“Rejoice and exult with all your heart…The Lord has taken away the judgements against you…The Lord is in your midst… do not fear… The Lord will rejoice over you with gladness… He will renew you in his love… He will exult over you.” So 3

Dear parishioners,

On this third Sunday of Advent, the readings are full of exhortations to joy, to hope, to confidence, to joyful trust in God. We need these dispositions more than ever in this time of endless rain and pandemic. Let us simply ask them of God.

There is some good news. Once again, we have reached our archdiocesan target for Project Advance. This means that from now till the end of 2021, every penny we contribute to Project Advance comes straight back to the parish, and is transferred into our building fund! So now is the right time to pledge and to give… 

More good news: last week, we marked the 10nth anniversary of Migrant Ministry. This week, it’s the turn of our CWL council, which is celebrating the 15th anniversary of it’s re-instatement at St. Mary’s Parish. Thanks be to God for the presence in our parish of the CWL.

More good news for the very zealous in celebrating Christmas. The Simbang Gabi masses are back, beginning this Thursday, December 16th, at 6:00 a.m. every day until December 24th! No breakfast after mass unfortunately, but all are welcome!

Silll more good news. Our flat screen televisions are up and ready to go. However, we don’t want to begin using them until our projectionists have received proper training. So, projectionists, if you’re reading this, please don’t test the televisions this Sunday!

Please read carefully the schedule for Christmas and New Year’s masses. We have added an 8:00 a.m. mass on Christmas Day and on New Year’s Day. This is to lessen the number of people in attendance at any given mass, thereby making it possible for as many people as possible to attend mass safely.

Given the high number of masses, it’s a real challenge to assign a choir to each mass, such that there may or may not be a choir at the mass that you attend. In our present situation, we don ‘t have the luxury of ensuring the quality of all our celebrations. It’s more about enabling as many people as possible to attend Christmas and New Year’s mass, in safety.

A reminder that there is public health order restricting us to half of capacity for any church gathering. We’ve been given a certain flexibility in the application of this rule, but the rule remains, so we have to count the people coming in at each mass, and if we reach a number significantly higher than half of capacity, we have no choice but to close the doors of the church. We will post the schedule of masses outside the church, so that if, unfortunately, you are turned away, you’ll have before you the alternative mass times at which you can try again. 

As Christmas approaches, people are thinking of going to confession. The measures that we are taking to provide extra confession times are posted, at least in the bulletin and on the parish website. For good measure, let me point out here as well that on the Sunday before Christmas, there will be two priests available between all Sunday masses to hear confessions. In addition, there will be six priests available to hear confessions on Tuesday, December 21st, from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. And of course the priest who presides the weekday masses is available to hear confessions after every weekday mass. We hope this availability will suffice.

Once again, Ave Maria Garden Ministry is partnering with Chalice to produce Preserved flower arrangements for charity sales, a one-of-a-kind Christmas gift. The catalogue of arrangements available for purchase can be downloaded from their   Ave Maria Garden Canada Facebook Page and the gifts can be picked up before and after 1pm and 5pm mass every Sunday till December 19.  Please consider a gift of $50 because if together we stand, we can be the solution to end childhood hunger. All net proceeds go to Chalice. For more information, please contact [email protected] 

That’s it for this week. Keep safe and God bless.
Fr. Guy