2011-2012

CHRISTMAS & NEW YEAR’S SCHEDULE

COMMUNAL PENANCE SERVICE WITH INDIVIDUAL CONFESSION

Wednesday, December 7, 2011 7:30pm

CHRISTMAS MASS SCHEDULE

Christmas Eve

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Family Liturgy 4:30pm

Music & Carol Prelude 9:30pm

Liturgy 10PM

Christmas Day

Sunday, December 25, 2011

10:00am & 12noon (Family Liturgy)

(No Sunday 5:00pm Mass)

Solemnity of Mary (New Year’s Day)

Vigil Mass, Saturday, December 31, 2011 – 5:00PM

Sunday, January 1, 2012 – 10:00am & 12noon

(No Sunday 5:00pm Mass)

Even though we can get turned off by the “too early” decoration and the commercialism of the upcoming Advent/Christmas season, we can prepare ourselves early to celebrate this hopeful time of year by reclaiming the feast for us Christians.

We offer the following strong suggestions. We hope you will take the time to seriously contemplate them…

1. Celebrate the great feast of Thanksgiving first. Please wait until after November 27^th to put up Christmas decorations. Wait at least until one week before Christmas to put up the Christmas tree and KEEP the tree and decorations up through the Christian Christmas season until at least January 8, 2012, the Feast of the Epiphany of the Lord. Do not shop on Thanksgiving; let’s have respect for those workers who would like to stay home with their families.
2. Remember the spiritual sense of what we are about. DO NOT give into the secular word “HOLIDAY”.  We believe that Christmas is the feast in which we remember the birth of Jesus Christ, the savior of the human family. Say Merry Christmas or Happy Hanukkah to your Jewish friends. DO NOT be ashamed of who you are. DO Not allow the secular society to rob us of our identity.
3. We all bemoan the excessive commercialism of our culture. We do not have to give in. How often we fret that we give gifts to one another of things we do not really need or will ever use. Why not share the love of Christ at Christmas in replacing material gifts with a contribution in memory of a loved one(s) to those who live in poverty in the name of a loved one. The following are 2 excellent ideas in which we can make a difference with our Christmas gifts and perhaps encourage others to do the same. The following two organizations are legitimate and well respected for their effectiveness. Both MERCY CORPS and HEIFER INTERNATIONAL provide the means to people in poor areas of the Third World to raise their own food and start their own businesses. Theses contributions are not “Hand-Outs” but “Hands-Ups” to empower people to move beyond despair.

MERCY CORPS www.mercycorps.org
Dept. W 3015 SW First Ave
Portland, OR 97201

 HEIFER INTERNATIONAL www.heifer.org
P.O. Box 6021
Albert Lea, Minn. 56007-6621 (800)-422-0755

Be sure to send Christmas greeting with a spiritual dimension. Since it is difficult to find religious Christmas cards in store today here are 3 suggestions.

 The Printery House Conception Abbey
Conception Missouri  www.printeryhouse.org 
37112 State Highway VV, P.O. Box 12 Conception, Missouri 64433 (800) 322-2737

Abbey Press
www.abbeypress.com
St. Meinrad Abbey
St. Meinrad, Indiana (800) 962-4760