I hope you had a happy and restful Thanksgiving. We had a good turnout of parishioners at our Masses Wednesday evening and Thursday morning. It’s the best way to start Thanksgiving by giving thanks to God first!
I got to get out pheasant hunting for a couple hours this Saturday with my family’s hunting party. I got my limit of three roosters walking through one slough (if you count the one I hit hard and couldn’t find). It’s been a strange year of hunting, about like the past year in general. Usually, I was doing good if I bagged one rooster per day. We also pushed out two does and a buck deer. When I saw the buck, I said, “That’s not a buck. It’s half a buck!” (It had one-half of a rack of horns.)
At the start of this Advent season, we begin our wait with hopeful expectation of the coming of the Lord. On the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception December 8 (a Holy Day of Obligation) we celebrate with expectation the birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary immaculately conceived in her mother Ann’s womb. In a normal year on the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe December 12 we celebrate our Lady appearing to Juan Diego as being pregnant with the Child Jesus in Mexico; thus, awaiting the coming of Jesus to the New World!
This year it’s on a Sunday. Pray that Jesus may come to you in a new and wonderfully surprising way by praying, “Come Lord Jesus.”
I am available to go on a pilgrimage to March for Life in Washington, D.C. The diocese bus is about one-half full with high school youth and any adults who want to go. We can sign up and go with them January 19 - 23, 2021, or I can lead an extended pilgrimage as I did with a bus load in 2006. We have a few people interested. Let me know before the diocese deadline of December 13 or before their bus fills if you are interested in going one way or another.
