Dear Christ Our King and Savior Parish Family,
Since Christmas Eve falls on a Monday, I'd like to use this "Pastor's Page" to wish you not only a blessed last few days of Advent, but also a very blessed and merry Christmas!
While we may not get a white Christmas in these parts very often, there will be a great flurry of activity the next few days. We will have our normal Mass schedule for the 4th Sunday of Advent, then Monday there are four Vigil Masses.
4PM -- Family Mass with youth choir and pre-Mass pagaent
6PM -- Vigil in English, with prelude Christmas Carols
8PM -- Vigil Mass in Spanish
10PM -- Mass in the Night with prelude Christmas Carols.
There will also be a Mass at 9AM on Christmas morning.
Which ever Mass you come to, expect a large crowd and please arrive early. As you know, people who do not attend regularly often come in great numbers for Christmas. Please be welcoming to them, even if they are sitting in "your pew". Let's create the environment that will make them want to be part of our parish family every week! A little patience and grace can go a long way!
After all, the great mystery we celebrate is that the Creator of the Universe, the one who holds all things in existence has taken on flesh, become man, and entered the world
for us
. The Christ-event, his coming into the world to save us, is the central moment of all of time, and it gives us loads to think about and should help tenderize our hearts.
The words of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI invite us wonderfully into the sacred themes of these holy days (from an audience he gave on December 17, 2008):
Dear brothers and sisters, Christmas is a privileged opportunity to meditate on the meaning and value of our existence. The approach of this Solemnity helps us on the one hand to reflect on the drama of history in which people, injured by sin, are perennially in search of happiness and of a fulfilling sense of life and death; and on the other, it urges us to meditate on the merciful kindness of God who came to man to communicate to him directly the Truth that saves, and to enable him to partake in his friendship and his life. Therefore let us prepare ourselves for Christmas with humility and simplicity, making ourselves ready to receive as a gift the light, joy and peace that shine from this mystery. Let us welcome the Nativity of Christ as an event that can renew our lives today. The encounter with the Child Jesus makes us people who do not think only of themselves but open themselves to the expectations and needs of their brothers and sisters. In this way we too will become witnesses of the radiance of Christmas that shines on the humanity of the third millennium. Let us ask Mary Most Holy, Tabernacle of the Incarnate Word, and St Joseph, the silent witness of the events of salvation, to communicate to us what they felt while they were waiting for the Birth of Jesus, so that we may prepare ourselves to celebrate with holiness the approaching Christmas, in the joy of faith and inspired by the commitment to sincere conversion.
A very Merry Christmas to all of you and your families! May the Birth of Christ we celebrate these days give us the grace and encouragement to open our hearts to the One who came to save us!
Peace in Christ,
Fr. Michael