First, much thanksgiving is in order. Personally, many thanks to all who wished me well and prayed for my running of the New York Marathon on November 6th! The school kids made me a medal of 26 medals each sponsored by a class with prayers prayed for me—how awesome is that! So, my results were mixed. I did finish the marathon, all 26.2 miles, in a total time of 5 hours and 49 seconds which works out to an overall pace of 11:29/mile. So finishing was awesome, and the crowd support in New York was beyond incredible. However, it was a near-record setting hot day for New York in November — 75 degrees and humid, and everyone suffered from that. I have now run 12 marathons (one each year for the last 12 years) and this is by far my slowest result. So, I wasn’t thrilled with my time. I’ve always been pretty much an average runner. The average time for the 47,839 finishers was 4:50:26, so I fell to slightly below-average this year, and I got 29,261st place. Alas! I blame the heat, my age, my below standard training this year, and Fr. Francis (whom I blame whatever I can think of). The winner of the race with Evans Chebet from Kenya who ran a 2:08:41 which is a blazing 4:55/mile. Not only was I slow, and this marathon hurt me more than I think any other, I came back from New York and quickly fell sick with COVID — who knew running with thousands of people, being packed into planes, subways, ferries, etc. would expose me? I got better, and thanks for the prayers during that time too!
Also, a personal thanks to a group of generous parishioners who re-plated my chalice and paten for my 15th anniversary of my priesthood I celebrated back in May. My chalice had received some wear and tear over 15 years of use, but now it is bright and shiny with new gold! Thank you! And of course, thank you to all parishioners for your love and support over all the year!
Moving on to Advent, we are doing something special this year with our preaching. Throughout the Archdiocese, we have been asked to preach on the kerygma for Advent. Kerygma means “proclamation” and it is the preaching of the basic message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This basic message is broken down into four parts for the four Sundays of Advent, and we are going to specialize one preacher to preach each part. So here is the plan:
+ First Sunday of Advent, Deacon Mike will preach on “Creation” (self-explanatory)
+ Second Sunday of Advent, Fr. Greg will preach on “Captured” (in other words “the Fall”).
+ Third Sunday of Advent, Fr. Andrew will peach on “Rescued” (in other words how Jesus saves us).
+ Fourth Sunday of Advent, Deacon Justin will preach on “Response” (what are we to do).
So, please don’t miss any part of this most important series! It should help us understand the bigger picture of the Gospel and why Jesus came to us on Christmas. Happy Advent!
Peace,
Fr. Greg