Beloved brothers and sisters,
 
                                                  "The Lord bless you and keep you!” (Nm 6:24).
 
On January 1, the octave day of the Nativity of the Lord, the Church liturgy celebrates the most ancient feast of Mary, the commemoration of her divine maternity and perpetual virginity. As we come to honor the great Mother of God, Mary Most Holy, we ask for her special motherly advocacy with her son and savior to bestow his blessings upon us as we begin a new year. So may her Son, born to save us, bless and keep you all always in his love in the new year. May He be gracious to you and smile upon your soul.
 
In the name of the entire parish staff, I want to thank you for all you have done to support the parish in the past year, despite the hard times we all went through. Your faith and selfless giving of time, money and   talents are appreciated. 
 
Christmas was awesome! It was nice to see many new faces and familiar ones as well. Thanks for all your cards, cookies and Christmas gifts to me. I say a huge thank you to all the volunteers and ministers at the altar- Extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion, altar servers, lectors, cantors, musicians, choirs, ushers, streamers, etc. I am thankful for all the support and giving by all the societies, especially the Men's Club, CCW, Knights of Columbus, St. Vincent DePaul, Youth group, CCD, OCIA (RCIA),  Bible study group, St. Michael's Guard,  Parish Council, Finance Council, and many others not  mentioned here. With the         support of everyone, we have done marvelous things in 2022.
 
With the prayers of our Blessed Mother, Mary Most Holy,  I pray we do more extraordinary things in the new year 2023. I appeal to those who have stayed away since the covid outbreak in 2020 to consider returning physically to mass. Your pew is empty and needs you back. Please, come back and do what God created you for, the worship of Eucharistic Jesus.
 
Have a Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year!
 
In His Joy,
 
Fr. Bernard Oniwe, OP
 

 Beloved brothers and sisters,
 
                                                                  Have a Merry Christmas!
 
Christmas is about Christ! The statement states the obvious. Isn't it? Wait! If it is a clear and common truth that everyone who celebrates Christmas knows, why is there an ongoing campaign by Christians, for example, the Knights of Columbus' project of distributing car magnets with the inscription, "Keep Christ in Christmas? It is apparent then that the culture war on keeping Christ in Christmas indicates that not all who celebrate Christmas consciously adore and praise Christ during the Christmas celebration. 
 
Christmas for us Catholics is Christ's Mass. So we find meaning in the Christmas holiday by going to mass. In Mass, we experience a deep sense of what God did to begin the work of our redemption. We see the effect of the incarnation in mass. The word becomes flesh and dwells among us in the Christmas liturgy. The account of Jesus' birth comes alive, and we can "come and worship" him in his body and blood. God is with us, Emmanuel. The anointed one, Christ, truly becomes one of us to redeem us. Incarnation manifests God's love and the light shone upon our world. Christ is why Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year. We are joyful because God took on our humanity to save us from sin and death. Christ becoming human is the cause of our joy.
 
We share that joy with our families and friends. We share it by giving ourselves and our gifts to each other. We even extend the giving to strangers and many who have no one to share the spirit of Christ with them. We are happy and share our joy because of Christ. So, in the spirit of Christ, we say Merry Christmas!
 
On behalf of the parish staff, I say Merry Christmas to you all. May the glory that the birth of Jesus brings on that "Silent Night" in Bethlehem when he took our flesh radiate in the heart of every one of you, your family, and your loved ones. 
 
 Have a Merry Christmas!
 
Fr. Bernard "Joy" Oniwe, OP.
 

Beloved brothers and sisters,
  
                                                                      He is Emmanuel
  
God is with us. “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel” (Matthew 1:23). St. Matthew’s account of Jesus’ infancy establishes the extent God went to redeem lost humanity. If I borrow an adapted title of a classic English play by Oliver Goldsmith, we may say that God “stooped to conquer.” God showed his love to save humankind by becoming one with us humans. God humbles himself in doing so; he who originated and ordered all things stoops to our lowly, sinful form to save us. God so loves us to share in our humanity.
 
Bishop Barron captures the magnitude of God’s love in the following words from his Advent Gospel Reflections:
“The central claim of Christianity- still startling after two thousand years-is that God became human. The creator of the cosmos, who transcends any definition or concept, took to himself a nature like ours, becoming one of us. Christianity asserts that the infinite and the finite met, that the eternal and the temporal embraced, that the fashioner of the galaxies and planets became a baby too weak even to raise his head.”
 
God is with us. This is the importance of the fulfillment of Prophet Isaiah’s oracle: God will give the sign of his redemptive love for his people through his incarnation in the virgin who shall bear a son and shall be named Emmanuel (cf. !s 7:14). There is no other religion that makes such a claim that God became human to save humanity. This is God’s way of manifesting his deep interest in human conditions. Even if the contrary appears to be the case, God is genuinely part of human experience and reality. In the incarnation, God saved us. He continues to remain with us through the Holy Spirit to continue the work of redemption.
 
We experienced a sign of God’s presence with us in the rite of acceptance and welcome at the 10:30 am mass last week. WE REJOICE with Terry Martin, Drake Pugh, and Justin Collister, as each took a bold step towards becoming one with us and was accepted as a catechumen into our OCIA program. In addition, WE welcomed Alison Salley, Roxanne Dombrosky, and James Hathaway as candidates for full communion into the Catholic Church. We are all on this incredible journey of faith with them. They need our prayers and support as they make essential decisions toward fuller integration into Christ and his church. This Sunday, we hope to accept one more person into the catechumenate- Samantha Cornwell.
 
God is faithful to his church. The more we open ourselves to God, the more he comes into our lives. So may our heightened preparation for Christmas this week leads to the true incarnation of God’s word in our longing hearts.
 
In His love,
 
Fr. Bernard, OP
 

 Beloved brothers and sisters,
 
                                                                              Are You the One...?
 
Is Jesus the one we expect, or should we look to another? John the Baptist, who preached to us last Sunday, did so from the freedom of the desert, where people came to him to receive the baptism of repentance. This Sunday, we read from Matthew 11, where John the Baptist addresses us from the dungeon of Herod's prison. The Baptist is confused because he has a different mind of how God's Messiah would manifest his lordship.
 
The Jesus we expect is already in our midst, yet we do not recognize him. Therefore, we must be attentive to his presence already in our midst. John heard all Jesus was doing and still asked if he was the one. The report about the work of Christ has filtered into John's ears in prison. John, in chains, sends his disciples to ascertain if Jesus is the true Messiah. Jesus sends words to John through his disciples: "Go tell John what you see and hear: the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news preached to them."
 
Jesus was saving people; he was healing both body and soul. An imprisoned John is not witnessing this, but that does not mean Jesus is not at work. Like John the Baptist, we may not be seeing the wondrous works of Jesus, but Jesus is still doing his work of redemption. It may not fit our perspective or expectation because we are yet to align our minds with Jesus' mind. Nevertheless, Jesus is fulfilling the promise of salvation in manifested healings and saving grace around us. There are many testimonies; look around carefully.
 
In the days that follow, let us wait patiently but joyfully for the coming of Jesus. He comes to heal and save us. He comes with his mercy and healing for those who wait patiently in faith. Are you joyfully expecting Jesus to perform his healing and saving grace in your life? You should.
 
Please plan to be at all the healing opportunities scheduled for this weekend in our parish: Parish Penance Service on Friday, Worship Night on Saturday, and Advent Journey of Hope on Sunday. Expect Jesus to heal your body and soul at these spiritual encounters.
 
With Joy,
 
Fr. Bernard, OP
 

Beloved brothers and sisters,
 
                                                            JTB and a Call from the Desert
 
"Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight" (Matt 3:3). John the Baptist preached and provided a cleansing bath of repentance. He is the Elijah Isaiah prophesied was going to come to prepare the way for the Messiah, the Messiah who will establish the kingdom of heaven. John the Baptist's baptism of repentance was to clear the path for the entrance of the Lord of Lords into the hearts of the people of Israel. Repentance is a significant factor in establishing God's reign in our lives. To prepare for the access of Jesus into our lives and to make his path straight and smooth, we need to repent and show signs of repentance. What does repentance consist of? What does it mean to repent?
 
When John the Baptist announced the coming of the Lord in the desert, the people of Israel had waited for generations; he offered an opening to a life of grace. By inviting them to receive the baptism of repentance, he quickly added that his baptism was different and lesser than the baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire that Jesus was coming to grant the people. Yet, in the baptism of John the Baptist, we get a clear idea of the importance of changing our way of seeing the world. Anyone preparing as they await the coming of Jesus and his kingdom into their lives must first have a modified or altered perspective on life. Such change is what repentance entails and consists of. The Greek word used in the New Testament is metanoia. It means "beyond the perception of the mind. "In a fuller sense, metanoia (repentance) encompasses many things: a change of mind or heart or a new way of seeing, thinking or looking at life, an embrace of a different set of values and attitude, a transformation of consciousness. Advent is an ideal time to go to the desert and experience repentance.
 
The desert experience is necessary for preparation for repentance. We are waiting for God's kingdom's arrival in our lives and the world through it. According to spiritual writer Alan Jones, in his book, Soul Making, the desert is more than a place. The desert is an experience of solitude, conversion, and transformation. It demands a response that leads to revelation and revolution in the spiritual sense. In the silence and stillness of the desert, you will experience a total confrontation with yourself, a closer look at things and people, face situations one would rather avoid, and answer questions one would rather forget. John the Baptist invites us to the desert experience. Could you find the time and place to be still and wait in silence? I can guarantee you that by entering into the spiritual desert, you will find a need to confess your sins (Matt 3:6). "Since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," (Rom 3:23) as St Paul reminds us, we all need to "repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near" (Matt 3:2).
 
If you have not gone to sacramental confession in a year, you should go as soon as possible. If you have not approached the Sacrament of reconciliation in months or weeks, you need to have the desert experience, receive sacramental absolution and emerge a "born-again" catholic. Please save the date for our parish penitential service-Friday, December 16, at 7 p.m.
 
In Hope and Love,
Fr. Bernard, OP