From the Pastor - Third Sunday of Advent

December 18, 2017

From the Pastor – Third Sunday of Advent

A key facet of stewardship has always been personal witness. Today’s readings deal in large part with the witness of John the Baptist. St. John the Baptist, according to historians, was a few months older than Jesus. It is also generally accepted that he began preaching about six months before Jesus came to him to be baptized and to begin His ministry.

St. John the Baptist pointed to Jesus as the Messiah. John the Baptist, through personal witness, raised a great sense of expectancy and excitement, the kind of expectancy and excitement that we associate with this season of Advent. John tries to awaken in people a consciousness of sin, the importance of conversion and change, and the need to become more holy in God’s eyes.

Those are the same goals we should have during this Advent season. The matter of witness is a serious and important thing. It establishes truth and a solid foundation for faith. When we personally witness, it means we make a commitment. We cannot be neutral when it comes to our faith. We are called to be disciples, witnesses of and for Christ. We best accomplish that by the ways we live our own lives and how we relate to and treat others.

Jesus can meet our every need. Now is the time for us to accept that and to place our total trust in Him. We can do that best by making our own commitment to be His disciple, a witness to Who He is and what He means to us and all people.

Pastoral Pondering

While the approach of Christmas can be an exciting time for us, there are some who find the holidays to be a time of sadness. Oftentimes this sentiment comes from the memory of loved ones who are no longer with us or even a sense of abandonment for the elderly whose families are no longer around. Hence, a good apostolic activity for all of us is to take some time to visit those who are sick and shut in and to be especially aware of those who might be having a “Blue” Christmas.

Advent is about watching and waiting. It is about joyful expectation and of celebrating the Greatest Gift that the world has ever been given – the gift of the Word Made Flesh. If we, in following the Father’s example, can be giving this season to someone who feels alone or abandoned, then a bit more of the light can dispel the darkness.

I would also say that if you find yourself feeling especially overwhelmed at this time of year, don’t be afraid to reach out and ask for help. The Parish clergy and staff care about you and want to help you experience the true joy of Advent and Christmas.

From the Pastor

From the Pastor - First Sunday of Advent

By John Putnam • December 2, 2025
Today we begin the beautiful season of Advent — a season of preparation. For what are we preparing? The celebration of the birth of our Savior, and the anticipation of His second coming. These are weighty tasks with eternal consequences. So, let us as Christian stewards make the words of the Prophet Isaiah our motto for the season: “Come, let us climb the Lord’s mountain to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may instruct us in his ways and we may walk in his paths.” In the weeks leading up to Christmas, it seems everywhere we turn we are pushed to spend more, do more, entertain more, and generally rush around at a frantic pace — all to create a “perfect” Christmas day. In contrast to this worldly pressure, the Church’s guidance to use these weeks as a time to focus on our spiritual lives can indeed seem like a mountain climb. But the intentional and wise use of the gift of time is exactly what the Christian steward is called to do, and with even greater intensity during Advent. How can we use our time to prepare for a holy celebration of Jesus’ birth on Dec. 25 and for his second coming at a date we do not know? We can push back against the world’s pressure to have the “perfect Christmas.” Scale back on the material kind of gift-giving, the complicated menus, the unessential trappings of the season so that we have more time for the spiritual preparations: Confession, weekday Mass, adoration, family prayer time, lighting the Advent wreath, acts of kindness. It may feel like a mountain climb, but in the end, we will be prepared to celebrate a truly meaningful Christmas, we will have become more like our Savior, and we will be ready for Him to come again. Let’s go climb the Lord’s mountain! © Catholic Stewardship Consultants, 2025 From the Pastor Advent brings a time of new beginning. A new liturgical year is upon us, but it is also a time to prepare our hearts for something – for the coming of the Lord. The first weeks of Advent focus on the Lord’s coming at the end of time, and the latter weeks of Advent focus on preparing to celebrate His coming at the Nativity. Both, however, are interconnected. The first coming of the Lord facilitates His coming into our hearts, which, in the end, facilitates His second coming to judge the living and the dead. The “in between” of these two comings is where time and eternity come together. We are called to live each day in expectation of His coming. We are called to hope for His coming and to expect it even when it seems long delayed. It is in this expectation that we must learn to live our lives. Daily life is messy and unpredictable. We must deal with disappointments, sickness and loss. Yet, we do so as people of hope who know that in these crosses, there lies ultimate joy because of the love of the Father who sent his Son to love us to the end. As we begin a new journey in a new liturgical year, let us do so with joyful expectation. Knowing that the end of the journey, if we are faithful, is paradise.

From the Pastor - Solemnity of Christ the King

By John Putnam • November 21, 2025
On this Feast of Christ the King, our readings show us that we serve the greatest of Kings, who is at the same time the humblest of Kings. Christ is the perfect model of servant leadership. And what an indescribable privilege that He has called us to be servant leaders — stewards in the work of advancing His Kingdom. In our second reading, from St. Paul’s letter to the Colossians, Paul describes the great power and dignity that characterize Christ the King. “All things were created through him and for him. He is before all things and in him all things hold together.” It makes you want to stand up and cheer. That’s our King! Yet, what a contrasting description of the same King we find in our Gospel passage, from Luke. Now we see our King nailed to the Cross. Everyone from rulers to soldiers, to the criminals on either side of Christ is mocking, sneering, and reviling him. They tauntingly urge him to prove His kingship by coming down from the Cross to end his suffering with a great show of power. “if you are the King of the Jews, save yourself.” But He does not. Amazingly, it is in this moment of seeming-weakness and humiliation, when all appears hopeless and lost, that the full breadth of his greatness as king is displayed. Though all things were created through and for Him — Christ chooses to live entirely for others, for us! What does this mean for us as his followers and stewards of His kingdom? It is precisely that our lives are not about us. They are about Christ and others. And we will advance his kingdom to the extent that we embrace this mindset: my life is not about me; it is about serving the King of kings. © Catholic Stewardship Consultants, 2025