News - December 2023 RSS Feed

Today, we honor Our Blessed Mother, Mother of Jesus, the Holy Virgin. This year, the feastday is not a Holy Day of Obligation but there is a 10:00 AM Mass. The 11:30 AM Confessions and the 12:05 PM Mass are canceled today.

Today, the first Sunday after Christmas, we celebrate the model family life of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, about whose daily existence we hear little in the Gospels, except for the momentous events of the Presentation and the Finding of the Child Jesus in the Temple. Popes Leo XIII and Benedict XV in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries promoted and established this feast in part to help families of that time down through today to copy the Holy Family, and imitate the life of faith filled love, humility, and obedience that bound them.

The Cathedral parish office is closed from Friday, December 22 through Monday, January 1. The staff will be back in the office Tuesday, January2.

Our Advent wreath is complete today, with all four candles lit, just as the light of Christ is near to breaking in on us later this week when Christmas Day dawns. This week, Nature seems to observe this momentous change with the Winter Solstice, when daylight hours will begin to grow. As John the Baptist observed, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” Our final preparations begin and excitement builds as we await the Savior’s birth. This year, we must attend a Saturday, December 23 late afternoon Sunday Vigil Mass, or Sunday, December 24 morning Mass to meet our Sunday obligation, before Christmas Masses begin Sunday late afternoon.

CHRISTMAS MASS SCHEDULE - SUNDAY, DECEMBER 24TH 10 AM Mass for the 4th Sunday of Advent * * * CHRISTMAS EVE MASS SCHEDULE: 4:00 PM MASS IN THE CHURCH. CHRISTMAS DAY MASS SCHEDULE: 10:00 AM MASS IN THE CHURCH. VIETNAMESE MASS - 12:00 NOON.

Masses for the Fourth Sunday of Advent are at 4:00 PM Saturday, December 23 and Sunday December 24at 10:00 AM. this year, the last Sunday of Advent falls on Christmas Eve. Masses for Christmas begin with the 4:00 PM Mass Sunday, December 24 and continue with the 10:00 AM Mass Monday, December 25. One must attend two Masses from Saturday, December 23 through Christmas Day, December 25.

Today we lay aside purple and penitence to rejoice on Gaudete or Joy Sunday. We are nearing the end of our journey to the Savior’s birth. The priest may wear rose-colored vestments and we light the rose candle on our Advent wreath. More light, more anticipating joy. We continue to prepare, cleaning our souls, our hearts, our homes, making ready for the holy babe who is on his way to Bethlehem.

Envelopes are available at the church entrance. Please return them by December 16 and 17 to list your memorial name or names on the Christmas Flowers Remembrance Board. You may mail your contribution to the parish office or put it in the collection basket at Mass. Donations already have paid for new artificial garland and poinsettia flowers for the choir loft.

December 17 will be a penance service with Confessions heard by several priests. Confessions begin at 3:00 PM.

Please contribute to this yearly collection for neighbors who need help paying bills - rent, heat, electricity, or medicine. You may mail a check to Vermont Catholic Charities, 55 Joy Drive, South Burlington, VT 05403 or donate online: https://www.vermontcatholic.org/ministries-programs/catholic-charities/advent-appeal/

It is with a true sense of humbleness and sincerity that I thank you for the over-whelming generosity you showed for our Thanksgiving program this year. Parishioners and others from area communities donated $11,330 With this, we gave to needy families, in the form of food cards, a total of $ 9,135 which fed 155 families including 220 children and 496 adults. May God bless you abundantly for your caring and goodness. Any money left over from our Thanksgiving Drive will be added to what our normal monthly allotment is for assistance to the needy. Once, again, thank you, and may you and your loved ones have a holy and blessed Advent and Christmas season

Comfort, give comfort to my people, says your God. ... Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you; he will prepare your way. A voice of one crying out in the desert: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.”

Mass times at the Cathedral for the Holy Day of Obligation Friday, December 8 are: Vigil Mass, Thurs., Dec. 7, 5:30 PM; on the Holy Day, Fri. Dec. 8, 12:05 PM and 5:30 PM. There is no 12:05 PM Mass Thursday, December 7. Holy Day Masses are in the upstairs church.

Today we begin the joyful and penitential journey to the Nativity of Our Lord and Savior, Christmas. Advent means “coming,” and marks the start of the new liturgical year. We may set up and light the first purple candle on an Advent wreath. We may start making, collecting, and hanging our first ornaments on a Jesse tree. We open the first window of our Advent calendar. We may choose our Christkindl, the person to whom we will be like the Christ Child this Advent, secretly doing or making something kind for this recipient each day or every week in Advent - a prayer, Mass intention, rosary, leaving a holy card or medal, making a treat or gift, doing a chore. Readings at this Sunday’s Mass encourage us to watch for and wait for Lord. The priest wears purple or violet vestments during this season, similar to Lent. Church decorations are simple except for the big Advent wreath with its greenery, ribbons, and four candles. The Gloria is omitted at Mass. It will return at Christmas. Sunday readings are from Year B in the three-year cycle. We will hear Mark's Gospel. His symbol is the winged lion.