Pastors corner for this weekend: How did your Advent begin? Today is already the second Sunday of our Advent season. Most likely the beginning of the season has been marred by imperfection. There are probably things we wish we could have done differently or we wonder if things are going according to the plan we may have conceived in our mind. Those are concerns not just for the season of Advent, but for whatever season of life we may find ourselves in. Our beginnings are less than perfect, our conceptions are not immaculate. This isn’t only our personal condition, we see these imperfections running throughout all of history. Like our first parents, each one of us can wander from the beautiful plan God has conceived for us. Yet God in his kindness and his power is able to begin again with us, with a beautiful new beginning that has no spots or imperfections. This new beginning from God for us is not some impersonal plan or stale idea. It is a living reality, it is a live person: the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. She is not some distant and cold celebrity that we can only read or dream about. No, she is our Mother, waiting to give us a new beginning made possible by the saving grace of Christ her Son. Those who run to the open arms of Mary will find Jesus. He is able to wash away the mediocre or even downright sinful beginnings we may have fallen into on our own. He makes us fresh and clean through the love and mercy pouring out from his heart and made available to us in the sacraments of his church. What a blessing it is to have a whole feast day in honor of our Blessed Mother’s Immaculate Conception. It is a holy day of obligation, which reminds us of our obligation to show our gratitude for the new beginning we can receive in Christ, a new beginning which makes us children of God the Father, able to enter into the joys of heaven. So make sure you come to Mass tomorrow, December 8. We have Masses here at 7am, 8:45am with our school children, 12pm, and 5:30pm all in English. There is a Mass at 7:00pm in Spanish. If you miss the Mass through your own fault (not due to illness or bad weather), tell our Blessed Mother right away that you are sorry. Make a good act of contrition to her Son and Savior Jesus Christ. Come to Confession in order to prepare for your next Holy Communion. Through your good Confession, you become an immaculate conception, you have a new beginning, and God the Father prepares you to receive his Divine Son—just as he prepared Blessed Mary. God gives us so many second chances, new beginnings, immaculate conceptions. Let us show him our gratitude. If we have begun poorly, let’s begin again; and then, let’s finish well. Every family has been sent a calendar of parish events in the month ahead. There are still lots of days of Advent left to open our hearts wide for the child Jesus. With my prayers, Fr. Jerome
Posted on: Sat, 06 Dec 2014 17:22:29 +0000
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