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SUNDAY, DECEMBER 3--ADVENT I
7:30am Mass (Cantor & Organ)
9:30am Mass (Choral)
11:30am Mass (Contemporary)
6:15pm Mass (No Music)
MONDAY, DECEMBER 4
8:30am Word/Eucharist
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 5
8:30am Mass
2:00pm Script/Comm (New Brighton CC)
2:00pm Mass (Pres Homes--RV)
WEDESDAY, DECEMBER 6
8:30am Word/Eucharist
9:00am Quilter's Group (Rectory)
9:45am School Mass
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 7
8:30am Mass
9:15am Circle of Women (Rectory)
10:15am Script/Comm (Innsbruck)
2:00pm Script/Comm (St. Anthony CC)
2:15pm Mass (Trevilla--NB)
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 8-FEAST OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION
8:30am Mass
5:00pm Private Reconciliation (Church)
7:00pm Mass
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 9
4:30pm Mass (Cantor & Organ)
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 10--ADVENT II
7:30am Mass (Cantor & Organ)
9:30am Mass (Choir & Organ)
11:30am Mass (Contemporary)
6:15pm Mass (No Music)
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Connections&
December 3, 2000--First Sunday of Advent
" When these things begin to happen, stand erect and raise your heads, because your redemption is at hand.
Be vigilant at all times and pray that you have the strength to escape the tribulations that are imminent and to stand before the Son of Man." Luke 21:25-28, 34-36
Keeping vigil
It has already been a long night. A soft light glows like twilight throughout the bedroom. Her children sit quietly in the room and hall outside, taking turns coming in and holding her hand, carefully wiping her forehead and face, speaking softly in whispers, barely able to chock back their tears: Is there anything I can do for you, Mom? It's O.K. Mom. We're here. We love you.
The doctors could do nothing more for her. Her illness had run its course.
But this night's long vigil actually began many months before, with the final diagnosis. After the shock and the tears and the anger came acceptance. She put her financial affairs in order and made clear her wishes regarding final arrangements.
Once she was ready for death, she started to live. Her family became the center of her days. With gentleness and compassion, she healed family rifts, restored friendships, sought forgiveness for the slights and embarrassments that litter every life. Though weakened in body, her spirit soared.
Now the final moments of their vigil. By morning, all would be completed. With mumbled prayers on their lips, tears in their eyes, her family cradled her in their love as they commended her to the God who breathed life into her soul seventy-eight years before.
CONNECTION:
Many of us have kept vigil at the bedside of a dying loved one. Such an experience is to understand the meaning of this Advent season: These four weeks (the last four weeks of the civil year, the first four of the liturgical year) remind us that every day of our lives is a vigil, a time for putting things in order in preparation for our return to God. God gives us this life--this Advent- so that we might discover him and know him in the love of others and the goodness of this time and world in anticipation of the eternal reign of God in the next.v
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