Twilight Twitches

Dear Family,
January 20th is the feast of St. Sebastian. Sundays are key days for us, so the Sunday celebration always takes precedence over individual saints' days. But we know Sebastian is right there watching over us every day.

There is another date that is important for us. On March 12th we will officially mark the sixtieth anniversary of St. Sebastian Church. It's our DIAMOND JUBILEE YEAR.

As the year rolls along, I'd like to celebrate our 60th with actions and events that help us celebrate who we are, who we have been, and who we hope to be.

Dear Family,
Let me begin with an advertisement:

EVERY HOUSEHOLD NEEDS A COPY OF THE New  American Bible, Revised Edition - NAMBRE for short. There is a version called the Catholic Study Bible put out by Oxford University Press. It has one of the best short clear introductions to the Old and New Testaments you can find.

I always give one of these to someone exploring Catholicism. Where else does that journey begin but in God's own self-revelation?

I'm happy to share my stash with you. I have copies you can buy, or I will happily give you one if you promise to read it. (Books are too expensive these days.) You can also get an inexpensive large print edition of the NAMBRE. The notes in the bible itself are excellent. In fact, the one I'm quoting in this Twitch is one of them. You just can't get the Introduction study section with a large print edition.

Dear Family,
Once again, our bulletin deadlines have me writing ten days before you’ll read this. It’s December 28th, the Feast of the Holy Innocents. Before they could even speak, they were witnesses to love in the face of horror.

This Christmas was a wonderful gathering of the faith family. The emus were a welcome addition. Ask someone if you don’t get the reference.

Over the long New Year’s holiday, I’m sure we will have had more happy moments – and perhaps a suitable quaff or two as well. The days will also see Fr. Bill Mason, OMI, and Fr. Karl Davis, OMI, visit us and I’m sure you’ll meet one or the other. They are kindly offering me some welcome help, and all I had to do was offer them a bed. (Two beds, actually.) You might even meet Fr. Joseph McAuley who is coming from Scotland for a wedding. Suddenly, it got busy in priest city.

Dear Family,
So here we are with the last Twitch of 2018. Tomorrow is New Year's Eve and many around the world will celebrate. The magic of television and satellites invites us to see people universally rais¬ing a glass and offering a cheer. We and they are hoping for a happy 2019.

But you notice in the heading I preceded New Year with a line, ͺͺͺͺͺͺͺ. Why?