THE ADVENTURE OF ADVENT

Advent is nearly spent. This doesn’t mean that our preparation is over or that it has gone perfectly, but rather that we must wrestle with our limits. Yet this is part of the meaning of the Christmas Mystery: we can embrace our limits because Christ did not spurn our limits but rather entered into them to redeem us. Joseph’s Angelic visitor in his sleep reminds us of how God meets us in our fatigue—and at times, even our slumber.

I want to express appreciation for those who have helped to host so many recent events that have helped us to gather for meaningful moments of Advent preparation and festive cheer. Although Christmas has not yet arrived, we have been living a great season of anticipation. I commend the women of Holy Cross and St. Hedwig for hosting such wonderful holiday bake sales and fairs the weekend of December 5-7. I also thank the organizers of the recent Men’s and Women’s Advent Retreats as well as the Pastoral Council for the special prayer and chili dinner event at St. Clement this past week. We were blessed to welcome St. Nicholas to our parish, including to Polish Saturday School, our December Parish Night in Koble Hall and for caroling in Guminga Hall.

There has been plenty of snow accumulation to help get us in the spirit of both fatigue and festivity! We can’t forget to express our thanks to those—especially Mark McGarry and his helpers—who keep our roads, sidewalks and parking lots clear and accessible. Three cheers to our parish staff, the Tuesday Toilers and so many others who take such pride in our campuses and their cleanliness and preparedness to welcome so many parishioners and visitors this coming week.

Thanks to all who will help with ‘greening’ our three churches. Many hands make light work! As you likewise prepare your homes for the celebration of Christmas, remember to remove the Christ Child figurine from the manger scene if he made a premature arrival!

As we move from Advent into Christmastide, let’s follow St. Joseph and Our Lady into the adventurous unknowns. As finite creatures we can’t know each step ahead. The approach that St. John Henry Newman suggests in his hymn, Lead Kindly Light, is a humble but wise approach, “I do not wish to see the distant scene, one step enough for me…”

Our next step takes us to the manger of Bethlehem where we are invited to kneel the Christ Child, our Savior, in faith. O come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord!

-Fr. Howe

Two concluding notes:

+ If anyone has photo from the St. Clement Feast Day weekend please send them along to photos@ourholycross.org. Stay tuned for a link for uploading photos from those events to a OneDrive folder. We will soon share our total amount raised for the St. Clement Maintenance Fund and critical repairs made there.

+ This past week we had the two boilers that service Holy Cross Church replaced. While we knew they were close to their expected lifespan, we didn’t expect one of the two to definitively fail earlier winter, leaving us with no backup. They are high efficiency condenser boilers, and they will keep the church comfortable for years to come. While this was an unexpected $40,000 expense, we are hoping to host a Fish Fry this Lent dedicated to funding the project. If you’d like to consider directing a year-end gift toward the Holy Cross church boiler replacement, there is a fund on the Vanco portal which you can find at www.OurHolyCross.org/give.