First, an apology for the cover of last weekend's bulletin. Bishop Rhoades will be here this weekend for Confirmation. Last weekend our bulletin listed the teens to be Confirmed. Unfortunately, we made a mistake and listed the names from last year's Confirmation. Oops. The list on the front of this bulletin is correct. We join in prayer for our young people as they receive this beautiful sacrament.
Today is called “Gaudete Sunday,” derived from the Latin word for Rejoice. We are over half way through Advent. We need to be sure that we are prepared for Christmas. If you haven’t yet made an Advent confession, there are many opportunities this week. Our parish penance service will be Wednesday evening, 12/17 at 7 p.m. Six priests will be here to hear confessions. If Tuesday evening works better in your schedule, both St. Jude and St. John New Haven have penance services on Tuesday. (St. John at 6:30, St. Jude at 7:00.) We also have our regular confession times: Monday through Saturday, 7:30-8:00 a.m.; Thursday evening beginning at 7 p.m.; Saturday 2:30-4:30.
With large numbers of people coming for confessions before Christmas, we priests are spending hours in our own parishes, but also helping elsewhere. In addition to St. Charles I’ll be hearing confessions this week at St. Joseph, St. Jude, St. Vincent, St. John New Haven, and St. Joseph in LaGrange. We are grateful for the priests who have helped us at St. Charles with our many school confessions.
For the past few years we have given away a book on Christmas, a Christmas gift from the parish. This year we are distributing a book early because the book is about the meaning of Christmas. I think that many people will enjoy reading it in the coming days leading to Christmas. We ordered plenty of these books. Help yourself to a book, and feel free to give a book to someone if you think that they would read it.
I offer thanks to all who have contributed to our Advent Giving Tree collections. This is one generous parish. We have huge piles of donated items.
I offer a reminder of our Christmas schedule. Masses on Christmas Eve are 4:00 and 6:30 p.m.; our Midnight Mass is at midnight; and our morning Masses are 9:00 and 11:00. Please invite friends and relatives. We always have an overflow crowd at the 4:00 Mass, but there is plenty of space at the other Masses. Our goal is to have an overflow at every Mass. If you are looking for our most solemn liturgy, consider the Midnight Mass. It will be a concelebrated Mass which begins in a dark church with the singing of the Christmas proclamation and lighting of candles throughout the church.
