Part of moving to a new place is finding a parish. A parish, not a church: I’m Catholic so I’m in the Church, it doesn’ t need to be found! And not a local church either: being Catholic ‘local church’ is the diocese and that’s now Sacramento for me.

So, back to finding a parish. As the realtors say: location, location, location. And that means in both space and time. For a while I was going to St John the Evangelist in Carmichael since I could get to their 6:30am daily Mass and still get to work on time. However, my work schedule has changed so I don’t have to travel so far.

I like to visit St Stephen, a Latin Mass parish in Sacramento; However, that’s too far away to be my home parish. I also think a parish should be prominent, on a hill, and have a school. St Andrews in Roanoke Virginia set the standard for me soon after I became Catholic 18 years ago.

So, strictly based on location, I wind up at Holy Trinity Parish at the evocative address of 3111 Tierra de Dios, El Dorado Hills, California.