Dear Parishioners of Our Lady of Mercy,
Greetings in the name of Our Lord Jesus Christ!
We are now back in Ordinary Time in the Church’s liturgical calendar. That does not mean this season is plain or unremarkable. It means that the weeks are counted, we go through the weeks in order. Ordinary Time started last Sunday with the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord and it will end February 25, the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. We will then start the season of Lent followed by the Easter season. Ordinary Time will then resume June 1 and continue until the start of Advent, November 29. This is the cycle of our liturgical calendar for 2020.
In our gospel passage this weekend we have John the Baptist once again revealing Jesus as the promised Son of God. It may sound like a repetition of last week’s gospel passage. This tells us that we need to be constantly reminded of who Jesus is because sometimes we really don’t understand Him.
We need to be reminded that He came into the world to teach us and to make us aware of God’s presence in our lives so that we might be saved. Let us be honest with ourselves, we come to church Sunday after Sunday, but do we truly trust in God? If we do, do we follow his commands to live in holiness and righteousness? Those are questions we need to answer truthfully and individually before God.
On a different note, as I announced last weekend, this year’s Christmas collection was the highest ever. There are still quite a few of you who are yet to give. As I write this, your Christmas gifts to your parish total $63,195. That number will still go up a little higher since there are some families who told me that their gifts to the parish are still coming. The whole community thanks you for your generosity. God will bless you abundantly.
Next weekend, we begin the 2020 Annual Appeal entitled “Shining the Light of Christ.” At this time of the year, the Archdiocese will be knocking on our door, asking us to support the work of the Church. I encourage you to pledge more than before because whatever we collect over our goal will come back to us one hundred percent (100%). So, please be generous.
I would like to end this letter by urging you to pray for everybody and everything. There are a lot of different disturbances in our world – natural disasters, political unrest, wars, killings and more. Let us also take some time for introspection and for examining our conscience. We would do well to ask ourselves, “What am I doing and what can I do in the midst of these calamities?” Yes, let us storm heaven with our prayers!
Love,
Father Marty