First Sunday of Advent

12-01-2019Weekly ReflectionFr. James Aboyi

Dear Parishioners,

Thank You

I thank God and would like to thank everyone for the wonderful Thanksgiving celebration during the week. I was particularly happy to see a good attendance at the Thanksgiving Mass to thank God first before our family celebrations. My special thanks to St. Vincent De Paul Society, the Knights of Columbus and all those who donated turkey and food items for our Thanksgiving outreach this year. Through your generosity, our parish community was able to put food on the table for so many families in and around our community this year. May God continue to bless you all as you willingly share your time, talents, and treasures with those in need.

New Liturgical Year

This weekend, we begin the season of Advent and also the beginning of a new Liturgical year: “Year A.” The term Advent comes from a Latin word: “Adventus,” meaning arrival or approaching. The season of Advent is always marked with some kinds of “Newness” each year. You noticed a few new things in the church today such as: the purple Altar cloth and vestments, signifying the period of anticipation and preparation for the birth of Jesus Christ on Christmas Day; the Advent wreath; decorations and new Advent banners. I always look forward to this beautiful period of the year when we enjoy the festive mood of the Christmas Season with beautiful Christmas music everywhere. Due to the influence of secularism in the society today, we hear many people referring to this period as the holiday season but we know that this period is all about the anticipation of the most popular birthday in the world: “The Birth of Jesus on Christmas Day.” I encourage everyone of us to consider including in our Christmas decorations something religious-related as our way of communicating to the world that Jesus is the Reason for the Christmas.

Together Let Us Go Forth~Juntos Segamos Adelante Campaign

I thank everyone who has participated in the Together Let Us Go Forth Campaign. I am grateful for your generous and sacrificial giving to support our parish and diocese. So far over 120 families have participated in the campaign with a total pledge of $492,350. This represent 38% of our overall goal of 1.3M. This may seem low to some, but I am quite impressed with our performance in the campaign so far. I am aware of the donor fatigue most of us are experiencing currently in our parish, and I again thank those who have made their sacrificial contributions to the campaign. The over 120 families from our parish who have participated so far represents about 10% of our registered families. I invite those of us who have not yet participated to join us in supporting the campaign by filling out a pledge card and returning it to the parish office by December 30. Pledge cards are available at the entrance of the church or you can visit TogetherGoForth.org to set up your pledge online, and a link is available from the home page of the parish website.

Thank you and Remain Blessed.

Fr. James