Welcome to the First Sunday of Advent and the beginning of “Year C,” the new Liturgical Year. The season of Advent begins the Liturgical Year and has its origins in the early Church as a short period of intense preparation for the celebration of the Nativity of the Lord, also known as Christmas. Advent slowly came to be structured into four Sundays with proper readings and prayers. It is now a season of devout and joyful expectation as we recall the first humble coming of the Lord at Bethlehem about two millennia ago. We are invited to prepare our spiritual selves in joyful expectation of Christ’s promised second coming in glory at the termination of time. This is well-expressed in the Scripture readings, in the prayers, and in the two parts into which Advent is divided.

I wish you and your loved ones a Happy Thanksgiving “in advance.” We thank God that, with the low rate of COVID this year, we look forward to celebrating Thanksgiving in a “normal” way with our families. As we all know, the Thanksgiving celebration is not a Church Liturgical celebration such as a feast day or solemnity. However, it is good to note that we Christians do celebrate Thanksgiving differently from nonbelievers. While we celebrate Thanksgiving by thanking God and acknowledging that all we have and all our blessings come from Him, non-believers may not involve God in their Thanksgiving celebration.

The Solemnity of Jesus Christ, King of the Universe was instituted in 1925 by Pope Pius XI for the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church as the Church’s response to growing nationalism and secularism that plagued society at that time. In his encyclical, “Quas Primas,” the Vicar of Christ recognized that these related societal ills would breed erroneous practices, inspire despair and cause increased hostility against the Church. The universal Church celebrates this Feast on the last Sunday of each liturgical year to remind the faithful that Christ’s reign is universal and enjoys permanent duration; nations, governments and philosophies however, are ultimately transient.

Congratulations on our groundbreaking event last weekend. What a historic day for our parish community. I thank everyone for your prayers and support that made it possible for us to reach this great milestone. My special thanks to Bob Prezkop and Deacon Ed for their great leadership of the Building Committee and the transition process. Thanks also to Lani Gore and members of the Events Ministry for coordinating the reception. My special thanks to our parish staff for working so hard behind the scenes to ensure that every detail was taken care of; to Eamonn and Karen and members of the Building Fund Committee; to our SJB school community, the Finance Council, Parish Council, and everyone who helped with planning the event.  

The calendar year is coming to an end as we are in November, its penultimate month. The current liturgical year is also about to be completed. Next weekend, we shall celebrate the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ King of the Universe, the Solemnity that marks the end of a liturgical year giving way to a new one. The readings of today reflect the mood of the liturgical “subseason”, they speak of the anticipated end of time and the judgement of humanity that would follow.

Finally, the long-awaited Groundbreaking Ceremony is now just hours away. I am so excited and looking forward to it. I invite you and your family and friends to come and join us to witness this historic moment for our St. Benedict parish community. Everything is now ready and set for the event, thanks to the incredible teamwork of our Building Committee, Event Committee, Parish Staff, and volunteers who worked so tirelessly to ensure that every detail of the preparation is addressed. We anticipate beautiful warm weather throughout the day, and a good turnout for the event.

Experience has shown that the most generous people are not usually the wealthiest. King Ahab had married Jezebel, a foreigner who brought with her a foreign god Baal that corrupted Israel with idolatry. In response, Yahweh commissioned the prophet Elijah to predict extreme drought in Israel until God would command rain to fall. Israel was scourged with drought which naturally brought famine, and soon the prophet himself needed nourishment. So God directed him to Zarephath where he met a widow at the city gate. The prophet requested water. As the widow left to fetch this now scarce yet essential commodity, he added that he would appreciate some bread as well. The widow reviewed her already precarious situation: she had only a handful of flour left in her jar and a little oil, she had in fact been collecting sticks for firewood to make the last meal for her and her son, beyond that she saw only death. The prophet encouraged her to make the sacrifice prophesying, “the jar of flour shall not go empty, nor the jug of oil run dry, until the day when the Lord sends rain upon the earth.” She did as Elijah requested, and if we read beyond the text of our first reading, we find she never lacked nourishment until rain finally came.

It is hard to believe that we have come to the last weekend before we move out of the existing building to the St. John Bosco Multipurpose Room (MPR) for our weekend Masses. This is a bittersweet historical moment for us. While we are excited about beginning our building project, we also face the challenge of missing the comfort and memory of the existing building.