Fr. Pfeiffer's Weekly Message--Culture of Encounter
December25,2021
Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Merry Christmas! And Happy Feast of the Holy Family We had the full four weeks of Advent this year and I hope it was a joyful time of penance and expectation for everyone. Entering more deeply into the preparation disposes us to enter more into the Feasts of the Christmas and Epiphany Seasons. Thank you to all the volunteers who helped decorate and make the Church so beautiful. Don’t be afraid to keep those trees and decorations up - Christmas is just beginning!
New Year’s Day Schedule Similar to last week, our schedule is somewhat different since January 1, the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God, lands on a Saturday. Normally this is a holy day of obligation, but not this year. So this is our modified schedule:
Friday December 31 will have confessions at 4pm and an EF Mass at 5:30 as usual. Saturday January 1 there will an OF Mass at 10am But there will be NO Saturday evening confessions nor evening Mass on January 1.
Epiphany Blessings - Chalk, Water, Salt and More! In the Ordinary Form calendar, the Feast of the Epiphany will be celebrated on January 2. After the Masses we will bless chalk for parishioners to take home and use for the Epiphany house blessing. This blessing can be done anytime, but is appropriate to do this week as we celebrate Epiphany and bring in the new year. If possible, I recommend coming back to Church on January 6 at 7pm for the Traditional blessing of Epiphany Water. Last year we offered this and there was a great turn out! I will bless about 30 gallons of water for the church to use throughout the year, and from this supply people may take some home if they bring their own empty bottles. However, there is a limited amount, so if you plan on wanting more than pint of Epiphany water, please bring your own water in large containers (the larger the better) which I will bless with the rest. Please make sure they have secure but easily removable lids. I need to be able to open the container to pour blessed salt into it as part of the blessing. You are welcome to bring containers of salt as well (size does not matter with this). If you would like other items blessed like oil, statues, images, and candles, please bring them. Normally we bless candles on February 2, Candlemas Day, but I will be out of town that day.