Pastor’s Corner

Dear Parishioners and Visitors, This weekend we have a rare occurrence: the use of red vestments for Sunday Mass. (Bright red is my favorite color, which is why I geek out over things like this.) Normally, the only Sundays that call for red vestments are Palm Sunday and Pentecost Sunday; but when the great Solemnity…

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Dear SSJ, Over the past few weeks, I have spent a lot of time on the phone calling families and businesses who have supported our Fall Festival. My task was pretty simple: follow up on sponsorships, gather information, and most importantly, say thank you. But somewhere along the way, those calls became much more than…

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Dear SSJ Community, While in college, I once used the etymology of the word “reconciliation” as a pick up line after a sermon on the topic. While this is embarrassing looking back on it and would probably never work anywhere else, this took place in a church in Cambridge, MA, right in between Harvard and…

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Dear SSJ, If you were at Mass last weekend, you may have heard me introduce myself as your new Director of Outreach & Evangelization. I shared a bit about my new role, but I’d like to take this opportunity to get a little personal and share more about me. I’m a huge Dodgers, Raiders, and…

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Dear SSJ Catholic Community, As you read this, SSJ Catholic School will have been back in session for a week and a half. As we begin another school year, we continue to focus on following the mission of SSJ Church, the Diocese of Orange, and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Most importantly, we…

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Dear Parishioners and Visitors, When we profess our faith during Sunday Mass, toward the end of the Creed we say, “I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.”  The last of those adjectives, “apostolic,” is explained by the Catechism of the Catholic Church in paragraph 857: The Church is apostolic because she is founded…

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Hey y’all, The liturgical calendar for this year of our Lord, 2026, has a total of 33 Sundays in Ordinary Time – out of a total of 34 potential Sundays.  We are celebrating the 20th Sunday this week.  And if you’ve been following along for the last 19 Sundays, we’ve been reading through the the…

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Dear Parishioners and Visitors, As Bible-believing Catholic Christians, we consider the Scriptures to be the Word of God. This means that all of Scripture is good, and will teach and guide us on the way of salvation. This being said, it’s still natural for particular passages to stand out as favorite passages for us. It’s…

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