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 Dear
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Today our Advent wreath looks like a small bonfire! All
four candles are now blazing. And we are just days away from the Great Feast of
Christmas! Hopefully, you are prepared like never before for the Birthday of
our Savior! If not, we do still have the next four and half days to finish
Advent. Don’t give up yet!
Last Saturday, our HELP Committee and the Shepherd’s Gate
Food Pantry sent out all our Christmas presents and boxes of food to the 165
families that our Parish “adopted” this year for Christmas. The Christmas
delivery morning is one of the most amazing events at our Parish. Literally
hundred of people from the Parish, and from over a dozen Parish organizations,
gave of their time and their muscle power to help pull off this beautiful
outreach to our friends and neighbors. I can’t tell you how moving it is for me
to see the love, generosity, and true concern that go into every effort to make
the outreach possible. I get very emotional just sitting here writing about
it! I am so awed by this Community’s generosity and concern! To pull off what
you made happen last weekend, and even more to do so as we come to the close of
one of the worst economic years of recent times for all of us, is a real
testament to the Faith and concern that this Parish has! If you weren’t able to
be here last Saturday morning, you should have seen it! I know that so many
helped out by bringing food items in and by taking Angel tags off of the trees
and purchasing gifts. You may have helped out way before we got to last
Saturday morning. Then you need to know how powerful your gift was when it was
put together as part of our big effort. The organization and planning and
preparations that made last Saturday morning run like clockwork, doesn’t just
happen. Under the careful guidance of Kendra and Jerry Geis, and Peggy and Ken
Norus, and Ann and Mike Brown, and Suzanne and Tom Oliger, and Kathy and Ron
Pelletier, little is left to chance. Assisted by the Holy Name Society, the
Temple Knights of the Holy Eucharist, the SMG Boy Scouts, the SMG Girl Scouts
and Brownies, the SMG school students and the SMG PRE students, and an army of
self-less volunteers, you guys made this happen for all of us. You not only
“got the goods” to those in need, but you also enable all of us to do our part
to help them. And that may be even more important! It was a grace moment and
opportunity for this Parish community to be able to do what took place last
Saturday morning. From the bottom of my heart, I thank each and every one of
you who did absolutely anything to make last Saturday morning possible. See
what can happen when we all work together!
As we light our fourth candle today, on this Fourth
Sunday of Advent we concentrate now on Peace. It is time for all of us to have
a deep, deep peace way down into our souls, as we finish our Advent period of
preparation. Ultimately, it is that Peace that Jesus offers us that makes the
biggest difference. It truly changes lives. Once you experience His Peace, you
know you can’t live without it. It becomes the most important thing. People
will often ask me, why I became a priest. For me, the answer is very simple. I
experienced the extraordinary Peace of Jesus Christ very early on in my life as
a young man, and became painfully evident to me right away, that I needed that
Peace always. I had to be close to it. I had to have a dose of it every day.
And while you certainly can have that Peace every day without being a priest, it
became very clear to me that that is what I had to do have Jesus’ Peace.
There’s a very real connection between Jesus’ peace and our vocations. If you
are where God wants you to be, you are going to have deep Peace. And many
times, if you are not where God wants you to be, the lack of peace is the surest
sign that it is time for you to make a change and do something different.
“Peace is My gift to you” Jesus said. As we get ready for Christmas this week,
don’t miss out on Jesus’ gift to all of us this Christmas: His Peace!
Advent is NOT over quite yet. There are still prayers
to be said. There are people who need us to visit them. There’s still plenty
of good that needs to be done. Let’s do all that we can. Christmas is almost
here!
If you are going to be traveling this Thursday and
Friday, please have a safe journey and a wonderful celebration of Christmas
wherever you are going to be. We will look forward to you safe return to us.
If you are going to be here, we’ll look forward to seeing you here at Mass for
the Holy Day. On behalf of Fr. Dale Ehrman, Deacon Steve Miller, our
Seminarians, our Parish staff and our School staff, I wish you truly a most
blessed and Holy Christmas this year. Enjoy every minute of it!
Hopefully, we’ll all be back together next weekend for
the Feast of the Holy Family.
In Christ,
Fr. Kevin
Jesus became what we are that He might make us what He is. |
