Name of Church St. Joseph
Address 1150 W. Holt Avenue, Pomona, CA 91768
Phone number 909-629-4101
Website www.stjosephchurchpomona.org
Mass times Saturday vigil, 5 p.m., 6:30 p.m. (Arabic). Sundays, 7 a.m., 9 a.m. (Spanish), 11:00 a.m., 1 p.m. (Spanish) Monday-Friday, 8 a.m., 6:30 p.m. (Spanish)
Confessions Saturdays, 3-4:30 p.m. (school classrooms), Monday & Friday, 8:30 – 9 a.m. (vestibule), Friday, 5-6:30 p.m. (school classrooms)
Names of priests/homilies Fr. Steven Guitron, pastor. Fr. Everardo Soto Montoya, associate pastor. Fr. John Montejano, in residence. Fr. Ala Nadim Alalamat, Arabic (chaplain). Fr. Guitron is a faithful priest with a traditional bent. Listen to him teach on the parish Facebook page, in both English and Spanish, on the Sacrament of Confession (https://www.facebook.com/St-Joseph-Catholic-Church-PomonaCA-105830407729700/videos/?ref=page_internal). He recently had a communion rail installed in the church, and re-introduced the St. Michael’s prayer.
School Yes, grades TK – 8. The school offers a dual immersion, English-Spanish option for students.
Special activities and groups adoration Fridays 4-6 p.m., St. Vincent de Paul Society, livestreamed night prayer at 9 p.m., Legion of Mary, youth ministry, Young Ladies Institute (YLI), Divine Mercy prayer ministry
Parking There is ample parking behind the church and in the school lot.
Fellow parishioners English-speaking and Hispanic communities; the parish is also home to an Arab-American Catholic community. Learn about the Arab community on its Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/stjosephaacc.church.
Additional observations St. Joseph Church is a parish of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Catholicism first came to the region in 1771, when Mission San Gabriel was founded by Spanish Franciscans. St. Joseph began as a parish mission in the 19th century, with the first resident pastor coming in 1886. The current church was dedicated in 1956. A more conservative parish, featuring traditional architecture and beautiful interior art.
A correction: Fr Steven did not “put in” the Communion rail. It is the same one built with the church. However, Fr has brought back it’s use during Mass. A welcome change!
A good example of the universality of the Church. Fortunately the parish has priests with the requisite language skills to celebrate these Masses
The table is not traditional. Get rid of it.
None of them reads Latin? Too bad because if Latin were used all could worship together instead of being segregated.
Yes, they need to get rid of it, and turn towards the Lord when talking to him and turn toward us when talking to us. That can be done in any language.
I am unclear on this comment. Are you suggesting that God lives in the wall? Or that God cannot hear when the priest is facing the parishioners? I am old enough to remember sitting in Mass, not understanding most of what was said, imagining that some magic trick was happening. Now the laity feels part of the Body of Christ, not dumbfounded observers.
When churches were first build after Christianity started most of the altars were on the eastern side, and Christians mostly faced east together for Mass. The symbolism behind it was from the Old and New Testament where the Messiah comes from the east and goes through the eastern gate of the Jewish Temple, which the Lord did on Psalm Sunday. Christ also ascended on the eastern side of the Temple on Mt. Olive, and the New Testament says he will return from the east. The Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of God, but he is also called ( to be cont.)
Oh girl, you need to bury those silly and uneducated thoughts in the past. For hundreds of years the Mass was celebrated with the priest’s back to the worshippers who understood themselves to be part of the Body of Christ. The innovations following the Second Vatican Council caused the laity of become dumbfounded observers. Now that you are a big girl, get yourself to a Latin Mass and experience The Mass of the Ages.
I am so humbled and honored that you would take the time to insult my views and my education in such a jovial and colloquial manner. It has been many years since I translated Cicero and Ovid but I have not lost the knowledge of and love for ecclesiastical Latin. Ubi caritas…
(Cont.) he is also called The Sun of God, the Light of the World. Later on Crucifixes of Christ the Sun of God, the Light of the World were put over the altars whether the altar was on the eastern side or not, and the priest and the congregation faced east (ad orientem) toward Christ the Sun of God. In the traditional Latin Mass that beautiful symbolism is kept, and when the priest is talking to God, he faces the crucifix and turns toward the people when talking to them. In other words, he leads the people toward the Lord who will return from the east.
Cranky, the definition of an altar is a table. Some churches have the table facing the wall and some have it moved forward so that the celebrant can face in any direction. I’m sure Abraham didn’t have an altar facing a wall when he offered his son as a burnt offering. The traditional table pictured in the “Last Supper” was not facing the back of the upper room. Traditions come and go. Google pictures of the altar in a Coptic church where people gather around it for the Mass. Or look at the altar in a Ukrainian Catholic church where the altar is out in the open, and where(horrors) they give communion from a spoon and used leavened bread instead of unleavened bread. Traditions are tricky. My children, all in their 50’s would tell you that the Catholic church traditionally says Mass in the vernacular of the people attending and that traditionally the priest faces the people. Traditions are what you want them to be.
I was confused about the Communion Rail .
Thanks for the important clarification and update.