Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! It is once again time for Advent, this is the new year for the Church. We get to start off another liturgical year within the Church with this Advent season. Advent is another preparatory season, one that we are preparing for the coming of our Lord and Savior. He came as a humble child, one that was reliant on Mary and Joseph to take care of Him. He is also relying on us to help Him to carry out His mission in this world, and that mission is to show the love that God has for us.

This is the time of year that many people call the season of joy. It is a time in which we are getting ready to celebrate Christmas. But it is still a time in which we prepare for Christmas and it is not the Christmas season within the Church. The stores are trying to push us to celebrate Christmas earlier and earlier because, if we do, it makes more of a profit for them. You will notice that the churches are decorated in purple for the Advent season and then will be decorated for Christmas on Christmas Eve (the beginning of the Christmas season), and it will not end until January 6th (the feast of the Epiphany.) The song the “12 days of Christmas” is based on the 12 days between Christmas and Epiphany. In many cultures, most gifts were not given on Christmas day, most of them were given on the feast of the Epiphany, which is the day we celebrate the child Jesus being given the gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. So please take some time to ready your hearts for the coming of our Lord and Savior during this Advent season and don’t get tired of Christmas, before we celebrate that great season of joy, and have a blessed Advent!

With the new liturgical year, I would also like to mention the fact that we still need volunteers. Often times I get asked why we are not doing some event, outreach, program, or other thing here at the parish and my usual response is that is a great idea, how can we accomplish that? It is sometimes a challenge to get people to sign up for things, both to attend, and to help out with them. One of the things that comes up quite often in meetings here at St. Luke’s is the need for volunteers. Just like in most places, the same few people are doing most of the events or ministries. Almost every week we have multiple open spots on our ministry schedule for Extra Ordinary Ministers of Holy Communion, or lectors, or hospitality ministers, etc. It takes 11-12 people helping at each of the Masses that we have, and sometimes we only have 5-6 available and we have to find the others. I know that we all have very busy lives and we are not always sure which Mass we are going to attend, or other event we are going to be at, but as a parish, we really need the help in these things. Please consider helping out with a ministry here!

God bless,
Fr. Ken