Weekly Letter from the Pastor

Dear Fellow Parishioners of St. Benedict:

Happy Fourth Sunday of Advent and as Christmas is Tuesday, we would be hard pressed to call this a week of Advent. I hope that everyone is ready – or at least feels ready – for the Holy Days and holidays that commence this week.

I look forward to the celebrations here on Christmas Eve and Christmas day. There is yet one more major gift for the parish that you should notice when you come here to Mass beginning on Christmas Eve. Hopefully this is a gift that will enliven our parish community and serve as a reminder to us of the beauty and majesty of our faith tradition.

Our Christmas celebrations begin on Monday evening as the children present the pageant in the school gym beginning at 3:30 p.m. followed immediately by Mass there. This is the “Children’s Mass” with the choir and homily directed at the children more specifically. We have the 4:00 p.m. Mass in the church, so parking is at a premium, but it has been manageable in the past. The other Masses – 6:00 p.m., 8:00 p.m. and Midnight – are wellattended as a rule but parking is not too difficult. Patience and flexibility are always key. We are grateful to all of the ministers, ushers, staff, and other volunteers, who make the celebrations here easy to navigate through. A lot goes into the planning and execution of these events, and we are appreciative of their efforts and work. We are also fortunate to have both Father Tony Carotenuto and Father Ron Cioffi who are willing and able to be of assistance to us when we have these feasts.

Thank you to all who assisted and celebrated the Penance Service last weekend. This new format seems to work well in other parishes and we were keen to see how the response would go here. We will discuss here whether or not we would want to follow that format in the future, but I think it is something that the parish can grow in developing.

It has been a very busy Advent Season here and around the area. Father JM and I are both looking forward to some time away this coming week. I will spend time with my Mother in Pennsylvania and Father JM will get to go away with some friends. We are again grateful that Father Ron, Father Tony, and Father Dan Price are available to assist while we are gone.

Next week, of course, we celebrate the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, a Holy Day of Obligation. This is celebrated in conjunction with a civil holiday called New Year’s Day. We will again offer two Masses on the eve – one at 4:00 p.m. and one at 6:00 p.m. Mass on New Year’s Day is at 9:00 a.m. Even if this was not a Holy Day, coming to Mass on New Year’s is a great way to start a new year. Please remember to keep Mass in your schedule.

I am sure that most of us have a lot of last-minute chores these next couple of days – remember to be kind, be patient, and celebrate with sobriety and that joy that comes from knowing that the Lord is with us – Emmanuel

Come, Lord Jesus,
Fr. Garry