Here Comes the King!
Advent's fourth Sunday
Announcements for December 18, 2021:
You can find our Christmas schedule here.
There will be a blessing of the Bambinelli (Baby Jesuses from your home crèches) before the 4:00pm Mass on Christmas Eve.
The new OLMC stained-glass ornament has arrived. For purchase, check it out in our online store. Ornaments will also be sold after Masses this weekend and next.
To give to our Christmas flowers collection, check out our parish campaigns on the parishioner portal.
A new Tuesday afternoon Bible study will begin in January. Check out the bulletin, or be in touch with us for more information.
Visit the OLMC Parishioner Portal for all of our recent announcements.
Dear Saints,
This weekend we celebrate the Fourth Sunday of Advent. Christmas is right around the corner!
Are you ready? That's the question I asked myself in my article for this week's bulletin.
How do you think that worked out for me? No matter. Christmas is coming, ready or not.
And that's where we pick up our Gospel reading this weekend. Mary has received the message of the angel, and has conceived Jesus. We hear:
Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.
Jesus is on his way. Mary sets out in haste.
This is remarkable. If I were Mary, being the mother of the Messiah and all, I'd think to take things easy. Not her. She takes on a terribly arduous task.
But that's exactly what life in Christ is all about. When we receive the divine life, we are made to give ourselves away. In prayer and sacrament we become what we receive, and what we receive is life poured out for the genuine good of the other (aka LOVE).
So let's see to it that our final tasks in preparation for Christmas entail giving ourselves generously away. It's then that we'll be ready to receive Christ when he comes.
I love you, my friends, and I look forward to seeing you soon.
Christ's Peace,
Father Daniel
δοῦλος Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ
Preparing for Mass?
Check out this weekend's readings:
Fourth Sunday of Advent