Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

My dear Friends in Christ,

“Happy New Year!” We have made it through Advent and just experienced the beautiful Incarnation and the Nativity, the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. Today, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God. Mary is the mother and model of the Church, who receives the divine Word in faith and offers herself to God as the “good soil” in which he can continue to accomplish his mystery of salvation. The Church also participates in the mystery of divine motherhood, through preaching, which sows the seed of the Gospel throughout the world, and through sacraments, which communicate grace and divine life to men. The Church exercises her motherhood especially in the sacrament of Baptism, when she generates God’s children from water and the Holy Spirit, who cries out in each of them: “Abba, Father!” Like Mary, the Church is the mediator of God’s blessing for the world: she receives it in receiving Jesus and she transmits it in bearing Christ. He is the mercy and the peace that the world, of itself, cannot give, and which it needs always. May the Holy Mother of God accompany us with her protection in this New Year 2023!

The Annual Catholic Appeal will be ending for 2022 and we only reached 60% of our goal as a parish. It is much better than we have done in the past and I am grateful for those who did make a pledge and honored it.

On behalf of the entire staff here, May you all have a Happy, Blessed, and Healthy New Year.

May God Bless You All,

Father John