From Deacon Ron Reno:
Merry Christmas! Here we are on Christmas Day to celebrate the birth of Christ. From our childhood we know of Caesar, the three Kings and the birth in the manger. The sad thing in His time the only people who recognized Him were the shepherds, the most humble of society, and the Magi who were the wisest of the times. The Israelites totally missed the importance of this birth. Here was born our Messiah and God incarnate; the Man who was to offer salvation to all, born in the most humble of situations. We are blessed to know the true meaning of Christmas and celebrate His birth with our families.
Our plan for our next service is New Years Eve with said Evening prayer. We will meet at 6:30 pm at Saint Mary’s Chapel. Thank you Lynda in procuring that time. David (Skip) will lead this for the very first time. Deacon Reno will assist in this service. Our God is a loving God and He brings people like David and Julie to do His work. I can’t think of a better way to end this year and a great way of starting the next. The campus will be officially open for our January 7th, 12 (13) days of Christmas service. May you have a blessed Christmas Day. May the Prince of Peace bless this day.
Father Andrew’s lovely Christmas Homily:
Christmas(2022)
As we continue this Advent Season of hope; please keep in mind others who may need our prayers. This Advent season has kept most of us very busy, but remember to walk by faith in your daily actions. God loves us when we humbly accept what He has offered us. Let’s remember His love during this Advent season and remember His offer of the “Throne of Heaven.” This mission church has many reasons to feel blessed, especially for the one that led us to this chapel, to do God’s work on the campus of College of Saint Mary.
beautiful fall. We had the Deacon’s liturgy with chanted Litany last weekend. The music was beautiful and it was joyful to sing the Advent hymns that were chosen from our 1930 Hymnal. Julia sang the Introit and it was beautifully done. We are blessed to use the CSM Chapel but it gets interesting as the Chapel is shut down when the college students are on break. The scheduling gets interesting and this is the best we could do. Remember this is all for the glory of God and we are one of His mission churches. God loves us whenever we can do His work.
Advent. Advent means the season where we reflect and prepare for the coming of the Messiah and the celebration of Christmas with the birth of Jesus Christ. It will last four Sundays leading up to Christmas. It is a time time to pray for yourselves, pray for patience, pray healing changes in your lives, pray for peace in the world and pray against turmoil wherever it is, whether it is in our lives or elsewhere. After this brutal election year we need to pray for Christ in our nation, for direction and especially for healing. The world needs Jesus Christ more than ever.
We had a lovely Christ the King service last Saturday with lovely music committed to that service. We also celebrated the birthday of Father Ponec. Deb Ponec brought in lovely flowers and food for our gathering after mass, in memory of our beloved Priest. Deacon Ted, Deacon Ron and others were around this man and are still in awe of his work on this earth. Father was a very unassuming, kind Priest whose love of God showed in every thing he did. He is greatly missed.