Christmas Schedule
MASSES:
Christmas Eve: Sacred Heart 3:00 p.m. Fr. Tharp
St. Ann 5:15 p.m. Fr. Tharp
Sacred Heart 5:30 p.m. Fr. Adam
St. Ann 10:00 p.m. Fr. Tharp
Christmas Day: Sacred Heart 12:00 a.m. (Midnight) Fr. Tharp
St. Ann 12:00 a.m. (Midnight) Fr. Adam
Sacred Heart 8:00 a.m. Fr. Adam
St. Ann 9:00 a.m. Fr. Tharp
Sacred Heart 10:00 a.m. Fr. Adam
St. Ann 11:00 a.m. Fr. Tharp
Sacred Heart 12:00 p.m. (Noon) Fr. Adam
Confessions: Tuesday: Sacred Heart 6:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
Wednesday: St. Ann 6:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
No Confessions at St. Ann Christmas Eve!
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
“Emmanuel” (meaning) “God is with us!” This was a Hebrew word used for the Messiah. It has been used in some cultures since Jesus birth as a both a first name and last name. But think about what it means! God is the omnipotent creator of the universe; a universe so vast we cannot see to its ends even with the most modern telescopes launched into space. God is the creator of time itself, and is so far beyond material existence, we simply say, “God is Spirit.” Yet the scriptures on this Fourth Sunday of Advent tell us that an omnipotent God was so filled with love that He entered His own creation of time and space, being born of a virgin as a human baby in a stable in Bethlehem on the planet Earth. What the world celebrates one week from now is an unlikely event by any standard of human reason, and yet an essential moment in the history of salvation. Heretical teachers have sought to deny it. The Gnostic heretics in the early Church were so embarrassed by it that they explained it as only an appearance, not a reality. Even today there are non-Nicene sects of believers who deny real incarnation. For the skeptical of the world, it is too good to believe. For believers, it is essential to our faith.
Don’t be ashamed of celebrating Christmas as the birthday of the incarnate Son of God. It is only too good to be true if you think God’s love for the world is too good to be true.
Readings for Christmas Eve
Isaiah 9:1-6
Titus 2:11-14
Luke 2:1-14
Readings for Christmas Day
Isaiah 52:7-10
Hebrews 1:1-6
John 1:1-5, 9-14