Pastor’s Corner — December 19th, 2021
Advent Preaching Series #3 and #4
When we preach a series the homilies are intentionally longer because it takes longer to really break open a topic. Thank you for your patience. Nevertheless, we’ve been hearing great feedback about our teaching. Our sincere hope is that it helps you engage in the mystery of God’s love more deeply. If you’ve missed any of the weeks of the series, I’m asking all parishioners to please listen/watch them on our YouTube channel.
This week Fr. Miguel closes out our four-part series by examining some of the signs and symbols of the Mass which should help us pray the liturgy.
Dr. Jeff Mirus and Why Christian Persecution Increasing
I’m thinking of adding to my weekly bulletin column now and again some articles that offer theological, philosophical and cultural analysis from a Catholic perspective. The purpose would be to help us think about the world from the brilliance of the Christian worldview. Quite simply: we need to continually engage our minds with proper understanding of reality not just so that we can avoid imbibing the unexamined presuppositions of our age, but also so understanding the truth of the Christian faith vis a vis poor thinking, we can defend and propose Christianity to people completely confused about what is true, good and beautiful.
There are many great Catholic authors and articles out there in the Church that can help us sharpen our minds and think more critically. But there are also some Catholic authors and articles that are not so good, as they tend to shed more heat than light. In our divisive culture, we need sound teaching without all of the fluff and divisive mindset (us vs. them) that so unfortunately infects even our Church culture. So, I’m going to throw this out there to see what kind of response I get.
One of my favorite Catholic commentators on the internet is Dr. Jeff Mirus. He founded and runs the popular CatholicCulture.org website. His commentary is usually penetratingly insightful, unfailingly charitable and spiritually mature. Here is a recent commentary Why Christian Persecution is Increasing?. I hope you find it edifying.
Christmas Masses and the Solemnity of the Holy Family
By now you’ve seen the different options for Mass for Christmas in the bulletin and in our Advent Mailer sent out to parishioner’s homes. This is just a reminder that next weekend, there are two obligations to attend two different Masses:
1) Attend one Christmas Mass (Friday, December 24th or Saturday, December 25th) and
2) Attend one Holy Family Mass (Sunday, December 26th).
Click here if you want to review the Mass schedule again. See you on Christmas!
Your servant in the Lord,
Fr. Mathias