This Week: Advent IV

“The Door of Humility”  –Bp. Charles McGuire

The Bishop’s Note
Last Sunday came with about a half foot of snow and only about 25 souls came to the first Mass. However, when High Mass time came around we found a packed church. It was quite gratifying to see. Someone commented that the roads in Kentucky were better taken care of than those here in Ohio. Well, in any case, people braved the bad roads and made it to Mass. Now the snow is almost all melted away and the zero-degree weather has turned into mere sweater weather and snow has turned to rain and high winds. Bless the Lord, ye ice and snow, the Canticle says.

Fr. McKenna made it back from Milwaukee, stopping at Holy Face Mission in Illinois along the way. Sadly, they only had a handful of souls there for Sunday Mass. I am sure it is something to do with sickness and weather. Father arrived here later in the afternoon saying that he was stuck in traffic which resulted from a crash on the interstate. Both seminary and school began their break from classes last week. This has freed up Fr. Lehtoranta so that he could make his annual Christmas visit to St. Hugh’s, where he will remain until Dec. 29th. Fr. Simpson is staying with us for a while…a rare treat for all of us! Fr. Brueggemann is in Dallas, but will be back in no time.

Christmas decorating begins tomorrow. It is always a busy day, but we have so many good helpers who know what they are doing. Thank you to Cora Arlinghaus for setting up the Nativity Scene, and to all of our other helpers, too!

The next eight days are filled with great feast days. I do hope that you will take advantage of them by coming to Mass. St. Thomas, America’s Apostle, is honored on Monday, and America’s first citizen-saint, Frances Xavier Cabrini, is venerated on Tuesday. Mother Cabrini is often portrayed as a feminist with a mind of her own, but she is anything but that. The world will look for anything to justify its own vices, feminism certainly being one of them. The Catholic Church, however, holds up Our Lady and the holy virgin saints as a means of combating the modern notion of what a woman should be. In any case, come to Mass this week and honor the saints. Most especially, do not forget to adore the Infant Savior who has come to save that which was lost! My sweetest Jesus, be not my judge but my Savior!

– Bishop McGuire

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