Advent Is Upon Us

Brothers & Sisters in Christ,

Blessings on this final Sunday in Ordinary Time. It is hard to believe that Advent is upon us. It is such a busy time of the year, which makes it hard to keep our focus on the Incarnation and with so much to do, it can be hard to keep our priorities straight. I like the idea that the ladies have, who will gather for their service next Sunday. It is wise to pause for a few moments and remind ourselves why we do all of this. The precious infant in a manger in a far away land in a small little town can be swept away with all of the hustle & bustle of the season. It would be nice to do something with the men as well. Perhaps we can plan on doing something next year.

I know many of you are wondering why I switched the Ambo & the Presider’s Chair. No, there is no rubric on which side of the altar they should be on. It was primarily due to the fact that I felt a bit uncomfortable with the choir singing in my ear, not to mention not being able to have eye contact with them. Then there were other reasons, like being closer to the servers and the credence table, as well as having the Ambo closer to the cantors.

There has also been some chatter about me moving “The Midnight Mass” to midnight. As much as I prefer midnight, I do not plan on moving it (at least not this year). It will remain at 11:00 pm. I want to see how the attendance is at each of the masses. The most unusual one for me, personally, is the evening mass. I am used to an earlier one for families with small children, but not the other one, since wherever I have been midnight was the mass everyone went to. In fact, my first Christmas at The Rock, the ushers had to turn away over 250 people, simply because there was no more room… anywhere! It is such a beautiful and special liturgy that we even had many non-Catholics who attended it every year, since their denomination did not have one. So I encourage anyone who has never been to “Midnight Mass” to attend this year at 11:00 pm. We will also be welcoming home Aaron Meszaros for the holidays and he will hopefully be able to celebrate one of the masses.

We are putting together the new job description for our new Receptionist/Executive Assistant. If you have some interest and would like to submit a resume, please send it to Sandy.

 And finally, we are changing our emergency number. The new number is (616) 913-4400. This number will automatically page the priest who is on call, so even if they are away from the property or forget to pick up the emergency phone, they will still get the message. Please use this only for genuine emergencies. If it is not a true emergency please call the office or one of our direct lines.

 In the Redeemer, Fr. Rick