God is the joy of my soul! What a beautiful proclamation from our first reading this weekend. The statement comes from the Prophet Isaiah who was anointed to bring freedom, goodness and justice to the people, and in his prophetic role to be a harbinger of God who brings forth fruits from the earth – a fruitful earth – fruits of justice and praise.
In the ancient prophetic tradition, Isaiah brings forth justice, but it is God who brings the ultimate justice, and so our God is worthy of the praise of all humankind. This tradition invites us to reflect on the important role of the prophet, the justice he brings, and the ultimate sense of justice that only our God brings.
Perhaps this two-fold notion of justice can help us to reflect on a similar situation presented in the Gospel.
Last week we read the “stark Mark” version of the introduction of John the Baptist. The Gospel of Mark is quite stark and to the point in its presentation of many things, including John the Baptist and Jesus. As we shift to the Gospel of John this week we hear a much more symbolic presentation of these two incredible characters.
John the Evangelist introduces John the Baptist as testifying to the light. The Baptist certainly is a light, but he is not THE light. THE light is Jesus Christ, and The Baptist only has a role and an identity in relationship with Jesus.
Let us Awaken to the testimony of John the Baptist and to the justice and praise of the real light of our world – God in the form of Jesus.
Illinois state legislation has approved the Invest In Kids Act that will greatly assist children seeking private education, and thus, many seeking Catholic education, who are currently struggling to afford, or simply can’t afford, Catholic school.
There are two key pieces to this legislation: donors who will receive a significant tax credit, and qualifying children who will benefit from the type of education that they and their families seek.
Individuals and companies can receive a 75% Illinois tax credit for the 2018-2019 school year on a donation to the Archdiocese of Chicago, or to Holy Family Catholic Academy directly, starting January 2, 2018. For your information, we have 25 students currently attending Holy Family Catholic Academy who would qualify for these scholarships.
The Archdiocese of Chicago’s selected Scholarship Granting Organization is Empower Illinois. The scholarships will be available for students in grades Kindergarten through 12.
There is a cap on the individual donation amount and the total dollar amount, so if you are interested in donating, please do so as soon after January 2 as possible.
Families seeking these grant scholarships must register beginning January 24. Donors can register now in order to donate by January 2. Please see the Empower Illinois website for more details and there is a link to it on our Holy Family Catholic Academy website as well. There is more information on this on the Academy page of this bulletin (page 15).
Even if you are not interested in donating, could you please share this information with a family who may want to attend a Catholic school, or Holy Family Catholic Academy specifically, but simply can’t afford to? Thank you.
Some Liturgy and Worship items of note:
- Ushers, Eucharistic Ministers and Greeters, please sign up to serve at our Christmas Masses. If you are interested in being a Greeter for the Mass you will attend, please let Judy Petrie know at jpetrie@holyfamilyparish.org.
- Please sign up to light the Advent Wreath with your family. Contact Deacon Dennis Brown at dbrown@holyfamilyparish.org.
- The Christmas Mass schedule is a bit different this year because the Fourth Sunday of Advent is also Christmas Eve. There will be no Midnight Mass Christmas Eve, Sunday, December 24 because we are offering Mass beginning Saturday, December 23 at 5:00pm and 7:30 Christmas Eve morning to focus on the conclusion of Advent. In addition, attendance at our earlier Christmas Eve Masses has continued to increase and attendance at later Masses and Midnight Mass has decreased. We are offering a 10:30pm Mass this Christmas Eve and we will evaluate attendance so as to offer the best schedule of Mass times for future Christmases.
All of our Christmas Eve Masses will begin with singing carols 15 minutes before the start of Mass. Please come early and sing with us!