Happy Lent! We just began the holy season of Lent. For many, the season is a forty-day period of prayer and fasting. Lent is primarily a time of intense spiritual preparation for conquering temptations using the same means Jesus used during His forty days of preparation in the desert for His public life. It is…
From the Pastor
From the Pastor
This week is the sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time. The readings today urge us to observe the laws given to us by our loving and caring God. He revealed His laws to us through Moses and the prophets in the Old Testament and through His Son, Jesus, in the New Testament. The intent of the…
From the Pastor
This weekend we celebrate the Feast of the Presentation of Our Lord. This feast commemorates how Jesus, as a baby, was presented to God in the Temple in Jerusalem. This presentation finds its complete and perfect fulfillment in the mystery of the Passion, Death and Resurrection of the Lord. The Feast of the Presentation of…
From the Pastor
The Santa Sophia Academy and the Santa Sophia parish community celebrate Catholic Schools Week, January 26 – February 1, 2020. The theme for the National Catholic Schools Week 2020 is “Catholic Schools: Learn. Serve. Lead. Succeed.” The theme focuses on the core of Catholic education. This is to say our schools not only focus on…
From the Pastor
Today we celebrate the Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord. This brings the season of Christmas to an end. Today’s celebration marks the transition from the liturgical season of Christmas into Ordinary Time. Until yesterday, we celebrated an infant Jesus; from today forward, we will celebrate an adult Jesus. The Baptism of Our Lord…
From the Pastor
Today we begin the season of Advent. The word “Advent” means “coming.” During Advent, we celebrate and recall the coming of the Lord at Bethlehem two thousand years ago. The season also invites us to focus on His Second Coming at the End of the World, and His coming to us at the time of…
From the Pastor
This week is the thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time. As we near the end of the Church’s liturgical year, the readings become more eschatological—relating to the end of times or the final coming of the Lord. The main theme of today’s readings is the reality of life after death and the relationship between our lives…
From the Pastor
This is the thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time. The underlying theme of today’s readings is the benevolent and forgiving Mercy of God for sinners and the response of repentance and conversion expected from us. We sin, yet God does not treat us as outcastes; His mercy calls us to a sincere repentance, a change of heart…
From the Pastor
This is the thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time. The theme for this Sunday’s reading is humility. Humility must be the hallmark of our prayers and of Christian life. God hears the cry of the humble. However, the central focus of the readings, especially the Gospel reading, is not only on prayer, but also on pride, humility,…
From the Pastor
We are celebrating World Mission Sunday this week. World Mission Sunday reminds us that we are a missionary people. Today, on Mission Sunday, we recommit ourselves to our common vocation, through Baptism, to be missionaries, through prayer, participation in the Eucharist, and by giving generously to the missionary activities of the Church. On this World…
