It is hard to believe that this Sunday we lite the Pink Candle, and are in the Third Week of Advent. This Third Week is when our Children’s Choir has its annual trip to St Luke’s Place in order to sing Christmas Carols for our seniors. It is a parish wide event, aided by our Confirmation students and the Catholic Women’s League all of who help with a reception which follows. For the third year now we had a full house and a truly successful evening. Thank you to all involved
Our Children’s Ministry is looking forward to its Christmas Pageant again this year. Our rehearsals have started - what a joy to have so many children signed up; we are looking forward to the rehearsals this week and its presentation on Christmas Eve.
Our St Vincent de Paul Society aids some 30 families and individuals each month who are in need. We recently held our annual Christmas collection to aid them and were able to collect some $7,123.10 in donations, including from the Knights of Columbus and our Wize Guys, to assist the needy at Christmas. We anticipate being able to help more families than ever before because of the generosity of our parish family. We also packed up our Red Stockings tonight to be shipped by Canadian Food for Children to Africa. I hope to have totals next week for you; but early signs say we may have surpassed last year's total. Thanks to our young adults group for gathering together to pack the stockings.
We are blessed in our parish with a wonderful Youth Ministry. Our Kids Klub concluded a great 2008 where service, as well as fun, was our focus; an average of 50kids turned out on Fridays. Our Activ8 program for Grade 8's just finished a great retreat at Camp Brebeuf with 65 young people looking at what it means to be a Disciple. Our High Schoolers (Da Crew) have been very active this year with a definite “Nerve to Serve” demonstrated, not only with their own weekend at Camp Brebeuf, but also their willingness to serve as Peer Ministers to our Grade 8's and by their recently-prepared gift bags for our Shut-Ins. I wish to thank all of the adult leaders who aid me in our Youth Ministry programs. We are blessed!
Thank you to 30 “Older Adults” who joined us for our Country Christmas Trip. A great time was enjoyed by all (not to mention a great meal). We look forward to a Spring excursion to the Drayton Festival.
This evening we had a wonderfully peaceful gathering called "Handling the Holidays". Led by Sister Mary McIntyre, a trained social worker and spiritual director, over a dozen individuals who are facing the Christmas season with the challenge of grieving the death of someone they loved, gathered together in a spirit of prayer to discuss ways to help us cope and prepare for Christmas with renewed hope. What a beautiful time.
The pink candle is the candle of Joy and Hope - this past week at St Mary's has certainly been filled with such.