In this edition:

1. Liturgy Committee Mission
2. Advent Table Prayers
3. Christmas Table Prayers
4. Liturgical News
5. Education on Advent Liturgy
6. Mass Schedule

Liturgy Committee Mission

The mission of the liturgy team is to provide education, understanding and enrichment of liturgical prayer for the assembly, including members and guests of St. Toms through the liturgical year. The team seeks to promote full and active participation in the liturgy.

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Advent Table Prayers

Week One:
  God of light and peace, you love us beyond measure. Your radiance glows when we awaken and embrace a life of readiness to do your will. We ask your blessing upon the meal we share this day, with the hope that it will nourish and strengthen us to proclaim your message of peace. We ask this through the one who is and who is to come, our Lord, Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever. Amen.

Week Two:
  God of endurance and encouragement, you bring all life to birth. Your gifts of wisdom, understanding, counsel, strength, knowledge, reverence and love of God give us hope in the world to come, when all creatures will live in harmony with one another. Bless those around this table as well as those who gather around the many other tables in this world. May our prayers produce the good fruit of repentance, forgiveness, and faithfulness. We ask this through the one who baptizes with the fire of the Holy Spirit, our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Week Three:
  O loving God of salvation, give us voice to sing your praise and clear our ears that we may hear your story of everlasting joy. As we pray in thanksgiving for your many gifts bestowed on us, keep us mindful of those in need of our loving kindness. Give us patience and courage to be the voice for the mute, the dance for the lame, and light in the darkness for the blind. Teach us to share in our bounty as we give thanks for what is before us. We ask this through our loving savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Week Four:
  O God of the living, through the prophets, you remind us to be persistent in our prayer. When Mary said "yes" to your request, she set in motion your loving promise of our salvation. Help us to say "yes" to your presence in our lives. Keep us close to you and obedient in faith as we make final preparations in our hearts to celebrate, once again the birth of your beloved son. We ask your blessing upon those gathered here and bless also this food lovingly prepared for this family. We ask this through Christ, our Lord. Amen.

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Christmas Table Prayers

Christmas Eve/Day:
  Thank you for the gift of this day, O loving God. Thank you for the gift of your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for family and friends that gather at this table to celebrate the joy of this special birth. Bless the food that has been prepared for this day and the hands that prepared it. Be with us as we share in this meal that you have provided for us. We ask this through the One who is Bread for the World, your Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Feast of the Holy Family:
  Holy God, Father of us all, we give you thanks and praise you for you have blessed us in abundance. Help us to live as Jesus, Mary and Joseph in peace with you and with one another. Bless this food that has prepared with love and bless our time together around this table. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Epiphany of the Lord:
  God of Light, the Magi followed the star of Bethlehem to give you honor through the newborn King lying in a manger. We need not travel long distances to see Your Son. We only need to look into the eyes of the poor and needy to find Christ. As we share this meal together, help us to keep those in mind who are still hungry and show us to way to help those in need. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Baptism of the Lord:
  You sent your spirit down to proclaim Jesus is your beloved Son, we are your beloved sons and daughters and through our baptism are members of the Body of Christ. May we enjoy this sacred time together around this table just as Jesus enjoyed his time with his followers at table. We ask this though the one who is Bread for the world, Christ our Lord. Amen.

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Liturgical News

Advent
The word Advent derives from the Latin word meaning coming. The Lord is coming. We may reflect that every year at this time we celebrate his coming , so that in a sense we can lose the feeling of expectancy and joyful anticipation, because at the end of the season, everything seems to return to pretty much the same routine. If that is the case, then our preparation may have been lacking and we have therefore been robbed of much of the true meaning of this season. During Advent we recall the history of God's people and reflect on how the prophecies and promises of the Old Testament were fulfilled. This gives us a background for the present. Today we can reflect on the past track record of God and so begin to understand what it means to us now for the sake of what is to come, in our own future and that of our world.

© Liguori Publications Excerpt from Advent - A Quality Storecupboard The Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer

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Education on Advent Liturgy

It's Advent—the start of the liturgical year, a time of beginning and journey and growth. Advent means to come to. It's the time when we remember and re-celebrate Christ's first coming to us as God made human. But there's more to the "coming". We reflect on and celebrate Christ's coming to us over and over in Eucharist and we reflect on and await Christ's second coming in glory. It's also a special time when we come to Christ, hopefully in a special way that changes us forever.

Although Advent calls us to repent, it's less a strongly penitential season, as is Lent, than the liturgical time of watching and waiting—being aware and looking for the signs that Christ is coming to us and the signs that we are coming to Him. Advent is measured in Sundays, not weeks. It's a time of quiet and reflection, although the secular world pulls us in every direction except quiet and reflection, especially at this hustle and bustle time of year.

We start Year A this Sunday with all of the Advent Gospels and many of the Gospels for the rest of the year coming from Matthew. Matthew's portrayal of Jesus is as the teacher of life in God's kingdom and the meaning of discipleship. In Matthew, Jesus not only interprets the Law of Moses with authority but He is also the fulfillment of the Law and the prophets. The kingdom of heaven is central to Matthew's gospel and Jesus teaches us God's way.

The first Sunday of Advent we light the first candle of the Advent wreath, a blue or the royal purple one, symbolic of Christ's second coming in glory as King, rather the penitential violet of Lent. In the Gospel, Jesus reminds us that we must be prepared, like Noah, and Paul reminds us to turn from darkness and "put on the armor of light", conduct ourselves properly and not succumb to the things of the world that might lure us away from God's path—for at an hour we do not expect, "the Son of Man will come." Despite our not knowing when that Second Coming will be, we look to this future with hope and expectation. We prepare for Christ by "becoming," daily living the mystery of Christ's dying and rising, by conducting ourselves now as we will in God's Kingdom.

The second Sunday of Advent, we light the second candle of the Advent wreath, and meet John the Baptist urging us to repent "for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" and to "prepare the way of the Lord". John calls us to "make straight his paths". Perhaps we might also think of it as preparing in the same way as Jesus, practicing love and justice, dying to self for the sake of others, and building, however we are able, God's Kingdom here and now. The secular world bombards us with messages to remember Christ's first coming, and we must take care not to forget that we celebrate His first coming to help us prepare for His Second Coming, as just judge. We prepare for Christ by becoming just, growing in justice in our actions every day.

The Third Sunday of Advent, Guadete Sunday, we light the third candle on the Advent wreath—the pink one this time, and rejoice that the coming of Christ, our Savior, is near. From prison, John the Baptist asks if Jesus is "the one to come" and Jesus' response is to have John's disciples describe to John what they have heard and seen—the blind see, the lame walk, lepers are healed, the dead are raised. Our own experiences bring us to know, love, and accept Jesus—we might start with what we've been taught, but we have to be open to our own experiences of Jesus and the effects His presences has on our own lives. How has our own blindness, lameness, deafness been healed? We prepare for Christ by becoming Christ-like in our treatment of others because Christ was present to us.

The Fourth Sunday of Advent, we light the last candle on the Advent wreath and hear in the Gospel that God is with us in Jesus. Although God chose to come to us as human, He required the consent of humans, Mary and Joseph, to fulfill this plan. Just as Jesus' human presence in the world was brought about through the consent of Mary and Joseph, His continued presence in the world is brought about by us, choosing to follow His plan, to be Christ to others. We prepare for Christ by becoming like Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, choosing God's path and making it our own.

In his modern day parable The Magi, Father Ed Hays (in The Ethiopian Tattoo Shop, Forest of Peace Books, Inc., 1983, pp. 13-18) suggests that once we truly begin the journey to Christmas, to Christ, we can't return to our former selves. The process of change leaves us unable to go back to what was familiar, only to go forward, continually growing or always dissatisfied, knowing there's something more. In Father Hays' parable, the Magi journey far and long, searching for Christmas. Yet it was when they abandoned their search in despair of ever finding Christmas, and shared themselves with the people they encountered that they became Christmas and experienced the joy and fulfillment they sought.

As we journey through Advent this year, perhaps we, like the Magi in Father Hayes' parable won't just come to and find Christmas. Perhaps we, like they, can become Christmas.

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Mass Schedule

Advent/ Christmas Worship

1st Sunday of Advent - vigil - Saturday Dec 1 - 5:30pm

1st Sunday of Advent - Saturday Dec 1 - 11pm

1st Sunday of Advent - Sunday Dec 2 - 9am, 11am, 7pm & 9pm

Parish Reconciliation Service - Tuesday Dec 4 - 7pm

Feast of the Immaculate Conception - Holy Day of Obligation - Saturday Dec 8 - 11am

2nd Sunday of Advent - vigil - Saturday Dec 8 - 5:30pm

2nd Sunday of Advent - Sunday Dec 9 - 9am, 11am, 7pm & 9pm

Grad Blessing, Finals Blessing at All Masses on the 8th and 9th

3rd Sunday of Advent - vigil - Saturday Dec 15 - 5:30pm

3rd Sunday of Advent - Sunday Dec 16 - 9am & 11am

4th Sunday of Advent - vigil - Saturday Dec 22 - 5:30pm

4th Sunday of Advent - Sunday Dec 23 - 9am & 11am

Parishioners will decorate the worship space after the 11am Mass for Christmas

Christmas Eve - Monday Dec 24 - 5:30pm Family Mass

Christmas Eve - Monday Dec 24 -11:30pm Christmas Carols & Concert Midnight Mass

Christmas Day - Tuesday Dec 25 - 11am

Feast of the Holy Family - vigil - Dec 29 - 5:30pm

Feast of the Holy Family Dec 30 - 9am & 11am

Mary Mother of God - Holy Day of Obligation - Jan 1 - 11am

Feast of Epiphany - vigil - Sat Jan 5 - 5:30pm

Feast of Epiphany - Sun Jan 6 - 9am, 11am, 7pm & 9pm

Baptism of the Lord - vigil - Sat Jan 12 - 5:30pm

Baptism of the Lord - Sun Jan 13 - 9am, 11am, 7pm & 9pm

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