In our Gospel, the crowds asked John the Baptist, “What should we do?”
First, rejoice! Christmas is less than two weeks away from this Sunday and this is Gaudete Sunday! “Gaudete” is Latin meaning “rejoice”, and we light the rose/pink candle (ours has some pink ribbons around the base).
Second, and John the Baptist would definitely agree with this one, go to confession if you haven’t recently. Confession is the best way to prepare for Christ, “to make room in the inn” of your heart. Please consider attending one of the parish penance services this week for your confession. Prince of Peace is Tuesday at 7pm, but if you can’t do that see the listing of places and times listed below—you have a lot of options this week and each service has multiple priests available! Please remember too as lines do get long that brevity and clarity are the virtues of a holy confession and a courtesy to others in line.
Sunday, Dec. 12
3pm @ Cure’ of Ars, Queen of the Holy Rosary-Overland Park, St. Agnes
7:30pm @ St. Paul’s
Monday, Dec. 13
7pm @ Holy Cross, Holy Trinity, Holy Spirit, St. Michael
Tuesday, Dec. 14
7pm @ Good Shepherd, Prince of Peace, Ascension
Thursday, Dec. 16
7pm @ St. Joseph, Divine Mercy, Sacred Heart-Shawnee, St. Pius X
Sunday, Dec. 19
3pm @ Queen of the Holy Rosary-Wea, St. Ann, St. John Paul II, 3pm
7pm @ Nativity
Third, Plan your Christmas celebration around Christmas Mass. The highlight of our activity will be Christmas Mass. It is “Christ” “Mass” after all—where do you think the word comes from? We will have Masses on Christmas eve at 4:00pm, 6:00pm, 8:00pm, and 10:00pm and on Christmas day at 8:00am, and 10:00am. I’m not sure what the crowds will be like, but please be kind and show hospitality. We might have lots of folks coming to Mass who are visitors or for some reason marginally practicing their faith. We want to show them hospitality and love so they might be drawn closer to Christ and His Church. Just imagine if at the original Christmas the shepherds would have said to the magi, “Hey, why are you so late, and we’ve never seen you around here, so go stand in the back by that donkey.” Lets instead show great welcome to all coming to adore the Lord. Smile and greet each other!
If you are health-compromised/vulnerable and unable to come out of concerns for exposure to COVID, please consider coming to a special “Safe Mass” on Saturday, January 1 at 10am. This will still be in the Christmas Octave, and we will mandate for everyone at this special Mass to mask and distance so our vulnerable population can come adore the Lord at Mass too.
Let’s make this a worthy celebration of Christmas by preparing well these last days of Advent. May God bless you!
Peace,
Fr. Greg