December 31, 2011 – January 1, 2012
Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, The Mother of God
Numbers 6:22-27 Galatians 4:4-7 Luke 2:16-21
A year awaits us. Filled with the expected designated holidays, birthdays, anniversaries and calendared events, it is what will happen between these ‘planned occasions’ that will make 2012 memorable. The headlines of the coming 12-months will announce assorted political developments, news of earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, tornadoes, forest fires, bombings, war, economics and assorted mayhem. How these headline-events impact our personal lives is, as yet, unwritten; we may be nothing more than distracted bystanders or be intimately connected. Within the unfolding events of 2012, the grace of God awaits our discovery. In both the triumphs and the tragedies that await us, grace is to be found, the implicit promise of God to ‘be with us always’ and to ‘not be afraid.’ Given to us by Jesus as he hung upon his cross, Mary, the Mother of Jesus, sweeps us into her maternal embrace, joining her prayers with ours and add heft to our conversations with Father, Son and Holy Spirit. As many a mother does when their children are going off to their daily adventures, Mary gives us a loving send-off into this New Year…urging us to do our best, cautioning us to be careful, promising to always be thinking of us and praying for us and reminding us to, ‘do whatever he tells you’, the same as she instructed the wine-stewards at the wedding feast of Cana. 2012 awaits us…let us move forward, do our best and see where the grace of God will take us.
Welcome to the New Year of 2012, thank you for joining with our Corpus Christi Community as we step into the new opportunities offered us by God. Today, at the 12 Noon Mass we bless and thank Linda Palomino and her daughter, Carina, for their selfless gift of service to our community in their work within HAVEN and JAMs, please consider joining us for the post-Mass reception. Bulletins await you with news of other parish events, please mark them on your personal calendars so you won’t miss out. Please keep our JAMs youth in your prayers as they journey on their Winter Retreat next weekend….and wherever these first few hours of 2012 find you, remember, you are loved! FKB
