Letter from the Pastor
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November 21, 2021
Today we celebrate the end of the Year of Grace 2021. Next Sunday is the First Sunday of Advent and a new Year of Grace. There are many times we start a new year, calendar year on January 1st, but then we have an academic year, fiscal year, astronomical year, etc. and we also have a Liturgical Year, Sacred events and time to mark the days of the year.
Whereas the calendar year has 4 seasons, the liturgical year is made up of six seasons.
Advent- four weeks of preparation before the celebration of Christmas, then Christmastide recalling the Nativity of Jesus Christ and His manifestation to the peoples of the world, which ends at the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. Then the Holy Season of Lent, which is a 6-week period of prayer, charity and penance preparing us the Sacred Paschal Triduum. The Triduum is the three holiest days of the year. We recall the Last Supper on Holy Thursday, the Death on Good Friday and the silence of Holy Saturday. After the somber days of the Triduum, the Church rejoices for 50 long days of Easter Season, which concludes at Pentecost. The rest of the year is known as Ordinary time I, II, the Sundays marked by ordinal numbering, not the most poetic way but it works! Ordinary time is divided into two sections (one span of 4-8 weeks after Christmas Time and another lasting about six months after Easter Time), wherein we consider the Lord’s teachings and works among His people.
Then there are the feast days of our Blessed Lady and the Saints. These days proclaim the wonderful works of Christ in His followers and offer us examples of Christian living; we ought to try to imitate the lives of the saints. The saints’ feast day is when they died from earthly life and were born again to eternal life.
There are certain weekdays that are so important we must gather as a family to thank God, the Church puts an obligation on us to attend Mass, these are known as Holy Days of Obligation. There are other feast days, which celebrate churches or events, and All Souls.
Christ, by living on earth, has sanctified time and our calendar. As we live out the year we ought to meditate on Christ and His life during the different seasons. We need to experience the holy seasons; try spiritually to relive the mysteries of Christ. Then the year becomes what it should be: a call to immerse ourselves totally into the mystery of Christ and His life and His teachings. If we enter into the mystery of the particular season, then the year for us becomes spiritual..
It is fitting that we crown the year with the Feast of Christ the King. After Vatican II and the re-working of the Liturgical Calendar, St. Pope Paul VI moved the Feast of Christ the King from the last Sunday in October to the last Sunday of the Year. Today we look back over the past year of Grace and see how God worked in our life and the lives of our loved ones. The question for us this day is "did we grow closer to the Lord this year, or grow apart?" Whatever our honest answer is, we pray that we will have more time to be blessed and grow deeper in our love for God.
Today, Sunday at 4:00 PM, we will celebrate Solemn Vespers (evening prayer) with Benediction. You are invited to come and pray a prayer of thanksgiving for the past year of God’s grace leading us ever toward our goal: Eternity with God.
You are invited this Thursday for Thanksgiving Day Mass at 9:00 AM,
our only Mass of the day.
Please bring a food item to be blessed & to be returned to your home.
