Advent Invitations

Dear Friends of our Pastorate,

This weekend, we celebrate the Second Sunday of Advent. Our Gospel recalls the early ministry of John the Baptist, who was chosen by the Lord to prepare the way for the coming of Christ (Lk 3:1-6). John preached a message of repentance—for all to acknowledge their sins, seek reconciliation and forgiveness in the waters of baptism, and return to following the Lord every day of their lives. This is the ongoing message of the Church today. We proclaim this good news in Jesus Christ, inviting all to conversion and repentance, and returning to worship and praise God for the gift of forgiveness of sins and new life in Christ. How well have you and your family accepted this gracious invitation? It is freely offered to us but we must accept it, embrace it, and put it into action by the choices we make each and every day.

Our Pastorate and the universal Church are here to assist you with this. It is not meant to be burdensome or seemingly impossible to do, but it does require us to make choices in our lives, including the choice to put God first in everything we do. This season of Advent can help us do this by reminding us of the love, hope, peace, and joy that is ours in Jesus Christ. I invite you and your family to choose Christ this Advent. Prepare the way for Jesus to enter into your home and your hearts and make him a welcomed guest every day. Jesus longs to be invited into our lives… we just need to invite him!

This week, we have several celebrations to bring to your attention. On Monday, Dec. 9th, the Church will celebrate the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Mass schedule for this Holy Day will 8:30am at both OLC and St Jane, 12:00pm at OLC, and 5:30pm at St. Jane. Please plan to join us. The Pastorate will also be offering the Sacrament of Reconciliation on Wednesday, Dec. 11th from 6:30pm to 8:30pm at St. Jane. We will also be offering Eucharistic Adoration during this time. And please pray for our pastorate youth who will be celebrating the Sacrament of Reconciliation this week at both parishes for the first time.

Leo Zerhusen from Hope for All will be speaking at all Masses at OLC the weekend of Dec. 7–8 and at St. Jane the weekend of Dec. 14–15. Hope for All is a ministry of outreach and service based in Glen Burnie that our Pastorate has supported over the years through donations and volunteering. We are currently collecting comforters, blankets, bed linens, and bath towels for Hope for All. Items do not need to be new, but in good, clean condition. Thank you for your generosity for those in need in our community.

Thank you for keeping St. Jane Frances and Our Lady of the Chesapeake—our Pastorate of the Visitation—in your daily prayers!

God Bless,
Father Steve

Happy New Year?

Dear Friends,

We pray that everyone had a happy Thanksgiving! With the start of Advent the Church begins the new liturgical year. So, I wish you a happy new year! Are there any new year’s spiritual resolutions on your horizon? To get you thinking…

Advent reminds us of the coming of Christ. There are various ways that we understand Christ’s coming: in our daily life such as when He comes to us in the Eucharist as well as in our neighbor; when He will come at last in His glory; and, of course, as He did in the flesh 2,000 years ago. Advent captures all of these. Where is Christ coming to meet you?

Advent is a very merry Marian season. Mary can show us how to live with an “Advent spirit” that is, how to live with expectant faith in Christ’s coming. Praying the joyful mysteries of the Rosary can help with this as can learning a new Marian prayer. In Advent, the Church prays the “Alma Redemptoris Mater”:

Loving Mother of the Redeemer, gate of heaven, star of the sea, assist your people who have fallen yet strive to rise again. To the wonderment of nature you bore your Creator, yet remained a virgin after as before. You who received Gabriel's joyful greeting, have pity on us poor sinners.

On December 6th at OLC from 4:30-7:30pm, you can drop off toys or other donations in support of the Knights of Columbus St. Nicholas Toy Drive for Hurricane Helene victims.

On December 8th at OLC after 10:45am Mass, there will be breakfast with Santa! Admission is $5 (or free if you make a donation to the above!)

On December 9th, we will celebrate the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. This is a Holy Day of Obligation. Please join us for one of our Masses!

On December 11th at St. Jane Frances, all are invited to the Pastorate’s night of Reconciliation. In Advent we often pray, “Prepare the way of the Lord.” Reconciliation is a beautiful way to prepare the way for Jesus entering into our souls.

On December 14th, a new priest for the Archdiocese! Deacon Ron Howard of Glen Burnie will be ordained to the priesthood at 10am at St. Ignatius in Ijamsville. All are welcome! Let us pray for Dcn. Ron!

Lastly, please take note of our Christmas Mass schedule. We look forward to having you and your families at one of our many celebrations!

Let us pray for one another as we prepare the way of the Lord this Advent season. Happy new year!

Fr. John

What Is Truth?

Brothers and Sisters,

What is truth to you? Is it only whatever we can see and hear and taste and touch? Is truth whatever the world and the media tells us it is? Or do we think truth is only what we can prove scientifically? I think it is not so easy for us today to see the reality of the truth of God’s presence in our lives. I think it is getting harder for the vision of God to break into our lives. It’s so hard for us to hear his voice in the midst of all of the noise of our world. We live today like we are so self-sufficient, like we can do everything for ourselves. We don’t need God to solve our problems or answer our questions. We live today as if this world is all there is. And as we know, this is not true! We have been created to seek truth, but we cannot know all truth in ourselves. We need God to lead us to the truth, otherwise we can easily be led astray by falsehood. 

In this week’s Gospel (Jn 18:33b–37), Jesus tells us “for this I was born and came into the world, to testify to the truth.” And the truth is that Our Lord Jesus Christ is King of the Universe, and that in his kingship alone do we find true freedom. When we declare Christ as our King, we declare to the world and remind ourselves that Jesus is the Lord. He reigns over our heart if we let him, and his truth will lead us to salvation. If we believe in the truth that Jesus speaks to us, this truth will set us free. And we will see the world in a new way. We will see God’s kingdom coming in every act of love we make and in every work of mercy we perform.

God Bless,
Deacon Howard

The Holidays Are Upon Us

Dear Friends of our Pastorate,

This weekend, we celebrate the Thirty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time. We are also approaching the end of the Church’s liturgical year in a couple of weeks. Our readings at this time turn toward the coming of Christ again in glory just as we profess in our creed. That time will be characterized by the fulfillment of God’s divine plan—rewards for those who have remained faithful to the Lamb of God and punishment for those who have turned away from God. Jesus warns his disciples to learn from what they already know about how to read the signs of the times so that they are not caught off guard when that day arrives. Jesus doesn’t want us to be caught off guard either.

This weekend, we will be having someone speaking at all Masses about our Shelter Week program that is hosted at OLC. This year’s Shelter Week will be held Jan. 13–20. Shelter Week is a ministry of service to those who do not have adequate shelter during the winter season. It requires many volunteers to make this ministry a success, so please consider volunteering this year. The Shelter Week planning meeting will be held this Tuesday, Nov. 19th at 7:00pm at OLC. The meeting will be held in the Maryland Suite, OLC’s meeting room that is located in the Church.

Please keep our Pastorate’s Confimandi in your prayers this week. We have 39 youth receiving the
Sacrament of Confirmation this Wednesday, Nov. 20th at 5:30pm at St. Jane Frances. Bishop Adam Parker will be the celebrant. The celebration is open to anyone in the pastorate who wishes to attend. I would like to thank our Pastorate’s youth ministry team—Tim Janiszewski and Carrie Hilmer—and all of our dedicated catechists, volunteers, and families who have assisted with preparing our high school youth for Confirmation.

Our Pastorate’s Thanksgiving Mass this year will be taking place at Our Lady of the Chesapeake on Thursday, Nov. 28th at 8:30am. Each parish has a tradition at the Thanksgiving Mass that we would like to honor. OLC’s tradition is to bring a donation of nonperishable food items for the OLC food pantry that are presented at the offertory. St. Jane’s tradition is to bring your family’s Thanksgiving foods for the blessing of foods at the end of Mass. We will be incorporating both traditions at this year’s Mass, so please bring a food pantry donation AND your family’s Thanksgiving food to be blessed after Mass.

Our parish’s Advent and Christmas schedule is included in this weekend’s bulletin. I hope it will be useful for you as you prepare for the coming holiday season.

Thank you for keeping St. Jane Frances and Our Lady of the Chesapeake—our Pastorate of the Visitation—in your daily prayers!

God Bless,
Father Steve

Trust In God

Dear Friends of our Pastorate,

This weekend, we celebrate the Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time. Our readings remind us once again of our need to have faith and trust in God. The first reading is the encounter of Elijah the prophet and the widow of Zarephath (1 Kgs 17:10-16). This encounter occurs in the midst of severe drought, and she has come to the end of her supplies. Elijah asks her for a cup of water and a bit of bread, which she gives him (the importance of hospitality to a stranger) even though she does not have any to spare. Yet Elijah tells her not to be afraid, because the Lord will bless her and her son with all they need until the drought ends. And she trusts in his words.

Our Gospel today also has an account of a poor widow who places two small coins into the treasury while the rich around her are putting in large sums of money (Mk 12:41-44). Jesus, however, isn’t impressed with the action of the rich. He is more moved by the faith and trust of the widow, who he says is contributing from her poverty while the rich contribute from their excess. She is giving her last two cents, not knowing where her next two cents will come from, which demonstrates her faith that the Lord will take care of her, even in her poverty.

How strong is your faith and trust in the Lord? Would you be willing to share your last cup of water or last piece of bread with a stranger in need, who tells you the Lord will reward you for your kindness, or would you be afraid to part with them because of not knowing when you will have food and water again? This is not a problem that most of us have in our daily lives, but we know there are people within our community (and certainly in our world) who do not know where their next meal is coming from. What do we do to help them?

In Matthew’s Gospel, one of the last teachings that Jesus gives us is a passage called “The Judgment of the Nations” where the Lord separates the sheep from the goats (Matthew 25:31-46). Those who have practiced what the Church calls the Corporal Works of Mercy are separated from everyone else and are welcomed into the kingdom of heaven. This really does embody the call of discipleship for each and every one of us. We are asked to have faith and trust in the Lord and are challenged to demonstrate this by sharing our blessings with others. During the next couple of weeks leading up to Thanksgiving, I would ask of us to reflect upon how we can live out more fully and completely the Corporal Works of Mercy, based on our faith and trust in Jesus our Lord.

Thank you for keeping our Pastorate of the Visitation—St. Jane Frances and Our Lady of the Chesapeake—in your daily prayers!

God Bless,
Father Steve

Faithful Citizenship

Dear Friends in Christ,

We are near the end of the novena (nine days of prayer) for Faithful Citizenship. You can find this novena at https://www.usccb.org/prayers/novena-faithful-citizenship. May these prayers ground us in Christ as we prayerfully prepare for the polls. If you have not already, we are encouraged in these days to have recourse to the document Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship https://www.usccb.org/sjp/forming-consciences-faithful-citizenship.

It is my prayer in these days that the Holy Spirit gives us a special anointing as faithful citizens. May the places where we vote, the lines we stand in, the votes we cast all become places and instances where the Spirit of the Lord can reign as we seek to witness to the Gospel and the Kingdom in this land that we love. “The Lord of hosts is with us” (Ps 46).

Please pray for our high school youth ministry on their retreat this coming weekend. A heartfelt thanks to Mr. Tim, Mrs. Carrie, their team, as well as our teens – for your generosity with the Lord, with one another, and with our pastorate.

Please pray for me and Fr. Steve and the priests of the Archdiocese who are blessed to be able to gather this week for our annual priest convocation. It will be a time of prayer, fellowship, and continued education that we might more and more be priests for you after Christ’s own Sacred Heart.

Let us remain “rooted and grounded in love” this week (Ephesians 3.17).

Father John

The following is the daily concluding prayer of the above-mentioned novena. It is a prayer composed by Pope Saint John Paul II, imploring the intercession and help of Mary for difficult times:

Immaculate Heart of Mary, help us to conquer the menace of evil, which so easily takes root in the hearts of the people of today, and whose immeasurable effects already weigh down upon our modern world and seem to block the paths toward the future. From famine and war, deliver us. From nuclear war, from incalculable self-destruction, from every kind of war, deliver us. From sins against human life from its very beginning, deliver us. From hatred and from the demeaning of the dignity of the children of God, deliver us. From every kind of injustice in the life of society, both national and international, deliver us. From readiness to trample on the commandments of God, deliver us. From attempts to stifle in human hearts the very truth of God, deliver us. From the loss of awareness of good and evil, deliver us. From sins against the Holy Spirit, deliver us. Accept, O Mother of Christ, this cry laden with the sufferings of all individual human beings, laden with the sufferings of whole societies. Help us with the power of the Holy Spirit [to] conquer all sin: individual sin and the “sin of the world,” sin in all its manifestations. Let there be revealed once more in the history of the world the infinite saving power of the Redemption: the power of merciful love. May it put a stop to evil. May it transform consciences. May your Immaculate Heart reveal for all the light of hope. Amen.

Are You Blind?

Brothers and Sisters,

The gospel reading this week (Mk 10:46-52) describes the healing by Jesus of a blind beggar named Bartimaeus. So, what does the story of blind Bartimaeus teach us? While we aren’t told the reasons for Bartimaeus’s blindness, how long he endured in this condition, or even where he is from, there is an important lesson his story can teach us.

His story is made up of just a few short verses, but it contains a very powerful message. The message of the story of blind Bartimaeus is about how desperately we need Jesus. And how we shouldn’t let anything hold us back from getting to Him. Not the opinions or voices of others. Nor our reputations or our limitations. Not even our doubts and fears or our pain and suffering. Nothing should get in our way. We should do whatever we can to get to Jesus. Because it is only in His arms that we can find true and everlasting healing.

When Bartimaeus is called by Jesus, it’s interesting how he responds. He throws off his cloak. That cloak represents all of his security and protection against rain, cold, or whatever. It’s pretty much everything he has. He abandons himself totally to Jesus in order to run to him. That is what faith is: abandonment to God. Faith is leaving behind all the things that we want to keep ourselves self-sufficient, leaving behind all the things we want to control but can’t.

So, as we come near to the Lord today, we recognize that we are beggars totally dependent on the mercy of God to make us whole. May we rise then, leaving our powerlessness behind, and run to Him. Giving ourselves totally to His loving care.

God Bless,
Deacon Howard