Happy New Year – the Church’s Liturgical Calendar begins on this first Sunday of Advent, 4 weeks before our celebration of Christmas. So, Happy New Year! In the early Church, around the 4th century, the preparation for Christmas was similar to Lent with a heavy tone on fasting and prayer. By the 9th century, the focus shifted to what we have today, a joyful hope and anticipation for Christ’s return at the end of time, and also to celebrate His first coming. A visual symbol to help us prepare for this celebration is the Advent wreath. The wreath is in the shape of a circle, which has no beginning or end: so we call to mind how our lives, here and now, will not end but continue on to eternity, in God’s Kingdom. The candles that we light each week also have meaning. The first candle that we lit this week stands for Hope. We can have hope, because God is faithful and just as He came among us the first time, He will come again and establish His Kingdom, where we will live in the fullness of joy and peace. The 2nd candle that we will light symbolizes Preparation. It reminds us to live our lives in preparation for the day we will encounter our Lord, whether it is at our death,or at His 2nd coming. The 3rd candle that we will light, they pink candle, symbolizes Joy. As the angels said to the shepherds, “Do not be afraid,” so we too are reminded that the coming of the Lord as our Savior is not to be feared, but to be greeted with Joy. And the last candle symbolizes Love. The God who came among us and who will come again LOVES US. All that we have, all that we are, is because God loves you and me.
So prepare the way of the Lord. Live with joy and hope, for the lover of our souls will come to greet us.
Welcome Home – To all of you who are here for Thanksgiving and are visiting family or friends, welcome to our parish. As they say in Spanish, “mi casa es su casa,” which means “my home is your home.” So please come and visit anytime. Know there is always room in our Father’s house for you. And if you’re looking for a place to call your Spiritual Home, we also hope you’ll find in us, what your heart has been earching. Please take home a Welcome Booklet available in our entrances that will show you the variety of activities and ministries within our parish. When you’ve decided to make this your Spiritual Home and register here, one of the members of our Welcome Committee will contact and welcome you. Twice a year we pay special recognition to New Parishioners. One at our Annual Parish Dinner which happened on the Saturday before Thanksgiving (11/19), and another one 6 months later on the Sunday closest to the Feast of our patron saint, St. Brendan (5/16). So if you’re new here, come and introduce yourself to one of the priests, sisters or staff. We hope you’ll find in us, what your heart has been longing, a warm community and a spiritual home.
Annual Parish Dinner – I want to thank our Welcome Committee members chaired by Gina Eggert and Kristy Warner for planning and making our yearly Parish Dinner a success. As in the past, we specially
honored those who are new to our parish. Through the efforts of the Welcome Committee Members and the warmth and kindness of each parishioner here, this community continues to attract many people. Some even choose to become Catholics based on what they’ve experienced in us. So I want to extend a big thank you once again for all the members of the Welcome Committee, for the many hours they’ve spent in the evenings coordinating for this dinner. It was simply delightful to get together for no reason
other than to celebrate and give thanks to God for our many blessings.
Fr. Dan
