Dear parishioners,

First of all, our liturgy team has met to determine what Advent and Christmas will look like at St. Mary’s. We started from the premise that it seems not very productive to multiply masses for only 50 people per mass, and that what people really want is to pay a visit to the church for Christmas and New Year’s, and receive communion. So we planned accordingly.

First, confessions. We will resume confessions in the church with two hours of confessions per week, Sundays from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m., and Tuesdays from 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. There will always be two priests available to hear confessions. It will be necessary to pre-register to come for confession. Pre-registration for confession will take place on the same sign-up sheet that we use for pre-registration for mass. You can also call the office and dial extension 0 for Marianne, or email her at [email protected].

The outdoor Christmas lights will be turned on, as usual, at the 5:00 p.m. Saturday afternoon mass for the first Sunday of Advent. It won’t be possible to gather outdoors as we usually do, but at least the lights will be turned on!

We will maintain our tradition of the Simbang Gabi masses at 6:00 a.m., December 16-24. These masses will all be live streamed. Since we believe that we will almost reach our capacity of 50 people simply with the families in attendance who are sponsoring the mass, there will be few spots available for pre-registration, which is why we are live streaming all the nine masses. There will of course be no breakfast or even coffee served after the mass.

Christmas Eve, there will be just one live streamed mass at 4:00 p.m. We’ve decided to make of this mass a special Christmas treat for those who are prevented from attending mass, either because of age or because of a chronic medical condition. In order for this to be safe for these vulnerable people, we have to be sure they are the only people in attendance at this mass. For this reason, attendance will be on invitation only. It won’t be possible for the general public to pre-register for this mass.

At 6:00 p.m. on Christmas Eve, we will open the church for visitation until 9:00 p.m. It won’t be necessary to pre-register, but we’re asked by Public Health to take names and contact info as you enter the church. In view of this, it would really be helpful if you arrived with your name and contact info – phone number and email address – on a piece of paper or on the screen of your smart phone. You’ll also have to be prepared to line up, perhaps even outdoors, if this should prove to be popular. You’ll be able to come into the church, deposit a Christmas offering envelope if your finances make that possible, visit the Nativity Scene, take photos if you wish, and receive communion before leaving. This will be a walk-through event, since opening up the possibility of occupying a pew for a few minutes would be very difficult to manage and potentially dangerous for transmission of the virus. Therefore, all the pews will be closed off. 

On Christmas Day we will repeat this “open house” formula from 9:00 until 10:30 a.m., with no necessity of pre-registration. This will be followed by the regular 11:15  and 3:00 p.m. (Tagalog) live streamed masses. As usual, attendance at these masses will require pre-registration. Note that there will be no 7:00 p.m. mass on Christmas Day.

The Feast of the Holy Family on December 27th will feature liturgical innovations proposed by our Council of the Knights of Columbus.

On New Year’s Eve, we will repeat the pattern for Christmas Eve, with a live streamed mass at 4:00 p.m., requiring pre-registration but open to everyone, and a “New Year’s Eve Walk Through”, just as for Christmas Eve, from 6:00 – 9:00 p.m. No pre-registration required for the “walk-through”.

On New Year’s Day, we will have three masses requiring pre-registration at 8:00 a.m., 11:15 a.m., and 3:00 p.m. (Tagalog). As usual, the 11:15 a.m. and the 3:00 p.m. masses will be live streamed. Again, note that there will be no 7:00 p.m. mass on New Year’s Day.

That’s pretty well it for our Advent/Christmas schedule. This schedule will be posted on all our sites in the weeks to come.

Secondly, it will soon be possible to pick up your boxes of Sunday offering envelopes for 2021 in the foyer when you come to mass, or at specially designated times. We are working on this right now. As soon as we have come up with a plan, we will make it known.

Thirdly, we are at the midpoint between September, the time that we surpassed our Project Advance parish target, and the end of the campaign, on December 31st. Since September, a further $22,000 has been contributed to Project Advance, all of which will come straight back to the parish, as will all contributions we make between now and the end of December. This unhoped-for income will help us get through this pandemic financially. Check out the numbers for yourself at our parish Project Advance website which you can access at projectadvance.ca/stmarysvan. You can also, if you haven’t already done so and if your financial situation makes it possible, make a donation to Project Advance at the bottom of our Project Advance website. If you haven’t already seen it, you can also watch a video of the Archbishop speaking on the topic of Project Advance. You can view this video on our Youtube channel. 

Be sure to check out our most recent resource in the parish: Shalom World TV, an entirely online, international Catholic television station. It can be accessed from our parish website. If you go to the website, you will see a yellow circle at the bottom right-hand corner of your screen. Click on that, and in you go.

Finally, an appeal from Mildred, on behalf of St. Mary’s Street Ministry: “Cold weather is here. St. Mary’s Street Ministry is asking for sleeping bags and blankets for those suffering homelessness. Please bag, label and drop off any blankets or sleeping bags at the parish office weekdays from 9am – 5pm.”

Unless something else comes up, next week’s pastor’s corner will focus on resources available to us all for faith formation, and for the celebration of Advent and Christmas.

Keep safe and God bless,

Fr. Guy