Thanks for the gracious feedback and response to our Capital Campaign announcement last weekend! Once again St. Mary’s radiates warmth and kindness! Also, we cleared $3 Million pledged! And lots of folks are setting up times to meet with me or a visitor! Thank you!

Advent and flowers: so this week, someone asked me, “what happened to the flowers I left in the church?” And that led to the conversation that because advent is a penitential season, there are not supposed to be flowers in the church. Thus when people bring flowers, we will have to remove them, in keeping with liturgical law.

But wait, are there exceptions? Of course, The Feast of the Immaculate Conception is a solemnity and can have flowers and Our Lady of Guadalupe is a unstoppable parade of folks bringing flowers! However, you will notice that the day after, we return the church to it’s advent flower-free state. Our usual custom is to place the flowers outside by the statue of Our Lady, or sometimes at the feet of the Guadalupe image in the narthex.

One other exception to the ‘no flower’ rule is Christmas setup. Because volunteers set up the Christmas flowers, I try to be understanding of their schedules and allow the flowers to go up a day or two early if necessary. That is a pastoral exception in gratitude for the work of volunteers.