X

Browsing From the desk of Fr. Tharp

Third Sunday of Advent

Advent Penance Service

The Advent Penance Service for St. Ann and Sacred Heart will be held at Sacred Heart on Wednesday, December 14.  Multiple priests will be available to hear confessions.

Christmas Schedule

The schedule of Christmas Masses at St. Ann and Sacred Heart is available at the doors of church.  It will also be printed in next week’s bulletin.  Fr. Tharp will have Christmas Eve Mass at: Sacred Heart at 3:00 p.m., St. Ann at 5:15 p.m. (Children’s Mass), St. Ann at 10:00 p.m. and the Midnight Mass at Sacred Heart.  Fr. Adam Puntel will have Christmas Eve Mass at Sacred Heart at 5:30 p.m. and Midnight Mass at St. Ann.

Fr. Adam will have the regular Sunday Schedule of Masses at Sacred Heart on Sunday, Christmas Day and Fr. Tharp will have the regular Sunday Schedule of Masses at St. Ann.

The 3:00 p.m. Mass on Christmas Eve at Sacred Heart is usually very crowded.  The children will be performing much of the music at the 5:15 p.m. at St. Ann.  The other Masses will follow common format.

Infant Pre-Baptism Class

The St. Ann / Sacred Heart preparation class for infant baptism will take place on Monday, December 12 at 8:00 p.m. in the basement of Sacred Heart Church.  If you have already taken the class for an earlier child, you need not repeat it.  This class is always held on the “second Monday of each month” at 8:00 p.m.  in the basement of Sacred Heart Church.  The class lasts between 35 to 40 minutes.

Grocery Certificate and Gift Card Programs

As we approach Christmas, please consider buying “gift certificates” as presents for your friends from the gift certificate program that operates in the Narthex or Vestibule of both Sacred Heart and St. Ann.  If every parishioner did this at his or her respective parish, neither parish would ever be worried about deficit budgets again.

St. Ann Church annual “Fr. Tharp’s New Year’s Eve Split the Pot”

This annual fundraiser helps St. Ann to cover budgetary deficits or shortfalls.  Tickets are available in St. Ann vestibule after Mass each Sunday.  These tickets make great stocking stuffers.   As the pot expands, interest in the drawing also increases.  Get your tickets early and see if New Year’s Eve will bring you riches in 2017.

 

Reflection on Scripture

“Amen, I say to you, among those born of women there has been none greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.”   These are the ending words of today’s gospel for Gaudate Sunday.  But what does Jesus mean?  Is he complementing John the Baptist or disrespecting him?  In reality, Jesus is simply stating the contrast between the “before Christ” and the “in the year of the Lord” times.  John the Baptist and Jesus are close chronologically.  John stirs in Elizabeth’s womb at the Visitation.  But John is preparing the path for the Christ and the establishment of his Church.  John baptizes the body of Christ.  As members of the Church we become the mystical Body of Christ through the Eucharist.  John the Baptist is pivotal in the history of salvation.  Jesus Christ is essential!  Thus the least in the Body of Christ is greater than the greatest prophet of Christ.  What a blessing it is to be a member of the Church.

Readings for the Fourth Sunday of Advent

Is 7:10-14

Rom 1:1-7

Mt 1:18-24

ThemeEmmanuel: God is with us!

 

Subscribe

RSS Feed

Archive


Access all blogs

Subscribe to all of our blogs