Pastor’s Christmas Letter & Bulletin

Pastor’s Christmas Letter & Bulletin

25 Dec 2020 | Posted by: chadmin

The bulletin for Christmas and December 27 is available online. 

Dear friend,

Merry Christmas! Every year the celebration of Christmas includes so many cultural and family traditions. This time of year always invites us to reflect upon the love of God and the meaning of family. Christmas is a time to emphasize our sentiments of love and thanksgiving for family and acquaintances. The “spirit of Christmas” invites us to apologize and ask forgiveness in those relationships that need healing. Christmas often elicits thoughts of shopping, gift giving, music, or Santa Claus. However, Christmas is the celebration of the Christ – Mass. Christmas is the day when we remember, with the celebration of the Mass, that God came as the Christ or the Messiah to be our savior. While the celebration of Christmas carries many themes in our culture, the primary celebration is that God is with us…Emmanuel.

In Jesus, we see “the image of the invisible God.” The mystery of Christmas is a reminder that we are not alone. No matter our state in life, social status, physical well-being, male or female, Jew or Greek, the Bible reminds us we are all “one in Christ Jesus.” Christmas, as a twelve-day celebration in the Church, calls us to celebrate everything that this feast means to our lives in this world and eternal life. Our prayer is that our celebrating leads us to reflect more deeply on the humility of God born to the Virgin. Let us commit ourselves to live in that prayer at the celebration of the Mass.

The year 2020 has been like no other. Each year the holidays can bring spiritual and emotional challenges to many people in our community as they experienced the loss of a loved one or a significant change to the family dynamic. Rarely do we collectively experience a year as this one. Everyone was affected by Covid-19. With the news of a vaccine, there is a light at the end of the tunnel, but the fragments of the year remain. The loss of loved ones, the loss of work, the loss of family gatherings, the loss of in-person education or the loss of our communal celebration of the Mass, has affected us all in different ways. As we grieve what has been, may our eyes focus on what can be, both in this world and in the world to come. The peace of the newborn Christ is solely about communion and togetherness. When we unite our minds and hearts with God Himself, we become more like Him and less like ourselves. God pulls us out of our own way of living into a union with Him that is like no other. No matter what we individually grieve this year, may we allow the newborn Christ to bring us hope.

The Christmas gift to our parish family this year is the book “The Search.” The Augustine Institute, which runs the online Catholic library of books, videos, movies, bible studies and child educational opportunities, produced a book and video series to help people find their way to Jesus and His Church. The book is available in the vestibule of church and the videos are available by clicking on the “Formed” button on our website. I hope this brings some additional spiritual inspiration to the Christmas Season.

Merry Christmas and God Bless you!

Father David