Merry Christmas!!! May you and your family be filled with Christmas joy and peace this Christmas Season. We welcome any visitors to our parish! Thank you for your support and kindness during the year. I am especially grateful for your many cards, generosity and goodies bestowed upon Fr. Gary and me. I did receive for the first time a Christmas stocking of coal with a note that said, “You were expecting something other than this? Maybe next year!” from Santa. Regardless, we both feel extremely blessed to be here.
Beauty: The Church and the parish hall look beautiful for our Christmas Masses. Thank you to Jim Otis and his team of willing volunteers who work hard in making everything beautiful for the season.
Celebrating: The Church celebrates many different feasts this week. Among them are: December 26 which is the Feast of St. Stephen, the first martyr of the Church. December 27 is the Feast of St. John the Evangelist, the beloved disciple who stayed with Mary at the foot of the cross. December 28 is the Feast of the Holy Innocents, the babies killed through an order of King Herod as he attempted to kill the Christ child in Bethlehem.
Feast Day: This Friday, December 30, is our Feast Day as we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family. We’ll have Mass at 8 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. that day as we pray for our own families.
Peace: We pray, as well, for our brothers and sisters who live in the war-torn areas, especially Syria and other areas in the Middle East. May the Christ Child restore the beauty of peace to that land.
Vacation: On the day after Christmas I will be hosting my classmates from Detroit. And then I will be on a little vacation visiting family.
May you all have a blessed, joyful and peaceful Christmas!!!
Msgr. Jerry