The 2026 edition of Acolyte Boot Camp concluded tonight with a Sung Requiem Mass, 41 boys serving Mass, singing in the schola, or sitting in choir. This year's camp was 23 percent larger than last year's 34-boy roster, and yet, by God's grace, that is just a portion of the parish's 65 altar boys.
We are very grateful for the parents who brought their boys to camp so that they could learn to serve and pray better. In addition, we are especially grateful for those who have no boys in the program but volunteered to help supervise, feed, and clean up after the boys. We were also blessed to have two seminarians from the FSSP's Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary, Mr. Anthony Holzmann, FSSP, and Mr. Jacob Talley, leading the camp, and doing a tremendous amount of behind the scenes organization.
The boys arrived after lunch and stayed through the evening High Mass each night. Each day was filled with 2.5 hours of training and 2.5 hours of prayer, plus daily briefing, dinner, and basketball.
As a result, many boys learned and served in positions for the first time. This will be a big help in replenishing the ranks of our altar boys as older boys go off to seminary, college, or the workforce and can no longer serve here so regularly.
Here's a video showing them processing out of the church after Mass on one of the evenings.
The importance of spiritual reading is emphasized by Fr. John Hardon, S.J., in his book Theology of Prayer (the book is available in our library here and the chapter on spiritual reading here).
By now one implication should be clear enough: Who needs spiritual reading? Everyone who wants to become Christlike! There is no choice. The Savior is not for nothing called the Word of God. We seldom think of Him as also—how I like the phrase—the Written Word of God, written in the Gospels which describe His life and in the apostolic writings His life inspired; written in the Church He founded and of which He continues as her invisible Head; written in the saintly men and women who are faithful images of what their Master had been. This Master is unique. He not only teaches, He reproduces. All of this is ready to be read by us, if only we are willing to read. Christ, we are told by St. John, is the light that shines in the dark. And, if we are honest, we must admit how dark the darkness is. We need Him, the Light of our own world, to enlighten us about how we are to serve Him, so that we might love Him and bring others to love and serve Him too.
In order to help you find books that will help you in your spiritual life, we have chosen a few dozen books from our library's collection of thousands. And several of these books are or will also be available in our bookstore as well. We will update, expand, and create additional lists, so check back here for more in the future. For now, here are four lists:
Congratulations to the St. Lucy Volleyball team for winning the 7th annual Young Adult Volleyball Tournament!
We were delighted that 20 children from our parish—10 boys and 10 girls—had the imcomparable grace of receiving First Holy Communion at our 2026 celebration of the Feast of Corpus Christi on June 7. Special thanks to their instructors, Kateri Kadar-Kallan, Debora Sloane, Lydia Miccolupi, and Mary Ellen Turletes; and our director of religious education, Dr. Phillip Cuccia.
For your edification, and the joy of their families and the whole parish, here is a photo gallery from the day, including our Corpus Christi procession.
OMAHA—By the grace of God, 12 men were ordained to the priesthood for the FSSP on Thursday in Nebraska by his Excellency Thomas Wenski, the archbishop of Miami. Six of the newly ordained priests have served our parish in recent years as seminarians. Please remember all of them in your prayers, but especially the priests listed below who assisted here.
Pictured above, from left to right:
- Rev. Andrew Daniels, FSSP: Summer 2023
- Rev. Curtis Zuckerman, FSSP: Summer 2024
- Rev. Shane Conlon, FSSP: Holy Week 2022
- Rev. Marshall Harmon, FSSP: Summer 2021
- Rev. Conán McGonagle, FSSP: Holy Week 2024
Pictured above (third from right):
- Rev. David Carter, FSSP: Summer 2022
The six priests ordained who had not been assigned to St. Lawrence as seminarians are:
- Rev. Joseph Falciano, FSSP
- Rev. Anthony Ike, FSSP
- Rev. Daniel Kreilein, FSSP
- Rev. Daniel Mellino, FSSP
- Rev. Lai Nguyen, FSSP
- Rev. Peter O’Connor, FSSP