Pastoral Messages from Fr. Rick 12/4/22
Pastoral Messages from Fr. Rick 12/4/22
Feast of the Immaculate Conception: Thursday, December 8. This is a Holy Day of Obligation. Mass is at 9:00 AM
Gift Cards Available – We have several gift cards available for the holidays. If you know of people in genuine need of holiday assistance, contact Fr. Rick.
Hospitality: Remember that we are a ‘Hospitality Parish’ with a major outreach to our many visitors. Please sign up to help host our Sunday morning Coffee and Muffin gathering. As we revert to just one Sunday Mass there will no doubt be throngs now in attendance, so please join the fun!! Sign up list is in the gathering space.
Join us for Liturgy of the Hours after the Tuesday Morning 8:00 AM Mass and after Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament at 5:00 PM on Thursday. See our website for the ibreviary website or app. Also, hard copies of the Hours will be available. Being a Eucharistic people invites us into a deeper and more personal relationship with each other in the community and then sends us out to be this deep presence to the world. It’s the real presence of Christ. When we pray the Liturgy of the Hours we pray with and for the whole Church. At St. Christopher’s this action has a particularly relevant meaning as we welcome people from all over the country and the world. We then send them out and ultimately back where they came from. They are changed by being here and being together. We can even join the whole world in praying for them throughout the week. This is a real connection and world changing.
Christmas Mass Schedule
Christmas Eve, December 24, Saturday: 7:00 PM
Christmas Day, December 25, Sunday: 9:00 AM
REPENT!: Remember that Fr. Rick is available almost any time for the Sacrament of Reconciliation. During Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament on Thursdays can be an especially good opportunity.
Homily Reflection – Second Sunday of Advent – “A”
Besides anticipating all the cool stuff we will get from Santa Clause, December also brings another message of glad tidings: “The Kingdom of God is at hand!” The world we are all longing for, consciously or not, is well within reach. If fact it has been for 2000 years. The Kingdom we long for is as good and even better than anything we could ever imagine!
The first reading today from the prophet Isaiah (11:1-10) gives us a wonderful sense of just how fabulous this new Kingdom will be:
“(The Lord) shall judge the poor with justice, and decide aright for the land’s afflicted.
He shall strike the ruthless with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked.
Justice shall be the band around his waist, and faithfulness a belt upon his hips.
Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; the calf and the young lion shall browse together, with a little child to guide them.
The cow and the bear shall be neighbors, together their young shall rest; the lion shall eat hay like the ox.
The baby shall play by the cobra’s den, and the child lay his hand on the adder’s lair.
There shall be no harm or ruin on all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be filled with knowledge of the LORD, as water covers the sea.
On that day, the root of Jesse, set up as a signal for the nations, the Gentiles shall seek out, for his dwelling shall be glorious.”
The Kingdom is a big petting zoo! What could be better than to just walk outside every morning, breathing in the fresh air, perfectly rested in an agile, pain free body and just stroll among all the animals? Many of which we’ve never seen before or even imagined. Strolling along with our favorite people, some of whom we have just met. And that is the world that Jesus came to establish or rather, restore. It sounds a lot like the Garden of Eden in Genesis… Of course, there’s a catch!!
Did you notice the ways of the Lord’s actions? “The spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him: a spirit of wisdom and of understanding, a spirit of counsel and of strength, a spirit of knowledge and of fear of the LORD, and his delight shall be the fear of the LORD.”
This Spirit sounds eerily like the gifts with which we were sealed at our Confirmation. What price did John and Jesus pay? Are we ready?