Thankfulness and Hope
In our last eNews just before Christmas, I wrote about HOPE and also made that the focus of my Christmas preaching. On Christmas Eve, Pope Francis launched the Jubilee Year 2025, a special year of prayer for the whole church, with the theme “Pilgrims of Hope.” Now that the whirl of the holidays has passed, consider taking some moments to read prayerfully his Jubilee proclamation, “Hope Does Not Disappoint” (click HERE), that I quoted in my Christmas homily.
As the Church’s Christmas season comes to an end this Sunday with the celebration of the Baptism of the Lord, let’s give a great “Thank You!” to all who helped us celebrate so joyfully the Christmas feasts and the presence of Christ in the midst of our community: those who planned the decorations for the church and those who helped put them up (and those who will help put them away this Sunday!); the liturgical ministers who served at the altar or welcomed our guests; the parents who carefully planned the Children’s Liturgy of the Word every Sunday of Advent and guided the children in the Christmas procession to the creche; our staff and volunteers who did behind-the-scenes work, especially assembling the printed worship aids; the building and grounds volunteers who cleaned the church; and of course our spectacular choir and musicians who spent hours in rehearsals with our Director, Julie Berra. And let’s not forget the crew of volunteers who counted the collections this past week, with another great “Thank You” to all who made those generous contributions to support our parish ministries.
Some great Jesuit Resources for us
America Media produces the well-respected, thoughtful national publication of the U.S. Jesuits, “America Magazine: The Jesuit Review of Faith and Culture.” They are offering a great discount on print and digital subscriptions. See the notice elsewhere in this eNews for details. By way of example of their content, I list here some of the current articles: “A prayer for a city I love, the City of Angels”; “Jimmy Carter and the lofty vocation of citizenship”; “A woman leads a Vatican office for the first time ever. Why now?”; “Pope Francis addresses war, fake news and our reasons for hope in New Year address to diplomats.”
Parishioners have long been involved in the Detroit-area Ignatian Service Circle: a group that does volunteer service work and reflects together on it in the light of Ignatian spirituality. They have room for others to join their group. See the notice in this eNews on how to join or simply to find out more about it.
Finally, I ask your prayers tomorrow, Saturday, for the all-day retreat for our Young Adult Ignatian leadership program. About 15 of us will be involved. And please begin thinking about candidates (ages 25-39) for this wonderful spirituality-and-leadership program: in a month or so we will begin recruiting for our fifth cohort, which will begin next September.