Today the Universal Church celebrates the final Mass of the Year of Grace of 2009, the Feast of Christ the King. This feast which came about a little less than two hundred years ago, symbolizes for us that Jesus is the final answer to all in creation. As Second Person of the Most Blessed Trinity, the Word Incarnate came to reconcile the whole world to right the wrongs, to bring forgiveness to sin, and to bring harmony to the brokenness that has caused so much pain and destruction. We know that in Christ, the world will be right again, thus the Christ the King brings the year to its full completeness. In all the Masses, Baptisms, the Confirmations, Ordinations, Marriages and Funerals held this past year were means to bring about grace and salvation. Thus we celebrate with great solemnity this most holy feast, and bring our year to another end.
Next week, we will begin a new Year of Grace of 2010, with the First Sunday of Advent. We begin this new time in the liturgical season looking to the future and all that we are invited to do to bring God's Good News, the message of Jesus' presence to the world, starting with our local community. If you are a viewer of Channel 49, the diocesan television station in Fresno, you will see me nearly everyday till Christmas in one minute spot commercials about Advent. Every week I will deliver a different message for the Catholic Community. It will air four to six times a day, changing every Monday to a newer commercial. It will be like Billy May has come back from the dead, we both look the same. And yes, TV adds ten pounds.
Happy Thanksgiving Day!!!
Thanksgiving Day is this week, and we wish that all of you will be joining with family and friends to give thanks to Almighty God for the many blessings that have come your way. Just living in these beautiful mountains is a reason to thank God for beauty.
We will have a special Thanksgiving Day Mass at 9:00AM
with our choir providing music. What better way is there than to come to Mass, give thanks to God for the gift of salvation and grace, before we sit at our dinner tables to give Him thanks for all other things. As a community of faith, this gathering will give witness to how important we cherish each other. A collection will be taken up to aid the poor and we are asking you to bring food items that can be given to those organizations that provide food for the needy in our Oakhurst area. Also you are invited to bring the wine and bread that you will serving that day to have it blessed at Mass. Plan to attend!!
Parish offices will be closed November 26th to November 29th so that our staff can enjoy Thanksgiving with their families and take some well deserved time off this busy season.
As our churches are aging, even with Our Lady of the Sierra Church now being ten years old, there are more needs for repair and restore. In trying to be proactive in these hard economic times, we find the need to create a fund for church repairs so our annual budget would not be taxed. We are experiencing a real decline in our Sunday collections from last year and we cannot at the present moment do what needs to be done. Thus on the Fifth Sundays of the month, whenever they occur, we will take up a second collection for the Parish Improvement Fund, which will be used to fund projects such as repairs, replacing damaged items, fixing sidewalks, and other things that do come up at all our churches. Your generous response will be appreciated, as well as your consideration in a small increase in your Sunday giving. We are making adjustments and cuts to stay within our means. These are lean times for you and for us.
The first Parish Improvement Fund collection will be taken next Sunday, November 29th, at all Masses.
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