Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Happy Advent! We welcome all of our visitors who join us this weekend, as we light our first candle on our Advent wreath and begin our preparations for the Feast of Christmas in just four weeks! In a special way, we welcome home all of our college students who are back for Thanksgiving. It’s really good to see you guys again. We have been praying for you and hopefully, you have been praying for all of us.

The Advent season is a time of joyful anticipation and preparation. As if Advent wasn’t joyful enough, we continue to prepare also for our own Tenth Anniversary of the First Mass at St. Maria Goretti and our One-Year Anniversary of being in our new church. I wonder, at what point do we stop calling it a “new” church? They didn’t teach me that in seminary. In addition, for over two hundred and thirty of our families, this is the only worship space that you have known here at St. Maria Goretti, because you came here after Dec. 8 th last year. Anyway, we have a lot to be joyful about and grateful for in these next two weeks. Our “official” celebration of these anniversaries and milestones will take place on Thursday evening, Dec. 8 th at a special Mass at 7:00 PM. This will be the only Mass at St. Maria Goretti for the Holy Day of Obligation, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. It is my hope that as many of us as possible will be able to attend that Mass. We do have much to be thankful for on Dec. 8 th. We need YOU and YOUR FAMILY here. This is OUR Parish. God has done great things! We need to celebrate this and to give thanks to God. Mark your calendars today.

As I mentioned in last week’s bulletin, we are also looking forward to our joint celebration with Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Parish next Sunday, Dec. 4 th. This will take place at 2:00 PM, at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Catholic Church, located at the corner of 146 th St. and Oak Ridge Rd, on the north side of Carmel. Again, because we have so many new families and because the vast majority of St. Maria Goretti Parish now have never set foot inside of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, a little history is in order. St. Maria Goretti was founded in 1995 as a Mission of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. This is not the “typical” way that a new parish starts out. The founding of new parishes usually comes out of an initiative from the Diocese. In our case, the high-growth rate in this area of Hamilton County coupled with a desperate need for additional Catholic grade schools in this area, led Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Parish and its leadership at that time, to ask our Diocese for a new parish. Not only did Our Lady of Mt. Carmel ask for a new parish, but it also took on the responsibility for getting it started - spiritually, financially, and literally, as the first three hundred families at St. Maria Goretti came right out of, or off of, the family roster of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. This also included “stealing” one of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel’s associate pastors, namely me, to head up the project here at St. Maria Goretti. From the very beginning, the goal was to create a parish that looked a lot like what Our Lady of Mt. Carmel did. At the time, OLMC was the second largest parish in the State of Indiana. It had a large school. It was very active, Spirit-filled, and growing by leaps and bounds. Our Lady of Mt. Carmel stood solidly with traditional, Roman Catholic teaching on doctrine and morals, and yet, also in line with the bigger Church, was progressive in Catholic social teachings and in reaching out to those in need and those who seek peace and justice. Lots of people wanted to be part of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. The hope was, and is, that today lots of people would also want to be part of St. Maria Goretti, because it stood for the same things. We trace our “roots” back to a wonderful, vibrant Parish with a strong sense of belonging. We are all grateful to Our Lady of Mt. Carmel for all that they did for us, to get us started. The reality is, that St. Maria Goretti would not be here if it were not for Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Parish and it’s commitment to the fact that being “Church” is bigger than just being a single parish. We are all very grateful. We congratulate Our Lady of Mt. Carmel on their 50 years of building the Kingdom of God. And we are proud of our shared history with them. We’ll celebrate that next Sunday. I hope as many of us as possible will be able to attend this special prayer time next Sunday.

These are great days of Grace. Our God has always done miracles during Advent. For God’s things to happen, we must remember that it is NOT Christmas yet. These next four weeks are a special time. I pray that the Spirit of Advent melts the hearts of all of us, to prepare us for the Christ-Child. We’ve got four weeks. Let’s see what God can do for us and what we can do for God!

In Christ,

Fr. Kevin

Faith is not belief. Belief is passive. Faith is active. - Edith Hamilton