Pastor’s Column

  I want to call attention to two upcoming events that I believe deserve your attention.   The first is this upcoming Saturday: we are hosting Glen Faulkner, the Diocesan security consultant, to give a workshop on parish security. The workshop will run from 9:30 am to 11:30 am. Mr. Faulkner will discuss security principles in general, as well as the particular circumstances at St. Stephen’s. He has extensive experience with our parish, having met with Fr. Curtis for many, many hours over the last four years, either overviewing security …

  As many of you are no doubt aware, last week, on Wednesday, September 10, conservative influencer Charlie Kirk was shot and killed at a public event at Utah Valley University. The alleged shooter has since been apprehended and is in custody.   Kirk is not unique in falling victim to murder; there are some fifty people every day, in the United States alone, who lose their life to a deliberate and malicious person, even apart from considering the horror of abortion. Why, then, do we react so strongly, to this …

  Thank you to all who turned out to support two of our new vocations, Rebekah Kasak and Riley Silva. We also had another young man that recently entered religious life. Please keep all of our religious and priestly vocations in your prayers. …

Fr. Dominic Savoie, FSSP   Last Sunday’s gospel parable recounted how “two men went up into the temple to pray.” The publican, whose prayer was favored by God, is familiar to us. He “stood far off,” with his “head down,” and “struck his breast.” We see the publican’s prayer imitated in our liturgy at every Mass. The priest and ministers, before ascending the altar, stand far off, profoundly bow while saying the Confiteor, and strike their breasts while publicly confessing their faults. These rubrics, which direct the ministers’ bodily postures, …

  On September 12, the St. Stephen’s Youth Group will resume. It meets twice a month during the academic year, generally on second and fourth Friday, in the evening. Its primary purpose is the continuing Catholic education of high school students in our parish. The secondary purpose of the group is to help the youth form and keep good Catholic friendships amongst one another. The group assists at the evening Mass, afterwards moving to one of the classrooms for a short meal and social time. Then one of the priests, …

  Many of the men in the parish have expressed an interest in forming a confraternity that focuses in the first place on the development of the spiritual life. A preliminary rule has been drawn up by several of them. The group aims to observe a common schedule for prayer and penance, with regular and regional small groups that give opportunity for prayer and accountability. The regional nature of the group accounts for the long distance that many men live from the parish and should provide more flexibility for men …

  Our annual parish festival, now on the first Saturday of every August (this year, August 2), is held in honor of our holy patron, St. Stephen the First Martyr. The festival coincides with the Feast of the Finding of the Relics of St. Stephen, which commemorates one of the most remarkable events in the early centuries of the Church. The discovery of the relics of our holy patron was a great source of encouragement to the early Church that was suffering the collapse of the Roman Empire under internal …

1. Stay home if you are ill and contagious. Even on Sunday, you are excused from your Mass obligation if you are ill. Some criteria: if you suspect you are contagious, not only are you excused from your Mass obligation, you are obliged by justice and charity to stay home; if you are not contagious, you are excused from Mass whenever you are ill enough to reasonably call in sick to work (i.e. you need not be bedridden to be excused from Mass). Parents caring for a sick child are …

  On Sundays that fall during the summer recess, the choir director will offer short (15-20 minute) chant workshops after the High Mass. The faithful will be invited to attend these in order to foster a fuller participation in the chanting of the ordinary and hymns of the Mass. Special efforts are to be made to restore the use of Gregorian chant by the people, so that the faithful may again take a more active part in the ecclesiastical offices, as was the case in ancient times (Tra le sollecitudini #3). …

  Father Mateo was a member of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. His health was restored at the shrine of the apparitions of the Sacred Heart in Paray-le-Monial, France, and that is where he conceived the bold plan of conquering the world, family by family, for the Sacred Heart. Pope Saint Pius X “commanded” him to devote his life to this work of Christian and social regeneration, and thus the Work of Enthronement of the Sacred Heart was born. Father Mateo’s idea was that by …

  As we did last year, the choir will be on recess for the summer. This means that from Trinity Sunday until the first Sunday of September, the men’s schola will assist at all High Masses; the only exception will be the parish festival, cele-brating the finding of the relics of St. Stephen.   The most appropriate place for a schola (as opposed to a choir) is literally between the choir stalls, that is, in the chancel – also called the choir or presbyterium. The chancel is often located between …

  All the relics of the parish have been authenticated where necessary. We are very indebted to Fr. George Snyder, the pastor of St. Claire in Roseville and the Custodian of Relics for the Diocese, for his assistance in this. Please keep him and his family in your prayers. These are the authentic relics that the parish is in possession of:   The authentication records have been organized in a file that is kept in the parish safe. I also digitized the records and they are now backed up on …