“O people of Sion, behold, the Lord will come to save the nations, and the Lord will make the glory of his voice heard in the joy of your heart.” Is 30,19.30

Dear parishioners,

These words from this Sunday’s entrance antiphon strike a chord with me, with all of us, I think. The rumbling news of vaccines, one after another, being approved by one nation after another, can’t help but stir up a new hope in us that maybe this pandemic really will one day be over, that God really will “come to save the nations”.

Dr. Bonnie Henry will be announcing on Monday during her press conference at 3:00 p.m. whether we will be allowed to re-open the churches. If we are allowed to re-open, we will do so here at St. Mary’s the very next day, Tuesday December 8th, for the 9:00 a.m. mass.

If we are allowed to re-open, this will be our weekly mass schedule:

Sunday masses: Saturday 5:00 p.m., Sunday 8:00 a.m., 11:15 a.m., 3:00 p.m.(Tagalog) and 7:00 p.m. As usual, the 11:15 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. will be live streamed.

Weekday masses: Monday to Saturday, 9:00 a.m.(all live streamed); Wednesday to Friday, 7:00 p.m.

A reminder that pre-registration is required for all Sunday masses and for weekday evening masses.

If you don’t know whether we are allowed to re-open, just go to the mass pre-registration page on our website. If the masses where pre-registration is required are posted, it means we’re open!

If we are not allowed to re-open, the mass schedule remains as it is now: Sunday, 11:15 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. Weekdays: Monday to Saturday, 9:00 a.m. All these masses are live streamed. No in-person attendance.

A second reminder: we are open Saturdays, 1:00-2:00 p.m., and Mondays 5:00-6:00 p.m. for you to come and pick up your box of envelopes. You’re welcome to step into the church for a few minutes to pray, but if we’re still in lockdown, the ushers must keep the number of people present in the church at any time to a maximum of 10. Therefore the ushers could be obliged to ask you to leave so that someone else can come in. We hope you’ll understand. And always be sure to disinfect the area that you have occupied in the pew. Remember also that you can pick up your envelopes when you come for confession, or for mass, when we will have been allowed to re-open for mass.

A third reminder: we are open Sundays, 1:00-2:00 p.m. and Tuesdays, 7:00-8:00 p.m., for confessions. In addition, we will be open for confessions Saturday December 12th, 7:00-8:00 p.m. Pre-registration is required for confessions.  

Please note that exceptionally, there will be no confessions this coming Tuesday December 8th, since we will be celebrating the Feast of the Immaculate Conception at 7:00 p.m., followed by a very special, pre-recorded edition of our Living Rosary. There will be no in-person attendance at this mass. We hope you’ll be with us online for the mass and Living Rosary.

We appear to be out of the December edition and the Christmas edition of Living with Christ, but we still have a few copies of the Magnificat Advent booklet, and many copies of the “Little Blue Book” for Advent, and of the Sunday edition of Living with Christ. All of these are available at the entrance to the church. Come by any time to pick up a copy. A reminder: it costs just under $40 plus tax to subscribe to the monthly edition of Living with Christ. Something you might like to consider, as we can only distribute 60 copies per month.

I refer you to rcav.org/Christmas for information on the beautiful series of projects that the Archdiocese has initiated in the hope of spreading as much hope as possible in this hard time of Covid-Christmas. Just let me share here the one project that affects us directly at St. Mary’s. If you pass by the church any time after next Tuesday after dark, in addition to the lights that our Knights of Columbus have put up, you will see our church decked with long strings of beautiful blue lights, compliments of the Archdiocese. They want as many churches as possible, and as many of the faithful as possible, to put up blue lights. These lights are intended to be a visible sign of our hope in Jesus, born of Mary (hence the colour blue). At the same time, they are intended to be a sign that we stand in solidarity with those grieving the loss of loved ones to Covid in this past year. These lights are all the more appropriate at St. Mary’s that our parish bears her beloved name! If you go to rcav.org/Christmas, you will find suggestions as to where you can procure blue Christmas lights for your home. Let me mention also a Christmas video which the Archdiocese has created to inspire hope in this difficult time and which will be posted effective this Sunday, December 6th. You can find it on all RCAV social media channels, but you can also access it via a link that you will find on our parish website.

We have until December 31st to contribute to Project Advance and receive a 100% rebate. The last time I checked, our rebate stood at $48,000. If the closure of the church continues, this will compensate for the loss of revenue from envelope donations. God provides!

Keep safe everyone, and God bless, Fr. Guy