St. Mary's Catholic Church
Dear Friends in Christ,
Dear Friends in Christ,
The season of preparation for Christmas begins
Perhaps you recall the four words I offered last year to help guide us through Advent:
Pray, Fast, Act, Learn.
Allow these to help keep focused on preparing for Christ's birth,
Each day a deliberate time of prayer, a simple sacrifice, a deliberate kind deed, and at least each week trying to learn something new about the Faith will help us get into the true Christmas spirit.
Not only will they help us not get stressed while preparing gifts, parties, and meals, but we will be able to enjoy Christmas Day and the Christmas season that follows with great peace and joy.
Immaculate Conception
One of the first preparations we are making is for the feast of the Immaculate Conception (which is not a day of obligation this year). The First day of the Novena is November 30,but please join us even if you're a day or two late! We have cards in church to pray with or you can get an email or text from Flocknote each day of the Novena,
To sign up for rhe FlockNote; follow this link
or send a text message to phone number 84576 With the phrase ST MARY CC as the content. Once signed up, select the group SSNovenas."
This year, the feast of the Immaculate Conception is observed on Dec 9 in the Ordinary Form Calendar and on Dec 8 in the Extraordinary Form Calendar.
We will have a special Mass at 5:00 pm on Sunday Dec 8, followed by the candlelight crowning of the Blessed Mother Statue in the Courtyard and our Extraordinary Potluck dinner for the month- J
Hope you can join us!
Lighting our Christmas Trees
On December 14, immediately after the 5: 15pm Mass we will light our outdoor Christmas Tree in the garden area between the church and school.
You'll see the first pieces of the ourdoor Nåtivity scene (the rest will appear as the season progresses).
On Sunday, December 15, after the 7:30 am Mass we will light the Christmas Tree at Fatima Hall. Both will be accompanied by a very short blessing;
CCD Live Nativity
On December 16, some of our CCD students present a living nativity scene immediately after the 9:30 Mass.
These are all short but great ways to keep our preparation for Christmas prayerful and focused on "the reason for the season." If you can stick around for a few extra minutes,
Please join us!
Opportunities for Confessions
In addition to our regular Saturday Confession schedule of 11:30 am and 4:00 pm, we will offer confessions
Every night of the week
From December 16-20, from 5:30 — 7:30pm
There will be at least one priest available, and I will let you know if on any given day if there will be more than one priest-
This IS one of the most importanr preparations we can make for Chrisrmas!
Front Doors
Have you noticed our new front doors yet? Did you realize thar they are new'? Thanks to some local talent; they actually look identicål to the old ones (which were made at least 70 years ago!}- The old ones were getting to the point of no repair, and the new ones have allowed us to add '*crash bars" so that the doors can be locked from the outside yet exit by pushing on the bar.
There are a few more details on the front doors that need to be tended to (such as weather srripping and the closing mechanisms). But with this, we have completed the upgrade of all of our entrances to the church, making it more secure.
Confessors for Saturday, Dec 7, 11:30 am, 4:00 pm: Father Cibelli and 11:30 am Father Langan
Please extend a warm welcome Deacon Jeremy Smith.
Deacon Jeremy is a seminarian of the AoB and is in his last year of formation to the priesthood at Mt St Mary in Emmitsburg. He will be serving here on Saturdays and Sundays
and during his breaks until his ordination to the Priesthood.
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May God bless you and keep you in His care, and may the
Blessed Mother intercede for you,
Father Cibelli
Thanks to a generous donation by the Pangborn Council of the Knights of Columbus, every member of our community now has access to a great online resource called FORMED.org. FORMED provides an impressive number of video, audio, and e-book resources directly to your phone or computer that cover just about any topic you can imagine on the Catholic Faith. They are high quality and very engaging from some of the most prominent names in solid catechesis today (and from the past too!) such as Edward Sri, Fr. Mike Schmitz, and Bishop Fulton Sheen. It’s often described as “Catholic Netflix”! I’ll be highlighting specific series or individual programs that are especially worth checking out. See below for how to create your own personal account, you can click on the flyer to take you to the set up page.
