Pastor's Letter

Dear Friends,
 
I am very grateful to the many parishioners who gave me a Christmas gift. I assure you that they will all be put to good use, especially the gift cards to the local restaurants.
 
I am also thankful for the many parishioners who helped with getting our church ready for the Christmas season. They are: Tom Binder; Marguerite Zimmerli and her landscape crew; Environment and Art  members – Diane Kostecki, Gwen and Tim Voncina, Joyce Vlnka; Kathy Krebs; and Susan Moynihan and her 3 ^rd Grade Religious Ed students. This involved the dismantling of the Advent settings, along with bringing our church alive with the Christmas decorations, both outside and inside. Of course, our church is fully alive at Eucharist when it is full of people and everyone is singing.
 
Our Long-Range Pastoral Plan is on the website. If you need a hard copy, you can pick one up in the narthex. I am grateful to all those who participated in this process to help it become a reality.
 
We all know about the Epiphany and the Three Kings. Today we celebrate this event as part of the Christmas Season. It is a celebration of the manifestation of Christ to all the world, beginning with a reading that overflows with light, brightness, radiance and glory. The Israelites have returned to the Promised Land (around 586 BC) after being in exile.
 
It's easier to experience the light when all is going well. The Israelites thought that God had abandoned them when they were in exile. Now that they are back, they begin to see His loving presence again. We fall into the same spiritual trap. The key is to see God’s presence when we are “in exile” or feeling abandoned or discouraged. There is no easy way to do this. We simply have to bring it to prayer and ask God to help us with our blindness.
 
The feast of the Magi reminds us that God calls all people from different parts of the world, from different backgrounds, and brings us together around the Christ Child.
 
We all have some dream and a star to follow. Notice the star is always above and beyond us. It moves us forward with hope. If we follow our dream, we will not only have the hope to continue on the journey, but it will always lead us to Christ Himself. The mystery is that He will be at the end of the journey, while He walks with us along the path.
 
May you and your families have a blessed Epiphany and Baptism of the Lord (tomorrow) as we end our Christmas Season.
 
We have hired a new Music Director by the name of Ed Magistrado. He is from Oakland, California. He, along with his wife and 3 children, will be joining us sometime in February or March after their move to this area. I will say more about this in future letters.