800 Beacon St. Avalon, CA. Santa Catalina Island
800 Beacon St. Avalon, CA. Santa Catalina Island 

Welcome to Saint Catherine of Alexandria Catholic Church on Santa Catalina Island.

Seating is available inside the main church or in the outer courtyard during Masses. The Mass can be heard in the courtyard through our outdoor speakers. We encourage you to join us inside in the main sanctuary if you are well and able.

 

Office hours: Monday-Tuesday, Thursday-Friday, 11:00am-1:00pm and by appointment.

Annointing of the sick: contact Father Dario

Confession: contact Father Dario. Also available during Eucharistic Adoration on Thursdays.

 

Votive candles are available for purchase at the parish office and sacristy for $10 each.

You may purchase candles at the sacristy directly before or after any Mass. Place your donation in the money slot, then take a candle from the cupboard below. Please only take the amount you have donated for.

For safety reasons, please do not use votive candles from Vons or any other distributor inside our candle holders at the two indoor oratories. We have had problems with them shattering and creating a fire hazard. The plastic candles we use & provide have proved trustworthy over the years for use in our beloved oratories.

 

Gluten-free hosts are available during communion. We prefer that you let the priest or Eucharistic minister know before Mass so they can have it ready.

Thursday Eucharistic Adoration

Join us for Eucharistic Adoration every Thursday from 6:00pm to 8:00pm in the church. We hope you can attend and spend some time in prayer and adoration with our Lord, Jesus Christ.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Next St. Patrick's Day Dinner committee meeting is Thursday, 2/13 at 5:30pm in the Guadalupe meeting room near the hall. All are welcome to attend, especially those who wish to volunteer or donate to this yearly tradition!

Knights of Columbus monthly Pancake Breakfast is on Sunday, Feb 9 at 10am! Join us for the best breakfast deal in town that supports our parish, community, and faithful volunteer gentlemen.

Register here for Youth Retreat: https://saintcatherine.flocknote.com/signup/197445

Weekly Announcements:

Weekly Gospel Reflections: February 9th, 2025, from Fr. Dave Heney at St. Bruno's:

 

Fishing in deeper waters
Jesus the carpenter offers advice to professional fishermen …and it doesn’t make sense.
He tells them to fish in the deeper part of the lake instead of near the shore where fish usually
gather. We can imagine their thoughts. “Jesus …you’re a carpenter… what do you know about
fishing?!

Out of respect, they sail into deeper water …and get the largest catch of fish ever! They must
have said then, “Stay with us …and make our fishing company rich!” Yet that did not happen.
They decide to leave the fishing business and follow Jesus, despite the large catch and the
promise of future fishing success. That also doesn’t make sense!
Meeting Jesus made all the difference. They recognize that Jesus makes everything better …and they want more of Him. More than a rich catch of fish, they want more of Jesus, and they don’t want to miss their chance.
You might know that I study biblical archaeology. In 1986 a typical ancient fishing boat was
uncovered at the Sea of Galilee just where this Gospel takes place. It was reliably dated to the
time of Jesus and reveals it had been repaired many times with great expertise. That indicates
boats were very valuable business assets for the owners.
This means that when they left everything to follow Jesus …they were leaving a lot behind! They
knew He was the true source of lasting happiness. They took a risk to leave everything behind
and courageously put out into deeper water with their life.

 

Fr. Dave Heney

daveheney.com

~~

It is not often that we get to hear from our Pastor Emeritus, Fr. Paul Siebenand. Enjoy his homily and reflections from the Presentation of the Lord for Feb 2, 2025. Fr. Paul took a fall in early January near his residence in La Quinta, CA. He is currently still recooperating and we wish him all the best and offer our prayers to the Lord for his recovery and healing. Father Paul served our parish for 17 years, from 1993 to 2010 and was named our Pastor Emeritus by the parish council shorly before his retirement - a well-deserved title.

We are looking for assistance in livestreaming the weekend Mass online. Please let Fr. Dario or tech advisor, Gabriel, know. We only need 1 Mass per weekend, and it can be any Mass you are available to attend. If you have your own laptop, great! If not, we can arrange to have one available so you can connect to our livestream camera inside.

 

Standing Announcements:

If you have any upcoming baptisms, funerals, or quinceñeras, please call or email the parish office to confirm that it is on our schedule. No one is allowed to use the church for special events without authorization from the pastor (Father Dario). This is to make sure two events do not conflict with each other, and so that the priest is not caught by surprise by an unscheduled event.

 

Checks: If you write a check to our church for any purpose, please do not make any corrections. Please start a new check. Our bank (U.S. Bank) has been declining checks written to us because of corrections.

 

If you have pledged to contribute to the "Called to Renew" campaign, please make sure that you are keeping-up with the frequency of contributions you selected during sign-up. We understand that things change in life, so if your contributions have changed, Fr. Dario or a member of our Finance Council may be contacting you to discuss what will work best with your individual situation going forward.

 

We have surpassed our goal for the "Called to Renew" Campaign!

If you have the financial means, and would like to make a pledge to this campaign to support the maintenance and upgrades to our parish, it's not too late! Every dollar we make past our "goal" from the Archdiocese goes directly to our parish's fund! You can find our campaign info on the official Called to Renew website here.

 

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

We are always open to having more Mass volunteers

As with many Catholic parishes, we always welcome our congregation to help fill the various roles within the Mass. Contact the parish office or the pastor if you would like to sign-up to help make sure our celebrations of Mass always have the full support the Lord deserves.

Available positions:

- Lectors (reading the liturgy of the word)

- Altar server (at any age)

- Sacristans (preparing the linens and Eucharistic items before Mass)

- Extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion

- Music ministers (cantors/singers, organists, pianists, guitarists)

   [Will need to confirm repertoire with church Music Director]

- Ushers

- Greeters

- Anyone good with I.T. and tech (employment can be discussed for this position).

If you would like to volunteer in any capacity, please contact the parish office or speak with Father Dario after Mass, or whenever you see him. Prospective musicians or cantors/choristers may contact the Music Director directly.

~~ Religious education classes ~~

Click here to see the "Religious Ed. updates" page

TEEN CONFIRMATION

Youth retreat will be held on Saturday, Feb 8 for 7-9th Graders, and Sunday, Feb 9 for 10-12th Graders. All are welcome and encouraged to attend, even those from outside the Religious Ed. programs. Confirmation students are required to attend this retreat. See information above for times, registration, and more info.

 

All communications to parents will happen through the parish Flocknote text messages and emails. Contact Father Dario if you are not yet signed up to receive these messages.

FIRST HOLY COMMUNION

All communications to parents will happen through the parish Flocknote text messages and emails. Contact Father Dario if you are not yet signed up to receive these messages.

ATTENDING MASS WITH US:

 

We celebrate the Roman Catholic Mass in alignment with the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. All of our Masses are held in the "Ordinary Rite", which is most familiar to our community. We do not offer any Extraordinary Form/Latin Masses at this time.

 

> We encourage walking and car-pooling as much as possible due to limited parking at and around the church. Please be mindful of nearby residents and city regulations about vehicle parking.

> Parking is available on Beacon Street in front of the church, and in the back parking lot of the church. PLEASE do not block any exits, pathways, or driveways. The side parking lot next to the Parish Hall is not available.

> We request members of the congregation to turn their cell phones on silent mode or off while attending Mass. During visits outside of Mass, please maintain reverence and be mindful of other visitors using the peace and quiet for prayer and reflection.

> When available, feel free to pick up a copy of our Parish bulletin. During most weekend Masses, we have an usher who may offer you one. Some weekends, we do not prepare a bulletin if there are no pertinent announcements in order to save paper.

> During Mass, we make use of the OCP United in Christ/Unidos en Cristo hymnal and bilingual missalette for Liturgy of the Word. On occasion, our music department may have separate leaflets printed out for special events or holidays and have them available at the beginning of Mass.

> Lost and found items are usually turned in to the sacristy. Please contact the parish priest or a church volunteer to retrieve a lost item. If you return outside of Mass times, please call the church phone number or send us an email to get access to the lost & found.

> After the 9:00AM Sunday Mass, we welcome you to join us for coffee, juice, and light snacks in the courtyard provided by our volunteers. A donation jar is usually set up and all monies go directly to supporting parish operations. If it is raining after Mass, the get-together is usually moved inside the Parish Hall.

 

Last update: 9 Feb 2025