Dear Parishioners:
Christmas is coming! We have a full four weeks of Advent this year with Christmas on a Sunday. Let this be to your advantage. Live the time of anticipation and waiting to the full. Open your heart to the Lord and invite Him to make use of you and your family to reveal His Presence in the world. Take the time to think about the Reason for the Season. Read the accounts of Jesus’ Birth from the Gospels of Matthew and Luke as if you have never heard the Story before. Make plans to enter fully into Christmas next weekend.
Heartfelt thanks to all who participated in last week’s Penance Service. We had a good crop of sinners for the eight priests who worked with them. It was obvious that grace and mercy were flowing. Confession is good for the soul. It clears the spiritual pores and allows baptismal grace to do its work in us. I was truly a proud Pastor as I saw how many came, how many approached the Sacrament, and especially how many stayed to pray with and for their brothers and sisters until the prayer of thanksgiving and the final blessing. “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” was sung with gusto.
I have one more favor to ask for the Season: Please fill up all the Masses of Christmas, especially those on Christmas Day. Many have the custom of participating in the first Vigil Mass at 5:00 p.m., and then the number of attendees dwindles as the Mass times go on: 7:00 p.m. Vigil, 10:00 p.m. “Midnight” Mass, and 8:00 and 10:00 a.m. Christmas morning. This year, we need the strong voices of our usual weekly Mass-goers to assist our annual guests with the new English responses. If you plan to attend the Vigil Mass, come again to at least one of the other Masses. For Christmas, you are able to receive Holy Communion again at a second Mass.
There are four distinct Masses of Christmas: the Vigil, Midnight, Dawn and Day, each with different prayers and readings. The Incarnation is celebrated by the Church’s Liturgy in high style. It is truly worthwhile to experience all that the Church has to offer at this special time. Let’s join the effort to put Christ and Mass back in Christ-mas.
Entering into our Golden Jubilee: Getting to know Saint Timothy.
You have followed my teaching, way of life, purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, persecutions, and sufferings, such as happened to me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra, persecutions that I endured. Yet from all these things the Lord delivered me. In fact, all who want to live religiously in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. But wicked people and charlatans will go from bad to worse, deceivers and deceived. (II Timothy 3:10-13)
St. Paul is not afraid to admit the struggles he experiences in his witness to Christ. He recalls them with emotion, but not with self-pity. Rather, he is able to see the action of the Lord in delivering him “from all these things.” He sees clearly, and reminds St. Timothy, that all who want to follow the Lord will have the same experience. There are two ways: the way of those who seek to follow Christ, and the way of the wicked.
Our life as a Parish Family is meant to be a living witness of the “teaching, way of life, purpose, faith, patience, love, and endurance,” that Paul and Timothy put into practice. When we undergo hardships, especially the persecutions and suffering that come from our efforts to put our Faith into practice, we are in good company. We can be sure that we are on the right track when we experience such struggles and we can put our trust in the God Who calls us.
CHRISTMAS MASSES AT ST. TIMOTHY CHURCH, COLUMBUS
Christmas Eve – December 24
5:00 & 7:00 p.m., Vigil Mass: Family Unity
10:00 p.m., Solemn Mass at Night: Light in Darkness
Christmas Day – December 25
8:00 a.m., Christmas Mass at Dawn: Let us go to Bethlehem
10:00 a.m., Christmas Day Mass: The Word Made Flesh
Note: No 12:00 p.m. Mass for Sunday, December 25, 2011
Feast of the Holy Family, Friday, December 30
9:00 a.m., Family Blessing after Mass
Solemnity of Mary, January 1, 2012
Usual weekend Schedule: Saturday, 5:00 p.m.;
Sunday, 8:00 a.m., 10:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m.
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