 Fr.
Tom's Tomes December 4, 2005
This week we celebrate the feast of the Immaculate Conception. This is a Holy Day of Obligation and every Catholic should attend Mass either the night before or the day of the feast. This feast day reminds us of the Catholic Church’s teaching that Mary was born without original sin. Since God chose her to be the mother of God’s Son, Jesus Christ, the Church believes she was kept from original sin. Mary truly participated in the plan of salvation by saying yes to the angel Gabriel sent from God.
We celebrate this feast in the Season of Advent which is the preparation for Christmas as well as preparing ourselves for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. This feast during Advent gives us an added time to think about our response to God. Day in and day out we have many small and sometimes large decisions to make. Do the decisions we make reflect a strong and faithful commitment to Jesus Christ? Our faith is not something to be practiced only on Sunday but truly is to be lived daily. Our faith and belief in God and Jesus should help us respond in our world today as faithful witnesses of God. Our decisions should say to us and others I do believe and I am making the best decisions not for what is easy for me but what God would ask of us.
This Sunday afternoon the children and parents who are preparing for First Communion will be celebrating their First Reconciliation. Being reconciled with God is powerful in our lives. Through God’s love our sins are forgiven and we are renewed in God’s family. I would invite the parishioners to pray on Sunday afternoon for those who are making their First Reconciliation this afternoon.
All parishioners are encouraged to receive the Sacrament of Penance before Christmas. It is a good time to stop and remember we need God’s forgiveness as much as those who are preparing for their First Communion. Also adults should know that they need to give a good example to their children and grandchildren, that the Sacrament of Penance is important and all of us need to receive this sacrament. Examples of the parents and grandparents are extremely important by letting your children and grandchildren know what to do. It would be well to even come to celebrate the Sacrament of Penance (Confession) together. Take time on Saturday afternoon at 4:00 pm or Sunday morning at 9:15 am to come together to celebrate this sacrament. Closer to Christmas there will be an evening when there will be the opportunity for the Sacrament of Penance.
The Knights of Columbus meeting for December will be December 5. The time and place of the meeting has been changed. The place will be at the rectory and the time will be at 7:00 pm. I want to thank the Knights of Columbus for their generosity in making the rectory more accommodating for me. The Knights have generously offered to close off the second floor of the rectory to save heating costs. Even more importantly for me they are going to install a ramp on the inside of the rectory leading to the sacristy. Because of my health I do have difficulty with steps and the Knights have generously offered to put in a ramp to help me. I appreciate this very much as it saves me a lot of discomfort and pain. The Knights are hoping for a great turn out of Knights to try and figure out a schedule of volunteers to assist in this project. If you are a Knight please come and join in this meeting. If you have not been to a meeting in a while, now would be a great time to become involved again. This is a great Council and we need to continue to build upon the strength of this council.
God bless you and have a good Advent week.
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