First Week of Advent

November 22, 2022

by Fr. Reginald Samuels

First Week of Advent

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,



“Grant your faithful, we pray almighty God, the resolve to run forth to meet your Christ with righteous deeds at his coming…..” with these words we begin our Advent walk with God and the new liturgical time is set. The Advent season is a time of waiting and anticipating, not just the celebration of Christmas, and the commemoration of Christ’s coming into the world incarnated in the flesh of an infant, but also the celebration of Christ’s Second Coming at the end of the world. We start Advent with looking forward to Christ’s Second Coming.

As we begin the Advent season, Jesus tells us in the Gospel to “stay wake!” By being vigilant, we are allowing ourselves to be more aware of the tactics of the evil one and how we are called to counter it. Jesus tells us to remain alert, and when we remain alert, we are completely aware of all the blessings in which God gives us to live our lives.

Now that the Holiday season is in full swing and there are several opportunities for our parish community to witness the love of Christ to those in need this season. The Angel Tree is in the Narthex of the Church. The angel tags are on the tree ready for you to be picked up. Thank you for your generosity in supporting the Angel tree project.

The next opportunity for you to give is to the parish itself. The 2022 STHY gift list is out and this presents a great opportunity to support our parish in a special way to commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ. Check out the list in the bulletin or https://www.sthyacinth.org/2022-st-hyacinth-christmas-gift-list and see how you can share the gift of Christmas with STHY.

With the busy times of the Season of Christmas right around the corner, enrolling in online giving today is a great way to ensure your gifts of treasure to St. Hyacinth are received even if you may be out of town. Go to https://sthyacinth.org/online-giving and register for online giving. Don't forget to add your Christmas or End-of-Year contributions to your account this season. Thank you for your online support of St. Hyacinth.

          This year the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception is a Holy Day of obligation, there will be two special Masses on Thursday December 8^th at 8:00 am 7:00 pm .

STHY will have our annual Advent Penance Service on Thursday December 1^st at 7:00 pm in Religious Education building classrooms . We will have multiple priest confessors available for the Sacrament of Reconciliation that night. I encourage you to come and experience this most powerful and healing sacrament. Especially if you haven’t been to confession in a long time, now would be an ideal time to come and be reconciled to God and the Church. It would be a great way to start off the new liturgical year and get yourself in the right frame of mind for the approaching holidays.

Finally, each year, our archdiocese charges each parish in the archdiocese to host a Missionary to preach at a parish for missions appeals. The action provides the people of our archdiocese the opportunity to increase their awareness of the vital mission work of the Church. This weekend, please welcome the Claretian Missionaries . The mission of the Claretians are as follows: Preaching God’s Word, especially through parish and Campus Ministry; Community development programs within high-poverty, urban communities; Publishing bilingual periodicals and materials to support ministry and leadership development in the Catholic Church; Publishing magazines and materials to help Catholics live their faith in the U.S. Thank you for generosity in supporting the Claretians missions.

God Bless,
Fr. Reginald Samuels