With the celebration of Palm Sunday, we enter into the commemoration of the Passion, Death, and
Resurrection of our Lord Jesus. We enter this Holy Week by uniting ourselves to those who carry
their heavy crosses and need to know that they are not alone.
We have one more week of Lent before we enter Holy Week with Palm Sunday on April 10th. As you understand, Holy Week is a time when there is much spiritual preparation and other types of preparations in the parish.
Who are the people who live in the peripheries? They are the victims of unjust systems, the victims of war, the victims of violence, the victims of racism and hatred of every kind.
Going to confession and asking for God’s forgiveness is not always enough, especially when we hurt
or offend someone. We must go to that person and express our apology and our regret if we are
truly sorry for what we have done.
Our Catholic tradition of Lent is a powerful time in our life of faith. We are invited to pay closer attention to those aspects of our faith and our religion that brings us closer to God: sacrifice for the sake of not letting selfishness rule our lives, almsgiving for the sake of making us more generous and less self-centered, prayer for the sake of deepening our relationship with God, and the repentance of our sins for the sake of changing what we need to change in our lives so as to become more understanding, forgiving and compassionate.
Not every parish offers the opportunity for private Quinceañera Masses. We do. Many parishes offer one
common Quinceañera celebration per month where all the young ladies gather with their families.
You are the hope of our parish family!
And you hold a special place in the heart of our parish family. You are important to all of us and we commit
ourselves to you in every way possible.
Last week I preached at all the Masses about the human need to feel loved, wanted, and have self-worth.
I explained how being the object of rejection can rob a person of such necessary needs in life.
Dear Good People of St. Julia,
It is time again for us to respond generously to the Bishop’s Annual Appeal. This is a special time when we
are asked to go beyond ourselves and reach out to our Diocese and to give witness to our faith through our
generosity to those who are in need and for the work carried out by our Catholic Diocese. We have always
responded very generously, and it is my hope that we will do so again this year.
I am very happy to announce that Mr. Martin Flores will be our new Youth Ministry Director. It is our hope that once he begins his ministry among us, we will have two youth groups to begin this new endeavor: a high-school age group and a young adult group.