Pastor’s Letter: January 15, 2023

Pastor’s Letter: January 15, 2023

13 Jan 2023 | Posted by: chadmin

The January 15 bulletin is available online.

Dear friends,

As we settle into Ordinary Time in the Church, our spiritual focus turns to the public ministry of Jesus. This past Monday, we celebrated the feast of the Baptism of the Lord. This feast day officially marks the end of the Christmas season and transitions to Jesus’ preaching as John baptizes Jesus. The Gospel reading this Sunday continues this movement as John points out Jesus to his followers. He recalls the baptism and seeing the dove descend upon Jesus. John then points to Jesus and names him the Lamb of God. To the first century listener, they would understand that Jesus was to be a sacrifice for the people. The paschal lamb from the Passover marks the delivery of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. This theme is to be assumed and completed by Jesus as the Lamb of God. Many of John’s followers immediately begin to follow Jesus. This move from following John to following Jesus shows us where the quest for truth leads us, always to Jesus. As John points out, the desire of Jesus is to baptize us with the Holy Spirit. God desires to dwell within us to guide us to his kingdom. The presence of God in our minds and hearts challenges us to know and live the commandments. As we celebrate the Mass during Ordinary Time, may recalling the teachings of Jesus inspire us to grow in our understanding the Kingdom of God.

The cleanup of the Parish Center continues to progress. The painting was completed and the carpets are cleaned. We were so fortunate that the water was turned off quickly and the building was dried before further damage. The last parts of the restoration should be completed this week so that we can move the storage and office items back to the proper locations and begin using the Banquet Room again. This week we installed some temperature sensors in the drop ceiling to help ensure that we don’t have another freeze of our fire suppression sprinkler system. Have a great week.

God bless

Father David