The Trojan Times
St. Maria Goretti Catholic School January 8, 2023
Mission Statement
St. Maria Goretti is a living testament to our Lord's work in His youngest disciples, exemplified by academic excellence, spiritual formation, and compassionate service to others.
St. Maria Goretti Catholic School aims to form what is True, Good, and Beautiful in the souls of our young disciples of Christ.
Principal's Message
Dear St. Maria Goretti Catholic School Families,
Happy New Year! We are all excited to be back at school and ready to tackle the new semester. We have a lot going on.
To show our support for TCU in the National Championship game on Monday night, students and staff can wear TCU gear with their uniform bottoms and uniform shoes.
We will have an early dismissal on Friday, January 13, 2023, and no school on Monday, January 16, 2023.
Our next Home and School meeting will take place on Tuesday, January 17, 2023. We will have information about the Dinner Dance, our UTA interns will present, and we will enjoy a performance by the Kindergarten class. Please note that this meeting will begin at 6:00 PM to ensure that our Kindergarten class is home in time for their bedtime. Parents who attend will earn a spirit hour and their child(ren) will earn a blue jean dress-down day on Friday, January 20, 2023.
The Dinner Dance, A Storybook Gala, will take place on Saturday, January 21, 2023. You can buy your tickets on our website or use the link found in this edition of the Trojan Times. This is one of our biggest fundraisers of the year and we hope that you will be able to attend.
Our annual Spaghetti Dinner takes place the weekend of January 28th-29th. This will kick off our enrollment period as well as Catholic Schools Week. On Saturday we will have takeout ONLY. On Sunday you can dine in or take out. Our students and some visitors from Nolan Catholic will be on hand to perform for us. This is a fun event and time for fellowship. Tickets will be sold in the front office this week as well as after all Masses next weekend.
Re-enrollment will begin soon. We will offer an early bird discount until February 14, 2023. The application for financial assistance will be open at that time. Please be sure to apply if your family will need any kind of assistance. An email with all the re-enrollment information will be sent out on Saturday, January 28, 2023.
Catholic School Week is a week to celebrate all Catholic Schools in the nation. We will begin our celebration on Saturday, January 28, 2023 and end on Friday, February 3, 2023. We have a lot of fun activities planned for our students, staff, and families. We will be using our school theme of "SMGCS is Rooted in Christ" for our events. Look for more information in next week's edition of the TT.
We have many volunteer opportunities coming up to fill your 40-service-hour requirement. See links in this edition of the Trojan Times to help!
Thank you for your commitment to our Catholic School.
St. Maria Goretti, Pray for Us!
Blessings,
Amy Utendorf, M.Ed.
Principal
January Virtue: Fidelity
The virtue of fidelity means being faithful to our promises and commitments. We see our parents and grandparents live the commitment of marriage. In baptism, we become the adopted children of God and are consecrated to Him. In these commitments, we make promises to God or to another person. Every day gives us the opportunity to practice the virtue of fidelity by choosing anew to remain faithful to our promises.
Saint Cecilia: Feast Day November 22
Saint Cecilia prayed every day and could see her guardian angel. She promised to give her whole life to God and never get married. But her parents asked her to marry a wealthy young man, Valerian, and Saint Cecilia always obeyed her parents. While the wedding music played, she sang prayers to God in her heart. That is why she is the patron saint of music. She taught Valerian about Jesus, and they both gave their lives to God.
Blesseds Luigi & Maria Beltrame Quattrocchi: Feast Day November 25
Blessed Luigi and Maria Beltrame Quattrocchi met and were married in 1905 in Rome. This couple was known for their openness to life, their hope in the midst of difficult family situations, and their loving commitment to one another.
Luigi and Maria were blessed with four children. The oldest became a Benedictine nun, and the next two children were called to the priesthood. Luigi and Maria received a unique gift in their fourth child, a girl named Enrichetta. From the start Maria experienced great difficulties in her pregnancy, and doctors warned that she had less than a five-percent chance of living if she gave birth to her baby, and that the baby had even less of a chance of surviving. Ennchetta was born a healthy child and both Luigi and Maria grew in their love for one another and their love for God by trusting in His promises.
Throughout their lives, Maria and Luigi served the church by faithfully living the vows of their marriage and through their many charitable works. The family was consecrated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and prayed the Rosary together each evening. Because of the holiness of their lives and their particular witness to the virtue of fidelity in their marriage, in 2001 Luigi and Maria became the first married couple to be beatified together. November 25, the date of their wedding anniversary, is now celebrated as their feast day.
Saint Gianna Molla: Feast Day April 28
In 2004, Pope Jon Paul II canonized Gianna Beretta Molla, a wife, mother, and pediatrician. Gianna’s story is rather extraordinary, especially since her husband and children were still living at the time of her canonization.
Gianna Beretta Molla was born in Magenta (Milan), Italy, on October 4, 1922, the tenth of 13 children. After earning degrees in medicine and surgery from the University of Pavia in 1949, she opened a medical clinic in Meseero in 1950. She was a pediatrician, but gave special attention to mothers, babies, the elderly, and the poor. She considered her work a mission from God and exercised great care in fulfilling her responsibilities.
Gianna became engaged to businessman Pietro Molla, and they were married on September 24, 1955. In November 1956, to her great joy, Gianna became the mother of Pierluigi, followed by the birth of Mariolinia the next year and Laura in 1959. She met the demands of mother, wife, doctor, and her passion for life with simplicity and great balance.
In September 1961, towards the end of the second month of pregnancy with her fourth child, Gianna had to make a heroic decision. Physicians diagnosed a serious condition that required surgery. The surgeon suggested that Gianna undergo an abortion in order to save her own life. Gianna replied, “If you must decide between me and the child, do not hesitate - choose the child – I insist on it. Save the baby.”
On the morning of April 21, 1962, her daughter Gianna Emanuela was born. Despite all efforts and treatments to save both of them, on the morning of April 28, Saint Gianna died. She was 39 years old. Her husband Piertro has described Gianna’s life as “an act and a perennial action of faith and charity; it was a non-stop search for the will of God for every decision and for every work, with prayer and meditation, Holy Mass and the Eucharist.”
On April 24, 1994, Pope John Paul II beatified Gianna Beretta Molla. At the beautification ceremony, the Holy Father said that Gianna’s act of self-sacrifice was possible only after a lifetime of preparation. Saint Gianna Molla continues to remind the Church and the world of the virtue of fidelity, because of her faithful commitment to her family and to God. We are being called to heroism by our choice of life. Let us ask Saint Gianna to intercede for us that we might be faithful.
Dinner Dance - January 21, 2023
Instructions for Purchasing VIP Tickets
Bishop Olson - Mass January 25th
Bishop Olson will be celebrating the 8:00 AM Mass on Wednesday, January 25th. Our third-grade class will be hosting this Mass. Please make plans to attend if you are available.
Blood Drive - January 29th
Sign up to donate blood during Catholic School Week Open House and Spaghetti Dinner.
Volunteer Opportunities - Earn Spirit Hours
Below are some of the volunteer opportunities available right now! Earn your SPIRIT HOURS & hang out with fellow Trojan families, all while helping SMG.
Sports Website
Visit the Catholic Dioses of Ft. Worth website for sports schedules. Please check the site before a game for any last-minute changes. Games start this Saturday!
January CSW: All School Masses
Please mark your calendars to attend and participate in the Masses this year! All students and their families should plan to attend in their Mass uniforms.
2023 SMGCS Weekend Masses - Catholic Schools Week
- ALL Weekend Masses January 28-29, 2023
Please review the available slots in the link below and sign up for our All School Masses to kickstart Catholic Schools Week on Saturday, January 28 and Sunday, January 29th, 2023. Students participating must wear SMG Mass Uniform and arrive in the narthex 15 minutes prior to the Mass time. Jr High students may receive one (1) hour of service.
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0D4CACA729AAFBC25-january
- 11:00 AM Sunday, March 5, 2023
- 1:00 PM Sunday, April 23, 2023
SMGCS Welcomes New UTA Social Worker
Hi y’all! I’m Dylan Benson, a Master’s in Social Work student from UTA. I was born and raised in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, specifically Bedford, and spent time in college bouncing around majors before finding that I enjoyed and was good at Social Work! My degree path is Mental Health & Substance Misuse, which is what people becoming therapists usually take. My focus within that is working with young men to develop their faith, social skills, emotional control, and respect for parents and teachers while also doing Crisis Intervention. My future career goals are to either work as a school social worker or work at Catholic Charities. My patron Saint is John Chrysostom, and I am a big fan of his writings and those of Saint John Bosco, Servant of God Dorothy Day, and Pope Francis. I look forward to working with y’all!
Contact Info
Phone #: 817-606-7987
Email: dylan.benson@mavs.uta.edu
Work Hours:
M/T/W/Th/F 8:00 AM- 3:00 PM
(subject to change when the semester starts at UTA later this month)
Nolan Catholic High School Announcements
Prospective Parent Coffee & Tour
- Friday, February 3
- Friday, March 31
Last Week at SMGCS
Las Posadas
Rosca de Reyes
Thanks to the generosity of our 3rd grade parents, most Spanish classes were able to have Rosca de Reyes during their Los Reyes Magos Cultural lesson.
At Panadería Mana, bakers make over one thousand “Roscas de Reyes” to celebrate this Catholic, Hispanic tradition that commemorates the gifts the three wise men gave to Jesus. The Rosca de Reyes is a one-of-a-kind bread. The person who finds the figurine of Jesus is designated to throw a fiesta and provide tamales on Día de la Candelaria which falls on February 2nd.
Room Blessings
Faith Families met Friday to review January's virtue and the three saints who exemplify fidelity. Each Faith Family discussed the meaning of Epiphany, then blessed the classroom by writing a blessing on the door frame.
The Epiphany house blessing of the door is a blessing for the home or school that is traditionally done each year on the Solemnity of the Epiphany (also known as 3 Kings Day or Twelfth Night). It is performed on the front door of the house/classroom and uses symbols drawn with blessed chalk. https://www.catholicicing.com/epiphany-house-blessing-with-chalk/
Getting Ready for Storybook Gala
Ask Sister for Hopscotch Lessons!
1st Grade Used Attribute Blocks to Build Plane Figures
SMGCS Clubs
Monday
- 3:10-4:30 PM 3rd-8th Cecilian Singers Club 3rd - 8th (Richards)
Jan 9, 23, 30, Feb. 5, 13, 20, 27
- 3:30-4:15 Spanish Club (Zavala)
- 3:30-4:15 PM PSIA Spelling (Bara)
- 3:30-4:15 PSIA 6th-8th Mathematics (Tran) every 1st/3rd Monday
- 4:00-5:30 Boys' Basketball Practice
Tuesday
- 12:10-12:50 NJHS (Jones) bi-weekly
- 3:30-4:15 PM PSIA Maps/Graphs/Charts (Daly)
- 3:30-5:00 PM Cheer Practice (Richards)
- 5:00-6:30 Girls' Basketball Practice
- Folklorico Club (Zavala) MOVED to Wednesday during month of January
Wednesday
- 12:09-12:49 STUCO (Daly)
- 3:30-4:30 Garden Club (Risinger/Cruz)
- 3:30-4:15 Rubik Cube Club (Tran/Utendorf)
Jan 11, 25, Feb. 8, 22, March 8, 22, April 12, 26, May 3, 17
- 3:30-4:15 PSIA 2-3rd Mathematics (Tran) every 1st/3rd Wednesday
- 3:15-4:30 Folklorico Club NEW TIME/DAY during month of January
- 3:30-4:15 Run Club (Gutierrez/Schump)
Feb. 1, 15, Mar. 1, 29, April 19, May 10
Thursday
- 12:09-12:49 Library Leaders (Richards)
- 3:10-4:30 PM 5th-8th Trojan Troupe Drama Club (Richards)
- 3:30-4:15 PSIA 4th-5th Mathematics (Tran) every 1st/3rd Thursday
- 3:30-4:15 PM PSIA Ready Write (Jones)
- 5:00-6:30 Girls' Basketball Practice
- 4:00-5:30 Boys' Basketball Practice
Calendar Notes
January 13, Friday: 12:10 Early Dismissal
January 16, Monday: MLK Holiday - No School
January 17, Tuesday: 6:00PM Home & School Meeting (SPECIAL TIME)
January 20, Friday: 3:30-5:30 CPR Club 4th Grade
January 21, Saturday: Storybook Gala Dinner Dance & Auction
January 25, Wednesday: 8:00 Mass - Bishop Olson to Celebrate Mass at SMGCS
January 27, Friday: 3:30-5:30 CPR Club 2nd Grade
January 28-February 3: Catholic Schools Week
January 28, Saturday: Spaghetti Dinner - Take Out Only
January 29, Sunday: 9:00-2:00 Open House, Spaghetti Dinner (Dine In & Take Out), 8:30-3:00 Carter Blood Drive
Need Prayers?
We all do!! The St. Maria Goretti Catholic School Community would love to pray for you and your intentions. Please send all prayer requests to: smgprays4u@smgschool.org.
Meet Our Priests!
St. Maria Goretti Parish Website: https://www.smgparish.org/
Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth
Serving the North Texas Catholic community by providing the faithful opportunities to grow in Christian discipleship and strengthen their relationship with Jesus Christ.
St. Maria Goretti Catholic School
Email: development@smgschool.org
Website: https://smgschool.org
Location: 1200 South Davis Drive, Arlington, TX, USA
Phone: (817)275-5081
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StMariaGorettiArlington/