Weekly Letter from the Pastor

Dear Fellow Parishioners of St. Benedict:

“Little Christmas” – the celebration of the Epiphany of the Lord, stands as a highlight of the Christmas Season. Unlike the rest of the world that begins decorating and celebrating Christmas long before, but then ends Christmas on December 25th, the Church begins Christmas then and concludes on the Feast of the Baptism (Sunday, January 12th). This means we get the time to celebrate this great mystery. In what is now called the Extra Ordinary Form of the Mass – the old Latin calendar which was revised fifty years ago – Christmas lasted until February 2nd, the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord.

Today we will again distribute the blessed chalk and the prayers for the blessing of the homes. It is a beautiful and very ancient tradition to bless our homes on the Feast of Epiphany. We pray that this year will find us firm in faith and watchful in prayer.

I attended the seminarian Christmas Mass and dinner a couple of weeks ago, and I was able to present each of them with a gift --$125 – raised from the collection in November. They each expressed their gratitude, and almost all of them sent me an email afterwards to again express their thanks for the thoughtfulness and generosity of our parish.

Speaking of seminarians, seven names were submitted by our parishioners in the Called By Name initiative in November. Their names have been submitted to the Office of Vocations and they should be hearing from the diocese about a gathering in February. If you know of anyone who could be pondering or discerning a call to priesthood, please let me know. Believe it or not over 200 names were submitted from throughout the diocese! If even 10% of them respond to the call, we will be moving in the right direction.I also wish to thank all of you for your generosity to the parish in the Christmas collection and the end-of-year giving. We will shortly be publishing a thorough stewardship and spiritual annual report, so that you can get a sense of not only how we are doing, but of what it is that we do as a parish and school.

Likewise, your generosity to myself, Father JM, the deacons, the parish staff, and the school and the teachers is deeply appreciated by each of us. Please know that you remain ever in our prayers.

The Faith Formation programs will be commencing again soon. As Lent begins on February 26th, we are already well underway with our plans to draw our focus to the life of faith and conversion of heart and mind. We are all in need of healing.

I do not wish to delve deeply into political conversation, but I do want to encourage everyone to pray for healing within our country and in our world. As we are about to undergo for the second time in twenty years the impeachment trial of our president the divisions within our country, and even within our own homes, runs deep and painful. Whatever the outcome, those who are upset with the process, the verdict, and the coming election will be fired up and screaming for some kind of vengeance, those who are satisfied will be emboldened and vitriolic. Let us all stay above that fray, and instead work towards healing and pray for peace with all this. Our world cries for peace, but works for disharmony.

May this Epiphany and this year bring us all the peace that comes only from Jesus Christ,
Fr. Garry