September 2023

Hey Y’all! God bless us all on this Festival Weekend! As a parish, we’ve been festivalling up for 57 years! (I’m pretty sure I just made up a new verb… “to festival”) No matter the verb, 57 years, that’s impressive. Ever since I got here a few years ago, multitudes of folks, with pride brimming over, speak of how much our community, and really the whole community of Huntington Beach, loves our Festival. Honestly, I never doubted it. Who doesn’t love a

Greetings! I’ve been here at Saints Simon & Jude a little over a week so far and I have enjoyed meeting so many of you. In case you are curious, or even if you are not, I’d like to take this opportunity to tell you a little about myself. I am a native of Fullerton, right here in Orange County. When I was eight years old, my family relocated to a small town in North Dakota where I remained until I was

Hey Y’all, You’ve likely noticed that we’ve been going through some changes recently. We bid “adieu” to Fr. Mike Rizzo last weekend – in a French way sending him “to God.” And this weekend we’re saying “howdy” and “welcome” to Fr. Philip Smith. (I’ll let Fr. Philip introduce himself over the next couple of weeks.) Such goings and comings can be either discombobulating or invigorating depending on your point of view. So let’s think about these points of view a little

It is with mixed emotions that I write to all of you as I prepare to leave SSJ for my new assignment at Corpus Christi parish in Aliso Viejo. I thank God for giving the opportunity to serve SSJ over the past three years. I could not feel more blessed by this experience. Every moment of my time here has been a rich and valuable reflection of God’s great love. In the words of the Yankee legend Lou Gehrig, as