Dear Beloved Parishioners,
So, a few announcements…
There is a blood drive NEXT Sunday, 12/18/22.
For patients in need, donated blood can change everything. Blood products are used to help people – our friends, family, neighbors, and coworkers – as they treat cancer, chronic diseases, and traumatic injuries. And they are only possible with the help of volunteer blood donors.
To see time slots available for appointments and to save your spot, click on the link: Saint Justin Martyr
Sunday, 12/18/2022 (08:30 am – 12:30 pm)
Note: Appointments are required to give.
Donor Eligibility FAQ | COVID-19 Response
With every donation you make, you help establish a sustainable community blood supply for years to come. Thank you for your support. We hope to see you at our drive!
Tim Schwab
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Advent Giving Tree Program Update
Thanks to your generosity, our gift card drive for those in need was a huge success! We collected gift cards totaling $4,400. The representative of Ss. Teresa and Bridget Parish are extremely grateful for the supply of gift cards they received and send a heartfelt “Thank You!” A special thanks to members of our SJM St. Vincent DePaul Society who volunteered to sell gift cards after masses for several weekends. (and the cards are still trickling in…)
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So, for the first time in my priesthood, when people call and ask: “What time is Midnight Mass?”, I can no longer answer: “Didn’t you just answer your own question?” By a 5 to 1 margin, people overwhelmingly preferred the 10 pm “Mass at Night” (with 8 people saying that either time works for them.)
So, the schedule of Masses for Christmas eve/day is as follows.
Christmas Eve: 5 pm and 10pm.
Christmas Day: 9 am and 11am.
Thanks in advance to all our servers, musicians, ministers, church decorators, ushers, greeters and all who will have a part in these celebrations. Your ministry is a gift to us all.
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Kudos to Beth Talleur, Marge Kathalynas, and their intrepid crew for a wonderful Advent By Candlelight. The speaker, Mrs. Susan O’Leary, (whom I know from a different lifetime ago) could not say enough things about how wonderful this community is, and what a blessed parish we have here at St. Justin. I could not agree more…
Thanks for all who decorated, brought food, attended, cleaned up and sent their husbands to put the tables and chairs away. What a gift all of your service is.
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Congrats to our 2nd Grade students for completing their first Reconciliation this past Wednesday night. (and one to go on Sunday who was sick on Wednesday) And thanks to their Teachers Mrs. Rolfing and Mr. Carney and all the aids for their help in preparing for the day. It is the beginning, I hope, of a long journey for these children in experiencing the grace of the Lord’s forgiveness.
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And a reminder, that this MONDAY NIGHT, Dec. 12th, is our Advent Penance Service, from 6:30 until we are done. I have 6 of my brother priests coming to help out, and we will stay as long as we are needed. Come and join us for this experience of God’s grace and mercy.
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THE DEEPER DIVE into THURSDAY’s Scripture..
A Reflection for the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception
By Ricardo da Silva, S.J.
A blank sheet of paper. Every person I know panics when they are presented with one. In fact, it is the abiding reaction I have every time I am asked to prepare a text, be it an essay, a homily, a letter to a friend or a spiritual reflection like this one. You might say it’s an occupational hazard for a writer, which I on paper, at least, consider myself to be. And yet, when I overcome my fear and insecurity—Who am I kidding? More like when the deadline is looming, and I don’t have time to think about the end product, because I just need to get words on the page and get it done—procrastination halts, confidence builds and the piece writes itself. It does not matter how much I’ve written, or how often. This is what happens every time.
This very stressful and discombobulating process rehearses itself, as I sit down to write for this Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, the highest level of all the feasts our church has to offer. What am I to do? I have no idea what this feast is really about. Do I even understand or believe it completely? And then inspiration lands, and I recognize a familiarity in my process that echoes the words of another in today’s Gospel: “How can this be…?” This can’t be happening to me. It makes no sense. How can I be pregnant “since I have no relations with a man?” And then all of a sudden there is a surrender that calms the fear. Mary, realizing this is indeed the voice of God speaking through the angel Gabriel, realizes that it is already done and that God is calling her to live her life in a very absolute and concrete way, and she embraces it: “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.”
At this point you may be thinking, rightly: “He has got this all wrong. He is preaching on the wrong feast. This is not the feast where we remember the angel Gabriel announcing the imminent birth of Jesus and Mary’s, “Yes.” This is the one about Mary, being born without sin. He needs to get back on the page.” Or you may just be thinking: “What is he going on about?”
Well, here’s the deal.
Mary’s “yes” to being the mother of God is only possible because of her Immaculate Conception. It is because she is created as a person with perfect freedom, not giving in to the sin of her selfish temptations and desire to preserve herself and the life that she had planned for herself, that she can accept the most daunting task of her life. Mary doesn’t let her ego get in the way. Instead, she turns immediately to the task at hand. She accepts what she is being asked because she knows that the goodness of God is imbued in her flesh and blood. She trusts in the plans God has for her and not in the fears she feels about what is to come. Put in a somewhat more crude way: The follow-up to her “How can this be?”—which might better be rendered today as “WTF?”—was much more aggressive than we might conjure when we read her response, “May it be done to me according to your word.” Rather, it seems to me that the answer she gave God through Gabriel was more like “Thank you, Jesus. Bring it on!”
And it is Mary’s “yes” that has given me the confidence to write this, to believe that I, too, am created free by God and for a clear purpose. Were it not for her example, I would still have a blank sheet of paper in front of me. I would keep procrastinating and worrying about how this whole thing would turn out. But I know that this is how God speaks to me, in the song of words, and I believe and pray that through my own small “yes,” in writing this, that you, too, might believe in yours.
May it be done unto us according to God’s will. Bring it on!
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The Song of the Day – is from the guest singer at Advent by Candlelight, Maria Vargo – with the second verse, arguably the best verse of any Christmas song, of any time. (but that is my opinion….)
Without further ado..
(and if you want to find out more about Maria and the things she is involved in, you can go to: GKCE.org).
blessings,
fr bill