Dear Family,
The construction company installing the new Harbour Inlet water lines have pipe stored in our lot and are using the site to transfer ripped up pavement to dump trucks. Another company is digging up the green field to keep “Lake Sebastian” from running off into our neighbors’ yards. Some folks whose condo parking is being re-paved are using spaces in between the pipes and the rocks. The new flooring in the rectory kitchen is buckling. Some people are having post-election fidgets, and, oh yes, the pandemic is having a surge on its surge.
Just another quiet day in the neighborhood....
On the other hand, there are beautiful newly planted flowers in front of the church for Christmas and today (December 1st) might be just about the most beautiful day I can remember in many moons.
We couldn’t have asked for better scriptures than the ones we’ve got this weekend. Listen to Isaiah: “Comfort, give comfort to my people, says your God.” Psalm 85: “Kindness and truth shall meet...” and finally, in the opening words of his Gospel, Mark tells us about John the Baptist proclaiming: “One mightier than I is coming after me.”
Professor (of Psychology) Julie Kalkowski writes a beautiful reflection on these readings in the Daily Reflections page of Creighton University’s online ministry. She quotes St. Oscar Romero:
“The Christian knows that Christ has been working in humanity for twenty centuries and that the person that is converted to Christ is the new human being that society needs to organize a world according to God’s heart.”
Ms. Kalkowski goes on to add, “If the events in our world are causing you grief and anxiety, read and reread the opening lines from Isaiah about comfort. So many of us need comfort right now with the pandemic worsening; fear about losing homes through foreclosures or evictions; and peo-ple refusing to accept the outcome of the elec¬tion.” She hit it right on the head. You can almost feel Isaiah’s comfort.
I feel very comforted by the work that has been going on in our audio-visual department. We are now able to ‘broadcast’ our liturgy into the parish hall. We have no idea what to expect at Christmas, but we can now at least accommodate more people who will be spaced correctly.
Here’s a heads-up regarding Christmas Liturgy.
Our Christmas Schedule will be
Christmas Eve
5:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.
NO MIDNIGHT MASS
Christmas Day
8:30 a.m. and 11:00 a.m.
We will not have an Advent Reconciliation Service, but I will be available after our weekend and daily Masses for personal Reconciliation. Not to worry. If you will Be Clear, Be Brief, and you will Be Gone. Don’t confess what everyone else did wrong. Just your sins. That always speeds it up a little.
Remember: We ‘COME TO’ celebrate that we are converted to Christ as St. Oscar said. We shall be Him for each other.
In our Savior,
