Lighting the first candle of
Advent, let us join with great anticipation as the whole church proclaims the
coming of Our Lord. While many countdown the number of shopping days until Christmas,
people of faith seek the most precious of all gifts, God’s love and mercy born
to live among us forever.
During this time of eagerness and
expectation we are called to look ahead to Jesus’ coming. It is also a time for
us to remember, not just our favorite Christmas toy or feast, but I ask you to
recall those people who first planted the seed of faith in our lives and showed
us the ways we could touch the eternal. Some will see the face of a grandmother
who in her humble piety showed us a quiet way to love and be loved by God.
Others will hear the voice of faithful mom or dad who, taking our hands, gently
helped us make our first sign of the cross, gently guiding us to a childlike
expression of faith.
For many, that moment of
spiritual nostalgia comes from an encounter with a religious sister, brother or
priest who showed us, in some unexpected but lasting way that the face of God
could be seen living among us. We may have met them in a Catholic school, our
parish, in a healing touch when we were in the hospital, wherever God placed
these men and women who have dedicated their vocations of service to God’s
people.
Wherever we look in the
Archdiocese of San Antonio, it would be impossible to not see the many ways
their influence has been felt; through schools, universities, hospitals,
clinics, the missions, countless pastoral and social ministries, parishes, etc.
Even though they are fewer than in the past, thankfully we continue to be
blessed by their devotion to lighting the light of Christ in our lives.
These holy men and women have
given lifetimes of service. Now we have the opportunity to show our gratitude
and in a material way express our love for their willingness to share their
many gifts. On the weekend of Dec. 8 and 9, many parishes will dedicate their
second collection to the Retirement Fund for Religious. I am asking you to
please reserve one Christmas present for them, wrapped carefully with love for
all they have given and continue to share.
Let us remember the religious
sisters, brothers, and religious order priests who, for generations gave so
much for little, if any financial pay. Their sacrifices now leave their
religious communities without adequate savings for retirement. Your gift to the
Retirement Fund for Religious helps to provide prescription medications,
nursing care, and more for thousands of elderly religious.
There are more than 73,000
Catholic sisters, brothers, and religious order priests in the United States.
Nearly 40,000 of these belong to religious communities that receive financial
assistance to the made possible by your generous gift, with 95 percent of all
donations applied to this critical mission of love.
Venerable Conchita, was a wife,
mother of nine children, grandmother, mystic, spiritual mother to priests, and
co-founder of the Missionaries of the Holy Spirit, the religious order that
gave form to my priesthood. Through a special indulgence from Pius X, she died
as a religious in the arms of her children. In her spiritual writings she
explains that faith is the foundation of all holiness. She wrote; “Faith is a
special light, coming from heaven by which the soul sees God in the world. It
is a ray of light, illuming God’s countenance and making Him visible to the
soul.” Let us give thanks to God for this gift of faith that has been poured so
generously into our souls through the lives of the men and women who answered
his call to consecrated life ■ Archbishop Gustavo
GarcÍa-Siller
I am sure that you notice that in recent years, people have begun to call Thanksgiving by another name: Turkey Day. On other holidays like Columbus Day, George Washington's Birthday, and Memorial Day, we pay our respects to those we are remembering, but on how easy we change the names of other holidays such Thanksgiving and Christmas![1]
A few years ago NBC hit the jackpot with the show Heros. Probably you remember it, there’s
a man who can fly without wings, a man who walks through walls, another one
stops time and travels in time, etc. NBC built on people’s fascination with the
ability to do that beyond the physically possible. The Fantastic Four movies,
Spider man, Superman, and many television shows also build on this fascination.
No cabe duda: la palabra santo quizá nos trae a la mente la
imagen de largas túnicas si no es que un (desagradable) olor a viejo, o a naftalina
o confesionario; quizá nos hace pensar en hombres y mujeres que llevaron una
vida bastante distinta de la de sus contemporáneos (a veces con muchas rarezas)
y que, en muchos casos, eran obispos, frailes o monjas. No sé, pienso, en San
Simeón estilita y medio me pongo nervioso[1].
O peor aún: quizá identificamos al
santo con el ser perfecto y concluimos que deben ser cosas de otras épocas,
porque hoy en día hay gente buena y hasta muy buena pero perfecto ¡nadie!
My dear brothers and sisters, last Sunday, something happened that apparently is
not important, and indeed is not important but it has given me much to think
about in the days after. Being distracted at the end of the Mass I forgot to
give time to our commentator to say the regular announcements. At the end of
Mass I just recited the closing prayer, I gave the blessing and I dismissed the
assembly. So far so good. Or apparently. When I stood for a moment at the door
to shake hands and say goodbye to my parishioners, more than five people called
my attention to my error. I thanked him. Some of our people were to get coffee
and breakfast at the parish center and in a very nice way they commented my small
mistake. So far so good. No big deal. On Monday morning, there were two
messages in the mailbox of my office asking why I had forgotten the
announcements on Sunday morning. So far so good. No big deal. Last Tuesday
after the evening Mass, a person (nice person indeed; she is a sweet lady)
asked me if I was going to remove the announcements forever. This succession of
these small details has led me to wonder if in our community we are focusing on
what is important, or whether we are only staying "in the shell of
things", I mean, if we descend into the depths of the Eucharistic
celebration or we were only on the surface. In short: I wonder if we are not
living in a superficial way. I wished that at least two people asked me about
the new saints of the Catholic Church, or about the study sessions we have organized
on Sunday evening once a month to better understand the documents of Second
Vatican Council, or even had a word of thanks and appreciation for the
seminarians and our altar servers… My brother, my sister, forgetting the announcements at the
end of the Mass is not a tragedy, it's not the end of the world or the collapse
of the parish, especially because the essence of the Mass (the transubstantiation, which is the
conversion of bread and wine into the Body and Blood of the Lord through the
Holy Spirit's action) was made! I've often wondered over the last days if the
culture of complaint will not have been getting slowly into the mysteries of
our faith. Evaluating the performance of a car is a good thing. Evaluating the
performance of a company is a wonderful thing. When we attend the celebration
of the mysteries of our faith with a critical attitude, or giving too much
attention to the outside and not paying attention to the fundamentals may
weaken our spirit. Our prayer today is that these
words of Jesus will never come true in our community: These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me[1].
■ Fr. Agustin, Pastor.
