Merry Christmas!

If you are joining us today for the first time, or if you are returning to church for the first time in a while, or you join us every weekend, welcome home. While you are here I hope you experience the joy and peace you’re searching for this Christmas. On behalf of the entire pastoral and support staff of St. Mary’s Parish I wish all of you and your families a Merry and Blessed Christmas.

The Christmas season, while short in length, consists of more than just Christmas Day itself or the Twelve Days of Christmas (December 25 to January 5); it lasts until the Baptism of Jesus which, in 2026, is celebrated on January 11. Looking at the gospel readings for the Christmas vigil and Christmas Day Masses (including what is traditionally known as the Midnight Mass), we see that the three gospels that have relevant passages (Matthew, Luke and John) are featured. The vigil Mass features the account of Jesus’ human ancestry and his birth found in Matthew’s gospel (Matthew 1:1-25). The next two Masses, Mass at Night and Mass at Dawn, give us accounts from the gospel of Luke (Luke 2:1-14 and Luke 2:15-20). The so called “Prologue” of John’s gospel (John 1:1-18) is the gospel for the Masses celebrated during Christmas Day. You will find all of these readings at https://bit.ly/USCCBChristmas.

Mini reflection: Advent is drawing quickly to a close, and Christmas is coming soon. The change is upon us. Do we rise to accept it, or do we fall on our faces in fear?

The First Transfiguration

I imagine Joseph waking up the morning after the dream, blinking in the dim half-light of the dawn.

This year, all four of the first readings on the Sundays of Advent are from the book of the prophet, Isaiah. This book of the Old Testament is quite long (66 chapters) and probably had numerous authors, among them Isaiah himself and some of his disciples. For a great introduction to the book of Isaiah, go to the Bible Project, a Christian organization that provides excellent audio and visual guides to all of the Protestant Bible’s many books as well as numerous biblical themes; here’s the website for the book of Isaiah: https://bit.ly/BibleProjectIsaiah.

The month of November often directs our minds to the end times, as we complete our observance of Ordinary Time and work our way to the Feast of Christ the King and the end of the liturgical year. This year, however, the first two Sundays of November give us different points of focus. On November 2, as we observe All Souls Day, we commemorate all those who have died; we remember that “the souls of the just are in the hand of God” and that, as St. Paul has told us, “hope does not disappoint”. The next Sunday, November 9, we celebrate the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome, the Pope’s church; we are told that we are “God’s building” and we see that, as he cleanses the Jerusalem temple of money changers and merchants, Jesus is consumed with zeal for his Father’s house. Neither of these Sundays has the usual focus of the last Sundays of Ordinary Time, which we experience on November 16, the 33^rd Sunday of Ordinary Time. On this day, we are reminded that the day of the Lord is coming; Jesus assures us, however, that by our “perseverance” we will be saved. We begin a new liturgical year with the celebration of the First Sunday of Advent; Year A, the new liturgical year, begins on November 30. You can always prepare for the Sunday readings at https://liturgy.slu.edu/.

Dear Friends,

As the book of Ecclesiastes tells us, there is a time for everything. It also reminds us that there is good news, and God is involved in all of it, the events, the changes and the transitions of life. I’m writing to you this weekend to inform you that our Music Director, Terry Kerr has decided to retire from ministry. His retirement will be effective, at the end of the Christmas Season.

Every year, the Church commemorates the anticipation of, and then the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus through its celebration of the different liturgical seasons, what we call the liturgical year. Sr. Joan Chittister, OSB writes in her book, The Liturgical Year: The Spiraling Adventure of the Spiritual Life, that “[e]ach church year moves with measured rhythm in order to knit Jesus’ life and vision into our own personal journeys through time” (p. 210). Throughout this month of October, we continue to celebrate the liturgical season of Ordinary Time, a time, which, according to Sr. Joan, specifically invites us to “grow into” and “grow through” the “meanings and messages” of what we hear and learn throughout the year (p. 211).

We continue our observance of Ordinary Time this month, remembering that this time of the liturgical year presents us with opportunities to “fine tune” our response to God’s call, to sharpen our experience of being Catholic Christians in this world. On Sunday, September 7, the Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time, we are faced with a question from the Old Testament Book of Wisdom: “Who can know God’s counsel, or who can conceive what the Lord intends?” On September 14, the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, the second reading, from St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians, can maybe help us to know, in a small way, the mind of God. The reading tells us that God’s son, Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, gave up his life for us and therefore “every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” We see that our life is to be a life of sacrifice for others, patterned after the life of our Lord. There’s more. The following week, we proclaim, in our Responsorial Psalm, that we “[p]raise the Lord who lifts up the poor” (Psalm 113). And on September 28^th, the Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, we hear the parable of the rich man and Lazarus from the Gospel of Luke. This parable can be a wake-up call for us, reminding us that it is our obligation, as Catholic Christians, to care for the poor each day. Perhaps this is what the Lord intends. You can prepare for the Sunday readings at https://liturgy.slu.edu/.

There are certain phrases that serve as a kind of shibboleth for millennials, a dog whistle that only ears formed between 1981 and 1996 can discern. “You can’t sit with us!” is one of those phrases.

It’s from the movie Mean Girls, (which, I hear from my younger family members, has now become cool with the kids again, so maybe my point about it being niche is incorrect). The character Regina George, merciless ruler of the cool kids, is rejected from the ultra-exclusive lunch table she herself formed when her minions, tired of her cruelty, serve her the most devastating words a teenager can hear in public: “You can’t sit with us.”

During my baseball career, my best coach often said, “You shouldn’t be worried if I yell at you. Be worried if I don’t. If I stop pushing you, it means I don’t think you have any more potential.” He demanded a lot, and I knew it meant he saw that I could be something special on the baseball field.

Jesus says some demanding words to us this week. “ Do you think I have come to establish peace on the earth?” he asks, “No, tell you, but rather division” (Luke 12:51).

It’s 9:08am on a Saturday morning, and I am too darn busy for confession.

I’ve probably written before about how hard I find it to get to confession — I say ‘probably’ because I really can’t remember. I whine about it so frequently that it’s hard to tell if I’ve made it the subject of a written piece or if it is simply an oft-recited refrain from the Litany of Colleen’s Perpetual Complaints.