Merry Christmas! We have a beautiful white Christmas! I hope this Christmas Day brings you many blessings and joy! I am including a short Christmas video card.
Christmas is a season!
Don’t forget that today is only the first day of Christmas! Keep your Christmas decorations up until January 10th, the Baptism of the Lord. Because Christmas is a big deal, the Church celebrates an octave of Christmas (like the Easter Octave), celebrating Christmas for 8 full days. Catholics really like to party! After the 8 days, the party is scaled down, but we keep our decorations up (because we just don’t want the party to end!). Seriously though, the decorations are a good way to evangelize; people will ask why we keep our decorations up and it’s a good way to explain that the season of Advent was the preparation for Christmas, that Christmas is a season, and most importantly to explain why we even celebrate Christmas. Word on the street is that many people do not even know what Christmas is about!
Holy Family Consecration this weekend
We will be praying the Consecration to the Holy Family prayer at the end of the Masses this weekend. Prayer cards will be available at the front doors of the church. Please take the prayer card with you into the pews and we will pray it together at the end of Mass.
Prayer to St. Joseph
Since Pope Francis declared a Year of St. Joseph, we will pray a prayer to St. Joseph in addition to the Holy Family Consecration prayer at the end of the Masses this weekend. This prayer can be used to gain a plenary indulgence. Here is the following prayer:
Hail, Guardian of the Redeemer,
Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
To you God entrusted his only Son;
in you Mary placed her trust;
with you Christ became man.
Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
To you God entrusted his only Son;
in you Mary placed her trust;
with you Christ became man.
Blessed Joseph, to us too,
show yourself a father
and guide us in the path of life.
Obtain for us grace, mercy, and courage,
and defend us from every evil. Amen.
show yourself a father
and guide us in the path of life.
Obtain for us grace, mercy, and courage,
and defend us from every evil. Amen.
Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God
I made an error in listing the vigil Mass (Thur, Dec 31) at 4pm at ICC in this weekend’s bulletin. The vigil Mass for this solemnity is actually at 5:30pm. Please let those know who do not receive the pastor’s updates. This Solemnity is normally a Holy Day of Obligation but the obligation has been dispensed this year due to the pandemic.
First Saturday Mass at ICC, Jan 2nd
There will be a First Saturday Mass at ICC at 9am, Jan 2nd. The Mass will be followed by Adoration and confessions from 9:30-10:30am and end with Benediction.
Year-end contributions
Thursday, December 31 is the last day to make a gift to the parish for the 2020 tax year. Checks can be mailed to the parish office or given online at https://lourdesada.org/give or https://icckenton.org/give
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Attached is this weekend’s worship aid, the bulletins, and Fr. Ferguson’s cat column.
Live-stream schedule this weekend
The live-stream of the Mass will take place this weekend from ICC at 9am (listed incorrectly in last week’s OLL bulletin).
Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us!
Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, pray for us!
God bless!
Fr. Ed
