Pastoral Message

This weekend we begin the season of Advent. It is a season rich in meaning, and filled with wonderful reminders of why we are here and what we celebrate at this festive time of the year. The word “advent” means “coming” or “arrival.” Specifically, we celebrate the coming of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, into the world. There are three important ways that Jesus comes to us, and Advent calls us to celebrate all three. Clearly, we are preparing to commemorate

As you know, Thursday of this week is Thanksgiving Day. It’s great that we have a particular day set aside in our calendars for the purpose of thanking God for all his blessings. This brings to mind the value of having a grateful disposition. In order for it to be true gratitude, this disposition requires that we know to whom we are grateful. Ultimately, we are grateful to God, who is the Source of all good things. Clearly, authentic gratitude will

Hey Y’all, A quick question. Are you a numbers person? That’s to say, you understand and find order in numbers. Some folks love numbers. My Dad did. As a small example, he loved to keep the ledger in his checkbook neatly balanced. And he loved when the math worked out so that the  balance would end in a zero. Not that he ever took issue with a cardinal number (1-9) but he always felt 0 as the final number in a

The night of November 4th will contain an extra hour. Daylight Saving time ends on November 5th. I, for one, love having that extra hour! Even though I will probably end up spending the hour sleeping, just the thought that I get more time makes me happy. This gets me thinking of our usual 24-hour day. It’s amazing to see how some people seem to have time to do a lot of things, while I often feel that I don’t have

As you know, one of my main occupations during my free time has been unpacking my boxes of stuff since moving here in mid-September. You never quite know, until you have to move, how much stuff you have accumulated. In preparing for my move, I got rid of a lot of things. Now, as I unpack my many boxes, I am getting rid of more things. My boxes aren’t marked, so it’s a surprise each time I open a box.

Mass Intentions What can we do to pray for a loved one, living or deceased?” Or “how can we do something to honor or memorialize a loved one?” These are common questions that come up in times of grief, sickness, trials, tribulations, or praise and thanksgiving. One response, which is both ancient and contemporary, is to have a Mass offered. This offering of a Mass intention becomes one of three of a celebrant’s intentions. First, Father intends to celebrate the Mass reverently

The other day I was going through the Starbucks drive-thru to get my morning coffee, and the young man who served me my coffee asked me, “What’s your name?” I told him I am Philip. He responded, “You baptized me! My mom is so excited you’re at SSJ now!” Isn’t that a cool connection? The sacrament of Baptism had created a bond between us, and we rediscovered that bond in the drive-thru line at Starbucks. In the short time that I

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