1. I know this picture doesn’t look very Adventy. It is from my pilgrimage along the Camino de Santiago in 2018. The readings for the Second Sunday of Advent tell us of Isaiah’s prophecy that God will come to His people in exile and take them on a journey back to the Promised Land. During the journey of the Advent Season, we prepare ourselves to receive Christ anew, with purity, humility, and longing. The parish has many means of helping you prepare between now and Christmas, including additional confession times on Fridays at 6pm, the Simbang Gabi Novena of Masses, the Las Posadas celebration of the Holy Family seeking lodging, and more. For the full Advent calendar, click here. While many festive celebrations take place during Advent, we should practice some penance such as fasting and devote more time to prayer.

2. Tomorrow morning (Dec. 1) between 7 and 8am Pacific time, lawyers will be making arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court on whether a new Mississippi law restricting abortions after 15 weeks is constitutional. Here is a good summary of the case. Please pray that the Court does the right thing and determines that there is no constitutional right to an abortion.

3. Donuts and coffee after our first two morning Masses have facilitated wonderful gatherings and helped forge parish friendships. Unfortunately, we have had some problems related to this. I have received numerous reports of people leaving before the final blessing to get donuts, of children running to get donuts and knocking other children out of the way, and of children cutting in the donut line. We will soon be asking for volunteers to assist with distributing the donuts. When this invitation comes, please be open to serving. If we do not get enough volunteers with our initial request, we may need to suspend provision of donuts until we do.

4. I’m often asked about how/why I became a priest. You can listen to my vocation story here, which is a recording of a talk I gave shortly before priestly ordination.