● For hosting a student over the weekend: Schardt and Unterman families
● For providing photos of school events: Mr. Rudy Aguilar
Advent Lessons and Carols
December 11th at 7:00 p.m. We encourage the whole family to join us for this beautiful event! A reception will follow.
Annual Parent Survey of School: Parents and guardians, please check your email for details from the school office on
how to complete the school’s annual online survey. A link to the survey has been provided in the email. The deadline for
completing the survey is Dec. 9th.
Financial Aid Applications Due: Please begin submitting your financial aid renewals for the 2012-2013 school year. Applications must be received by PSAS prior to February 1, 2012. The application may be found on our school webpage in the Admissions section or by opening the following link: http://stmichaelsprep.org/images/stories/Admissions/psas_financial_aid_application.pdf
Photographers! When you take exceptional photos of the students doing things noble, virtuous, studious, or fun -- send a copy to the school. This will significantly enrich the treasury of photos available to adorn the electronic and real walls of the campus.
Parent/Student Handbook: Chapter 3, Section 14
SECTION 14: COLLEGE COUNSELING
All St. Michael’s students plan on going to college. College counseling at St. Michael’s, therefore, focuses on college-readiness (in terms of standardized testing); individual and group advisement regarding college choice and financial aid; support throughout the college decision-making and application process.
College readiness/standardized testing: School policy is that all seniors must have taken the SAT Critical Reasoning (formerly called the SAT I), the ACT, and two SAT Subject Tests (formerly called SAT II). Students and parents are made aware of testing dates and registration deadlines through parent meetings and reminder emails. In preparation for the SAT, all 9th, 10th, and 11th graders take the PSAT in October, on-campus and during school hours.
All students who study their course work at the advanced placemen
t level also sit for the AP examination. Other students may take AP exams provided they have permission from their parents and the appropriate faculty member.From time to time St. Michael’s additionally provides standardized exams of various types. Some of these include: National Greek Exam and National Latin Exam.
Advisement regarding college choice and financial aid: Individual student appointments during the junior and senior years assist students in doing online college searches and in determining a pool of colleges to which the student will apply. Each junior and senior is given a customized “handbook” of relevant information. Group advisement is done as needed. Juniors and seniors go together on a formal visit and tour of a local college, attend the Santa Margarita Catholic High School College Night, and hear presentations by college reps who visit St. Michael’s during the school year. Students have access to continually updated information about individual colleges in the college file and scholarship notebook available in the school library.
Support throughout the college process: St. Michael’s College Counselor is available by email (CollegeCounselor @StMichaelsPrep.org), voicemail (949-858-0222 x 319), and/or face-to-face appointments to parents and students throughout all phases of the college-decision and application process. Two college counselor presentations are scheduled at parent meetings in fall (college decision-making and applications) and early winter (financial aid for college). While targeted at senior parents, parents of students at all grade levels are encouraged to attend.
This Week’s Photos
Weekend students hiking in the foothills of Saddleback Mountain.
Students cleaning their rooms in
anticipation of a white-glove inspection.Sports This Week:
Tuesday, Dec. 6th: Soccer @ Webb; 3:15 p.m.
Thursday, Dec. 8th: Soccer vs. Crean Lutheran @ STM; 3:00 p.m.
Thursday, Dec. 8th: Basketball @ St. Margaret’s; 6:00 p.m.
Friday, Dec. 9th: Soccer practice till 3:00 p.m. @ STM
Friday, Dec. 9th: Basketball @ Bethel Baptist; 4:00 p.m.
Homily of the Week by Fr. Victor Szczurek, O. Praem.
Among other things, Fr. Victor teaches Latin and Greek in the school.
There are certain times of the liturgical year which must seem rather strange to the outsider, and maybe even to us. Today we are presented within today’s Gospel the flipside, so to speak, of the Christmas story. It’s the very same God and the very same love which motivates Him (as it were) to do all that He does. The difference between the Christmas Story and the end of the world’s gloom and doom, has more to do with man than God. That is, the God Who is love does not change from a good God to an evil God; what changes is man’s reaction to God’s pure love. The story about the little Christ Child being born in a manger, and that same Christ coming to judge the living and the dead with all power and might, is about one and the same God. It’s even one and the same story; and it’s a love story—a love story seen from two different perspectives. Our own Praemonstratensian writer Adam Scot once expressed it this way: Just as the sun makes the wax melt and the clay harden with one and the same ray, so the same divine will punishes the impious and rewards the just. This weeks’ readings about the final judgment is a story, then, about the power of divine love—a love which can seem somewhat strange to those who do not know Christ.
This divine love, which flows from the Sacred Heart of Jesus, that Burning Furnace of Charity, is the most powerful force in the universe—more powerful than any forest fire or tsunami. Strong as death is love, says Sacred Scripture. And when this divine love is accepted into a person’s heart, it works wonders, completely changing their outlook on life, their ways of acting, their thoughts, their desires, their words. It levels in the heart of him who accepts it all sin and vice, like a fire which refines a precious metal, leaving the soul purified and strong; and it will ultimately bring the soul immense peace and joy, even while in the midst of afflictions. In short, when God’s love is accepted into the heart of man, we see the loving mercy of that first Christmas morning. Man’s heart, like that manger, becomes full of light, joy and peace.
But when that same divine love is not accepted, when it is rejected by a cold hard heart, then we become witnesses not of God’s loving mercy, but rather of God’s loving justice. That same divine love which brings such joy when it finds a heart to welcome it, brings divine justice when it meets an obstacle. And this is what we shall see at the end of the world, when the full effects of God’s love are manifested in all: perfect mercy for those who received His love; and perfect justice for those who rejected it. St. Augustine used the analogy of the waters of the Red
Sea which both cleansed the Israelites who passed through them, but destroyed Pharaoh and the evil Egyptians [De Cataclysmo]. Divine charity and sin cannot exist forever in the same soul: either that charity will wash away the sins in mercy, or, if that same charity is met by a stubborn will, it will cast the soul from its sight, which is exactly what hell is. God’s love can either purify us and unite us to Him, making us one with Him like two candles melted together; or it can destroy us and cause us eternal suffering. It’s up to us. Do we accept this love or reject it?Let us ask our Blessed Mother’s intercession, that we might imitate her and open our hearts to the love of Christ, and allow that love to change us completely, and so bring us the peace and joy of an eternal Christmas.
In publishing this homily, we hope to share a portion of the spiritual treasure by which the students are enriched every day. However, this homily may not be reproduced by the parents or friends of St. Michael’s without written permission of the author.
Prayer Requests
● Mrs. Marge DeClue, past parent-league president, who has declining health.
● Mr. Glenn Emanuel, a member of the Norbertine Lay Order, who has a serious heart condition.
● Mrs. Beverly Schaefgen who is battling cancer.
● Mr. Mike Smith who is recuperating from knee surgery.
● Those who are in the armed forces.
● St. Michael’s older priests and those who care for them.
● For the repose of the soul of Mrs. Eugenia Brokaw
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