Posted on December 6, 2024 View all Pastor's Letter
Dear Parishioners,
Happy second week of Advent! As we journey through this season of grace and preparation, let us remember that Advent is a time to ready our hearts to receive Jesus in the manger. It’s a time of spiritual growth and reflection, a time to deepen our relationship with God.
This second Sunday of Advent, we light the second purple candle; today’s liturgy of the Word invites us to conversion; John the Baptist, the voice crying in the desert, calls us to prepare for the coming of the Messiah, with actions that help us to love, heal, and improve our relationships with God and with those around us. “Do not waste this time of mercy offered by God,” says St. Gregory the Great. —Let us not spoil this moment suitable for imbuing ourselves with this purifying love that is offered to us, we can tell ourselves, now that the season of Advent begins to open up before us. I think it is important to ask ourselves some very specific questions: Are we prepared, during this Advent, to straighten the paths for our Lord? Can I turn this time into a time for a more authentic, more penetrating confession in my life? John asked for sincerity—sincerity with oneself—and abandonment to His divine mercy. In doing so, he helped the people to live for God, to understand that living is a matter of striving to open the paths of virtue and letting the grace of God vivify their spirit with its joy.
As mentioned in the previous Sundays, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception will be celebrated this year on Monday the 9th for reasons that we have already explained and that our bishop clarified in a letter you received last week, which I hope you have read. This solemnity is a day of obligation; therefore, attendance at Mass is mandatory. The times of the Eucharist next Monday, December 9, will be 6:30 am, 9:00 am, 12:00 noon, and 6:00 pm in English and 7:30 pm in Spanish.
On December 12, the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, we will have the morning mañanitas with Mariachis starting at 4:00 am, and during that time, we will pray the Holy Rosary until ending at 6:00 am; the solemn Mass will be at 7:00 pm, that day we will also have a sale of traditional food after the Mass. I also ask those who wish to donate roses for the altar of Our Lady to bring them on December 10th or 11th during the day so that we can have enough for this year. We had had an Advent Penitential Service in preparation for Christmas in previous years. In the last years, attendance was minimal, and the priests we invited came for less than an hour, and the days before Christmas, we were overloaded with confessions for just the two priests; this year, we will have confessions 3 days in a row on December 17, 18 and 19, please put it on your calendars so you can prepare for the celebration of Christmas in grace.
Happy Week!
Fr. Alex
