It is hard to believe that Christmas is over… Wait, we are Catholics and Christmas is season until the feast of the Baptism of the Lord. This year that is Sunday, January 9. So keep celebrating!!

Today is the feast of the Holy Family; it is important to remember that the Holy Family is not simply Jesus, Mary and Joseph. God is our Father, Mary is our Mother, and Jesus is our brother… we are also part of the Holy Family by adoption.

Next weekend we celebrate Christmas, the fulfilled promise of our God to come to us, and we look forward to His coming again in glory. Most of our Christmas Masses will be on Christmas Eve, as usual.

I hope you are having a wonderful Advent season. It seems like our parish Advent is more busy than usual, and I am always talking about slowing down in Advent. Oh well…

Today, Sunday we have our celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe at our 9:00am Mass followed by a brunch. This afternoon at 3:00pm we will enjoy our Advent Concert given by our music ministry. On Wednesday Julie Carrick will be with us again sharing faith and music as only she can do.

We are beginning Advent; for the Church this is the beginning of a new liturgical year. Advent is the time of preparation to receive the gift of the Incarnation of the our Lord. It is not Christmas yet! I usually advise our groups to celebrate Advent rather than Christmas. For Catholics, Christmas is a season following the birth of our Lord. For secular folks, Christmas starts sometime in the Fall and concludes with Christmas Day.

Let me continue last week’s meditation from the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council:

“While the Church helps the world and herself receives much from the world, she has one object in view: the coming of God’s kingdom and the salvation of the whole human race. Every good that the people of God in the course of its earthly pilgrimage can confer on the human family derives from the fact that the Church is the universal sacrament of salvation, revealing, and at the same time bringing into operation, the mystery of God’s love for all people.

One of the documents from the Second Vatican Council is the pastoral constitution on the Church in the Modern World; I want to share a part of that with you this week and next:

“The way in which the earthly and the heavenly city interpenetrate each other can be recognized only by faith; indeed, it remains a mystery of human history, that is, of a history always troubled by sin until the glory of the sons of God is fully revealed.

In many parishes, November is the month to talk about your stewardship of God’s gifts. Last week I wrote about tithing and this week I want to mention another important subject.

This year, due to the uncertainty of the Covid virus and our increased activities, our budget is not balanced. We have a small deficit. One thing that helps us budget is our Faith Direct program that so many of you participate in. Faith Direct allows us to know how much we can expect each week; it also allows you to give even if you cannot attend Mass.

One of the things pastors hear often is: “The Church is always asking for money!” I answer “yes”, because second only the preaching the Kingdom of God, Jesus talked about money and how we use the gifts God gives us more and any other subject. There are two points I like to point out:

Next weekend after the Masses we will have our annual Ministry Fair in the Parish Center. All of our various groups and ministries will be there to talk about their plans for the year and their need for volunteers. After we “shut down” during Covid-19 many groups are just starting to get going, and they can use your help. Also, there are a lot of plans for the coming year; you will want to know what is planned and when so that you do not miss out.

It is hard to believe that we are half way through October already! As I have been telling you, our parish is getting very busy with activities and I want to make you aware of what is coming up.

The Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos Gala will take place here at our parish on Saturday, October 29. This is their major fundraiser for the year and we are happy to host them. Tickets can be purchased online at NPH South West. The speaker this year is a young man with a very special story; and he is a friend of mine.

Last month we began again talking about our new rectory and some questions came up that I want to clarify. First, a rectory is not a “house” it is more complicated than a house. Each priest needs private space, so there are “suites” not just bedrooms in a rectory. Each suite has a sitting room, a bedroom and a bathroom and each suite has a separate temperature control. Usually a rectory will have a chapel for prayer and a guest room. Our rectory will have four suites to allow us to have retired priests with us to help, and to pay rent.

I’m excited to endorse another Men’s (Oct 16-17) and Women’s (Oct 23) RENEWAL weekend in our parish center. This is the 55th Renewal weekend that our parish has offered, and hundreds have experienced this Renewal transformation. There is no charge for these weekends - it is a gift from the parish. What a great way to meet another 20-30 bothers and sisters in Christ. If you have attended before, consider attending again. It is a Renewal weekend and we all are in need of Renewal.