Fourth Sunday of Advent, December 23rd, 2018

Fourth Sunday of Advent, December 23rd, 2018

If you will kindly permit me, I would like to use this time right now to show my thanksgiving . . . .  to say Thank you.    And what exactly am I thankful for, you are asking yourself.  I want to thank all of the churches and parishes for  allowing me to share some time with them.  If my calculations are correct I do believe that it has been thirty years since I entered the seminary.  In those thirty years since then I have received the opportunity to do amazing things.  I have worked in inner-city, urban parishes and I have also worked in suburban parishes.  I have worked in large parishes and I have worked in tiny parishes.  I have had the opportunity to serve parishes that did not have a priest, for example.  In traveling to parishes to serve, I felt like a modern-day circuit rider.  In these thirty some years, there were so many wonderful priests and bishops along the way who have not only guided me but they have inspired me.  So many deacons, priests, and bishops who not only taught me through their words but taught me through their example.  But it was  not only clergy who inspired me along the way.  There are so many beautiful, wonderful lay-people that have done so much to support me as well, . . .  to guide me,  . . .  to inspire me.  Without a doubt, the people of  my current parish St. Margaret of Scotland . . .  many of whom I have known and loved for about twenty years now . . . . they truly are family to me.   They have been there for me.  They have supported me.  They have stood behind me.  They give me the opportunity to be a priest.  They give me the opportunity to minister to them.  And yet they are the ones who minister to me.  As a priest I am so grateful for the opportunity to serve.  As a priest I am so grateful for the opportunity to minister.  I am truly grateful for the opportunity I have had to minister to God's people.   God has certainly blessed me beyond words.  This is why I am thankful.   So please allow me to show my thankfulness for all the blessings in my life.

To God, Our Heavenly Father, Thank you for creating me and giving me life.   To My Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Thank you for dying on the Cross for me and carrying the burden of my sins on Your precious shoulders; To the Holy Ghost, Thank you for inspiring me and strengthening me on a daily basis.  To my family thank you for giving me unconditional love.  To my parish family, thank you for giving me the opportunity to minister to you and thank you for ministering to me and for inspiring me.  

Mass is celebrated in the Chapel of Marquette Manor, which is located at 8140 N. Township Line Road on the northwest side of Indianapolis.  Join us as we hear the Word of God preached from the King James Version of the Bible.  Listen to the Word of God speaking to you.   Spend time as God's family in solemn worship of God, taking time out of the busy schedule of life and devoting one hour to God.  And receive Our Blessed Lord in His Precious Body and Blood to help sustain us and nourish us for the journey called life.