Posted on December 1, 2023 View all Pastor's Letter
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ:
Happy Advent season! As you will notice, in our sanctuary this Sunday, we begin the time of Advent. The Advent wreath has already been placed, and the first of the four candles will be lit, indicating that we have started the first week. It is a time of grace and preparation to receive Jesus in the manger of our hearts; for me, it is one of the most beautiful times because, together with Christmas, they make me enter an atmosphere of peace and meditation on the great mystery of the incarnation of Jesus in the world.
With Advent, we have begun a new liturgical year. In this new year, we will read the Gospel of Saint Mark. It is said of Mark that it is the most “primitive” and least structured gospel but with more extraordinary narrative vividness. It is also the most kerygmatic, with little didactic material. He is more interested in Jesus’ actions than in his speeches. He is the only evangelist to use the term “gospel.” Such a word gives depth of field to all of his writing, not a reporter’s chronicle but the proclamation of the “good news of Jesus, Son of God” (1, 1).
Advent comes from the Latin adventus, which means coming arrival. This time invites us to prepare for the coming of the Messiah, the arrival of the light that is Jesus, who becomes a man like us except in sin.
We are beginning the last month of this year, a year full of challenges that have made us grow and mature and great achievements and changes. Everything that has come this year should help us renew hope and look at ourselves in our faults and weaknesses. We must be grateful to God because we are still alive. May this last month be to examine ourselves and see in each one how much we have grown in holiness and in what areas we should continue working.
Changing the subject, I inform you that next Wednesday, December 6th, the office/church will be closed. The county has informed us that they will perform rehabilitation services on the sanitary sewer system. Therefore, water service will be discontinued from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm. All activities for the day will be canceled, except for the 6:30 and 9:00 am Masses.
Also, I want to inform you so that you can put on your calendars that in preparation for the Christmas celebration, we will have the Advent Penitential Service on Wednesday, December 20th. We will be listening to confessions starting at 7:00 pm, and we will invite other priests to help us and thus enter ready to celebrate the Christmas holidays.
I also invite all parents to bring their children to a Christmas pre-celebration on December 10th; that day, we will have the first breakfast with Saint Nicholas, a morning to share and prepare for Christmas. The feast of Saint Nicholas is on December 6th, but we will celebrate it four days later. Breakfast will be after the 8:00 am and 10:00 am masses. In advance, I thank the Knights of Columbus for their collaboration. Breakfast costs $10 for adults and $6.00 for children. You will find more information in the bulletin.
I have you in my prayers, and have a blessed Advent.
Fr. Alex
