Pastor’s Weekly Reflection
January 12, 2025
Dear Parishioners,
This week we commemorate the baptism of Jesus. This Sunday is also the last day of the Advent-Christmas season. On Monday, we will begin the first week of the Ordinary Time. All these decorations will be gone. The Church wants us to prepare ourselves for the new season by embracing our identity as followers of Jesus. Our Christian identity derives all its meanings and implications from the very identity of Jesus. In the event of the baptism of Jesus, God reveals to us who Jesus is: the Messiah, the Son of God.
As the Son of the Most High, who is sinless, why did Jesus want to receive baptism? Isn’t baptism for the cleansing of sins, especially, of the original sin? This is a good question, and our ancestors in faith did ask the same question. To answer it, we need to understand the full meaning of baptism.
In the ancient world, water is a symbol of both life and death. When a gentile converts to Judaism, he goes through the ritual of Tebilah, which is a rite of passage. There are three stages in such a rite: the separation from a previous state, an in-between state called liminal period, and the reception into a new state. The gentile wishing to become an Israelite must be separated first from his old gentile state. And the way to separate him from his old state is to return him to the primal womb, the water of chaotic nothingness. So, he is immersed in water. While being immersed in water, the ...
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Young Adult Ministry – Candlelight Mass
Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025
8:00 pm – English
Santo Niño
Friday, Jan. 17, 2025
7:00 pm – English
Daily Masses
8:00 am in English – Monday to Saturday
5:30 pm in Vietnamese – Mon to Fri except Wed.
Mass of Our Lady of Perpetual Help with Novena prayer
5:30 pm Wednesdays in English
Saturday Vigil Masses
4:00 pm in Vietnamese – Livestream
6:00 pm in Spanish
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7:30 am in English
9:15 am in English
11:00 am in Spanish
12:45 pm in Tagalog/English
3:45 pm in Vietnamese
5:30 pm in English – Youth and Young Adult
7:00 pm in Vietnamese
Confession Schedule
Saturday: 3:00 pm – 3:30 pm
First Fridays of each month – 8:45am and 4:45 pm
Worship and Prayer Schedule
First Friday of the Month – 7:00 pm Healing Mass in Spanish
Second Saturday of the Month – 9:00 am Marian Mass in Vietnamese
Every Tuesday – 9:15 am School Mass
Every Friday except First Friday – 7:00 pm Prayer and Adoration in Spanish
For January second Wednesday of the Month –January 8, 6:30 pm Multilingual Rosary
Monday to Saturday
– 7:10 am Rosary in English (before the Mass)
– 8:30 am Rosary in English (after the Mass)