OC Catholic Afar
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AUGUST
31, 2025
CONTENTS
JESUS BOUGHT ME A STARBUCKS COFFEE
Small miracles happen every day, when we have eyes to see them.
POPE: CHRIST’S LOVE IS STRONGER THAN HATRED
Pope Leo XIV spoke about Jesus’s gesture of generosity to Judas during his Aug. 20 general audience.
HELP LA FUND BLESSED WILDFIRE SURVIVORS WITH NEW BEGINNINGS
Over 500 families and individuals received support through the program’s grants.
MSGR. JOHN SAMMON MEMORIAL GOLF OUTING
The annual event is free to religious orders and designed to support the faith leaders of the community.
TRUE HUMILITY
What is pride, but a reminder to humble ourselves?
ORANGE COUNTY CATHOLIC MISSION STATEMENT
The Orange County Catholic Newspaper seeks to illuminate and animate the journey of faith for Catholics within the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange – building solidarity among the faithful and inviting a deeper understanding and involvement in the mission of Christ – through the timely sharing of news, commentary and feature content in an engaging, accessible and compelling format.
ORANGE COUNTY CATHOLIC
The Official Newspaper of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange Diocese of Orange Pastoral Center, 13280 Chapman Ave., Garden Grove 92840
Publisher: The Most Reverend Kevin W. Vann, Bishop of Orange
Executive Editor: Jarryd Gonzales
Managing Editor: Patricia Mahoney, editor@occatholic.com
News Ideas: editor@occatholic.com
Delivery Problems: occatholicsupport@occatholic.com
ADVERTISING
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SCNG
CUSTOM CONTENT
Managing Editor: Caitlin Adams Art Director: Ryann Beveridge
Delivered weekly to parishes and homes throughout Orange County, Calif., Orange County Catholic is published by SCNG Custom Content, a division of Southern California News Group that offers content development and design expertise to businesses and nonprofit institutions. The Orange County Catholic editorial staff and editorial council are responsible for the content contained herein. Events and products advertised in Orange County Catholic do not carry the implicit endorsement of the Diocese of Orange or SCNG Custom Content.
ROSARY BEADS
READER CALL-OUT
A friend made these Rosary Beads for me. He hunted for the vintage beads at a thrift shop then assembled them one by one into this beautiful sacramental.
—Robin MacGillivray, Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish in Newport Beach.
If you would like to share a photo of your Rosary Beads with our readers, please send a photo and brief description (include your name and parish) to: editor@occatholic.com C
READINGS FOR THE WEEK
MONDAY
1 THESSALONIANS
4:13-18; PSALM 96:1 AND 3, 4-5, 11-12, 13; LUKE 4:16-30
TUESDAY
1 THESSALONIANS
5:1-6, 9-11; PSALM 27:1, 4, 13-14; LUKE 4:31-37
“ This is the world that has been entrusted to us…a world in which …we are called to bear witness to our joyful faith in Jesus the savior.” — Pope Leo XIV
SAINT PROFILE
WEDNESDAY
COLOSSIANS 1:18; PSALM 52:10, 11; LUKE 4:38-44
THURSDAY
COLOSSIANS
1:9-14; PSALM 98:2-3AB, 3CD-4, 5-6; LUKE 5:1-11
GILES BY CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
STORIES OF THIS SAINT made him a well-loved figure in the Middle Ages. Saint-Gilles in southern France, where he built a monastery, was a popular place of pilgrimage. Legend says Giles was Athenian by birth, generous with his family's wealth, cured a sick beggar by giving him his cloak, and lived as a hermit. After his death he was celebrated for many miracles and named patron of the lame, beggars and blacksmiths. He is one of the 14 Holy Helpers, saints known for response to prayers of petition, especially for the sick.C
FRIDAY
COLOSSIANS
1:15-20; PSALM 100:1B-2, 3, 4, 5; LUKE 5:33-39
PHOTOS: CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE, SHUTTERSTOCK
SATURDAY
COLOSSIANS 1:21-23; PSALM 54:3-4, 6 AND 8; LUKE 6:1-5
SUNDAY
WISDOM 9:13-18B; PSALM 90:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 14 AND 17; PHILEMON 9-10, 12-17; LUKE 14:25-33
PHOTO BY ROBIN MACGILLIVRAY
WISE AND WONDERFUL
BY LOU PONSI
ISABELLA STRICKLAND-MARTINEZ began volunteering at the Sunnycrest Senior Living Community in Fullerton about a year ago, when her grandfather became a resident there.
Strickland-Martinez, a Mater Dei High School senior, ran BINGO games, spent time chatting with residents and helped with other group activities.
Throughout the process, she watched her grandfather, who had been lonely and dealing with health issues when he moved into the senior community, begin to brighten up and become more engaged through more social activities.
“He had been living alone in his house, and he had a lot of medical issues,” Strick-
land-Martinez said. “I was thinking that the medical issues and the loneliness were tying in together.”
She also witnessed similar transformations in other residents.
Wanting to continue making a difference in the lives of seniors, Strickland-Martinez and her friend, Mater Dei classmate Kayla Stephanos, started the Wise and Wonderful club during their junior year.
“This sounded good to me because I love my grandparents,” Stephanos said. “I love them so much. And I did not get to see them as much when I was younger. One set of my grandparents lived on the other side of the world.”
Student volunteers from the Wise and Wonderful club visited senior living centers and participated in hands-on activities with seniors, including conversation, games, reading, crafts and assisting with scheduled activities.
Then Strickland-Martinez and Steph-
CONTINUES ON PAGE 6
VOLUNTEER ABBY MURPHY, CENTER, WITH SISTERS FLORENCE AND GLORIA CASTRO, RESIDENTS OF SUNNYCREST SENIOR LIVING COMMUNITY. PHOTOS BY ALAN WENDELL/DIOCESE OF ORANGE
DANIEL KIM WITH KAYLA STEPHANOS AND ISABELLA STRICKLAND-MARTINEZ, DRAGON KIM FOUNDATION FELLOWSHIP RECIPIENTS.
CAROL DERRICK DANCES WITH SGT. GARCIA OF THE FULLERTON POLICE DEPARTMENT.
anos found out about a fellowship offered by the Dragon Kim Foundation, a nonprofit established by Daniel and Grace Kim, as a way to honor the legacy of their son, Dragon, who was tragically killed along with his friend in a camping accident at Yosemite National Park in August 2015.
At the time of his death, Dragon had finished his freshman year at the Orange County School of the Arts, where he and some friends were in the process of designing a program which would provide musical instrument instruction to underserved youngsters.
“And so out of that very painful period of our lives, his mom and I started the foundation,” Daniel Kim said. “We realized there are so many kids that have incredible ideas and so much passion and sensitivity about how to help their community.”
Strickland-Martinez and Stephanos went through the foundation’s competitive, multi-faceted application process, and of the 600 applications, the Wise and Wonderful project was among 63 to be awarded a Dragon Kim fellowship.
Dragon Kim fellows receive a $5,000 scholar-
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BÁO CÁO LẠM DỤNG TÌNH DỤC Nếu bạn là nạn nhân bị lạm dụng tình dục bởi một linh mục/ tu sĩ hay một thành viên trong Giáo Hội gây ra, xin hãy gọi và báo cáo cho Giáo phận ở số điện thoại miễn phí sau đây: 1-800-364-3064, và đồng thời báo cáo cho nhà chức trách địa phương.
ship to fund their projects, are assigned to a professional mentor experienced in business development and go through six months of training to help ensure success.
“We've done so much work, and they gave us money to buy things for activities and just basically support our cause, which is to combat loneliness and then bridge gaps,” Strickland-Martinez said.
Strickland-Martinez and Stephanos used the $5,000 to conduct four-day camps at Sunnycrest and Cambridge Court Assisted Living, which is also in Fullerton.
With help from other student volunteers, the Wise and Wonderful camps featured activities designed to keep the seniors active and engaged while bridging the gap between the older and younger generations.
Students connected with seniors through storytelling, art, music and the creation of memory books.
Sunnycrest executive director Melanie Washington said one of the most uplifting parts of the camp was the ice breaker on the first day.
“It got everybody to kind of get to know each other on a different level and learn new things,” Washington said. “And everybody opened up and started sharing things about themselves that we wouldn't normally have a conversation about on an everyday basis. We learned one of our residents was adopted. We learned that one of our residents actually was a champion figure skater. That was one of the moments that I really enjoyed.”
Resident Carol Derrick, 84, said having the high school students from the Wise and Wonderful Club has been a “fulfilling” experience.
전화 번호, 1-800-364-3064 및 관할
At Sunnycrest, Strickland-Martinez and Stephanos organized a pet parade and a prom.
“There's one fella who visited,” Derrick said. “His name is Trent. He was so good with the residents, when we played games or something, he would be there to help us with whatever we were doing. It’s been amazing.” C
SENIORS, STAFF AND VOLUNTEERS AT THE SUNNYCREST SENIOR LIVING COMMUNITY IN FULLERTON POSE FOR A FUN GROUP PHOTO. PHOTO BY ALAN WENDELL/ DIOCESE OF ORANGE
JESUS BOUGHT ME A STARBUCKS COFFEE
BY NANCI DE LA ROSA-RICCO
IWAS TALKING TO A colleague in the lunchroom this summer and she was admiring my crucifix. She said it was exactly what she had been looking for. Just that morning, she had been searching online for one like mine. So, despite her protests and her insistence on paying for it, I gave it to her. I explained that it was grace that I was giving her. You can’t put a price on grace, right? I also told her that I had another cross that held a special meaning to me. It was blessed and a gift from a beloved granddaughter, so I was very happy to wear it again. What, you may ask, does this have to do with Starbucks coffee? Later that same afternoon, my co-workers went on a Starbucks run for themselves and their boss. As they were leaving Starbucks with
their three drinks, someone came up to them and offered them a free coffee to balance out their drink carrier. It wasn’t your typical order. On the label it said “VT Iced Matcha Latte.” When my co-worker saw what it was and who had placed the order, she knew it was meant for me. No one in our office would have ordered a Matcha latte but me. Her boss pointed out that no one ever ordered that! None of them knew about the gift to my colleague that morning. The order was placed by “Jesus.”
Coincidence? I don’t think so, but then I’m Catholic. I believe in miracles. I believe Jesus changed water into wine. I believe in the Eucharist. I believe that Jesus healed the sick and brought the dead back to life. I believe in the Resurrection. A cup of coffee is not a huge miracle, but it is mine and it says: “You are blessed. Here is your favorite Starbucks treat on me.” C
PHOTO COURTESY OF NANCI DE LA ROSA-RICCO
CHRIST'S LOVE IS STRONGER THAN HATRED, POPE SAYS AT AUDIENCE
BY CAROL GLATZ , CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Jesus' love and forgiveness do not deny the truth of pain and betrayal, but they do prevent evil from having the last word, Pope Leo XIV said.
"To forgive does not mean to deny evil, but to prevent it from generating further evil," the pope said Aug. 20 at his weekly general audience in the Vatican's Paul VI Audience Hall.
"It is not to say that nothing has happened, but to do everything possible to ensure that resentment does not determine the future," he said.
Continuing his series of talks about Jesus' final days, the pope looked specifically at "one of the most striking and luminous gestures in the Gospel," when Jesus offers a morsel of bread to Judas during the Last Supper, knowing full well that his disciple is about to betray him.
"It is not only a gesture of sharing: it is much more; it is love's last attempt not to give up," Pope Leo said.
"The key to understanding Christ's heart," he said, is to realize that his love "does not cease in the face of rejection, disappointment, even ingratitude."
"His love is stronger than hatred," he said.
The pope said Jesus recognizes that "his love must pass through the most painful wound, that of betrayal. And instead of withdrawing, accusing, defending himself, he continues to love: he washes the feet, dips the bread and offers it" to all his disciples, including Judas.
Jesus is not ignoring what is happening, he said. Rather, he has understood "that the freedom of the other, even when it is lost in evil, can still be reached by the light of a meek gesture, because he knows that true forgiveness
does not await repentance, but offers itself first, as a free gift, even before it is accepted."
Judas accepts the morsel of bread, but does not understand its meaning, and "Satan entered him," the pope said.
"That morsel is our salvation, because it tells us that God does everything -- absolutely everything -- to reach us, even in the hour when we reject him."
"Jesus, with the simple gesture of offering bread, shows that every betrayal can become an opportunity for salvation if it is chosen as a space for a greater love," he said. "It does not give in to evil, but conquers it with good, preventing it from extinguishing what is truest in us: the capacity to love."
"Jesus' love does not deny the truth of pain, but it does not allow evil to have the last word," he said. "This is the mystery Jesus accomplishes for us, in which we, too, at times, are called to participate."
"We, too, experience painful and dif -
ficult" moments, such as when there is disappointment or when "someone has hurt or betrayed us," the pope said. "The temptation is to close ourselves up, to protect ourselves, to return the blow."
"But the Lord shows us the hope that another way always exists," he said, and that the faithful can "respond with the silence of trust. And that we can move forward with dignity, without renouncing love."
"Let us ask today for the grace to be able to forgive," he said. "As Jesus teaches us, to love means to leave the other free -- even to betray -- without ever ceasing to believe that even that freedom, wounded and lost, can be snatched from the deception of darkness and returned to the light of goodness."
"Even if the other does not accept it, even if it seems to be in vain, forgiveness frees those who give it: it dispels resentment, it restores peace, it returns us to ourselves," he said.
Pope Leo spent nearly an hour and a
half greeting visitors and pilgrims in the audience hall, including special guests, sports teams, newlyweds and the infirm. He greeted several families with small children, holding their newborns and posing for a family photo.
He then headed to St. Peter's Basilica to greet those who could not fit in the large audience hall and blessed people who were waiting in the parking area outside the hall. Because of the high temperatures outside, the general audience was being held in two parts -- in the hall and in the basilica -- so people would not have to be under the hot sun.
The pope greeted the faithful in the basilica in English, Spanish and Italian and reminded them of the theme of forgiveness in his main catechesis.
"Let us all learn to pardon," he said in English. "Because to pardon one another is to build a bridge of peace. And we must pray for peace, which is so necessary in our world today, a peace which only Jesus Christ can give us." C
POPE LEO XIV BLESSES ROSARIES AND GREETS PILGRIMS INSIDE ST. PETER’S BASILICA AT THE VATICAN AUG. 20, 2025, AFTER HIS WEEKLY GENERAL AUDIENCE. THE POPE VISITED THEM AT THE CONCLUSION OF THE AUDIENCE TO OFFER HIS BLESSING, AS THE PAUL VI HALL HAD REACHED FULL CAPACITY. (CNS PHOTO/VATICAN MEDIA)
HELP LA FUND DONORS BLESSED OVER 500 FAMILIES AND INDIVIDUALS WITH A NEW BEGINNING
BY LORI ROSEHART
WHEN THE WILDFIRES
swept through Los Angeles County in January 2025, tens of thousands were left without homes or jobs. Without a clear path forward, many of them looked to the Catholic Church as a beacon of hope. With the guidance of their parish and pastor, more than 500 families and individuals received over $1.2 million in aid from the Help LA Fund, which was created and managed by The Orange Catholic Foundation (OCF).
In partnership with the Diocese of Orange and generous benefactors, OCF established the Help LA Fund shortly after the wildfires broke out. Staying true to the principle of subsidiarity, OCF worked directly with parish staff and volunteers in Los Angeles County. Together, they helped distribute more than 500 grants, with the last check distributed in August 2025.
Efrain Perez and his family credit the grants they received from the Help LA Fund for securing them a new place to live.
“Because of you, we didn’t have to start at the very bottom,” he said. “We didn’t have to worry. Your help gave us a new beginning.”
When the evacuation alert came through on his phone, Perez and his family didn’t think to grab much from their Altadena apartment. They assumed they would be back the next day. Fires had burned in the nearby mountains before, but nothing had ever swept through their neighborhood like it did just hours later.
Although it was heartbreaking to find out their apartment and everything they owned was gone, Perez said he is grateful to still have his wife, two chil -
dren and brother-in-law.
“Always have faith,” he shared. “Material things come and go. As long as you have your family, you have everything. I thank God I got my family out.”
The Perez family applied for help through their spiritual home, St. Elizabeth of Hungary Catholic Church, with the assistance of their parish’s Society of St. Vincent de Paul (SVDP). Once OCF’s grants committee approved the application, the support was distributed to the Perez family through the church, covering a deposit and two months of rent as they settled into a new place.
Dave de Csepel, president of the SVDP St. Elizabeth of Hungary Catholic Church Conference, thanked OCF for their support and generous funding. He explained that his SVDP conference has taken additional steps to safeguard housing and essential services for those receiving Help LA Fund assistance, including making direct payments to landlords and utility providers. Additionally, they have dropped off groceries from their own food pantry to families.
“It’s hard out there for this community,” said De Csepel. “This crisis has not gone away. Families have had to totally reset their lives and are just struggling.”
Note: The Help LA Fund is no longer active. If you would like to assist others affected by tragic events, gifts can be made to the OCF Emergency Relief Fund. To learn more, contact our philanthropy team at (714) 282-3021 or info@OrangeCatholicFoundation.org. C
THE PEREZ FAMILY GATHERS AT ST. ELIZABETH OF HUNGARY CATHOLIC CHURCH IN ALTADENA.
ST. ELIZABETH OF HUNGARY PARISH’S SOCIETY OF ST. VINCENT DE PAUL (SVDP) VOLUNTEERS POSE FOR A GROUP PHOTO. PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE ORANGE CATHOLIC FOUNDATION
ANNUAL MSGR. JOHN SAMMON MEMORIAL GOLF OUTING
BY MIKE ZINN
FOR OVER 40 YEARS the Serra Club of Orange County has sponsored a much-loved and anticipated event — the Annual Msgr. John Sammon Golf Outing.
Msgr. Sammon served as chaplain to firefighters in the Diocese of Orange and was the oldest priest in the diocese until his death in 2006 at the age of 90.
The Serra Club of Orange County sponsors many events and activities throughout the year, but the golf event is explicitly designed to support priests, deacons, sisters and brothers. The event is free to these religious orders who attend to play golf or to enjoy a meal.
Many priests and deacons have played golf over the long and storied tenure of this event.
Fr. George Blais and Fr. Brandon Dang have joined in the golf outing over the years. But one priest with a particularly long and storied history of playing in the tournament is Msgr. John Urell, who is retired.
“The tournament has been a great time for priests and deacons to come together with the men and women of the Serra Club and various parishes to have a day of fun, enjoy a meal together and rejoice in the work of the members who support our current and future seminarians by prayer and action.”
He continued: “I have always enjoyed the day, and even though the golf hasn’t been good on my part, the fellowship has been. I am so grateful to the Serra Club for their generosity.”
The 2024 event was a competitive round of golf, with the team of Deacon Eric Summerfield, Armando Pena, Jason
Jilk and Kevin Manzo winning the team competition. Manzo won the longest drive award for men and Kara Kosinski Holland posted the longest drive for women.
The 2025 event will be on Monday, Sept. 8 at the Tustin Ranch Golf Club: 11 a.m.: Registration and bag drop 11:30 a.m.: Lunch and practice
1 p.m.: Shotgun Start
5 p.m.: Cocktails
6 p.m.: Dinner
Format: Four-Person Scramble
The entry fee: $189, which includes green fee, golf cart, box lunch, dinner and free non-alcoholic drinks on the course.
For more information or to register, contact Lulu Papac at (714) 287-9023 or email papac@sbcglobal.net C
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE SERRA CLUB OF ORANGE COUNTY
FR. BRANDON DANG (SECOND FROM LEFT) CELEBRATES ON THE COURSE DURING THE 2023 MSGR. JOHN SAMMON MEMORIAL GOLF OUTING. PHOTO BY THE DIOCESE OF ORANGE
DAVID BALL IS TRANSFORMING MUSIC IN OUR DIOCESE
BY GREG MELLEN
AS THE HEAD OF THE Music Ministry for the Diocese of Orange and principal organist at Christ Cathedral, David Ball’s goals are as lofty as the soaring notes from the famed Hazel Wright organ.
“My hope is anytime anyone comes, that they can experience, honestly, a transcendent experience from the music that hopefully will spiritually enrich them,” he said.
Ball, who came to Orange County in 2016 as a newly minted graduate of The Juilliard School, has since helped continue and transform the diocese into a hub of sacred music, not only regionally but internationally.
Ball said Christ Cathedral is uniquely positioned to build its reputation as a
center for sacred music.
For decades before the ministry of Dr. Robert Schuller collapsed, the music of the then-Crystal Cathedral with Frederick Swann at the organ was internationally renowned through the “Hour of Power,” the most-watched weekly religious program in the United States.
A big part of that was the massive organ, built in 1982 and the fifth largest in the world.
These days, under the auspices of the Catholic Church, music is back in a big way at the cathedral. Artists and scholars, not to mention tourists and music aficionados from across the globe, visit the Christ Cathedral campus to learn, listen, teach and take a pass on the keys of the grand organ.
With the fully refurbished and restored Hazel Wright as well as several other ultra-high-end organs at his dis-
posal, Ball is working to create a vibrant musical culture at the Cathedral.
How important is the organ collection at Christ Cathedral? The diocese not only has an associate organist, Emma Whitten, but six more “sub-organists” and even an organ curator.
MUSICALLY IMPORTANT
The Music Ministry’s annual concert season is a popular sacred music series.
Last year, the season included “Bach-a-thon,” a continuous 19-hour presentation of the complete pipe organ catalogue of Johann Sebastian Bach with 40 organists from across the country visiting to collaborate.
In 2023, the diocese commemorated the restoration of the organ with a concert featuring Paul Jacobs, the first organist to win a Grammy for performance on organ, accompanied by the Pacific Symphony and Chorale.
Jacobs taught Ball at Juilliard, and his protégé says it was an amazing honor “to have a master like that call and say, ‘I want to make permanent music here.’”
This year, Ball is upping the ante. Benjamin Sheen, noted British concert organist, conductor and Director of Music at Jesus College Cambridge, will be visiting.
In addition to playing, Sheen volunteered to spend a week holding workshops on campus.
David Enlow, another luminary in organ music, will be here to play and to talk about “the art of improvisation” on the organ.
Ball said having both not just to perform, but share their talents and insights, underscores a second prong of his musical goals. That is for Christ Cathedral to be not only a performance center, but an incubator for future talent.
DAVID BALL, CHRIST CATHEDRAL’S PRINCIPAL ORGANIST AND HEAD OF MUSIC MINISTRY, PERFORMS ON THE HAZEL WRIGHT ORGAN ON MAY 17, 2023. PHOTO BY THE DIOCESE OF ORANGE
DAVID BALL POSES WITH THE 2025 ORGAN AND CHORAL SCHOLARS FOLLOWING A SPECIAL PERFORMANCE AT CHRIST CATHEDRAL ON MAY 21. PHOTO BY YUAN WANG/DIOCESE OF ORANGE
Christ Cathedral’s Organ Scholars and Choral Scholars programs were launched in 2019 just before the onset of the pandemic.
Last year, the diocesan concert season concluded by showcasing a class of seven of Christ Cathedral’s Organ Scholars and Choral Scholars.
With the programs, Ball said it's no exaggeration to say “the future of sacred
music is at Christ Cathedral.”
In July, the diocese concluded its summer diocesan summer choir and organ camps. To Ball’s amazement, 50 children signed up for the organ sequence.
ROCKY ROAD
As positive as the upward arc is, it has been anything but straight.
In 2016, Ball, who grew up in the Archdiocese of St. Louis, was hired by then-Head of Music, John Romeri, to join the staff in Orange County. He knew Ball from St. Louis and brought the 24-year-old onboard.
Ball began his musical journey in fourth grade, singing during Masses, catechisms and ordinations.
“I started playing the organ at 14 when my voice dropped,” he joked.
The partnership in Orange County with Romeri flourished until the pandemic struck and Romeri was laid off.
“During the pandemic, the whole world fell apart,” Ball said.
However, Ball stayed on with a stripped-down department.
“We were celebrating Masses on the plaza with just an organ and a cantor to sing,” Ball said. “It was a whole different world, but we still made great live sacred music.”
Ball kept the Music Scholars programs alive by teaching students online. Since returning from the pandemic, scholars have flourished.
Graduates have gone on to study at Juilliard, Yale, Rice and McGill Uni-
versity in Montreal, some of the foremost organ and sacred music programs in North America, as well as play and work at other diocesan seats.
Organs are not Ball’s only interest. He also works closely with Cathedral Music Administrator Lauren McCaul and the Cathedral and diocesan choirs. The volunteer choir recently recorded Spem in alium, a choral piece in 40 parts known by some as the Mt. Everest of Choral music.
“Some regular people climbed Mt. Ever-
est,” Ball joked. “To come together and do that at such a high level is stunning.”
As Ball looks to the future, he plans to continue to build the music ministry and explore musical possibilities.
Sitting outside on the cathedral’s plaza enjoying the sunshine and the soft serenity of a recent summer morning, Ball said he has a hard time imagining being anywhere else.
“This place has enough to inspire me for decades,” he said. C
MUSICIANS POSE FOR A PHOTO DURING THE 2025 BACH-A-THON HELD AT CHRIST CATHEDRAL. PHOTO BY IAN TRAN/DIOCESE OF ORANGE
CATHEDRAL MUSIC ADMINISTRATOR LAUREN MCCAUL TENDS TO STUDENTS DURING THE CATHEDRAL CHOIR CAMP HELD IN JULY 2022. PHOTO BY KIERNAN COLIFLORES/DIOCESE OF ORANGE
DAVID BALL LEADS THE DIOCESAN CHILDREN’S CHOIR SUMMER CAMPERS AS THEY PERFORM DURING MASS AT CHRIST CATHEDRAL ON AUG. 2, 2024. PHOTO BY THE DIOCESE OF ORANGE
TRUE HUMILITY
BY REBEKAH VALDERRAMA
IF YOU WERE FEELING pretty good about yourself this week, then today's readings were designed especially to give you a reality check.
“When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not recline at table in the place of honor” (Luke 14:8).
“What is too sublime for you, seek not, into things beyond your strength search not” (Sirach 3:22).
Today is God’s reminder to check your pride.
My prayer life often feels like a battle between extremes. One moment, I'm snuggling in the arms of Abba God, and the next, I'm cowering in awe at the feet of the Almighty Creator. True humility is recognizing that both postures are correct at the same time.
Humility is the virtue whereby we can see the true worth of ourselves, in relationship to God and others. It's radical honesty about our own positions and abilities. As C.S. Lewis said so eloquently, humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less.
So, if you're an expert violinist, it would be false humility to try to claim that you're no such thing (in fact, lying is against the Eighth Commandment). Instead, the virtuoso should direct all glory to God for giving him the talent to play the violin, the means to pursue the arts and the perseverance to develop his skills. “Yes, I am very skilled at the violin. All glory to God!”
Or, to put it in terms more of us might resonate with, “Yes, I have a great job that makes a comfortable amount of money. Praise God for taking care of my family!” That's usually very easy to say when you first get the job.
start to get comfortable with the income you're making and the lifestyle it allows. It's easy to start to see the way things are as the way things should be. You're used to a certain lifestyle, so therefore you deserve what you have, and it would be wrong for someone to “take it away from you” or ask you to part with it. When in reality, everything we have is a free gift from God.
But pride has a way of sneaking up on you.
But wait a year or two, when you
That's why we need these periodic reminders in the Scriptures to keep our vanities in check. Sirach tells us that humility will benefit us before both God and men. “My child, conduct your affairs with humility, and you will be loved more than a giver of gifts. Humble yourself the more, the greater you are, and you will find favor with God” (Sirach 3:17-18).
We've all dealt with braggarts and discovered how unpleasant it is when someone else can't accept disappointment. But how quick are we to speak up in our own defense and fight for what's “ours?”
As Jesus points out in his parable, if you place yourself at the bottom, there's nowhere to go but up. The advice in today's readings is very practical, not only for our daily lives here on earth, but for our eternal soul's destiny. “Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3-4).
The virtue of true humility recognizes the talents and aptitudes we have but gives all the glory to God. Take today's readings to heart, and the next time you're tempted to give yourself the glory for your own abilities, instead pray for the grace to say each day, “ad majorem Dei gloriam!” (For the greater glory of God!) C
PHOTO BY JAMETLENE RESKP ON UNSPLASH
OC Catholic Afar
While on a pilgrimage to Greece, “in the footsteps of St. Paul” our Mass for the day was celebrated at the Chapel of St. Joseph in Athens by our spiritual guide, Fr. Kirk Davis from Ojai, CA. Fr. Kirk is an Augustinian priest who personally knows Pope Leo XIV. An immense statue and relic of St. Émilie de Vialar (foundress of the Sisters of St. Joseph) was on display next to the altar too.
Pictured are Dan and Beverly Truzzolino, Geraldine Dixon from St. Mary’s by the Sea in Huntington Beach and Patty Baer from St. Cecilia in Tustin.
—Submitted by Beverly Truzzolino
We want your photos! Send your pictures of “OC Catholic Afar” — of you, family or friends visiting Catholic churches and other interesting places — to editor@occatholic.com. Please include a brief description of the photo, the name of the person(s) featured in the photo and their home parish.
