Feast of the Holy Family

My Dear Parishioners,

Christmas at St. Joseph’s is always so beautiful, but this year our celebrations just seemed extra special. There was so much good cheer and happiness in the air. It was so good to be together again in such large numbers. The impressive turnout was so uplifting and a reminder of what a strong parish family we have.

I do pray that you had very joyful celebrations in your homes and the homes that you visited. My family had a very beautiful Christmas Eve dinner in our rectory. It was so good to be able to celebrate with my family as well as you, my spiritual family, giving praise to God Our Father for the gift of His Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Today, we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family. We see that they were not free of trouble but that they were together through the trouble. That is key; the Cross is so much easier to carry when carried together as a family.

Of course, by order of Grace, we are now part of the Holy Family. Our Holy Family is with us, through good times and bad. This knowledge doesn’t take away the troubles of life, but it does make those troubles manageable. This fact allows us to keep things in context and ask that all important question: what is this to eternity? Jesus, Mary and Joseph, we love you, save souls!

Our celebration of God’s goodness and His generosity continues this Wednesday and Thursday as we ring in the New Year while celebrating the Feast of Mary, the Mother of God. Mass is at 4:00 on New Year’s Eve and 8:00 and 10:00 on New Year’s Day. I am looking forward to seeing you as we entrust ourselves and the New Year to God and the protection of the Blessed Mother.

Of course, this is the time of year when we form our New Year’s Resolutions. We make these resolutions with the hope of improving ourselves and our lives. So, to improve ourselves, we resolve to get healthier, to strengthen out our finances, to grow in new skills and knowledge, to get a new hobby, to get more friends, to reconnect with an old friend, to reconcile with a former friend, to seek better employment, to get better organized, to visit some place we have never been to before, to finish something left unfinished from the following year.

May I suggest that we make our number one resolution a resolve to grow in our relationship with God, who is Love and came into this world because of Love. So, may I suggest that we resolve to set aside some time for daily prayer, some time for family prayer, and maybe resolve to make a more regular Confession.

Whatever our New Year’s Resolutions may be, let us entrust those Resolutions to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. As she pondered the mysteries of God in her Heart, so let us allow her to open our hearts to receive the gifts that God wants to bestow on us this New Year. To help us do that, I am including a Litany and Prayer to the Immaculate Heart in this newsletter.

May your celebration of the New Year be a joyous one, and may that joy extend through the rest of the year.

St. Joseph, Foster Father of Jesus, Spouse of Mary, Provider for the Holy Family, pray for us!

Fr. Michael J Pawelko, Pastor

Pondering in Our Hearts – A Christian Reflection

Early on in his Gospel, Luke twice mentions Mary doing something extraordinary, namely, pondering something “in her heart.” The first occasion is after the departure of the shepherds at the Nativity; the second is when she and Joseph discover the child Jesus speaking with the Temple elders. Luke’s phrase is telling. For Mary to “ponder” something “in her heart,” is not simply for her to remember the details or get her facts straight. Rather, it seems more a way to take in something in its totality and to let it sink down deep, into the heart, the place where it can change you.

Were we to be like Mary, how might we ponder in our hearts what we ourselves have seen and heard this past Christmas season so that, before it closes, we might learn something more from it than we did the first time through? Something which might just sink down deep and somehow change us.

Perhaps these questions might be of some help.

What was the best, the greatest, gift you received this year – not the brightest gift or the shiniest or the fastest or the most expensive gift, but the best gift, the greatest gift? Who gave it to you? And do they even know what they did for you?

What was the best gift you gave this year? It may cost you a little or it may have cost you a lot. And the little or a lot that it might have cost you might not have been money at all. What made it the best gift? Was it because it came from the heart?

If there was something you did in the last several weeks which was just what someone else needed, just when they needed it, just what was it?

If there was one time when all your troubles, your cares and worries, seemed to you far, far away – what was that time? And what chased your troubles away?

If there was one glance you had of someone else that allowed you to see them fresh, as if for the very first time, yet see them as well radiant with all that they mean to you

– what was that time? And who was that person?

Was there ever a time – perhaps in a crowd and surrounded with people or perhaps by yourself – that it struck you that you are a lucky, lucky person? What was that time? Who were those people around you, if people were there? And what seems to have brought that feeling on?

If you said one thing exactly right, exactly true and straight from your heart, just what exactly did you say? And to whom did you say it? And why?

If within the last few weeks, you brushed a tear from your eye secretly so that no one else could see it, why did that tear come? And what did that tear mean?

When do you feel the proudest? The happiest? The most content? Indeed, the most yourself?

If you could look back over the many, many moments of this tender season now ending and pick out one moment from among them all – just one -pick the one where somehow you knew in your heart that it was all true: the angels indeed did sing, the shepherds indeed did worship, the kings indeed did bring their gifts and bow low – and all of this because at that one moment you felt almost held aloft by kind and mighty hands; and if you could take that one moment and hold it in your heart forever, take it out and gaze upon it from time to time as if to look upon a kind of snow globe, just what would that one moment be?

– Fr. Michael Graham, S.J., from Xavier University Website

Litany of the Immaculate Heart of Mary

Lord, have mercy, Lord, have mercy.

Christ, have mercy, Christ, have mercy.

Lord, have mercy, Lord, have mercy.

Christ, hear us, Christ, graciously hear us.

God the Father of Heaven, Have mercy on us.

God the Son, redeemer of the world, Have mercy on us.

God the Holy Spirit, Have mercy on us.

Holy Trinity, one God, Have mercy on us.

Heart of Mary,

Heart of Mary, after God’s own Heart

Heart of Mary, in union with the Heart of Jesus Heart of Mary, the vessel of the Holy Spirit Heart of Mary, shrine of the Trinity

Heart of Mary, home of the Word

Heart of Mary, immaculate in your creation Heart of Mary, flooded with grace

Heart of Mary, blessed of all hearts Heart of Mary, Throne of glory

Heart of Mary, Abyss of humbleness, Heart of Mary, Victim of love

Heart of Mary, nailed to the cross Heart of Mary, comfort of the sad Heart of Mary, refuge of the sinner Heart of Mary, hope of the dying Heart of Mary, seat of mercy

Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world,

Spare us, O Lord.

Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world,

Graciously hear us, O Lord.

Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world,

Have mercy on us.

Christ, hear us.

Christ, graciously hear us.

Lord, have mercy.

Christ, have mercy.

Lord, have mercy.

Immaculate Mary, meek and humble of heart. Conform our hearts to the heart of Jesus.

Let us pray:

O most merciful God, who for the salvation of sinners and the refuge of the wretched, has made the Immaculate Heart of Mary most like in tenderness and pity to the Heart of Jesus, grant that we, who now commemorate her most sweet and loving heart, may by her merits and intercession, ever live in the fellowship of the hearts of both Mother and Son, through the same Christ our

Lord. Amen.

Source: Blessed Cardinal John Henry Newman. Published in From Parochial and Plain Sermons. c 1997, San Francisco: Ignatius Press