Dear friends:

Today we begin  the season of Advent.  Advent means a coming – the coming of the Saviour.  Expectations and waiting form so much a part of our lives. Millions and millions of us wait daily for our own turn at ticket counters, government offices, business centers, attorney offices, doctors’ offices.  When we miss one chance, we wait for another.  In fact our whole life is one long expectation, one long movement from event to event until the final event of our life, death. This expectation turns into joy and throbbing hope, if we are waiting for someone whom we love and who loves us.  His coming and his gifts will stir us and make us more alive and creative.

The season of Advent reminds us of a threefold expectation of the coming of Jesus.  First, it reminds us of the centuries when the chosen people longingly waited for the Messiah. Secondly it reminds us that this Saviour, who has definitely appeared in the person of Jesus Christ, is still coming; at every moment he comes into our lives, into the church and into the world.  Finally Advent brings to our mind thesecond coming of the Lord in glory at the end of the world to judge the living and the dead.  Thus in Advent, we are invited to share in the longing of the nations, for the coming of the Lord, to let Him come into our hearts, into our family, into our community, into our society a new and to wait in joy and hope for his final coming.

I am pleased to announce on this Saturday December 5th we will be starting the Novena to our Lady of Perpetual Help.  This will be prayed immediately following the 9:00a.m.mass every Saturday.  Please do come and join this mass and novena and receive her maternal blessings.  Our Blessed Mother  is waiting for you and will intercede for you and for your family.  Let us seek her assistance and protection in our lives.

May God bless you all.

Fr. Chris