A Dancing God!
The first two Advent Readings this Sunday are all about joy and rejoicing. The prophet Zephaniah even speaks of God dancing and singing with joy over us, because of the salvation he has been able to accomplish in us through love. These passages form a stark contrast with the dark shadow of sorrow I felt cast over our metro area in recent days by the gun violence that left four young people dead in Oxford. But perhaps this clashing message of joy is just what we need to hear. The second reading, from Philippians, delves deeper into the dynamics of true spiritual joy: we must dismiss all anxiety and entrust all our cares and needs to God in prayer with gratitude in advance – then God’s peace will guard our hearts and minds… and enable us to rejoice. The onslaught of alarming news from many sectors of the world has left many feeling anxious – but St. Paul says to have no anxiety. That’s a tall order! – impossible unless we make the journey to arrive at a trust in God, in God’s intentions for us, in God’s love so powerful it will – ultimately, some day – save us from the troubles we’re in.
A Healing God
This Sunday after mass we will celebrate the Sacrament of Anointing for those who seek prayer for healing of body, mind and soul. To pray in this way helps grow that kind of trust that allows us to dismiss anxiety and dwell in God’s peace. Come and experience it! We will add something new this time: some members of our Intercessory Prayer Team will be available to pray with you more in-depth if you would like to go beyond the few brief minutes of prayer with the anointing priest.
A God of Communications?
At the parish office we have become aware that recent changes in the spam filtering of some email service providers has caused our parish communications to disappear into spam or junk mail folders rather than arriving in your Inbox. Please follow the directions elsewhere in this issue to avoid this problem – even if you don’t think you’ve had this trouble. And please click here, in case you missed it, to see our Advent programming and directions for registering for Christmas Eve mass – and here for my Advent series about the Jesuit characteristics of our parish. Despite the email troubles, our Christmas-season Legacy magazine should be arriving in your old-fashioned postal mailbox any day now, with many moving testimonies from parishioners about the Magis, the “more” of our shared life in the Lord. Don’t miss the opportunity to be inspired by their stories!