The Holy Father has designated this year as a time  to foster, examine and be thankful for consecrated life.
Ministry in Focus

St. John the Baptist Parish

 

The founding Abbot of St. Michael's Abbey, Ladislas K. Parker, had a dream and desire that members of our Norbertine community would one day serve full time at a parish here in the Diocese of Orange. Abbot Parker lived to see his dream realized when, in July of 2002, four priests of the St. Michael's Abbey community took up residence and assumed the administration of St. John the Baptist parish on Baker Street in Costa Mesa. Several years after the arrival of the original four Norbertines, two more priests were added to the Costa Mesa rectory community to take up positions as Rector and Chaplain at the parish school. The Norbertine community at SJB now numbers six priests in residence all engaged in a wide variety of ministries to serve the diverse flock that makes SJB their spiritual home. 

 

The parish has a little over 2,000 registered families, and the school has close to 600 students. The parish is enriched by the presence of large and active communities of both Vietnamese and Latino ethnic origin. Many of the parish's ministries are offered in three languages - English, Vietnamese and Spanish - and there are several special ethnic celebrations each year which allow everyone to participate in the cultural gifts that make SJB such a special community.

 

The parish offers three daily Masses in English Monday through Friday. For the fulfillment of the Sunday obligation, the parish offers nine total Masses - Vigil Masses on Saturday evening in both English and Vietnamese, then Masses on Sunday in English (4), Vietnamese (1), Spanish (1), and the Extraordinary Form Mass in Latin (1). Confessions are heard in the evening Monday through Thursday and Saturday morning. The parish also has maintained Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration in a separate, and very beautiful, Blessed Sacrament Chapel since 2007.

 

Both the school and parish recently celebrated their 50th Anniversaries. Looking back at the growth and development that has taken place here at SJB, the Norbertine confreres consider themselves truly blessed to now be a part of the history of this parish and school community. 
 
 

 

Photo: Reverence around the altar, a hallmark of Norbertine liturgical practice, inspires all who come to pray at St John the Baptist parish.

Featured Homily 


Corpus Christi
 
" We renew the memory of that surpassing love for us which Christ revealed in his passion.  It was to impress the vastness of this love more firmly upon the hearts of the faithful that our Lord instituted this sacrament at the Last Supper. As he was on the point of leaving the world to go to the Father, after celebrating the Passover with his disciples, he left it as a perpetual memorial of his passion. It was the fulfilment of ancient figures and the greatest of all his miracles, while for those who were to experience the sorrow of his departure, it was destined to be a unique and abiding consolation."  These heartening and encouraging words of St. Thomas Aquinas used in the liturgy of the readings for today reveal for us some of the mystery which we celebrate today, the solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ.  Some may even ask why we have such a feast?  

Read more...

 

Photo: Priests, seminarians, sisters, and faithful all kneel in silent adoration of the Blessed Sacrament at each of the outdoor altars visited during the afternoon procession. 


Community

Prayer and Manual Labor

 

The ancient religious orders in the Latin Church (those founded in the 12th century or before) have always fostered a lifestyle that emphasizes a common life, a day order that hinges around the chanting of the divine office, manual and intellectual labor and meals taken in common.  If such a schedule is lived faithfully for many years, far from being tedious, it can open up one's heart and soul to a peaceful lucidity that is hard to imagine for those who are not in a monastery.  Prayer and manual labor are linked in that prayer informs the spirit in which the work is done, and work can make prayer visible. 
 

Here at the abbey, for most of the confreres, it is during the years of formation that most come into contact with manual labor.  Historically, our community tends to use priests in positions of teaching or preaching more than in the field
or woodshop, although there are exceptions to this.  These would include the priests charged with management of the abbey plant and work at the new site, as well as priests who use occasional days working in the garden as needed respite from their other duties. 

The field of labor is as wide as and wider than that of the maintenance of a typical household. Landscape maintenance,  help in the kitchen, cleaning bathrooms and showers, keeping the church clean and set up for Mass. Each of these tasks, performed with love for the common good, helps to sanctify the individual and make the abbey a more ordered and peaceful place to live.

Photo: Fraters Anselm and Christopher clean the refectory glass doors. 

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ST. MICHAEL'S ABBEY
19292 El Toro Road
Silverado, CA 92676