Happy New Year

My dear brothers and sisters I guess the Mayans were wrong we are still here and ready to celebrate another New Year.  So let me begin by saying, let us be filled with hope at the beginning of this new year of “2013”.  For that is what we are a “People of Hope”.  Let us pray that we will learn to live more closely the way of Christ in our daily lives.  On New Year’s Day we will celebrate the feast of “Mary, The Holy Mother of God”.  Mary has always served as the example of how to respond to God’s call to live as disciples.  Mary always said yes to the Lord, or in her words, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.  May it be done to me according to your word.”  Let each of us respond as well to the Lord by following His Word in all we do. 

Once more as we prepare to celebrate a New Year may our New Year’s resolutions include one to try and follow the example of Our Blessed Mother, Mary.  May we, like her, be more generous in supporting her Son’s Church by the use of our Time, our Talent, and our Treasure.  As we begin a new year I invite you to pray over the use of your time.  Ask yourself am I giving my fair share of my time to God in prayer, worship and in service?  I ask you to pray over your use of your talents.  Ask yourself am I using the talents that God has given me in His service to the Church?  And I ask that you pray over the use of your treasure.  Ask yourself am I giving my share to the support of His Holy Church?  So much still has to be done in our parish, in our community and in our world.  Jesus calls on each of us to love and serve Him by loving and serving each other.

Congratulations on our Christmas Pageant

Our Religious Education children did a wonderful job of making our Christmas Pageant on Sunday December 16^th a great success.  All those who attended and joined in the audience participation had a joyful time.  I want to congratulate all the students who worked so hard to prepare for this celebration.  Children you did a great job!!!
I also want to thank our Religious Education Staff, teachers, volunteers and our Religious Ed. Advisory Board parents who gave so much of their time in preparing the children for this celebration.  And I want to thank the parents and guardians of our children who brought the children to the practices and who came to the Pageant.  This was a wonderful sign of the living faith of our parish community. 

Tragedy in Sandy Hook, Conn.
As I watched with joy our children in our Christmas Pageant I could not help but think of those poor children in Sandy Hook.  I also thought of those survivors whose childhood has been stolen from them in that horrible act.  On this past Friday, the 28^th, we celebrated the Feast of the Holy Innocents.  I found this year’s mass extremely moving in light of this tragedy.  I ask you to continue to pray for the families of those slain and for all those in Connecticut who were so deeply affected by this event. 

On behalf of Fr. Steve Duffe, Deacon Bob Glasner, Sr. Miriam and Matt DeCaux and all the staff of our parish family, I ask that God bless you and your families with a peaceful, healthy and “Happy New Year”