Today begins the season of Advent! Each week Father Michael will light the candles in the Advent wreath to symbolize the growing light of Christ. Each candle has its own meaning and is illustrated in the four weeks. Hope… reminding us that Jesus is coming. Faith…. reminding us of Mary and Joseph’s journey to Bethlehem. Joy… reminding us of the “Joy to the World” experience of Jesus’ birth. Peace… the angel’s message “Peace on Earth, Good Will towards Men.”

Attending Mass each week during Advent is a great way to keep children focused on the real meaning of Christmas and to prepare for the coming of Christ.

Advent is the Liturgical Season where we focus entirely on preparing to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. It is marked by a spirit of expectation, anticipation and longing. But it is also a feeling of joy, as we are reminded that Christ has come, will come again, and that He is always present within us. It is up to us to bring Him into our hearts and into our lives.

As we begin this Advent Season with anticipation and excitement, we have an opportunity to have a clean heart and soul. Please join us for our annual Advent Penance Service this Tuesday, December 3rd @ 7pm in church. All are welcome to pray together and refocus on God’s presence in our lives.

Dear Parishioners,

The promise that Jesus made to the repentant thief, “Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise” is the same promise Jesus made to each one of us. But, unlike the thief, we do not know the hour or the day so we had better be prepared by leading righteous lives. Obviously the way to do that is by living the gospel each and every day. It sounds simple, but we all know how difficult it can be.

The gospel does offer us insight—even here Jesus was having the worst day imaginable, indeed the last day of His life. The rulers and soldiers sneered and jeered at Jesus, but in the midst of all that abuse Jesus found time to embrace the repentant thief.

Sometimes we get carried away in bad language and rotten attitude because somehow life has been unfair to us. When that happens, I would remind anyone to read the story of the Passion of Jesus Christ. It is instructional and enlightening about the importance of grace, dignity and patience during life’s difficult moments…a message we all need to learn over and over.

 

Do you ever wonder what happens when we die? Not to our physical body, that we can “google”. But none of us really know what happens after we die until we get there. That however is the mystery of our faith. Debate after debate and many discussions and opinions can arise from this subject. People will continue to wonder.

So, even Jesus had to put up with groups questioning Him. This one about Resurrection, which this group of Sadducees clearly do not believe in. They are thinking of life and death in wholly mortal terms. They are thinking so literally, that they are missing the bigger picture, the treasure of God’s love promised through the resurrection into new life. It is the realization that nothing, even death, can separate us from the love of God.
 

We cannot know what happens after our bodies die. But what we do know is that our loved ones are in our hearts and in our memories and have an influence on how we live the rest of our earthly lives.
 

Think about the last line of this scripture, “He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to Him all are alive.” “Through the love of God and the example of Jesus, we can move from death to life as a child of the resurrection.” I am prepared to live that way and I have faith in what is yet to come.