Year of Mercy: The much anticipated Year of Mercy begins this Tuesday, December 8, on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. In a nutshell, God wants us to experience his mercy and then be merciful to others. We as a parish are going to be focusing on the year of mercy and we want to keep you informed about the key things we hope to do as a parish. One of the concrete ideas is to focus on the corporal and spiritual works of mercy and how we live these out as Catholics. The biggest endeavor that we want to introduce, however, has to do with how we as a parish are merciful with our finances. This change is explained in the following paragraph.
5% tithing: We are going to begin tithing 5% of our weekend collections. Many years ago I helped out a parish that gave 5% of their weekend collection to a specific charity. I really admired this parish for their trust in giving some of their collection to help others. The Lord asks all of us to give to back to him from the first fruits of our labors and we want to do the same on a parish-wide level. Pope Francis has said over and over again that that the poor must always be the Church’s first priority and we believe that this 5% is a powerful way of doing so. After discussing the possibility that we might do the same with our Finance Commission and Pastoral Council, we are going to begin the 5% giving on the weekend of December 12th. The charities that we will be giving to are chosen based upon the recommendation of our Christian Service Commission. You will hearing Fr. Gary and I talk about this more in the future.
Immaculate Conception: The Mass times for the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception are 5:30 p.m. on Monday, December 7 and 6:30 a.m., 8 a.m., 5:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Tuesday, December 8. I hope to see you there as we kick off the Year of Mercy.
Our Lady of Guadalupe: December 12 is the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. This day is one of my favorite feast days. I plan on attending 7 p.m. Mass at Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish that day. Our Lady’s appearance in 1531 to Blessed Juan Diego is the main reason why the country of Mexico is mostly Catholic. Missionary priests had little success of converting the people from a pagan culture—including the sacrifice of children to false gods. But then Our Lady appeared and within ten years eight million people converted to the Catholic faith. I love the words that Our Lady said to Blessed Juan Diego (please see below):
Audit: Our parish audit is this week, from December 7 – 11.
Pearl Harbor: Monday is December 7 and many people remember December 7 as Pearl Harbor Day. One of our 55 and over members, Louise Kinsman, was actually there when it happened and has many stories to share about it–including seeing the planes flying overhead.
May you and your family have a Blessed Advent season.
Msgr. Jerry
Saint quote:
“Am I not here, I who am your Mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Am 1 not the source of your joy? Are you not in the hollow of my mantle, in the crossing of my arms? Do you need something more? Let nothing else worry you or disturb you.”
Words of Our Lady of Guadalupe to Blessed Juan Diego (and to us now) in 1531.