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If you want to approach the Sacrament of Reconciliation before Christmas, we will have a Penance Liturgy this Thursday, 15 December, at 7pm.

Our neighboring parish, Our Lady of Loretto, will have a Penance Liturgy on Wednesday the 15^th at 7pm. You are welcome to go there if Thursday is not a good day for you. 

What is a Penance Liturgy? It is a very simple prayer service that consists of a Scripture reading, a common examination of conscience, a common act of contrition with individual confession with a priest. We will have a number of priests with us. For your health and the health of the priests hearing your confession, please wear a mask when confessing.

Other than this Penance Liturgy or the ones offered in neighboring parishes, there will be few other options to confess. We will not have confessions on Saturday, 24 December.

The Diversity of Holiness

We are all called to be holy through our baptism! Holiness is not the private possession of the few and privileged. In the church we have added portraits of various saints that represent the diversity of holy companions we have, each one encouraging us to grow in faith, hope and love.

On the wall opposite the Our Lady of Guadalupe altar we have some saints of the Americas:

St. Oscar Romero (El Salvador, …1980)

St. Rosa de Lima (Peru, …1617)

St. Martín de Porres (Peru, …1639)

St. Toribio Romo (México, …1928)

On the wall opposite the St. Joseph altar we have the four saints who were canonized with St. Teresa de Jesús on 12 March 1622:

St. Ignatius of Loyola (Spain, …1556)

St. Francis Xavier (Spain, …1552)

St. Phillip Neri (Italy, …1595)

St. Isidore the Farmer (Spain, …1130)

On the side wall by the St. Joseph altar we have a diversity of saints encouraging us to live as members of the communion of saints:

               St. Carlo Acutis (Italy, …2006) – yes, teenagers can be holy!

               St. Josephine Bakhita (Sudan, …1947)

               SS. Louis & Zelie Martin (France, …1894, …1877)

               St. Kateri Tekakwitha, (Native American, …1680)

               St. Lorenzo Ruiz (Philippines, …1637)