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 Dear
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Welcome to our celebration of the Second Sunday of Advent!
Today we light our second purple candle on our Advent wreath.
And it makes us wonder just how are we doing at keeping this
Season of Advent? It surely looks like Christmas all around us:
many already have their trees up; many homes are already lit up
like the Griswold’s in that movie,
Christmas Vacation;
and many have already started “exchanging” gifts. What I wonder
is, how many of us have read ANY of the writings of the prophets
from the Old Testament that prepare us for Jesus’ coming? How
many of us have made any extra stops in the Blessed Sacrament
Chapel so far this Advent? Or how many of us have stopped by
our HELP Committee’s gift room to help sort and prepare the
Christmas packages for those in need? There’s so much more to
this awesome time of Advent than “jumping the gun” to start
celebrating Christmas early. It’s not time for Christmas yet.
We’ve got too much to do!
Our theme for the Second Sunday of Advent is Faith. We
would all do well today to remember how precious our Faith is.
Faith is a gift from God. I talk with so many people every
month who would give anything to have Faith. We should never
take our Faith for granted. Faith is a living thing. Like our
plants at home, Faith must be cared for and tended so that it
keeps growing stronger. And just like our plants at home, Faith
can also die if it is neglected, or if it isn’t nourished, or if
it isn’t protected from things that can harm it.
Faith can make all the difference in the world. Jesus
was right in the Gospel when He said that true Faith can move
mountains, and uproot huge trees. If you have Faith, you can do
anything that God asks you to do. Faith helps us to see the
bigger picture and to know what this life is really all about.
Faith can get you through the very worst days of your life, and
even help you to bring good out of the worst of times. And
Faith can make the best days of your life that much more
enjoyable and worthwhile. If you have the tiniest amount of
Faith, Faith the size of a mustard seed, you still have
something very special indeed, because Faith grows, it
multiplies, and replenishes itself given the right
opportunities. And if all this is true, and I firmly believe
that it is, then we should be doing everything that we can to
grow in our Faith and make our Faith stronger everyday! The
Sacraments, prayer, service, reading the Bible and other
spiritual readings, ALL of these things help our Faith to grow.
Wouldn’t it be so much better for our souls if we would just
shut off the TV for a couple of hours in the evening, and did
any of these things to feed our Faith?
This weekend, we are introduced to Jesus’ cousin, John
the Baptist, in the Gospel. John calls all of us to return to
Faith, just as he did to the people that he preached to in the
desert over two-thousand years ago. What would it take for you
to take your Faith more seriously? What would it take for you
to be as concerned about your Faith, or your kid’s Faith, as you
are concerned about your house, or your car, or your body?
Today John’s talking to us. Will we listen?
We have a situation coming up in just two weeks that we
all need to be aware of. The Fourth Sunday of Advent will be
celebrated this year on Dec. 23rd
and 24th.
Our Masses on Sunday morning, Dec. 24th
at 8:00 AM and 10:00 AM are for the Fourth Sunday of Advent.
Just a few hours later, at 5:00 PM, we will have our first Mass
of the Christmas vigil. The U.S. Bishops and our own Bishop are
reminding us all that we have an obligation to attend Mass on
the Fourth Sunday of Advent
AND
for the Holy Day of Obligation, Christmas. For many Catholics,
especially those who prefer to go to Mass on Christmas Eve, this
will mean going to Mass twice in one day. In this instance,
this is not only acceptable, but necessary and required.
Catholics going to Mass twice on the 24th
ARE ALLOWED to receive Holy Communion twice in the same day. Of
course, you could go to Mass on Saturday, Dec. 23rd
at 4:30 PM for the Fourth Sunday of Advent and then go to Mass
at 10:00 AM on Christmas Day, and not go to Mass at all on the
24th.
The choice is yours. This doesn’t happen very often, but when
it does, we must be very careful to fulfill all of our
obligations to God. These are not just rules and regulations.
This too is a matter of our Faith! Please plan now on how you
and your family will work this out, even if you are traveling.
Let’s have a great week! Treasure your Faith and nourish it
this week!
In Christ,
Fr. Kevin
You make a living by what you get. You make a life by what you
give. |
