Presiding Today:
Fr. Loren Connell, OFM
In Today’s Mass We Pray For:
Pasqualina Rainieri
By Rosa Shultz
Proclaimers of the Word:
Pat Schug & Barb Oxley
Next Week’s Reading Jan. 11
Isaiah 55:1-11
1 John 5:1-9
Mark 1:7-11
Dear Sisters and Brothers,
Thanks to everyone who has helped to make our on-going celebration of Christmas as beautiful as it has so far been. Many of you worked diligently behind the scenes. Without you Saint Leonard would not exist. I look forward to brunching with you today and celebrating our final Christmas Mass next Sunday. Many thanks, also, for all your expressions of kindness to me this Christmas season. The many greeting cards, the Christmas flowers, and the gift cards to Graeters’ and Panera Bread and Graeters’ and Barnes & Noble and Graeters’ are much appreciated, as was the birthday gift from Esther Price. And each one of you is a much finer gift than anything wrapped in glitter and bows. Thank you for being our Saint Leonard Faith Community!
Today we celebrate the Epiphany of the Lord; and next week, his Baptism. What do the Epiphany and the Baptism of the Lord contribute to Christmas? They invite us to look at the mystery of God-Made-Flesh from different perspectives. The Epiphany invites us to look around and see who else is a part of God’s People, to get ourselves off center stage and let God direct Life. The Baptism invites us to get serious, to choose whether to accept Jesus or not. When the tinsel goes and the revelry ends, will Christmas have made a difference in our lives? The Church’s liturgy is designed to help us answer that question affirmatively.
Peace and every blessing,
Loren, OFM
