12/23/2021
St. Edmund Parish 4:30pm Christmas Eve livestream mass link: https://youtu.be/EOFm9hIgSOM
Church doors open 1 hour before the Friday 4:30pm, 10:30pm and Christmas Day 11am masses.
Dear Parishioners,
In just 2 days, we shall celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. We celebrate because of all that this birth means to us and our lives. I invite you not simply to gloss over this meaning, but to allow its profundity to fill you hearts and minds.
How do we fathom the truth that the living God, the Good God of the universe, emptied Godself and gave that blessed essential part of himself to be born in time and place as one just like you and me? And what are the implications of Divine Reality having so embraced human nature? It has elevated our nature to such a degree that just as God chooses to share in our life, now we may also share in God’s. Humanity and Divinity have so intertwined that our destiny is to live and to love with God fully and forevermore.
Tell me, how do we not celebrate this beautiful gift of God’s immense love for us and for his having now given to us the means to salvation through Jesus?
Dear friends, we continue to live in such uncertain times. In early 2020, we couldn’t have imagined that the next (nearly) 2 years would be filled with the threat of a deadly pandemic. Our lifestyles changed. Our freedom to come and go without concern was compromised. We have missed our family and friends. All of this has taken its toll in ways that are both obvious and covert.
Now, the delta variant has given way to omicron, COVID cases are soaring in the country and throughout the world and danger seems to be lurking just around the corner. Right now, even my own youngest brother and a nephew, too, are isolating in their homes with COVID-19.
Now perhaps I’ve painted a picture that may be too bleak. We have had the opportunity to be vaccinated and boosted and these measures are likely to keep us COVID-free, or at least free from the worst harm that COVID can do. This, of course, is a great blessing.
As your pastor, I do understand that my primary role is to attend to your spiritual lives, but I believe that I would be shirking my responsibility were I not to give serious consideration to your physical well-being too.
To that end, while I would love to see all of you in church at Christmas, I am nonetheless encouraging our parishioners who are elderly, those who are ailing, those whose medications cause your health to be immunocompromised and those who take care of sick individuals to stay safe and stay home.
I welcome you to worship with us through our livestreamed Christmas Eve 4:30pm liturgy, with carols beginning at 4:10pm. The link is at the top of this email. From the comfort and safety of your own home, you may full participate with those who are gathered and through our shared prayer, we will all be no less united than if you were physically with us in church.
Whether you join us live or choose to pray with the recorded version at a later time of the day or even on Christmas Day, you can let go of your guilt that you have not fulfilled your Christmas obligation. You will certainly have done so, and done so with my blessing!
If you are feeling well and have been vaccinated and boosted, then by all means, please join us in person for mass. Our masses will take place Christmas Eve at 4:30pm (4:10pm carols begin) and at 10:30pm (with carols beginning at 10:10pm). On Christmas Day, our only mass of the day will begin at 11am. (As you may know, I am also the administrator of St. Catherine/St. Lucy Parish. Their Christmas Eve liturgy will begin at 3pm and their Christmas Day mass will begin at 9am. If this fits your schedule better, you are most welcome attend there as well.)
Please know that we will keep you safe when you are in attendance for Christmas mass. We will have plenty of hand sanitizing stations. We shall keep a safe social distance and everyone will be required to wear masks. Additionally, while our church can hold 500 people, we will have a capacity maximum of only 200 people. The 4:30pm mass on Christmas Eve is generally the most crowded of all the masses. Perhaps you’ll consider attending one of the other less crowded mass options?
Please note that the church doors will be open 1 hour before the start of each mass, and you must enter through the Murphy Hall doors (east or west side). All other doors will be locked. When we reach the 200 people limit, we will also lock the Murphy Hall doors and place a sign on the doors explaining that we have reached our capacity. I know that this is not ideal, but I am going to trust that you can understand that all of this is simply intended to keep you and everyone else safe.
This shall be my 18th Christmas with you (and sadly, very likely my last). Being your pastor and being a part of the St. Edmund community has been one of the greatest joys and privileges of my life. I give thanks to God for you and remember you in prayer every day.
Whether we stay safely at home, will gather in our beautiful church, or are traveling to visit family or friends this Christmas, you may be assured of my continued prayers for you. I hold each of you in my heart and even as we face yet another Christmas with this frightening pandemic, let us ever recall that Jesus is already with us and meets us precisely where we are. Let this reality be our comfort and our hope, for nothing can separate us from the love of God given to us through Jesus Christ.
May our Lord bless you this Christmas. Let us pray for one another. Let us pray for good health and safety. Let us pray for peace.
Very sincerely,
Fr. John McGivern
Your pastor
