We extend a warm welcome to family members and friends who are visiting from out-of-town for the holidays, and college students who have returned home to rest after a busy semester. On this Christmas weekend, we recall that the holidays are different for those whose loved ones are seriously ill or who have died during 2022, and we keep these families in our prayers in a special way during this time of year.
Over the years I have been impressed so many times at the way our parish responds to needs outside our community. Over the past month our parishioners donated over $35,000 through our Christmas Basket program to make Christmas brighter for 150 families in inner city Baltimore. These families received gift cards for the purchase of Christmas dinner and gifts for their children. Many thanks to the family of Peg O’Hara who continues to coordinate this project in her memory………………………
Each year our parish awards a $1000 college scholarship and $500 high school scholarship through the Drexel Essay Contest. The hope is that our young parishioners learn more about our patron saint through this process. The completed applications (available on our website) and essays are due in the parish office by 15 January. Our panel of judges reviews the essays anonymously. Any questions can be directed to Pat O’Connor in the Parish Office.
It takes many creative people to make our parish celebrations of the Advent/Christmas season prayerful and inspiring. Many thanks to our musicians and liturgical decorators for the way they add to the beauty of our worship. Thanks also to those parishioners who personally shared with us at Mass during Advent concerning their own experience of “holy darkness”: Eileen McMaster, Linda Welsch, Art Mathsen, and Tin Khong. Their Advent reflections are available on our parish website in the homily section (print version) or by watching the YouTube live stream Masses for the Sundays of Advent on our website (video version).
