Howdy,

Merry Christmas to all! One of the greatest gifts I have received this year is the joy of our parish family gathering again after Covid. This Fall has been busy and there is much more planned for the future. Most of all, it is wonderful to see the joy on so many faces as we gather again.

Christmas is family time, and family means more than simply relations through blood. Yes, those are special and very important, but so are the friends, neighbors, co-workers, and all those who touch our lives in special ways.

A seminary professor of mine once said, “Don’t confuse enthusiasm for a virtue with the virtue itself.” How easy it’s been in my life as a priest to talk about the greatest of virtues — love — and totally fail to live up to its concrete demands!

Fortunately, our religion is not mainly about ideas or virtues but about persons. The angel of the Lord says to Joseph, “Do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit” (Mt.1:20).

I know many of you are asking about the Rectory project, so I want to bring you up to date. Due to the Covid crisis, as I said earlier, we paused our meetings and fund-raising for a while. In September we began to look again at the project and where we stood. We are through the City of Scottsdale and are almost ready to pull permits. We do have one more meeting with the diocese to look at our finances.

Advent is a season where we focus on both John the Baptist and our Blessed Virgin Mary. Our Sunday readings will help us, but, especially for our Blessed Mother, we have two very special celebrations.

First, is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, this coming Thursday. It is a holy day of obligation as we remember God’s preparing the world for the birth of His Son by preparing Mary to be His mother. We will have our regular 9:00am Mass and a Mass at 6:00pm.

This weekend we begin the Holy Season of Advent. Advent is a time of preparation...for what? Santa Claus? Well, maybe.

The name “santa claus” comes from the Dutch name for St. Nicholas, “Sinterklaas”. St. Nicholas was a monk from Eastern Europe who died in the year 343. He was known for his great kindness and generosity, especially for the poor.

I know, I am always asking you to slow down, especially in these busy seasons preparing for something special from our God. Next weekend, we will have our annual “Bethlehem Gift Shop”, as Ayman will again be here with woodcarvings from the Holy Land. Ok, you can do some Christmas shopping!

I am again in Mexico for their annual quinceañera celebration, then I am off to El Salvador for their graduation ( their school schedule is different from ours) and quinceañera. Lots of celebrating!

Next weekend is the Solemnity of Christ the King, which marks the end of our liturgical year. We have walked with Jesus another year and heard him teach us. After that, we begin the season of Advent, preparing ourselves again to receive the gift of God’s Son into our world.

November is a month to focus on Thanksgiving. We have so much to be thankful for here at St. Bernard’s. Yes, we all have problems and issues, and our elections will bring some anger and disappointment, but we cannot let those things dominate our spirit. In Old Greek, the word “eucharist” means thanksgiving. We are a Eucharistic people, a thanksgiving people.

It seems like the activities never end...and that is a good thing! On Saturday evening, we held the Gala for the Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos. We welcomed our guest speaker, Marlon Velasques, the National Director of our home in Nicaragua sharing his experiences with us. Thank you to all of those who attended this wonderful event.

Next weekend is our annual Ministry Fair. Please plan to stop by and see all the activities and ministries available to you. It is a great time to sign up to help one of our ministries.

We are presenting to you last year’s financial report from July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022. As usual, I want to thank you for your generosity. Please note that Plate income was over our projected budget, and while the total Operating Cash shows a deficit, it is much less than the projected budget. We are moving in the right direction.

Some of you know that I am on the Advisory Council for Nazareth House, our diocesan seminary. This is for the first year or two of seminary and it has proven already to be successful. In fact, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops just put out their revised Program for Priestly Formation and they are advising this same idea for all dioceses in the country.

It has been my pleasure to get to know these men before they go to major seminary and I am proud of them all. This year we have twelve men living at Nazareth House.

There is still time to sign up for the Men’s Renewal Weekend, October 15-16, and for the Women of Joy Retreat, October 29. Both of these are wonderful retreats to grow in faith and to get to know men and women in our community. I strongly urge you to consider this opportunity. Also, the Diocesan Rosary Sunday is October 16th; details are on our website or on the Diocesan website.