A Blessed Christmas: Fr. Gary and I want to wish everyone a very blessed Christmas. May the Christ child bring much peace and joy to you and your family. We are both very grateful to be assigned to Holy Family Parish. Thank you for your support, kindness, and generosity.
Family Tradition: Most families have their own family Christmas traditions. Mine goes something like this on Christmas Eve. My family gathers around 5 p.m., nibbles on food, and then around 7 p.m. the children (my great nieces and nephews) gather upstairs where they are read stories. Shortly thereafter, Santa comes and welcomes the children down. They take turns sitting on Santa’s lap and then gifts are opened and exchanged. It’s nice to be with family. I will drive home after the 4 p.m. Christmas Eve Mass and then come back for the Midnight Mass.
Difficult time: During this festive season for many people who have lost a loved one, especially a spouse, the holidays can be a rough time. We remember and pray for those who find the Christmas season difficult. We look forward in hope to being with our loved ones who have gone before us for all eternity!
December 27 is our Feast Day: This weekend we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family. This feast teaches us about Jesus, Mary, and Joseph–and about each one of us and our own families. Jesus spent 30 of his 33 earthly years in Nazareth, often called the ‘hidden years.’ We can learn a lot from this family from Nazareth. They reveal the holiness of ordinary life and show us how it can become extraordinary by simply doing the small things with love and compassion.
School Concert: I thoroughly enjoyed the school concert on December 17. They sounded great! The seventh graders did a short rendition of the Twelve Days of Christmas. They explained that this song was developed during the persecution of Catholics in England in the 16th century as a way to teach the faith. For example, four turtle doves represent the four Gospels and so on. Well done!
Guest priest: I have a gathering in Detroit with my classmates from Sacred Heart Major Seminary on Monday, Dec. 28. I am grateful that parishioner Nancy Rynearson’s grandson, Fr. Benjamin Rynearson, will take confessions at 5 p.m. and the 5:30 p.m. Mass that day. He is a priest of the Diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska, and is in the area visiting his grandmother. Welcome, Fr. Rynearson!
Some days away: I will be gone for a few days of vacation from Dec. 29 – Jan. 1. My mom has a list of jobs waiting for me!
Msgr. Jerry
Saint quote of the week:
“Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the Wise Men, was in a furious rage, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under.” (Matthew 2: 16)
The Feast of the Holy Innocents is on December 28.