Saint Mary of the Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic Church

Dear Folks,

4th Sunday of Advent. Panic Sunday for procrastinators. No that isn’t the real name, but I think I like it!

I read recently a mother describing childbirth. She gladly embraced that out of this unglamorous and painful mess came the greatest blessings in her life: the precious lives of her children. Maybe this Christmas we aren’t as prepared as we would like —with gifts unwrapped, house needs cleaning, baking to do and whatever other items are on your panic inducing to-do list. But in the midst of this ‘mess’ we celebrate the coming of our Lord. So this year I’ll offer to God: my panicked last minute shopping, or my anxiety over not being ready… knowing that he can bring good from all things! I can hear Jesus saying, “Ready or not, here I come!”

And what preparations did He make for his coming? One thing: the perfect Immaculate Soul of His Mother. That’s it. They didn’t have a place to stay, they didn’t have a fancy hospital, or a perfectly prepared baby-room. I wish that we could be likewise prepared. To that end, there are lots of confusion opportunities Tuesday to Friday of this week at 7pm. Friday is the last scheduled confessions. There are no scheduled confessions on the Saturday the 24th.

Finally, I want to thank Rick Caporali for his generous service to our parish family. This week will be his last working in the parish offices. Rick has served in a multitude of ways: event planning, facilities management, staff supervision, construction, cooking, even snow shoveling. He will be greatly missed. May the Lord bless and reward Rick for his generous service.

pax et bonum (peace and all goodness),

Fr. Mosimann

Dear Folks,

“Shave by the Headlights.” Ok, that may seem non-sensical. And explaining might make it more confusing. But let me try. I hate shaving. When I entered religous life, I was tramatized by the fact that now I had to shave EVERY DAY! I would whine about it, try to not shave, and get called out by my superiors for not shaving. One day in Mexico, the head of our community said to me, “Shave by the Headlights.” Huh? I literally pictured taking my razor and shaving in the early morning hours by the light of our car’s headlights. He went on to say that when driving it is always much easier to drive by the light of the headlights, able to see what is in front of you and just dealing with it. Imagine if you tried to drive only by looking behind you, or if you always had to backtrack to catch the turns that you missed because you are reacting after the car has passed. If we take care of unpleasant tasks first thing when they present themselves, they just are no real big deal. It is the agony, whining, and avoidance that make simple tasks a big deal. Or to use another cliché, we can avoid turning mountains into molehills by just shaving by the headlights.

Yes, I still sometimes celebrate a day off by not shaving (even if I spend all day working, I feel as if I got some sabbath rest)! But the ridiculous image of literally taking a razor  and shaving in the headlights of my car so stuck with me that I now use it to rally my will and strength to some unpleasant task.

And one more insight that I discovered at a young age: household chores could be accomplished in a fraction of the time when done willingly and cheerfully! I found that if I did my Saturday morning chores while my parents were at the morning Mass, I could be done before they got home and have the rest of the day for play! Yeah, at first they were so shocked that they would let me off with less work required, but the real key was found in freely and generously embracing these duties!

Maybe going to confession is your personal version of shaving or Saturday morning chores. Maybe it is saying your daily rosary, or reading scripture, or whatever daily devotional prayer you might have. In what way do you need to “shave by the headlights?”

Pax,

Fr. John Mosimann

Dear Folks,

This weekend we have the blessing of a dozen new altar servers which is always an inspiration to see the enthusiasm with which they undertake this service. Let me share with you a story of a young man serving at the altar. His mother asked me if he could go through the training, despite his only being in third grade. And so he did with great enthusiasm. Over the course of his first year, he couldn’t stand still, would fidget, and sometimes when holding the missal it was impossible for me to read. As the next years training arrived, I thought, “never again a third grader…too much of a distraction.” But the next day his mother came to me and told me this: He had just had a dream. He was in the church with me, dressed in his ‘priest clothes,’ fighting off the ‘bad guys’ who were trying to attack Jesus. She also related that on their 3 hour drive to Grandma’s, he would pray the rosary non-stop. She thanked me for being a positive influence on her son.

This was 10 years ago. Now this young man is joining the marines. Despite his family moving across the country, we have kept in contact, and he was excited to let me know how his life journey is progressing.

Being a pastor means being a spiritual father. I thank God for the privilege of serving you in this way, and look forward to the graces that God will work in our lives together.

Because altar serving has long been connected with promoting vocations, I want to continue to emphasize this. St. Mary’s is blessed with very capable female altar servers. In order to make the vocational encouragement even more explicit, we are going to add a black scapular to the vesture that female altar servers wear. This is being done to visually make the connection with the religious life to which young ladies are called. Boys will still dress like priests, girls like religious sisters.

If you were at the server installation ceremony today (10:30am), you also noticed another way to make the connection more explicit. Each of the male servers was vested by me with their surplice, while Sister Susan Louise vested the female servers with the scapular. It is an important day for each as they embark on this journey of service, and I am hopeful they will remember this day with joy.

Please encourage vocations. Generous prayer, faithfulness, and service are the fertilizer that make vocations grow in our families.

Pax,

Fr. John Mosimann

Dear Folks,

I hope you had a wonderful thanksgiving  and that your giving thanks lasts all year. This  Sunday we begin the season of advent and thus all of our frenzied preparations for Christmas.

I hope you picked up a copy of the Magnificat  Advent Companion that we set out for you to have a daily assist to your prayers.  I will share with you one of my favorite
Advent books: The Reed of God by Caryll Houselander. She beautifully builds the image of the Blessed Mother as a reed: empty and open to becoming an instrument of God. How do we percieve emptiness? The virginity of the Blessed Virgin Mary is not barren emptiness, but a beautiful receptivity to the Lord.

This thanksgiving weekend we are grateful for the abundance of God’s blessings, and let us move forward with an eye to avoiding the excesses of our culture by focussing on the life living, virginal, receptivity of the Blessed Mother. The more generously we can imitate her this Advent, the more fully we can help bring Jesus into the world this Christmas.

Pax,

Fr. Mosimann