Dear Parish Family,

Though we are back to Ordinary Time for just a few short weeks, we are still reflective of where we've been recently. We also concern ourselves with Quo Vadis, in Latin where are you going? Well for us collectively we are headed to Lent, but in the meantime, we are called to relish in the presence of Jesus among us as one of us.

Today marks the end of the Christmas Season, but it does not mean what we celebrated has ended. We have become renewed in the hope of the Incarnation, and the profound reality that God loved us so much He became one of us by taking on human form. The spirit of Epiphany lives on in the reality of His manifestation in the world, and our awakening to His presence.

Epiphany is here and marks the twelfth day of Christmas. The feast day traditionally falls on January 6th but had been moved to the nearest Sunday. This was an attempt to have more people attend Mass. Today marks the visitation of the Three Magi and is most significant because we witness that the message of salvation causes us to be awakened and responsive to the voice of God. Mary, Joseph, Elizabeth, Zacharias, and the shepherds in the field all encountered the voice of God via an angel or in a dream.

Dear St. Catherine Laboure Family,

The beauty of Christmas is not that it's limited to only one day, the sentiment of these holy days unfolds for us deeper hope, deeper peace, deeper joy, and the most deepest love. These pillars given to us at Advent are never lost but continue with us as we deepen our love of God. It is the season after all that we are called to reflect more profoundly on the essence and mystery of our faith, and decide whole-heartedly to focus on things that really matter.

On the fourth Sunday of Advent, we testify to LOVE. What is love? So many ideas of what love is, yet the world is in most need of love. Love is married bliss, love is a pop music ballad, or a country music song. So many things have been said of love. It's a perplexing mystery, but we know we crave it and rejoice when we find it. Who does not want to be loved, but at times we can be stingy with this most wonderful gift of God. It's easy to love the people that love us but what about those that don't love us back, those are the hardest to love, yet we are called to love them anyway.

Rejoice in the Lord Always, Again I Say Rejoice !!!

Gaudete Sunday or Rejoice Sunday is the Third Sunday of Advent reserved for lighting the one and only liturgical rose-colored candle for the Fruit of the Holy Spirit of JOY.

Each candle of the Advent wreath brings us a new Fruit of the Holy Spirit to learn to live by, and to build our foundation of faith. We have come a long way, building upon Hope, Peace, and now Joy as the pillars that will hold us up and lead us to the final candle of LOVE.

Delving into the Advent Season we find ourselves thinking about the four fruits of the Holy Spirit, as we began with Hope, then continue to move onto Peace, JOY, and Love. Hope and Peace are the cornerstone of the Christian life with all four gifts our foundation. The Advent Wreath really is a great instrument of contemplation, the circle of the wreath reminds us of the pilgrim journey we've undertaken, and that the path of that journey must be illuminated at all times, as we light the candles of the wreath, and become open to the ways God will lead us, if we only stop to pause and listen to Him.