Rejoice!
Advent's third Sunday
Announcements for December 12, 2020:
The wind has died down and the temperature is climbing: Let's plan on our 11:00am Sunday Mass being outside, in front of the church, this weekend. I will send a text if anything changes - let me know if you want to receive these text notifications from us.
We will host our Advent Lessons and Carols service on Sunday. Join us in front of the church at 3:00pm to celebrate this beautiful season with due solemnity.
You'll want to check out our plans for Christmas, including our schedule of Masses. Click here for everything you need.
Find all of our announcements (and more) now in one place: our Parishioner Portal. (Scroll to the bottom of any page on our website to find the link.)
Please be in touch with me if you need anything at all, or if you'd like to share any questions or concerns.
Dear Saints,
This weekend we celebrate Gaudete Sunday. Gaudete is a Latin word that means rejoice, and we find it in the entrance antiphon for Sunday's Mass:
"Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice. Indeed, the Lord is near."
More on that in a bit. But for now, I want to encourage you to join us tomorrow for Lessons and Carols (see the flyer below). The Advent singing and scripture service begins at 3:00pm on Sunday in front of the church.
These past few years, our Lessons and Carols service has been the highlight of my Advent experience. If you are able to come, please make every effort to be here. You won't regret it!
The Gaudete refrain I mentioned above tells us to rejoice because the Lord is near. The longer version of the same antiphon gives us a fuller sense of what this looks like:
"Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice. Indeed, the Lord is near. Have no anxiety about anything, but in all things, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be known to God. Lord, you have blessed your land; you have turned away the captivity of Jacob."
Here, we see that our rejoicing is a matter of trust. In prayer we entrust ourselves - our whole heart and our whole life - to God; we thank him for his goodness to us; and we ask him to meet our need knowing that he has, he does, and he will.
As we grow in trust of (and live more totally for) Jesus, our Lord and King who is born to us in Bethlehem and whose return we eagerly await, our lives will yield the fruit of repentance. With the power of God's own life of love at work in us and working through us we will bear love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, generosity, faithfulness, and self-control in abundance.
So, trust. And rejoice!
My reflection in this weekend's bulletin ties in quite nicely to this theme. Let me know whether or not you see the connections.
I look forward to seeing you very soon, my friends.
Christ's Peace,
Father Daniel
δοῦλος Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ
PS Our Marian Antiphon for the Advent season is the Alma Redemptoris Mater. Check it out here.
Preparing for Mass?
Check out this weekend's readings:
Third Sunday of Advent
