“Prepare the way of the Lord.”  When we hear these words of John the Baptist every year, we can easily think of the image of sweeping our house, getting it ready—the house being our own lives, our souls.  And we, of course, want to get our lives tidied up for the Savior, like getting our houses ready for Christmas guests.   But the older I get, the less helpful that image is for me.  Because the truth is, the moment I leave the confessional, I feel like I fall back into sin, feeling anger or resentments, being short with people, etc.  Immediately the house gets dirty again, and it is in need of sweeping.

Instead, I feel like it is more helpful to think of getting ready for Christ in Advent like preparing for a doctor’s appointment.  Instead of inviting the doctor into a clean house and giving a report that nothing is wrong, I think it is much more helpful to have a list of recent ailments since the last visit.  Sort of like there is nothing more frustrating that taking your car to the mechanic because it is making a noise, only for the noise to stop when you get there, so also it is not helpful for our overall health to go to the doctor and tell them “all is well,” when we actually know that over the course of the year we had an aching back, our elbow was strained, and we had a lot of heartburn and had to take far too many Tums (my case!)

Jesus is the doctor, and he comes because he wants to help us in ways we cannot help ourselves.  All of those angers and frustrations, resentments, addictions—we surrender them all to him.  And we trust that he in his own time and way will help heal them.  There are seldom quick fixes!  For Advent, we are invited to make a list of areas of our lives into which we invite Jesus the physician.  Our parish reconciliation service is Tuesday, December 9th at 7 pm, and that will be the last opportunity for confession until January 6. We will have many priests that night.  I invite you to come—not to be embarrassed, or to feel shame, but simply to say to Jesus, “please, help heal me.”  And in that way you are preparing the way.

We invite you to visit the “Other Announcements” section to learn about additional events and activities happening in our parish.

In observance of the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, we will have mass on Monday December 8, at 8am and 6pm.

Our Advent Reconciliation Service will be on Tuesday, December 9 at 7 pm. Please take advantage of this opportunity.  

There will be no confessions from December 10  through January 2.  

Confessions will resume on Saturday, January 3, 2026 at 4:30 pm.

We will present photos and brief biological information about various Jesuits from our province who are in the formation process. Please pray for them!
This week we pray for Guthrie, Peter.

The celebration will take place on Sunday, December 7.

For questions, please contact the Confederación Guadalupana chairperson, Lucia Gutierrez at (619) 565-0279 .

Thank you for your generosity.

The Diocese of San Diego takes all allegations of sexual misconduct seriously and addresses them promptly, confidentially, and with integrity. To report any incident of sexual misconduct, please contact the Victim Assistance Coordinator.
Criminal abuse that is reported or suspected is reported to law enforcement in accordance with civil law.

Mary Acosta

Coordinadora de Asistencia a Víctimas

(858) 490-8353.