This weekend after all the Masses, we will have our Christian friends from the Holy Land exhibiting their beautiful hand-crafted olive wood figures from Bethlehem. You have heard them and me before, as we spoke of the plight of the dwindling Christian community in Israel and surrounding countries of the Middle East. What was once a strong, vibrant Catholic and other Christian population has dropped to around two percent of the population. These Palestinian Catholics count on your support of their artistry to help them and their families survive in the midst of all that anti-Christian, anti-Western turmoil. This is an excellent opportunity to come and see their work, to speak with them about their delicate spiritual, economic and political situation, and take the opportunity to purchase those beautiful items for your Christmas gift needs. You will be uplifted in hearing their commentaries on their endurance and suffering in a manner not unlike the first Christians of the Holy Land. Come to Kellaghan Hall after Mass.

Our award-winning parish school will host an “OPEN HOUSE” for all our parishioners this Sunday, following the 10:00 AM Mass, and we invite you to take a look at the many excellent programs and facilities that help our students excel in so many areas of spiritual, academic, athletic and service achievements. Our Principal, Mrs. Vikki Delgado, her staff and teachers will welcome you, especially prospective parents of future students. You even have a chance to win the raffle that will assist you in tuition payments for next year. So come, and have a great visit!

We are delighted to learn that the following students from our parish (most of them graduates of our parish school, attained the following academic honors for the first quarter at Pope John Paul II High School. Principal’s List: Lauren Browning, Alena Costanian, Travis Hughes, Nicholas McNamara, and Emily Sama. First Honors: Clare Brinkman, Ariel Chandler, Erin English, Monica Espinel, Natalie Irving, Emily Kowalik, Hunter Maxwell, Victoria Mazzeo, Emma McNamara, Meghan Mendez, Abigail O’Malley, Katherine Roussin, Alexandria Shumway, Alyssa Skehan, Holly Stryjek, Gina Tenore, Sarah Transleau, Gerald Williston, Sara Wohlfarth, and Katherine Youngross. We offer them our congratulations and hope they continue to use their God-given talents in various good ways.

On this Third Sunday of Advent, the Readings highlight two figures that had a pre-eminent role in the preparation of Jesus Christ’s entering into history: the Virgin Mary and St. John the Baptist. The Gospel of Mark focuses precisely on the latter and describes the personality and mission of the Precursor of Christ. Beginning with externals, John is presented as a very ascetic figure: he is clothed in camel skins, he eats locusts and wild honey and he lives in the wilderness of Judea. Jesus once contrasted him with those “who live in the palaces of kings” and “wear soft garments.” John the Baptist’s style should recall all Christians to choose a more sober lifestyle, especially in preparation for the feast of Christmas, in which Jesus, as St. Paul says: “although He was rich, became poor for your sake, that you might become rich through his poverty.”

John’s mission was an extraordinary call to conversion: his baptism “is connected to a call to a new way of thinking and acting but, above all, with the proclamation of God’s judgment.” and of the imminent appearance of the Messiah. John’s message goes further and deeper than a more sober way of life: it calls us to interior change, beginning with the acknowledgement and confession of our sins. As we prepare ourselves for Christmas, it is important that we look within ourselves and we sincerely reflect on our life. We must let ourselves be illumined by the ray of light that comes from Bethlehem, the light of Him who is “the greater one” and made himself small, the “strongest one” and made himself weak.

Very Rev. Canon Tom