Dear church family,
We sing at this holy season:
Joy to the world, the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King.
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And Heaven and nature sing.
Hope. Peace. Joy. Love.
These are the prayers for our world we pray together in this holy season of Advent and Christmas.
Each Sunday, we come together to worship, to praise God. To remember God’s promises. To look forward in faith and to pray.
I think it takes a lot of courage and a lot of faith to come together week after week and say YES! To hope, peace, joy, and love, as a result of a beautiful commitment.
We look around at this broken world; at the violence, the poverty, the suffering, and this 2020 with this Covid-19 tearing apart our dreams, plans, family reunions, birthdays and so on but yet again and again we gather as a community of faith and say YES to God!
Some call that crazy. Well, I have crazy faith in our God. I have crazy faith in the God who comes to us as a tiny vulnerable human baby and brings with him hope, peace, joy, and love. I have crazy faith in the God who plants seeds of hope, peace, joy, and love into each and every situation; each and every life. I have crazy faith in the God who says that WE, as the body of Christ, can BE hope, peace, joy, and love for each other and all the world. I have a crazy faith that all together, we can accomplish a lot good things, and all together, we can have a renewed community ready for next Christmas here in Lewis County Catholic Churches.
Dear parish family, since July we have had online or call in sign up for Mass on weekends with a limit of 25% capacity. Mass goers are sitting in every other pew, 6 feet apart. Confessions are available by appointment or at the regular schedule before Mass. Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is available on Wednesday after Mass until 4pm. We are following the guidelines for safety protocols.
The schedule for Masses: Christmas Eve: St. Joseph 5pm and 8:30pm Bilingual Mass. St. Francis X. 5pm. St. Francis X. Midnight Mass.
Christmas Day. St. Mary, 8:30am. St. Joseph, 10:30am. St. Yves 10am.
Thank you to all of you for your wonderful commitment to our parish, for all your time, talent and treasure you share with us. I will never get tired of thanking God for all of you.
In this season of Advent, as we move toward the miracle of Christmas, let’s proclaim our crazy faith in the God of hope, peace, joy, and love. Let’s say YES! to God. Let us pray that this pandemic be over for next year.
On behalf of the priests, Deacons, staff, and volunteers we wish you a verry Merry Christmas and blessings for New Year…
Fr. Milhton Scarpetta.
P.S: We miss you and we are waiting for you to come back and celebrate God’s presence with us.