We are marching very quickly towards the Christmas Season. This coming week, all our registered parishioners will be receiving a letter, a Christmas Mass schedule, and an offering envelope from me. Please save the information you receive and do share with other Catholics, especially those we might not see on a regular basis. Since Christmas is on a Saturday this year, we will celebrate two Christmas Eve Masses, A Family Vigil Christmas Liturgy at 4 pm in Oakhurst and a Candlelight Vigil Christmas Liturgy in North Fork at 7pm. Midnight Mass will be preceded by a Festival of Carols beginning at 11:30 p.m. and there will be a Solemn Mass of Christmas celebrated on Christmas Day at 11:00 a.m. (There will be no Spanish Mass on Christmas Day.) This will help Kevin and I to get a breather on Christmas Day since we start all over again on Sunday, the 26th with a full schedule.
Advent is a season of Hope and Anticipation; it does not have the same penitential nature as does the season of Lent. As well, it is becoming more and more difficult each year to get priests to help with Penance Services; therefore, there will NO Advent Penance Service this year. I will add extra hours of confessions on Saturday, December 18, from 2:00pm to 4:00pm at Our Lady of the Sierra Church in Oakhurst.
We are continuing to collect food items for Manna House to help with the many who have great needs this Christmas Season and beyond. I would like to continue collecting canned goods even after Christmas, so that we can be more help to the many who have such great needs.
We are now only a week away from the Christmas Feast. All are reminded of the Christmas Mass schedule which can be found in this bulletin. Please share the information with all the Catholics you know and may not receive our mailings.
At this special time of mourning for Bishop John Steinbock, which extends for 30 days from the date of his death, we continue to lift our prayers and hearts as we remember the many ways we were touched by this great shepherd. I personally cannot count the number of ways Bishop John expressed his fraternal love and support through our 19 years together. I was able to serve him in many capacities. When times were hard for me, he was a true, loving and supportive pastor, who wouldn't let me go, and encouraged me to renew and revive my priesthood. I will never forget him. In a picture that hangs on my wall, he wrote, "Mike, with the esteem of a friend, +John T. Steinbock." We who knew him came to know Christ! May he be forever in our hearts. Rest in peace, dear Servant of God.
As we now move into this period without a bishop, the diocese is officially 'sede vacante', which means "vacant seat". The College of Consultors have elected Msgr. Myron Cotta to be the Diocesan Administrator until such time as His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, appoints a new Bishop. The Diocesan Administrator has most of the rights and responsibilities given to a Diocesan Bishop. He cannot ordain, and when a Bishop is required for liturgical events, one will be invited to come and assist us. The Diocesan Administrator re-appoints all department heads (I am the Director of the Office of Worship). The Priests' Council is dissolved. The College of Consultors will be a governing body along with the Diocesan Administrator.
All operations, construction projects, ministries, and similiar Diocesan activities can continue under a Diocesan Administrator, working with a College of Consultors.
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