From the Pastor’s Desk:

This year due to the calendar with December 25 falling on the fourth Sunday of December we have four full weeks of Advent. The longest of the Advent seasons. Please do not wait to prepare spiritually. Advent is to be a time of waiting, longing, a time to pray. The Christmas Novena which we will begin on December 17th will help make this a prayerful and spiritual end to the hectic season of preparation. With all the preparations that many families or individuals do to get ready for the celebration of Christmas, it becomes tempting to become “too busy” to pray or go to Mass. Going to Mass is a major part of preparing for Jesus’ arrival at Christmas. As we attend those parties, run those Christmas errands, perhaps plan for extra holiday travel, bake those cookies, decorate the house, send the Christmas cards, I hope you take the time to pray and attend Mass. The greatest prayer we can pray is the celebration of the Eucharist. It is this special time when God come to us to give us His strength, courage and grace to meet the world and all our problems head on. Human life is a promise by our creator God, that one day He would send a Messiah. We were/are created in His image and likeness and the Messiah would come and show us the way to God the Father. That event occurred in human history when Jesus was born thirteen centuries after Moses led the chosen people of Israel out of Egypt, one thousand years from the anointing of David as King over Israel, in the seven hundred and fifty-second year from the foundation of the city of Rome. As the Christmas Proclamation states (which I sing at the blessing of the manger during the 11:00 pm Christmas Eve Mass) in the forty-second year of the reign of Octavian Augustus; the whole world being at peace, Jesus Christ, eternal God and Son of the eternal Father, desiring to sanctify the world by his most merciful coming, being conceived by the Holy Spirit, and nine months having passed since his conception, was born in Bethlehem of Judea of the Virgin Mary. All of this comes into the realm of prophecy. That is part of the “spiritual” need of Advent, to take a studied look into one thousand years of what the prophets said would occur concerning the coming of the Messiah. We need Advent with all of its’ hectic activity to also be one of preparing for the time when according to prophecy, the Son of God will return once again. Then the Advent season is followed by the Christmas Season in which we celebrate what had been proclaimed. CHRISTMAS RECTORY OPEN HOUSE DATES : 12–16, 12-17, 12-18, 12-19 at 7:30 pm following the Christmas Novena. Join us for the novena in the Cathedral then come for cookies, punch and a tour of the 45 Christmas trees and decorations from all over the world!