Mass Times
Weekend
Saturday Vigil: 4:00pm
Weekday
Tuesday: 8:00am
and all First Fridays
Confession Times
Saturday: 3:00pm to 3:45pm
or by Appointment
Holy Hour
Saturday: 3:00 - 4:00pm
A Note From
Rev. Joe Koyickal
A GIFT FOR JESUS: Prepare Your Personal Gift for Jesus This Christmas!
The Holy season of Advent is approaching fast. This is one of the busiest times of the year. We decorate our homes, shop for Christmas gifts, prepare special meals, greet and exchange gifts, attend parties, and make all kinds of arrangements to celebrate Christmas. These are beautiful traditions, and they bring joy to our families.
But amid all our preparations, there is one danger: we can become so busy preparing for Christmas that we forget the One whose birthday we are celebrating!
Here is a simple Family Advent Challenge
I invite every family in our parishes to take part in a simple but meaningful Advent activity: Prepare a special Christmas gift for Jesus as a family! Here is what it is all about. Simple and plain! All can join. No age bar!!
- Prepare an Advent wreath. Make one together as a family or purchase one. Place it in a special location in your home where the family can gather for a few minutes of prayer every day.
- Gather around the Advent wreath every day. Set aside just five or six minutes at a convenient time. It could be before or after dinner, before bedtime, or whenever the family can come together. You can do as an individual too, if not available for a common time. Each week, we will reflect on one of the four Advent themes: Hope, Peace, Joy and Love. A short reflection, a Scripture passage, a question for reflection or sharing, and a family prayer. You will also be given some suggestions for act of love, kindness or charity to choose from. Do one of those things each day as explained below. This will help us prepare our hearts for Jesus. You will be provided with a flyer each week with prayers and the suggestions for good deeds.
- Make every day an opportunity to give Jesus a gift. Each day, choose at least one simple act of kindness, love, charity, forgiveness, or sacrifice. Every member of the family is encouraged to do at least one good deed each day. It need not be anything extraordinary. Helping someone at home, sharing with a person in need, forgiving someone, visiting someone who is lonely, offering a prayer for someone, or making a small personal sacrifice can become a beautiful gift to Jesus.
- Collect your gifts for Jesus! After your daily act of kindness, write it on a small slip of paper and place it in a special family box. You may call it your "Family Gift to Jesus Box." As the days go by, your box will fill up with little gifts: not toys, money, or material things, but acts of love offered to Jesus.
- Bring your gifts to Jesus on Christmas! On Christmas Day, bring your family's collected slips of paper to church. We will have a special collection box in the church where all families can drop their gifts of good deeds. These gifts will be brought forward along with the gifts of bread and wine during the Offertory procession at Mass, symbolizing the love, prayers, kindness, and sacrifices that our families have offered to Jesus throughout Advent. Let this Advent be different. Let us not simply count the days until Christmas. Let us fill each day with love, goodness, and kindness.
May every family make room for Jesus, and may every home become a little Bethlehem!
