• Monday Evening, February 20, 7 PM is the Winter Sports Awards Ceremony. All parents and students involved are asked to be on time for this event.
• St. Michael’s will host an Open House on Saturday, Feb. 25th from 3:30 pm to 5:00 pm for families of 8th grade boys who are considering St. Michael’s for their sons’ high school years. If you know of a family you think might be a good fit for St. Michael’s, please encourage them to visit us at our open house for a tour and question and answer session.
• All students who wish to play baseball this year must have their sports fees paid this week.
• On Tuesday there will be a parent-sponsored/student run barbecue at 5:30 PM
• On Wednesday (Ash Wednesday) Mr. Jesse Romero will speak to the students at 7 PM about the importance of praying the Rosary
• Reminder that the non-refundable tuition down payment for returning families is due March 20.
Thanks to all the families who helped last week:
• Gomez Family for hosting a student
• Aragon, Lenahan and Tran Families for carpooling
• Mrs. Jennifer Bonello for organizing the food for the sports award ceremony;
and all the many families who contributed food and drink
Parent/Student Handbook: Chapter 4, Section 9
SECTION 9: HARASSMENT
St. Michael’s maintains a strict policy prohibiting harassment and bullying, including verbal, physical, visual and sexual. No person shall knowingly or intentionally by speech, gesture, or writing address another in a way that is intimidating, demeaning, derogatory or hateful as based upon a person’s age, gender, race, color, religion, or ethnic origin.
The administration, faculty and staff of the school are mandated reporters of child abuse whether the alleged abuser is an adult or a minor.
The school treats allegations of harassment seriously and investigates such allegations in a prompt, confidential and thorough manner.
This Week’s Photos: soccer team; choir singing for the Orange Diocese Council of Catholic Womem, at the Phoenizx Club in Anaheim; Frater Bruno, students and Mr. Ben Stein
Sports This Week:
Baseball pratice
Birthdays This Week:
Michael Martin: Feb. 22
Nicholas Di Napoli: Feb. 24
Homily of the Week by Fr. John Henry.
Among other things, Fr. John Henry is the school's College Counsellor and teaches English.
The evangelist tells us that, “Jesus sighed from the depth of his spirit,” in reply to the Pharisees’ request. What a response! Can you imagine Jesus responding in such a way to your prayer? You would ask yourself, “What did I say that would elicit such a response from the Lord?” Our Lord sighs to show that He is grieved by the request--but more especially, by the motivation behind it. What were the Pharisees asking for and why?
Have you ever asked for a sign to confirm for yourself a course of action? In itself, it is not wrong, but our motivation for it can be. We can show that we lack trust in God--as was the case, e.g., for Zechariah, father of John the Baptist. Els
ewhere in Scripture we find that God Himself performs signs--like the parting of the Red Sea--or that He asks us to ask for a sign, as He encouraged King Ahaz: “Ask a sign of the LORD your God….”On the occasion we have before us today, our Lord “sighed from the depth of his spirit” because the Pharisees ‘came forward … to argue [with Him] and seek from [Jesus] a sign from heaven to test him.’ Our Lord performed many miracles—but never merely to silence or impress His opposition. Almost always we are told, either by the Lord Himself or by the sacred author, that He did them for these reasons: pity, compassion, mercy, to show that He had power to forgive sins. These are the “signs” to which the Pharisees and we are often blind. We look for other things, overlooking the grace and mercy held out to us by Christ Jesus, our Lord.
In truth, it is enough of a sign that the Almighty turns His face toward us, that He has compassion on us, that He gives us His full and complete attention whenever we speak to Him; it is enough that He pleads and commands us to seek, ask, knock, and that He promises to be there and hear us when we do. Maybe the most extraordinary sign of them all is when He says to us: “Go, your sins are forgiven. I do not condemn you”—no matter what we’ve done, or how often.
It is not uncommon for people to think that “if only” they could see Jesus in the flesh, see a miracle, see something extraordinary--they would be converted for life. That is simply not true. “This generation” to which our Lord refers in today’s Gospel is an allusion back to the generation of the Exodus—the generation that saw all sorts of signs and wonders and remained unconverted. God Himself testifies in Psalm 94: Forty years that generation tested me; though they had seen my works, they did not know my ways. We are converted not once for all by one spectacular experience, but by the grace and mercy of God, by His unmerited love for us, by His compassion for us--received one humble moment at a time.
Sometimes even spiritual people seek the extraordinary because they are “bored” with ordinary spirituality: carrying the cross, self-denial, sacraments, prayer, and growth in virtue. Either they start seeking the extraordinary or they stop seeking altogether. The Israelites in the wilderness, that generation, protested against God and Moses that they were sick of their ordinary food, the manna, the bread from heaven.
The picture of the Christian that emerges from the pages of the New Testament is not “exciting,” but it is real, supernatural, and beautiful to behold. It is a portrait of people who can and should mix with the world without picking up its mentality, its vices. They have the power to conquer without being conquered. They are transformed by an inner renewal, which shows itself outwardly in a thousand
unspectacular, yet attractive ways.
Verses from St Paul that we might pass over as moral exhortations for others, are really at the heart of our Christian identity: “Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with brotherly affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Never flag in zeal, be aglow with the Spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in your hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints, practice hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; never be conceited. Repay no one evil for evil, … live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to … God….”
On one occasion, Jesus asked, “You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky; but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?” In our Lord’s teachings, especially in the Sermon on the Mount, we find Him telling us many “un-extraordinary” things: not to worry, to call God your Father, to
trust, to forgive and be forgiven. Let us seek no more from the Son of Man than
to be the objects of His loving mercy, the grateful recipients of His grace,
given to us one ordinary moment at a time.
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.
● Mrs. Rose Warnisher, grandmother of Will
Warnisher, who suffered a stroke and is in declining health
● Those who are in the armed forces.
● St. Michael’s older priests and those who
care for them.
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