Pastoral Letters

Pastoral Letter – Christmas 2021
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ Jesus,

I am immensely happy to write this to you as we are entering into the Christmas season. As we are fully aware of, Jesus is the only reason for having those gifts of Joy and Peace. May we allow HIM to be born in our hearts so that we become HIS shining stars as blameless and pure children of God, to lead others by our good deeds! (Phil 2: 15)
To help celebrate this joyful season, please treat yourself with a gift from the parish: a spiritually motivating book by an inspiring author, Matthew Kelly: “Life is Messy”. A book that addresses the issues of human life, particularly during this time of challenge and uncertainty, will definitely be of great help.        

We are very grateful to God for providing us the strength to sail through the rough and uncertain times in the recent past due to Covid19. Thank you all for staying together to encounter this challenge. Unfortunately, we have not got over, yet. Seemingly, several factors have made their way in, to make the situation worse. We SHALL NOT let those things prevent us from worshipping, celebrating and serving, as a parish family.

Let us count on the blessings that we have had this year: the opportunity to come together to worship and celebrate the sacraments; the centennial celebration marking one hundred years of witnessing life;  the number of volunteers who stepped up to serve; the opportunity to pilot the Amazing Parish program in our vicariate; the new families who have joined our parish this year; the sizeable increase in the enrollment of students in our school; the new staff members who have joined us both in the church and in school; the generous donors of our parish and all the families for the regular financial commitment. The list can and will go on. We couldn’t do without you. THANK YOU!          
We are in the Centennial year of our parish family. I take to heart with the sincere sentiments of gratitude, all those who put great efforts to make our celebration in the fall, a huge success. I would like to refresh your memory with some updates on the projects that we had started envisioning as centennial projects.

The relic of our patron, St. Francis was blessed and installed by Archbishop Sample; the parish/picture directory was distributed (courtesy of the team that really worked hard); Fr. Tom Memorial Endowment to support the faith formation (Church) and special projects (school) has been established; the projects on the sign on Oregon St and the upgrading of the lights and sound system in the church have been given to the parish building & maintenance committee to pursue on. That leaves us with three other major projects: the crucifix, the baptistry and the modification in the sanctuary.

Crucifix:  The Crucified and Risen Christ are inseparable. At Mass we say: we proclaim your Death, O Lord, and profess your Resurrection, until you come again. These are just a few thoughts about our use of the Crucifix, and not exhaustive:

1. On the Cross the Lord Jesus shows us the unconditional, passionate love He has for us, and His infinite mercy. Although He is now Risen, His self-offering on the Cross continues to this day. In particular it is made present at Mass, and we receive in Holy Communion His Body broken on the Cross and His Blood poured out to save us.
2. The Lord told us that we, too, have to take up our crosses (Mt 16.24). Being a disciple of Jesus does not mean a life free from sufferings and trials. These we must endure in faith as he did for us. By fixing our eyes on the Cross of Jesus we will not grow weary and lose heart (Heb 12:2). Only after the trials of this life, can we hope to share in his Resurrection.
3. When the Lord had Risen He appeared to the apostles and showed them His wounds (Lk 24:39, Jn 20:20). Even after the Resurrection we are not meant to forget that it was through His suffering on the Cross that the Lord Jesus gained His victory over death and our salvation.

Standing in line with the teaching and recommendation from the Church, we will bring the crucifix into the sanctuary (above the Tabernacle). Eventually, we will be fixing the image/statue of the Risen Christ in our parish hall and naming it as ‘Risen Christ Hall’.

Baptistry:  Our Church is designed and built in such a way that we can come up with a baptistry at the entrance. It is in this baptistry that we will have options for the baptism of children by pouring or of adults (especially at the Easter Vigil) by immersion. It will be a great welcoming fountain for everyone who walks into the church for communal worship and personal prayer.

The Altar:  With the Crucifix and the baptistry, the sanctuary area will be aligned and modified based on the recommendations from the designing engineer in the past; that includes the Altar, the background and the flooring.
The display of these projects has been made available in the narthex for you to take a look at them. Please take time to get yourself familiarized with the proposed designs and other details of the aforementioned projects.

Let us thank all those who have been generously contributing toward these projects. We would appreciate if you want to be part of these projects by financially supporting them. In view of getting everyone’s comments, questions and concerns, the pastoral council has come up with two townhall meetings in January, 2022 on 01/16 & 01/30 at Noon in the parish hall. A comment card is available in the narthex for you to write your comments and questions and drop it in the box. Please plan on attending one of those meetings to help us move forward with the projects.

As we get closer to the end of the calendar year, I would like to personally thank every member of our parish family for all that you have done – serving, sharing and caring. May all your efforts bring to us the great gifts of this joyous season – love, joy and peace! May the Newborn King bless each and everyone with those gifts! May His Eternal Mother protect all of us in her maternal mantle and assure us of all those blessings!

Wish you all MERRY CHRISTMAS and a GRACE-FILLED NEW YEAR 2022!  

Thank you and God bless! 
Fr. Amal