virtue. Others say that they are too busy to come to Mass. To that, I say that they are probably right. They most definitely need to cut something out, but it should not be God. We all need rest and the way to get it is by getting our priorities straight – God first, others second, and then ourselves! GOD FIRST! That is the key to holiness and happiness in life. Another excuse is that the Mass is boring or they don’t get anything out of it. Maybe so at times. But the Mass is not intended to be entertainment. It is not about what we get as much as what we give! If Mass is boring maybe we should look at what we are giving.
At times people tell me that they do not come to Mass on Sunday because their kids are in Catholic school. Ugh! My response, whenever I hear this, is to say that Catholic schools are expensive. Why waste your money if you are going to undermine and disregard that for which you are paying? It is like paying for a gym membership and then never going to exercise and continuing to eat an unhealthy diet! What’s the point? From time to time, I also get a similar response from kids who go to Youth Formation. They go to class but then they do not attend Mass. Ugh! It is not either/or, it is both/and! Mass AND Religious Education classes. Likewise, even when there are no Youth Formation classes – Mass every Sunday and Holy Day!
The Lord wants us to have the spiritual graces and benefits of Holy Mass on Sundays. But to receive them, we must show up! There is no remote Mass attendance. It is a sin to deliberately fail to offer Sunday Holy Mass and keep holy the Sabbath because, when we fail to show up, we are saying no to God and are putting other things before Him in violation of the First and Third Commandments.
Come, let us worship the Lord!