God is Doing Something New

Merry Christmas to all Parishioners.  Special welcome and Merry Christmas to visitors and home-comers!  We are happy you are here!!  You make us new and God is all about newness!  Let me explain.
Our God, Father, Son and Spirit, is all about newness.  Take, for example, this celebration of the Incarnation.  For loving the world so much to send his only Son to save us from sin and death, the Father had to continually ask his Son and the Spirit to do new things.  The Christmas story illustrates the beginning of God’s newness, a topic I have asked our homilists to focus their attention on during the entire Christmas Season, which lasts until January 12^th this year.

Ask Anyone!
Ask any of the people involved in the Christmas Story, Mary and Joseph, the angels, the shepherds, the magi, Simeon and Anna.  All of these will testify in their own way that Jesus’ birth brought newness of every imaginable sort!
We at Crescent Parishes are also all about newness.  Invited and called to newness through Beacons of Light, we are striving to embrace the new things that God wants to do in us.  Thanks to parishioners who are doing all kinds of new things working toward the unity of our parishes.  Thanks to parish leaders and staff members who are being creative, like our God was in Christ’s birth, to give birth to Jesus in new ways as we prepare for the upcoming merging of our parishes.  

Together We Should Do Something New Too!
Clearly, Beacons of Light is almost as shockingly new as the Incarnation, which,
wonderfully, reordered everything in heaven and on earth! To all, please be active participants with us this Christmas Season.  Visitors among us or those returning after a time away, you are new and can be a help to God and us.  For, God is doing something new, and together we should do something new too!!

Please Receive a Christmas Gift
After Christmas Mass, all are welcome to take home a Christmas gift from our parishes:  The Three Ordinary Voices of God, by Matthew Kelly.  I will say more about this Christmas gift book in next Sunday's bulletin.  This text is an additional way for us to know and participate in the newness to which God invites us in Christ!

Air Conditioning Nativity School
Nativity School is probably one of the only schools around that is not air-conditioned and Nativity Parish has been wondering about air conditioning Nativity School for decades.  Finally, the Spirit has brought together the right people and Jesus is providing the grace to begin to make it happen! 

Thanks to the Nativity Development Committee for re-igniting energy to accomplish this important improvement and even more, for gathering the know-how and means to do it through the Annual Fund.   The Annual Fund’s goal this year is $250,000, up considerably from its $100,000 usual target.  Thanks to Nativity Parishioners, Alumni and friends of Nativity for praying about generous gifts! (See more on page 12 of this bulletin.)

Nativity School Air Conditioning:  A Great Beneficiary 
Parents of Nativity Students present and past, you are encouraged to also invite grandparents and perhaps even great-grandparents who are looking for a great beneficiary for a required IRA distribution to consider the Nativity School air conditioning project.               
Thanks to Nativity parents, parishioners, alumni and friends of Nativity School who consider making generous gifts to the Annual Fund!

Nativity Christmas Tree Sale
Thanks to Phil Ganz and a host of wonderful volunteers who set up, ran and tore down the Nativity School Christmas Tree Sale!  Before Mom came to live with me, the TV was never on.  Now it is on every morning and evening, mainly with the news.  On the Friday after Thanksgiving, it was a joy to see the rather long news feature on WCPO about the Nativity Tree sale.  It spoke of the sale’s long history and how it is a part of so many local families’ holiday traditions!

Thanks to So Many!
Thanks to music ministers in our parishes for the hard work they have done to celebrate the newness of the Incarnation.   Thanks to liturgical space decorators and generous parishioners who contributed to make our worship spaces proclaim the new work God is doing in Jesus!
 
Sincerely and with Love in Christ,
Fr. Pat