ALL SET FOR SUNDAY

This weekend we celebrate the “Second Sunday” of the Year—an anomaly as it is really the first Sunday after Christmas.  Many others have already written about this and other anomalies we experience in the Liturgical Calendar.  

As we are in “Year C,” the time where most of our Sunday Gospel readings come from the holy Gospel according to Saint Luke, we have another anomaly in that the year with the longest of Gospel takes its reading from the Gospel according to Saint John.  Ok, now, I’ll get to the point…we have the reading of the beginning of Jesus’ miracles and the story of the Wedding Feast at Cana. The readings can be found here.

The wedding feast of Cana gives us so many different invitations to encounter Jesus in a new way.  One way is to see how Jesus wants to provide for the Church in abundance.  The Bridegroom gives His Bride jars filled to the brim with water.  He transforms the ordinary into the extraordinary.  We simply have to receive from His great gifts to us.

NEWS IN THE PEWS

Blessed Carlo Acutis Relic visit: Hope fully you saw in the Catholic Mirror the announcement that we will be hosting a first-class (actually body part) relic of Blessed Carlo Acutis.  The relic comes from the Shrine of Guadalupe in La Crosse, Wisconsin, and is accompanied by an exhibit from Blessed Carlo’s work on cataloguing Eucharistic miracles throughout the world.  We will have time for the public (outside of our parish) to come and venerate the relic while seeing the Eucharistic miracle exhibit on Saturday, February 15.  We will be sharing with you time for our parish family to experience the exhibit and venerate the relic of Blessed Carlo.  If you don’t know who Blessed Carlo is, check this out.  This is very exciting that we are able to host this amazing soon-to-be Saint in our parish.

Inclement Weather: As we are in winter, it’s good to remind you about our approach to inclement weather.  When school is in session, if either school or evening activities are cancelled for Urbandale, Saint Pius X will also cancel activities on campus.  When school is not in session, we rely upon the National Weather Service, the Iowa DOT and the county and city governments to advise us.  Generally, if 3 inches of snow or more, or if we have extreme ice, we will cancel activities on campus.  

As the Mass is the most important thing we offer and Father Daniel and I live near the church, we will still offer Masses in the church.  We will only cancel the 7:00 AM Mass because we want to give the plows a chance to work before people could come to church, and we would offer the 9 and 11 AM Masses.  Even if our livestream crew, servers, lectors, musicians, sacristans and extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion are not here, Father Daniel and I can still offer Mass.  Please know that if it unsafe for you, or you would be placing the life of another (including snow plow operators, emergency service professionals, other drivers) in danger, you do not have the obligation to attend Mass.  You should spend time in prayer, praying for the safety of others and our parish family.

THANK YOU

Father Daniel and I were very touched by the outpouring of love during the Christmas season.  We received offerings of prayer, food, cards and gifts.  We tried to send notes of gratitude to folks, but we know we missed some and some we didn’t know who sent them to us.  Please know we are both extremely grateful and touched by your words and kindness.  We love being a part of this parish family.