January 1, 2012

Happy New Year!

Reminder to all that classes begin on Tuesday morning, January 10, 2012.

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.pdfd_application.pdf


Entrance Exam/Open House
St. Michael’s will offer its Entrance Exam
for the 2012-2013 academic year, on Saturday, January 28, from 8:30 AM to 1:00 PM.
Anyone interested in attending ought to contact
Mrs. Pam Christian, the school secretary, ASAP, at 949-858-0222 (Ext 237).

This Week’s Photos: Alumni Barbecue/Basketball Game


Second Quarter Honor Roll
20011-2012

First
Honors
94% and Above

Adam Aeschliman
Christian Aguilar
Faris Alquaddoomi
Samuel Arnold
Nicholas DiNapoli
Stephen Deaton
Thomas Esser
Derek Giap
Moises Gomez
James Howard
Michael Howard
Michael Johnson
Yongkyoo Kim
Yongsoo Kim
Alan Le
Giorgio Navarini
Joseph Porretta
Andrew Rozak
Brian Schardt
Ian Shaffer
Luan Tran
William Warnisher


Second
Honors
88% - 93%

Albert Aragon
Andrew Bonello
Teofil Dabrowski
Jerry Gao
Brett Lenahan
Jack Mikolaycik
Nicholas Munsell
Bryce Pickett
Michael Porretta
Jacob Portka
Marco Saglietto
Scott Schardt
Johann Shoenfeld
Matthew Shelton
Jonathan Tran
Newton Vu

Athletics

Tuesday: Soccer @ TVT; 3:00 p.m.
Thursday: Basketball @ Fairmont Prep; 4:30 p.m.
Friday: Soccer vs SVC @ Rancho Capistrano; 3:15 p.m.


Homily of the Week by Fr. Victor Szczurek, O. Praem.
Among other things, Fr. Victor is the Assistant Headmaster and teaches Latin and Greek.

With the Christmas Season soon coming to a close and with “Ordinary Time” approaching, we may find ourselves once
again afflicted with those annual “post-Christmas blues,” and all joy trampled underfoot by the return of our everyday
cares, headaches and duties. And so it is fitting that Holy Mother Church should offer us today, through the life and words of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, a little “antidote,” as it were, to help combat that yearly pestilence.

St. Elizabeth, as you may know, was a convert to Catholicism; she was originally Episcopalian. Some time after her husband died she made a trip to Italy, a trip which was to play an important role in her conversion. Upon her return to America, she wrote to her sister-in-law the following words concerning Catholics: “I don’t know how anyone can have any trouble in this world who believes all that these dear souls believe…Why they must be as happy as angels…” The communion of saints—and the whole devotional life which goes with that, especially devotion to the Blessed Mother--the teaching and direction of the Church’s hierarchy, the 7 sacraments, especially Confession and the Holy Eucharist, all these led this Episcopalian woman to see that anyone who is blessed with such divine gifts must possess a joy which cannot pass away. And so, not long after, St. Elizabeth converted to the true Faith, giving up her almost noble social status, receiving scorn and rebuke from her family and society (which was far from friendly to Catholics at that time), so that she too might possess those divine gifts, the patrimony of Christ’s Church.

St. Thomas mentions as one of the means of curing sadness, indeed the chief means, the meditation on divine things. As Catholics we should meditate not only on the many wonders of God, but on the fact that we actually have them in our possession. The source of all Christmas joy, as well as cause of the many blessings which so impressed St. Elizabeth, is the Word Incarnate; and like the shepherds and the Magi, we possess that same Divine Infant every day at Holy Mass, such that, as one religious Sister once explained in her own simple way, “Every day is like Christmas for Catholics, because we have the Mass.” And if that’s true for Catholics in general, how much more true is it for the priest, “in whose hands,” says St. Augustine, “as in the womb of the Virgin, the Son of God is incarnate.” It makes one wonder whether a priest, if he celebrates Mass daily, can ever really even have a “bad day.”

The Gospel tells us that the shepherds, having seen Our Blessed Lord in Bethlehem, returned glorifying and praising God. May St. Elizabeth Ann Seton intercede for us, so that, having adored the Divine Infant, we may return once again to our everyday cares, glorifying and praising God, as joyful as the angels.

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
● Jodie Meschuk, wife of Coach Aaron Meschuk, who is expecting.
● The paternal grandfather of sophomore Andrew Bonello who is hospitalized with a broken hip.
● 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.
● Those who are in the armed forces.
● St. Michael’s older priests and those who care for them.