Tomorrow is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Mary is the patroness of the United States under her title as the Immaculate Conception. The
National Shrine in Washington, D.C., is also named for our Blessed Mother under this same title.
This feast day is ALWAYS a HOLY DAY OF OBLIGATION even when it falls on a Monday or Saturday. This means that Catholics are obliged to participate in the Mass. To knowingly or deliberately miss Mass on a holy day of obligation, which includes all Sundays is a serious sin, and one must go to confession before receiving Holy Communion. To receive Holy Communion with awareness of serious, or mortal sin, is a sacrilege, the mistreating of any sacred person or object. Please check the Mass schedule for the Masses for tomorrow.
The Feast of the Immaculate Conception affords us the opportunity to again reflect on Mary’s part in God’s plan for our salvation and her willingness to give herself completely to Him. For her part in God’s plan for our salvation, which was to give birth to the Savior and thus become the Mother of God, she was conceived without original sin. Mary was preserved from sin from the first moment of her conception. This does not mean that she was not tempted, for Jesus Himself was tempted, but that she never sinned. This is a great and wonderful example to all of us. We, too, are given sanctifying grace at Baptism. God’s Holy Spirit dwelling within us gives us the grace to overcome all temptation in our lives.
Our Advent Communal Penance Service is on Monday, December 15 at 7 PM in the church. As usual there will be visiting priests for this service. Please make plans to receive the Sacrament of Penance as part of your preparation for the coming of Jesus Christ.
The 37th annual Retirement Fund for Religious collection will be held on Dec. 13-14. Coordinated by the National Religious Retirement Office (NRRO) at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), the appeal assists hundreds of religious order communities in providing for the ongoing needs of their aging Catholic sisters, brothers, and religious order priests.
The U.S. bishops initiated the collection in 1988 to address the significant lack of retirement funding among U.S. religious orders. Distinct from retired priest collections held in respective dioceses for the care of retired diocesan priests, this annual collection benefits eligible religious orders to help underwrite retirement and health-care expenses for nearly 30,000 elderly religious. Please be as generous as you can to help these religious women and men who have given their whole lives in service to the Church and her children.
11 AM CHRISTMAS DAY MASS. I have long been an advocate of celebrating Christmas Mass on Christmas Day, especially for children. Please remember that vigil Masses were permitted by the Church to allow those who have to work on Sundays and holydays to attend Mass the evening before. It was never meant to become a Mass of convenience and with that a growing attitude of getting Mass out of the way, so we concentrate on the more secular celebration of Christmas. This is happening everywhere with multiple vigil Masses and some even beginning as early as 3 PM. We should all make the effort to come to Mass on Christmas Day so that our celebration is truly centered on Christ and all our other plans are secondary. Very few people work on Christmas Day so the vigil Mass should be smallest in crowd size and not the largest. The word Christmas comes from “Christ Mass.” Jesus is the reason for the season. We need to teach our children that Jesus is center of Christmas Day and every day of our lives.
I am very grateful to all those who brought food items to the Thanksgiving Day Mass. I know that the St. Vincent de Paul Society will make good use of the donations to help feed the poor during the Christmas holidays. I am also very grateful to all those who took items off the giving tree in the chapel to purchase Christmas gifts for those in need at this special time of the year. There are so many generous people here at Sacred Heart. Your willingness to give is always inspiring and exceptional. I know there are always so many requests, especially at this time of the year.
