St. Margaret Catholic Academy- Middle Village

On June 7th, our 8th Graders walked the halls of the school for the last time. We will miss them all! May God continue to walk with them on their journey ahead.

SMCA Class of 2024 Walk of Fame

Congratulations to Julia Hegarty, Valedictorian, and Valentina Calabrese, Salutatorian! SMCA is so proud of you!

What a spectacular Race for Education Day! A heartfelt thank you and shout out to our very generous sponsors!

Come, celebrate the Lord's Ascension into Heaven with us at St. Margaret's.

Masses: 7:00 am, 9:00 am (with the Academy community); 7:30 pm

Congratulations to our First Communicants!

ALL of this year's confirmandi and First Communion children are invited to participate in the crowning of the statue of the blessed Virgin Mary at the 12:00 Noon Mass this Sunday, May 5. Come, join us as we honor our blessed Mother!

We are so proud of them!

New release! Check out Tablet Jr. - focusing on Dignity of the Human Person. Created by St. Margaret Catholic Academy- Middle Village students. Read articles & use our guide on our website.

Happy Administrative Assistants’ Day Mrs. Ciaccio and Mrs. Kirmaier! We are so grateful for everything you do and are so lucky to have you with us at St. Margaret Catholic Academy!
We love you!

We are so proud of you!

Shoutout to Tristan and William from St. Margaret’s Catholic Academy in Middle Village! Their incredible efforts resulted in collecting 13 boxes filled with 610 books for Book Fairies. 📚 Thank you both for your dedication to spreading the joy of reading and making a positive impact in our community! 📖

For your consideration, this week's note from the Pastor’s Desk:

“Christ is risen! Truly is He risen!”

An early Ash Wednesday produces an early Easter. Maybe it’s just part of the aging process, but it seems to me that Lent just flew by this year, and I have so few positive results to show for my good intentions to reform my life.

Nevertheless, Easter brings us perennial reasons for hope and new life. We celebrate the triumph of life over death, of grace over sin, of God’s mercy and love sown over the fear and shame planted by the ancient enemy. Through the victory of our blessed
Lord, a new and fuller life has been given to the human race and to all of Creation. As an ancient prayer of the Eastern Church reminds us,
“Christ is risen from the dead, by death He has trampled down death, and on those in the grave He has bestowed life.”

Despite the steady diet of gloom that we hear and read about on a daily basis, we do not remain in darkness and we must not live in fear. St. Augustine, writing to his own parishioners sixteen hundred years ago, called them an “Alleluia people.” This most holy feast of Easter demands not only that we cry out, “Alleluia!” but also, and most especially, that we praise the Lord by living in the freedom of the children of God. We need to put our Savior’s teachings into effect by living lives of sacrifice and compassion, and so respond to the grace of God by participating as active members of His Church. We are to live as a people of hope, even in the face of opposition or personal difficulties, trials or tribulations.

St. Paul in one of the options for today’s second reading told his disciples in Corinth to “celebrate the feast, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” The Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Christ require us to change our lives for the better and to follow the Lord Jesus more faithfully and sincerely.

Last weekend, we saw more people at Mass than we have seen since Christmas, though we’re still down from pre-pandemic attendance. Furthermore, there was a good turnout for confessions this past Monday. Other parishes have reported the same experiences: people are returning to the Church, many of them after a long stay away. It will take time to get back to “normal” (whatever that means these days), maybe even a very long time, but we’re off to a good start. Pope Benedict predicted about thirty years ago that we would become a smaller, but more committed, Church. Our hunger for God, for the Mass, for the Sacraments, and for one another is increasingly apparent.

After almost twenty centuries of commemorating the Mystery of the Lord’s Resurrection, it still puzzles even the best of theologians, no less the average believer, just as it did Simon Peter and John and Mary Magdalene, even though we celebrate it with each holy Sacrifice of the Mass. While we cannot fully grasp it with the intellect, we can experience it first-hand, for we, too, have died with Christ and have risen with Him to newness of life. Truly, we have been changed, and so we must reflect that change daily with hearts and souls renewed, strengthened through the Blood of Christ and the power of His Cross and Resurrection.

The Paschal candle, the Light of Christ, burns once more as a beacon of hope to shine on a dreary world that trudges in the darkness of sorrow and despair, marred by war and fear, and mired in moral confusion. Christ has conquered sin and death, and the Reign of our God has broken into the world, proclaiming His mercy and the forgiveness of our sins. We, too, can bear the
light of Christ, bringing new life into our homes, our Parish, and beyond through our compassion and readiness to forgive, and by our dedicated commitment to deepen our relationship with God in prayer and through our regular, faithful celebration of the Sacraments.

May God, Who has begun the good work in you, bless you and yours this Easter and bring it to completion in the Day of our Lord Jesus Christ!

Christ is risen! Truly is He risen! Alleluia!
~ Fr. Armato

Holy Saturday at St. Margaret's
9:00 am ~ Morning Prayer
12:00 noon ~ Midday Prayer and Blessing of Easter Food
8:00 pm ~ Great Vigil of the Lord's Resurrection

"Taking the body [of Jesus], Joseph [of Arimathea] wrapped it in a clean linen cloth and laid it in his new tomb that he had hewn in the rock. The he rolled a huge stone across the entrance to the tomb and departed." ~ Matthew 27: 59-60

Good Friday at St. Margaret's

9:00 am ~ Morning Prayer
12:00 noon ~ Stations of the Cross (English)
3:00 pm ~ Liturgy of the Lord's Passion

May the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ remain always in our hearts!

Holy Thursday at St. Margaret's

9:00 am ~ Morning Prayer
8:00 pm ~ Mass of the Lord's Supper
9:30-10:30 pm ~ Night Watch over the Eucharist

Come, join us for confessions and holy Mass at St. Margaret's this weekend as we commemorate the entry of the Lord into the holy city of Jerusalem and His Passion and death.

Saturday: Confessions ~ 3:30-4:45; Vigil Mass at 5:00 pm
Sunday Masses: 8 am; 10 am (Italian & English); 12 Noon & 5 pm

Blessed palms will be distributed at all Masses.
See the schedule below for all Holy Week Masses and services.

HOLY WEEK SCHEDULE at ST. MARGARET'S

PALM SUNDAY
Saturday: Confession ~ 3:30-4:45; Vigil Mass ~ 5:00 pm
Sunday Masses: 8 am, 10 am (Italian/English), Noon & 5 pm

RECONCILIATION MONDAY
Masses: 7 & 9 am
Confession: 7:30 to 9 am, 3-5 pm, 7-8 pm

TUESDAY
Masses: 7 & 9 am
Via Crucis (Stations of the Cross in Italian): 9:30 am

WEDNESDAY
Masses: 7 & 9 am

HOLY THURSDAY
Morning Prayer: 9 am
Mass of the Lord’s Supper: 8 pm
Night Watch following Mass: until 10:30 pm in the Church

GOOD FRIDAY
Morning Prayer: 9 am
Stations of the Cross (English): 12 Noon
Solemn Liturgy of the Passion: 3 pm

HOLY SATURDAY
Morning Prayer: 9 am
Mid-day Prayer with Blessing of Food: 12 Noon
Great Vigil Mass of Easter: 8 pm
NO CONFESSION TODAY
NO 5 pm MASS

EASTER SUNDAY
Masses: 8 am; 10 am (Italian/English); 12 Noon
NO EVENING MASS

100 days of school!

Come, join us at St. Margaret's as we begin our Lenten journey this Ash Wednesday.

Masses at 7:00 AM, 9:00 AM, and 7:30 PM
Liturgy of the Word at 12:00 Noon and 3:30 PM

Repent, and believe in the Gospel!

Congratulations to our 8th Grade students! Today they received their school rings. What a great celebration!