News - December 2023 RSS Feed

You are invited to come forward and have your family blessed on Sunday, January 7th

Happy New Year to one and All! I hope this new year is one filled with the experience of Christ for you personally and for your families and for our parish. As is common in our time, we have some resolutions for the parish. We are resolved to make the parish a place that anyone can feel that the love of God is present here in our worship and our programs. I want to remind everyone that we have a mission and a vision. It is linked to our aspiration which is “to be a parish that others look at as a great example of Church renewal”.

Mass & Potluck on Monday, January 1st

Merry Christmas to one and all! I have been reflecting on all that has happened this past year and realizing that it is all due to being a witness to God’s grace working in the world. This past year we celebrated 42 baptisms, 25 weddings, 19 first communions, 19 confirmations, and 47 funeral masses or services.

It is with bittersweet emotion that I write this letter today to bid farewell to a wonderful community that has over the course of two and a half years (three and a half if you include my internship) enriched my life in so many ways.

This past year your donations to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul provided $129,957 to over 1,780 Salem residents in need. As we enter the Advent season, please consider making a tax deductible donation to SVdP, Salem by placing a donation in one of the collection boxes.

Today is the day I hope you will indicate your intentions to support the parish by completing commitment forms to our Grateful Discipleship Program.

We concluded MQOA's 31st Alpha a few weeks ago and we got results from their feedback.

Two of the themes of Advent are anticipating and recognizing the need for a Savior. This week's and last week’s readings remind us of an important fact about Jesus. He was not concerned about knowing when he was going to return. Paul underscores this too as part of his preaching and writing in various letters. He was more concerned that as his disciples we were ready for his second coming in light of his first. In our time the Eucharistic prayers remind us of this too. For example, the third Eucharistic prayer reminds us of this very clearly. “…We look forward to his second coming…”. And then after the Our Father, the priest says “…as we await the blessed hope and the coming of our Savior Jesus Christ.” Each Eucharistic prayer reminds us that there is a direction that we are going in and it is towards the day when God completes the work here by sending Jesus for the second time.

Next Saturday, December 9th, we invite you to attend our Second Annual Bilingual Advent Retreat where we will prepare ourselves for the birth of the Savior of the World, but also for His return. Guiding us will be Sister Mary Marta, PDDM, who will share how we can look to Mary as our example in order to prepare our hearts for the coming of her son, Jesus.