From the Pastor's Desk | November 30

Children’s Christmas Party!
The Knights of Columbus, Council of the Catholic Women, Jackie Rosalez, and Andrea Patton have all come together to plan an amazing Christmas party for the children!  I encourage all our parents to bring your kids.  There will be lunch, games, and even a visit from Santa Claus!  We will gather in the parish hall on December 6 at 11:30 am.  I hope to see you there! 

Lessons and Carols
Please mark your calendars for our third annual Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols on December 11 beginning at 6:30pm.  Afterwards we will again gather in the glass hallway for some Christmas cheer including mulled wine, hot cider, and Christmas cookies.  This is always a very well attended event and something I look forward to each year.

Gospel Reflection
Today we celebrate the first Sunday of the Advent season - the great season of waiting ushering in a new liturgical year.  Advent is meant to be a penitential season, much like Lent, as we move toward the great solemnity of the Nativity of our Lord.  There is, however, a sweetness to the Advent season even if it is meant to be a bit penitential.  As an aside, Advent is my favorite season of the year!    

What are we waiting for?  We certainly await the celebration of the birth of the savior - Christ’s first coming.  But, Advent and the celebration of Christmas are meant to point us to Christ’s second coming.  This is why our readings today kind of pick up where we left off at the end of the liturgical season the previous few weeks.  Recall, at the end of the liturgical year the Church asks us to contemplate the four last things - death, judgment, heaven, and hell.  Now, as we begin the new liturgical year and the season of Advent, our readings take on a similar theme - the end - thereby pointing us to Christ’s second coming.  

The book of Isaiah is filled with Messianic prophecies so our first reading for the entirety of Advent will come from Isaiah.  But, in this first Sunday, though Isaiah is prophesying about the coming of the Messiah, we also read that He shall judge between the nations, and impose terms on many peoples.  This is a clear foreshadowing of the Messiah’s justice and the judgment that will befall all of us in the end times.  

In our second reading St. Paul exhorts all of us to wake from our sleep for our salvation is nearer than we believed.  In other words, we are moving toward the end - either because of the certainty of our death or because of Christ’s second coming.  Regardless, we are called to throw off the darkness of this world that is so seductive and attractive and put on the armor of light that is Jesus Christ.  

In our Gospel, Jesus reminds us that we do not know on which day your Lord will come. What are we to do?  Prepare ourselves for at an hour we do not expect, the Son of Man will come.

As we enter this great season, let us pray for the grace to wait well.  The bridegroom is long delayed and it is easy to tire of waiting.  Waiting brings tension, discomfort, and even uncertainty.  Our culture prizes speed, instant gratification, constant entertainment, and spectacle.  Waiting can seem boring and slow.  Let us wait well!  Let us wait well by not being distracted with everything that pulls us out of relationship with Jesus Christ.  Let us wait well by remaining steadfast in our relationship with Christ through our prayer, our worship, our penance, and our meditation on the Word of God.  

May this Advent season be for us a time to recommit ourselves to the Lord as we wait for our earthly sojourn to end and the coming of our Lord in his glory.  

Know of my prayers for you all! 
Fr. Ryan