The First Sunday of Advent

November 27

This is the first Sunday of Advent, and we must be spiritually awake and ready. It’s a wonderful time to start over and revitalize your spiritual life. Sometimes we get away from our daily prayer life. We get so busy we can’t make it to daily Mass or don’t even plan well enough to make it to weekend Masses. We get caught up and distracted with so many things, leaving Jesus last on our list. As we know, “No one knows the day or hour.” Jesus tells us to always be ready and prepared. This year you have a chance to start fresh by choosing to observe each week in Advent by preparing yourself. Light a candle each weekend on your Advent wreath. Keep up with your spiritual reading by picking up one of our Advent booklets after Mass. We also have our Advent Mission on Dec. 4-6 at 7:00 PM each evening. We will have our parish family mission at St. Mary Church in Hyde Park this year. I hope all of our parishioners from the family will be able to attend this wonderful and compelling talk from Mr. Robert Rogers. He will help us find a way to live in the hope of Christ. All of these things are here for you to keep you focused on the right thing--preparing for Christmas. Let us work on keeping Jesus as the focus of our lives while we prepare to celebrate the day of his birth. Amen? Amen!
Father Jamie

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The Pastor's Ramblings

CONGRATULATIONS to Nick and Christie Kernan! They celebrated the Sacrament of Marriage on Saturday, November 12. Wishing them a wonderful and blessed life together.

WELCOME CHILD OF GOD, Rosemary Louise, daughter of Adam and Sarah Crowell.

PRIEST HALLOWEEN COSTUMES. Did you catch me and Fr. Anthony in our Halloween costumes? Can you guess who was on the dark side and who was the saint?

CELEBRATION OF BARB BROWARSKY. We had a wonderful Mass and reception to celebrate Barb Browarsky for all of her work and support at St. Cecilia. We wanted her to feel the appreciation we had for her all the years she put in as our secretary and as a dedicated volunteer. Thank you to Halie Cloar and Cathy Schneider for heading a wonderful party and to all of those parishioners who came to share food and show their appreciation.

MONSIGNOR LANE THANK YOU PARTY. The parishioners from the Oratory gave Monsignor Lane a going away party to thank him for all of his work. He received a lovely framed photo of all of the parishes he has served during his years in our region. It was a really nice celebration with good food and fellowship.