Dear Parishioners:
We are still in the midst of the Christmas Season and so we continue to celebrate our Savior’s birth. Our celebration began last weekend with the Christmas Vigil Mass on Sunday evening. It was a grand kickoff to the solemn and joyful celebration of the season.
We give thanks for the gift of God’s Son born on Christmas. Jesus Christ is our Messiah, our Redeemer and our Savior and so we continue to rejoice and give thanks for His birth. We continue to give thanks to God for the blessings of Christmas. We give thanks to those who made Christmas at OLM so joyful, beautiful and memorable.
We thank our hard working maintenance staff under the direction of Paul Anderson who have been working for weeks moving boxes, painting, raking, setting up trees, cleaning, waxing floors and seeing to the good order of our vast physical plant. Of course, they also took time out during the snowstorms to shovel and plow the property!
We thank them for their tireless work and dedication to OLM. We give thanks to Celia Franzone and her band of decorators who made the Church so beautiful at Christmas with the flowers and trees. They ensured that our Church nativity was once again a beautiful and prayerful stop for us. I am grateful for all their hard work in making the beauty of Christmas a vital part of OLM.
We thank too our talented parish musicians, Henri St. Louis and Deirdre Donovan, and the OLM Adult and Children Choirs for their great gift of music. The music was so joyful at Christmas and we are grateful for the hours of rehearsals and devotion they give to ensuring beautiful and meaningful sacred music befitting the solemn celebration of our Savior’s birth. We thank our loyal and dutiful corps of OLM Altar Servers for their help and devotion at Christmas Masses. Their expert service to God’s Altar was solemn and reverent and we are truly grateful to them.
We also thank our OLM Ushers who worked so diligently and did double time last weekend. Their warm hospitality to guests is truly appreciated. We wish to thank our Lectors for joyfully proclaiming God’s Sacred Word at Christmas. Also our many Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion who helped at Christmas Masses ensuring the faithful received the Body of Christ with reverence.
We thank all who gave of their time and talent to make Christmas at OLM so solemn, joyful and faith-filled. I also wish to thank the many parishioners and OLM School students and families who were so generous to supporting the good works of OLM Outreach. They generously adopted refugee families, collected gifts for the elderly
residents of the Jeanne Jugan Residence, and provided a Christmas for many needy families. Your many donations of gift cards and generous monetary gifts ensure that Christmas is joyful for many people in need. We thank you for your charity and continued support of OLM Outreach.
I wish also to thank Fr. Barrow, Fr. Connors and Deacon Dowd for their presence and ministry here at OLM especially at Christmas. We are truly blessed at OLM with such talented and dedicated young priests and such a devoted and joyful Deacon. Also in their names, I wish to thank the many parishioners who were so kind and very generous to us at Christmas. Your gifts, cards, sincere greetings, and delicious goodies are truly appreciated and enjoyed by us all. We are grateful for your continued support and recognition of our ministry at OLM.
The New Year of 2018 begins Monday and now we look back and give God thanks for the blessings we enjoyed in 2017. On January 1st we celebrate the Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God. Since it falls on a Monday this year it is not a holy day of obligation and therefore there is only one Mass at 8:30am. It is a holiday but not a holy day and you are not obligated to attend Holy Mass.
As we approach the New Year of 2018, I wish you and your families the choicest of God’s blessings for a Happy, Healthy and Holy New Year. May our Loving Father bless you and your family at the turning of the year and fill the months ahead with the bright hope and bountiful joy that is ours in the coming of Christ.
A very Happy New Year. Do good. Be well. God Bless! Go Pats!!!