Dear Parishioners:
We enter into this final week of Advent and anticipate the great feast of Christmas next Saturday. The world tells us we must rush to get ready and finish up all the chores, shopping, cards, and cooking not yet done! In the world around us, people are frantic trying to ensure a perfect celebration of Christmas. Traffic is heavier, lines are longer, and patience runs short! All of this is a missed opportunity to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas.
As Pope Francis teaches: "The Christian knows that Christmas is a decisive event, an eternal fire that God has kindled in the world, and must not be confused with transient things. We mustn't reduce it to a merely sentimental or consumerist festival."
I encourage you to take some time this week to prepare for the authentic celebration of Christmas. And while we might have to wrap gifts, write cards, bake cookies, clean the house, run errands, and visit friends to make merry, let's not get caught up in the mad rush before Christmas. Instead, schedule some time this week for silence and prayer, come to Church and sit before the Lord and contemplate the meaning of Christmas.
The great Catholic Author, G. K Chesterton once wrote: "The great majority of people will go on observing forms that cannot be explained; they will keep Christmas Day with Christmas gifts and Christmas benedictions; they will continue to do it, and someday suddenly wake up and discover why."
Many voices in our contemporary culture suggest that the true meaning of Christmas is being kind to each other, being with our families, or some different warm, sentimental feeling. A kind of Christmas without a real Christ!
On the contrary, the real purpose of Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. Its true meaning is that God so loved us that He gave His only begotten Son. God humbled Himself to share our human condition even unto death and to save us from sin and death.
There is no better way to celebrate and rejoice at the birth of the Savior than at Holy Mass on Christmas. We have one Vigil Mass on Christmas Eve at 4:00 pm. Then, of course, Midnight Mass is at Midnight and is preceded by a concert of Christmas music at 11:30 pm. On Christmas Day, there are three Masses: 7:30 am, 9:00 am, and 10:30 am. There is no 4:00 pm Mass on Saturday, Christmas Day!
When we receive Holy Communion, we welcome Christ into our world—just as Mary and Joseph, the shepherds, and the wise men did so long ago. The same joy and hope that warmed that simple stable in Bethlehem centuries ago should illuminate our hearts every time we welcome Christ here and now in Holy Communion.
For every Mass is Calvary. But every reception of the Holy Communion is, in a sense, Bethlehem: the "house of bread," the place where God enters into our lives, our history, our hearts, and our bodies. So when we step forward to receive Holy Communion, we should cherish the moment and truly realize what we receive. As God first visited the world and dwelled among us as a tiny infant, so He comes to us now, in a fragile and humble piece of bread.
You will be able to worthily prepare to receive this great gift as there are two hours of Confession with four priests available Monday from 6:00 pm until 8:00 pm. Cleanse your soul of sin and selfishness to truly adore the Christ Child. Put Confession on your Christmas list !
Last Wednesday, Sr. Lourdes returned home to the Philippines. She is there for a month attending the General Chapter Meeting of her community, the Franciscan Apostolic Sisters. It is an important meeting in which the community elects a superior. Please keep her and her community in your prayers as they gather together. We will miss Sr. Lourdes this Christmas, but Sisters Emma and Soledad are with us to celebrate with their usual joyous faith!
Let's not forget the reason for the season, Jesus Christ! So stop this week to welcome the Savior. Be more prayerful, patient, joyful, charitable, faithful, and hopeful! Be well. Stay safe. Do good. God Bless. Go Pats! O Come, let us adore Him! We wish you a Happy and Holy Christmas!