Dear Parishioners,

We are only hours away from the official (liturgical) beginning of the Christmas season, even though the culture has been celebrating Christmas since October. No doubt most of us are tending to last minute holiday details such as, buying last minute gifts, wrapping presents, preparing food, cleaning homes, adding one more decoration to the tree or writing one last Christmas card. The excitement is almost tangible and so is the energy required to welcome in this “most wonderful time of the year.”

Are you a Cubs fan? Or are you a White Sox fan? If you have any roots in Chicagoland, you instinctively understand that you must declare one or the other. It is common practice to choose one team — one is never a fan of both!

During these past two years, throughout our country and within the Catholic Church, that same principle seems to have been applied to the National Eucharistic Revival and the Synod on Synodality.

Dear Parishioners,

Christians describe the season of Advent in a variety of ways. These descriptions usually include the notions of watching and waiting, preparing for the celebration of Christmas and making ourselves ready for the final return of Christ at the end of time. All of these are correct. I would like to suggest that another way to think of Advent is with a focus on the themes of absence and presence.

Dear Parishioners,

On this First Sunday of Advent, as the Church begins a new liturgical year, it is especially fitting that we recognize the tremendous success of the Capital Campaign in which we were engaged this past year. You will recall that this campaign was designed to raise the necessary funds that would allow us to repair and enhance the interior of our parish church for our Centennial Celebration that will begin on December 16, 2023 and conclude in December of 2024.