Fourth Sunday of Advent
My Dear Sisters and Brothers,
We have been waiting for the Lord and now the wait is almost over. Christmas is only a few days away. Today is a moment to check what we were called to do the First Sunday of Advent: pray every day, join Bible Study, attend daily Mass, go to Confession. We celebrate the Fourth Sunday of Advent as a final reminder that Christ is coming.
Here is my summary of the readings today. The first reading, from the book of Micah, reminds us that Christ is coming: “You, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah, who are one of the little clans of Judea, from you shall come forth for me one who is to rule in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days”. The psalmist sings: “Restore us, O God; … that we may be saved”. And then the Gospel gives us the meeting of Elizabeth and Mary. The wait is over for them, as Elizabeth realizes as she says: “Why has this happened to me, that the Mother of my Lord comes to me?”
I would like to emphasize the powerful words at the end of the first reading: “He shall be peace.” Who is the prophet Micah talking about? It is Jesus Christ, the Lord.
Isn’t that interesting? It doesn’t say that the Savior will bring peace, but that He is peace. Why is He peace? Because peace means wholeness, peace means unity. If we are not in a good relationship with God, then we cannot be at peace with ourselves or with others. I recall that Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta used to say: “I am not ok, and you are not ok, and that is why Jesus came.”
We should be aware that in Jesus, in the sacraments that make Him present, we come to be at peace with God. For example, in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, our sins are forgiven and we are at peace with God, or in the Eucharist, we receive the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ and we are united to God. And that experience brings an awareness of the great story into which all our individual stories fit. We earn peace when we celebrate these sacraments, and then we will start to see others with the eyes of Christ. So we need to see that Christ himself is peace, we must see and acknowledge that he, himself, is peace.
When we come to know Jesus Christ, his person, his message, and his mission, we come to understand and trust God's providence, even though sin has turned this fallen world into a valley of suffering and tears. We have no doubt that God is at work in the world, slowly setting things right. He comes to bring us back to the right path.
To conclude, I would give you a few more questions that I want you to ask yourself: Do I have peace in my heart? Do I have peace in my home, my family?
My dear sisters and brothers, the Prince of Peace is coming, gently guiding the course of history, leading his children to the green pastures of true wisdom, lasting joy, and eternal life. He is Peace. Prepare yourself to welcome Him.
Love you all.
Fr. Louis Nguyen
Third Sunday of Advent
My Dear Sisters and Brothers,
Today we celebrate the Third Sunday of Advent. We are watching and waiting for the coming of Christ.
In the Gospel, Luke tells us that people come from different places to meet John the Baptist and to express their longing for the Lord. They ask John the Baptist: What should we do? His answer might surprise us! It seems very simple as he offers them the ordinary: share with others, do not be selfish, do your work well..., and make these extraordinary.
Yes, it is all ordinary. But we need to be aware that God uses the ordinary, and makes it extraordinary. We are children of God, and everything that we do matters.
We are waiting for the coming of the Lord. We may have the same question in our hearts: What should we do? We might hear the same answer: do the common things, the things that are expected of us, it is our daily work and do them well.
Here is a list of things I would ask you to reflect on:
- Do your work well. Whatever your daily work is, do it well.
- Are you a spouse? Love. Say “I’m sorry” or “I forgive you.” (and remember to smile!)
- Do you speak with others? Be kind instead of cutting.
- Do you wash dishes? Do it out of love.
- Are you a Christian? Be what you are, and everything you do has an eternal value.
Saints expressed it perfectly with their desire to do ordinary things extraordinarily well out of love for the Lord. St Francis de Sales said: “A tiny act done with two ounces of love is worth more than martyrdom endured with one ounce”. This is the key!
Encourage one another to see that all the duties and the suffering – as well as the joys – of our lives have infinite value in God´s eyes, and all the challenges and all the struggles become part of God´s plan for salvation.
My dear sisters and brothers, Christmas is almost here. We have this time of Advent to prepare for the most extraordinary event in history: the birth of Jesus Christ, truly God and truly man. Remember, God takes the ordinary and makes it truly extraordinary.
And now I have few more words that I wish to send to each of you, my dear sisters and brothers – those who receive my message electronically each weekend.
The pandemic is still around us. As you know, I have been sending my message to you from the beginning of the pandemic. I want to bring God’s word to you when we were all isolated from the church and our parish family community.
Now the church is open and our activities are almost back to normal. I welcome you back to celebrate the Eucharist on the Lord’s Day (see the Mass schedule in the bulletin).
This is the last time that I will send this message to you via email. I will continue to do my best to serve God’s people by writing my message each week. Please spend time to check out the link on our home page at www.stgerard.ca – “From the Pastor’s Desk” – or you may continue to read it in the parish bulletin, which is also available online.
I will continue to keep in touch with you via email when I have special events that I want to share with you.
I wish all of you a very peaceful Advent. May God be with you and bless you always. I love you all and pray for you.
Father Louis
First Sunday of Advent
My Dear Sisters and Brothers,
Today we celebrate the First Sunday of Advent. This is truly a time of blessing for us. There are four Sundays of the weeks of Advent when we prepare our hearts for Christ’s coming at Christmas. Advent is a gentle wakeup call. It is a time to believe in God’s promise to give us true purpose and joy in Jesus Christ.
There is something fascinating about a promise. When we promise something to someone, we are giving part of ourselves. It is the same when someone whom we trust promises that he or she will come through for us. We will not feel alone for help has been promised.
God does the same. He has never ceased to promise to us. But what does he promise? Very clearly, it is not wealth, or success, or a life free from suffering. He promises us a person. The first reading today from the Book of Isaiah reveals this: “The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. In those days and at that time, I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.” Indeed, God promises us his personal presence that we can see and touch.
In the Gospel, we see the fulfillment of God’s promise in a person, Jesus Christ. Jesus is God among us. God has come through for us. God is with us. Do we really know and believe this?
Sometimes we can have heavy hearts. Jesus warns us about this in the Gospel today. When our hearts are weighed down we lose sight of the promise. We can lose sight of the fact that being a Christian means having a living relationship with a person, Jesus Christ, who fills our hearts with joy.
This weekend we are reminded that we should renew our relationship with that person, Jesus Christ, and to not let our hearts grow heavy for he is coming to be with us.
How can we come to believe God’s promise more deeply? How can we discover that his promise is a person? Get to know Jesus. Remember, he already knows us. He called us by name at our baptism, and being with us at all times, in his Word, in the Eucharist …. he wants us to know him more deeply.
Here is a challenge for us when we celebrate the first week of Advent. I would like to invite all of you to pick one way that I list here in order to help you to know Jesus better, to build up a stronger relationship with him. Pick one of them and follow through with it. You may also tell your family members or a friend about it, and review it together at the end of Advent. Here are a few options that I would love to share with you:
1 Pray. Every day spend just 15 minutes to pray. You might do it in the morning or evening but please do it every day.
2 Join Bible Study class. In our parish we have Bible Study Class every Monday from 7:00-8:00pm beginning this Monday, November 29. Why not? Come to learn “The Word among us”, come to learn more about Jesus. Everyone is welcome!
3 Attend daily Mass. In Mass we receive the Eucharist, the real presence of Jesus. There is no better way to get to know Jesus. Please follow the daily Mass schedule in our parish bulletin or online and make an effort to attend at least one weekday Mass.
4 Confession. Making a Confession is a celebration of God’s mercy and love. We reconcile to God, to others and to ourselves through the Sacrament of Reconciliation. You can come any time to celebrate this sacrament. In our parish we will be having a Penitential Service before Christmas on Friday, December 10th at 7:00pm.
I wish all of you a blessed Advent. I pray for you, and me, for an open heart to see the fulfillment of God’s promise in a person, Jesus Christ. We do our best to prepare ourselves to welcome him.
Have a blessed weekend.
Fr. Louis Nguyen