Did You Know

For the past several years, we have had the families of our First Communicants choose at which of the six weekend Masses they would make their First Communion. Even our very large church would not be able to accommodate all of the First Communicants’ families and friends at one Mass! There are some ‘spiritual benefits’ to doing it this way: many of our parishioners expressed their appreciation at being able to participate in a First Communion Mass – some for the first time in years! The celebration of First Communion is not just one special day in the life of a family who have a First Communicant; it is a special day in the life of a Parish and for the whole Family of God! Second, because of the smaller groups of children at each Mass, more attention could be given to the individual children; photos will be taken at every Mass and the child is not just one small face in a sea of faces! Third, the First Communion Masses are the ‘ordinary’ Mass of the Sunday, not just one ‘special day of the year’ - and so, hopefully, the children are beautifully introduced into regular weekly attendance and reception of Holy Communion! A special word of thanks to those who worked so hard (and so well) to prepare our young people for this most wonderful once-in-a-lifetime experience: Genevieve Rivera, our Director of Religious Education; our Catechists: Regina Kelley, Brandie Granke, Maria Ayala, and Diana Eggers! Please take time to congratulate and welcome our First Communicants into the Eucharistic community! And take a few moments in thankful prayer to recall your own First Communion!

This Sunday evening, our six Jubilee Youth Pilgrims will be sharing their experience of the Pilgrimage and the extraordinary experience of attending the Funeral Mass of Pope Francis at a special “Life Night” from 7:00-8:00 PM in Madonna Hall! We are hearing wonderful feedback on our Youth Pilgrim group (“Our pilgrims were full of joy, hope, and enthusiasm”) and what an extraordinary group of young men and women that they were – and are! It was through your generous support that they – and Seminarian Carlos Nagore – were able to make this Pilgrimage!

We learned this week that our Fr. Richard Rivera has been assigned as Pastoral Administrator of Saint Pius X Parish in Tucson! Sadly, we say farewell to Fr. Francisco Maldonado who has been reassigned from Our Lady of the Mountains to St. Cyril’s Parish in Tucson! The new Pastor of Our Lady of the Mountains is Fr. Richard Awange

from St. Margaret Mary Parish in Tucson. And we continue to pray for the Holy Spirit’s gift of a new Pope and a new Bishop!