Merry Christmas, and more from Fr. Ron, #50 Friday, December 23, 2022

St. Patrick Parish News & Updates

December 23, 2022 | Issue 50

A Word from the Pastor

December 23, 2022

May Jesus be born again in our hearts. St. John Eudes paraphrased St. Augustine in saying: The divine maternity would not have profited Mary if she had not first borne Jesus Christ in her Heart more happily and advantageously than in her womb. This teaches us that conceiving Jesus in our hearts is so important. This is one way the mystery of the Incarnation is extended.

A mystery is more than an historical happening. Every mystery is rooted in a past event, in this case the historical birth of Jesus. Yet every mystery has a present reality, and every mystery has a future dimension as it yearns for completion. So, it is with the mystery we now celebrate: the Incarnation.

First, we remember that the Word became flesh in history. We gather to remember the circumstances of that miraculous birth. We rejoice with the angels and all creation at the birth of our Savior. We imagine the stillness of that night and try to place ourselves there in the stable with shepherds and wise men.

But there is also a present dimension to the mystery of the Incarnation. We strive to discover the incarnation of Jesus in the many ways he is present to us every day (in our community, the Bible, the sacraments, in all of creation, the poor and strangers, and so many other ways). At the same time, we also accept our responsibility to incarnate Christ again through our lives and our ministries. We feel challenged to give birth to Jesus again.

St. Francis of Assisi said: “We are mothers of Christ when we carry him in our heart and in our body by divine love and with a pure and sincere conscience. We give birth to him through holy works, which should shine forth as an example for others.”

The mystery of the Incarnation moves toward completion. This is the future dimension. We will not be able to fulfil it by ourselves or in our own lives. God will bring this mystery to completion. St. Paul, in his letter Titus (our 2nd reading on Christmas), speaks of this: “we await the blessed hope, the appearance of the glory of our great God and savior Jesus Christ.” It is good for us to be reminded that, even though our efforts to give birth to Christ again are important, it is ultimately God who brings it about. Just as Mary had to cooperate in God’s plan and accede to God’s will, so also we must open ourselves to being used by God. And, in the words of St. Francis, we too can be mothers who give birth to the Lord.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all those who worked so hard to make our celebration of Christmas very special. I am thinking of all of those who prepare the music, decorate the church, the various liturgical ministers, deacons and priests. I am also grateful to our parish staff who organized our Christmas Star gifts and the many generous parishioners who contributed. Your generosity was overwhelming!

I also want to thank all those who extended kind wishes, sent cards and gave us gifts. May the Lord bless you and your families.

In one Heart,

Fr. Ron

rbagley@stpatrickcarlsbad.com

PS: Our next email newsletter will be sent out on January 6, 2023.

All Parish Offices will be closed Friday, 12/23 - Monday 1/2/2023

Be A Welcoming Community

As we come together to celebrate Christmas this weekend, we will welcome many people to our church who do not always join us the rest of the year. This presents us with a challenge and an opportunity. It may be crowded, a bit confusing as people look for seats, and a frenzy in the parking lot.

But it is also an opportunity to be welcoming to those who are visitors or who don’t yet feel a part of our community. Extend a warm welcome as people enter your pew. Sit in the middle of the pew, encouraging others to join you. Welcome the latecomers and the crying babies. Be civil in the parking lot both coming and going. Invite people to come back.

St. Patrick’s has a reputation for being a welcoming community. Let’s put that on full display this Christmas weekend.

Please note: The parking lot of our neighbor New Song Church is available to us on Sunday, December 25. However, please do not park there on December 24 as that congregation will have their Christmas Eve services.

Christmas Mass Schedule

Saturday, December 24

4:00 pm- English Mass in the church

4:00 pm- Family Mass Parish Center

6:00 pm- English Mass in the church

8:00 pm- Spanish Mass in church

10:00 pm-English Mass in the church

Sunday, December 25

7:30 am- English Mass in the church

9:00 am- English Mass in the church

11:00 am-English Mass in the church

1:00 pm- Spanish Masses in the church and Parish Center

NO Mass at 5:00 pm on Christmas Day

Oh Holy Night

In the fall of 1847, a French wine merchant, Pierre Cappeau, was asked by his local priest to write a Christmas poem. Not long after, Cappeau showed this poem, “Minuit, chrétiens,” to the famed French composer Adolphe Adam, and within a few days Adam had composed a musical setting for it. Cappeau took the new song back to his hometown of Roquemaure, where it was first performed at a midnight Mass on Christmas Eve, 1847. The standard English translation, by the American Unitarian minister and music critic John Sullivan Dwight, dates from 1855. “O Holy Night” is one of the most dramatically beautiful Christmas carols ever penned but is unfortunately performed only rarely because of the melody’s extended range. This resplendent arrangement by Mack Wilberg, originally written especially for The Tabernacle Choir and The King’s Singers, was published in 2009.

Why Two Collections on Christmas?

This year at our Masses on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day there will be two collections. Because Christmas falls on a Sunday this year, we end up “losing a collection,” that of the Sunday. This creates a big deficit in the parish income.

Therefore, this Christmas there will be two collections taken up at all Masses: one is the regular Sunday collection and the other is the special Christmas collection. Thank you for your generosity and your understanding.

Little Drummer Boy

One of my favorite Christmas songs is the Little Drummer Boy. Here is a creative contemporary version of this classic performed by Penatonix.

The Stories Behind Our Favorite Christmas Carols

I am a big fan of the Jesuit magazine simply called America, and its latest emendation America Media. The articles cover a wide variety of topics and subject areas. I was pleased to recently discover their podcast on the background of Christmas carols. Evidently, it began a couple years ago. I hope you enjoy listening to the history and stories behind some of our favorite Christmas carols. Each episode is about 30-40 minutes. You can return again and again to explore another Christmas favorite.

Listen on Apple Podcasts here...

New Year's Mass Schedule

On New Year's Day, the Church celebrates the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. Since January 1 falls on a Sunday this year, we will follow our usual Mass schedule on the weekend of December 31 and January 1, 2023

A New Year's Blessing

This Te Deum, sung by the monks of New Camaldoli Hermitage, is offered as a new year's blessing for everyone.

An Invitation to the Walk

for Life

Cardinal McElroy invites everyone to participate in the 10th Annual Walk for Life which will be held on the morning of January 14 at Waterfront Park. For details, visit the website https://sandiegowalkforlife.org/

Cardinal McElroy makes the invitation in English

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DkId7gPi0I

Obispo Ramón Bejarano hace la invitación en español

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMjjXuXcNbQ&t=16s

Cardinal Gregory says Catholics should be ‘outraged’ by rising antisemitism

Read Cardinal Gregory here...

Scholarship for Graduating Seniors and Students in Catholic Colleges

The James R. and Geraldine F. Bertelsen Scholarship Award was established more than 30 years ago to benefit residents of Carlsbad who attend Catholic colleges and universities. This scholarship is open to graduating Roman Catholic high school seniors and students currently attending a four-year Roman Catholic college or university. For details about it and how to apply, click below.

Scholarship info here...

Watch Daily and Sunday Masses Livestreamed from  St. Patrick Church here:

Online Giving Reminder

Please remember to log in to your Online Giving account to make sure your payment method is up to date and that your gifts are being processed.

Remember to set up your separate Christmas donation.

For help with forgotten passwords, please contact Online Giving technical support at 800.348.2886, ext. 2.

Click on the Online Giving logo below to create or access your account.

We appreciate your support!

Catholic Trivia

"Catholic Trivia”... not because they are trivial but because these might be things that not everyone knows. Test your knowledge by reading the five questions, remember your answers (or jot them down), then click the link below to find the answers.

Which gospels do not include events surrounding the birth of Jesus Christ?
What does the word Epiphany mean?
Who are the Holy Innocents?
Does the Bible specify how many Magi visited the Holy Family?
What was Jesus’ hometown?

Feel free to email Fr. Ron with ideas for future Catholic Trivia questions rbagley@stpatrickcarlsbad.com

If you have other members of your family or your friends who would like to be on our email list, just let me know or write to Mary McLain at mmclain@stpatrickcarlsbad.com We will be pleased to add them.

Masses are available on our website www.stpatrickcarlsbad.com

We have a YouTube channel where we have daily and Sunday Masses: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyqQbbTs-Gsv11yfjytIJIw/featured

Visit our YouTube page

Answers to Catholic Trivia here!

Online Giving

Read all of Fr. Ron's newsletters here

Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord (Christmas)

[Note: There are a number of choices for the readings at the various Masses on Christmas. The following are those which you will hear at St. Patrick’s this year.]

First Reading

Isaiah 9:1-6

To those in darkness, a child will be born who will have dominion over the earth.

Responsorial Psalm

Psalm 96:1-2,2-3,11-12,13

Sing a new song to the Lord.

Second Reading

Titus 2:11-14

God has appeared, bringing salvation to all.

Gospel Reading

Luke 2:1-14

Jesus is born in a manger in Bethlehem as the angel appears to the shepherds.

Background on the Gospel Reading

During the Christmas season, our liturgy invites us to consider the birth of the Lord from many vantage points. As we begin this season, it is useful to remember that the stories of Jesus' birth and childhood are found in only two of our Gospels, Matthew and Luke. Throughout this season, we will hear stories from both Gospels. Those Gospels tell different but complementary stories about Jesus' birth, highlighting items of theological importance about the Incarnation and the salvation that Jesus brings.

On this day, the Feast of Christmas, we are given the details of Christ's birth as found in the Gospel of Luke. Here we learn about the census that brings Mary and Joseph from Nazareth to Bethlehem, where Jesus is born. We also hear about the angel's announcement of this good news to the shepherds. In these details, we find two of Luke's particular concerns: (1) to locate the coming of Christ in the wider framework of salvation history as good news for all people, Gentiles and Jews, and (2) to show the Lord's favor upon the poor and lowly.

In Luke's Gospel, Jesus is born as one of the poor. Laid in a manger in a stable, because there was no room at the inn, he comes into the world through obscure and surprising means. Yet, as the angel proclaims this good news to the shepherds, this infant is announced as the Messiah and Lord. In the song of the angels, all are invited to give glory to God for this miraculous birth, in which God comes to share our humanity.

The angels sing that Jesus' coming brings peace. Yet there is little in the details of this Gospel that gives evidence of peace. Jesus is born as a traveler away from home, born in a stable in a crowded city under the occupation of foreigners. The appearance of the angel to the shepherds frightens them. When the angels proclaim Jesus' birth as the harbinger of “peace on earth,” the evangelist Luke clearly wants us to take the long view. The shepherds are invited to claim a faith that will enable them to see this infant as a sign of God's promise of a messiah. It is through such faith that one finds the peace of which the angels sing.

Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph

Usually this feast day is celebrated on the Sunday between Christmas and New Years. When a Sunday does not occur between December 25 and January 1 (like this year), this feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph is celebrated on December 30 (a Friday this year). We will celebrate Mass at the usual times of 7:00 am and 8:00 am.

On this day, we honor the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. In honoring them, we also honor all families, big or small. And in honoring all families, we honor the family of God, the Church. But most especially, we focus on the hidden, day-to-day life of the Holy Family of Nazareth.

What was it like to live day in and day out in the household of St. Joseph? What was it like to have Jesus for a son, Mary as a wife and mother, and Joseph as a father and husband? Their home would have certainly been a place of faith and love, a dwelling of true peace and unity.

The family home of Jesus, Mary and Joseph would have been, in numerous ways, just like any other home. They would have related together, talked, had fun, disagreed, worked, eaten, dealt with problems, and encountered everything else that makes up daily family life. Think of the many challenges the gospels recount: no place for the baby to be born, fleeing to Egypt, a mother watching her son be executed.

Through all the difficulties they experienced, it was their faith that sustained them. By nurturing faith in our families, we too can face the struggles of family life. We can celebrate the joys of life in a family like Jesus did. We can also be holy families.

The Octave Day of the Nativity of the Lord: Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God

Sunday, January 1, 2023

First Reading

Numbers 6:22-27

God gives a blessing for the Israelites.

Responsorial Psalm

Psalm 67:2-3,5,6,8

All the people sing praises to God.

Second Reading

Galatians 4:4-7

God sent his Son to make us children of God.

Gospel Reading

Luke 2:16-21

The shepherds find Jesus in a manger in Bethlehem.

Background on the Gospel Reading

Today’s reading is a continuation from the Gospel proclaimed at the Christmas Mass at midnight. In it the shepherds act upon the message they receive from the angel and go to find Jesus in the manger in Bethlehem. In their visit to the manger, the shepherds find things just as the angel had said. The shepherds’ visit, therefore, is a moment of fulfillment, manifestation, and the beginning of the salvation we receive through Christ.

In the context of today’s Solemnity, this reading also helps us focus on Mary as the Mother of God. The reading tells us at least three things about Mary as a mother. First, Mary is described as a reflective person, keeping the reports of the shepherds in her heart. Second, we are reminded of how obedient Mary was to God when she named the baby Jesus as the angel Gabriel had directed. Third, this reading shows Mary and Joseph faithfully observing their Jewish tradition by having Jesus circumcised.

Mary’s faithfulness to God is evident in all three of these things. Her reflection upon the events in her life indicates that she was a person of prayer. This prayer made possible her obedience to God and God’s will, even if the outcome was not clear. Finally, her faithfulness to a community of faith grounded her relationship with God and enabled her to participate in God’s plan of salvation.

Because of Mary’s faithfulness to God, she was able to receive the gift of God’s Son and accept her role in God’s plan for salvation. By doing so, she models for us the path of discipleship and is also called Mother of the Church.

Our call to discipleship also includes these three aspects. First, discipleship means prayer and reflection on the events of our lives that we might see God’s presence and work in our lives. Second, discipleship means obedience to God and God's will. Third, discipleship includes fidelity to a community of faith.

Thank You, Jayce

The retirement of Jayce McClellan from our parish staff gives rise to a wide array of feelings. First of all, there is gratitude for his many years of faithful and loyal service under four pastors. There is also sadness in his absence from parish leadership, although he continues to be a parishioner and we know that we will see him often. We also feel happiness for Jayce as he can now pursue other interests such as his great skill in photography and framing.

Join us in wishing Jayce a happy retirement. May God bless him and continue to watch over him in the years ahead. Thank you, Jayce!

Un Saludo de parte del Diacono Miguel,

“Señor Dios, Padre nuestro, que tanto amaste al mundo que nos entregaste a tu Hijo único nacido de María la Virgen, dígnate bendecir este nacimiento y a la comunidad cristiana que está aquí presente, para que las imagines de este nacimiento ayuden a profundizar en la fe a los adultos y a los niños. Te lo pedimos por Jesús, tu Hijo amado, que vive y reino por los siglos de los siglos. Amen.” Bendición del Nacimiento Navideño. Que linda bendición para nuestro nacimiento que casi siempre está abajo, o a un lado, del árbol navideño. Lo ponemos porque somos cristianos y esperamos el nacimiento del niño Jesús, el Mesías, el Salvador del Mundo, el Emmanuel. Pero al pasar el tiempo de adviento y empezamos a llenar esos espacios bajo del árbol con regalos, y ese nacimiento se va escondiendo y llega el momento que ni le ponemos atención. La bendición dice, “que las imagines de este nacimiento ayuden a profundizar la fe de los adultos y niños”. Esto no tiene nada que ver con Santo Claus. Este tiene todo que ver con Jesús, Dios se encarna y viene a vivir entre nosotros. Se trata de Maria y Jose, escogidos por Dios para llevar a cabo un papel importante en la historia de la humanidad. Aunque no siempre entendían lo que Dios les pedía, se mantenían fieles a la voluntad de Dios. Y hay otras imagines, ¿quiénes son? ¿Cómo te ayudan a profundizar tu fe y la fe de los niños? Dentro de poco, guardaremos nuestro nacimiento, no lo hagamos hasta reflexionar sobre cada figura y mirar como nos hace mejores seguidores de Cristo. ¡Feliz Navidad!

Como orar cuando no sentimos ganas. Haga clic aquí:

Detente

Hablemos de Pastores

Estudios Bíblicos en Español del Padre Ricardo Chinchilla, cjm... clic aquí

3821 Adams Street

Carlsbad, California 92008

760.729.2866

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