Entries for December 2021

WELCOME TO ALL!

To all visiting Family and Friends
To new Parishioners
To all Visitors
To all our Parish Family...

a warm and loving welcome
to the Celebration of Christmas!
We hope everyone will feel at home,
as together, in song and praise,
we thank God for all our
many blessings!

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THE GREATEST GIFT

          Pope Francis presents a very timely question, “How can we respond to those who say that there is no need to go to Mass, not even on Sundays, because what is important is to live well and to love our neighbors?”

          “It is true that the quality of the Christian life is measured by the capacity to love, as Jesus says in the Gospels.  But how can we practice the Gospel without drawing the necessary strength to do it, one Sunday after another, from the inexhaustible spring of the Holy Eucharist?” 

           Our Holy Father points out that participating in Sunday does fulfill the Third Commandment and the law of the Church.  But even more importantly, we Catholics need to participate in Sunday Mass because only with the Grace of Jesus, with His living presence in us and among us, can we put into practice the Great Commandment, “You shall love the Lord Your God…..and Your Neighbor as yourself” and be credible witnesses.  Holy Communion is where we find our strength for daily life.  Without the Eucharist we are “condemned to be dominated by the fatigue of everyday life.”  “Often consumed by worries and fears, Sunday Mass is where Christ gives us the strength to live each day with courage and hope.”

          “At Sunday Mass we rest from the busyness and work of the week, which teaches us to place our trust in the Father, not in earthly things," the Pope said.  The Prayer from the Roman Missal addresses God, saying:  “You do not need our praise, but for a gift of your love you call us to give you thanks; our hymns of blessing do not increase your greatness, but they obtain for us the Grace that Saves Us!”

CHRISTMAS & NEW YEAR’S MASSES

Friday, December 24th,  CHRISTMAS EVE
5:00 and 10:00 p.m.

Saturday, December 25th,  CHRISTMAS DAY
7:00. 9:00 and 11:00 a.m.
(There will be no 5:00 p.m. Mass on Saturday, December 25th.)

Saturday, January 1st, NEW YEARS DAY
7:00 and 10:00 a.m.
(There will be no 5:00 p.m. Mass on Saturday January 1st.)

NOTE:  January 1st, Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God is NOT
a Holy Day of Obligation.

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A NEW OUTLOOK ON CONFESSION

            Congratulations to our Second Grade Girls and Boys in our Parish School of Religion as they receive the Sacrament of Joy for the first time on this Tuesday evening!  You may ask, "what is the pastor talking about?"  I want to assure you that it is not the Sacrament of Confession, scarcely frequented these days, that is changing.  Pope Francis proposes a completely different outlook on Confession, different from the experience of so many Catholics and different from a certain historical legacy.

          First of all, Pope Francis indicates that within the Sacrament lies “the remedy” for the moments in life when we are down.  Pope Francis asks all of us, “What do you think about when you go to confession?  I am almost certain of the answer:  sins.  But are sins really the focus of confession?  Does God want you to approach God by thinking about you, your sins, OR ABOUT GOD?”

            Pope Francis proposes something that can provoke a Copernican revolution in the life of each one of us:  “I am no longer at the center of the Sacrament of Penance, humiliated with my list of sins—perhaps always the same ones—to be told with difficulty to the priest.  AT THE CENTER is the meeting with God who welcomes, embraces, forgives, and raises us up.  Go to confession as a child of God who comes to receive God the  Father’s unconditional love!  Pope Francis emphasizes, “Hear this well:  God always forgives!  Do you understand?  God always forgives!”  We are not going to a judge to settle accounts, but to Jesus who loves me and heals me!”

            This new outlook on the Sacrament of Confession proposed by Pope Francis asks us not to remain prisoners of shame for our sins, shame which is a good thing, but to overcome it, because “God is never ashamed of you.  God loves you right there, where you are ashamed of yourself.  God loves you always!”

            To those who still cannot forgive themselves, believing that not even God can do it “because I will always fall into the same sins," Pope Francis says, “When does God take offense?  When you go to ask God for forgiveness? No! Never! God suffers when you think God can’t forgive us, because it is like telling God, ‘You are weak in love!’  Instead, God rejoices in forgiving us, every time.  When God raises us up, God believes in us as God did the first time.  God does not get discouraged.  We are the ones who get discouraged, God does not.  God does not see sinners to label, but children to Love.

CONSIDER THIS:  the Sacrament of Confession—from shame to celebration, from humiliation to joy.  This does not come from Pope Francis, but from the GOSPEL!

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