A sincere welcome to those who are new among us. We hope you find a warm and welcoming faith-home with us. Please introduce yourself after Mass and call the Rectory to register.

THIRTY-THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME NOVEMBER 13TH, 2005

DEVELOPMENT AND PEACE:
Development and Peace has joined a multi-country post –tsunami relief effort to rebuild communities for the people of Aceh , Indonesia , still displaced from last December’s disaster. Valued at $25 million, the new project will build 3,000 houses, restore damaged or destroyed village infrastructures, and assist the economic and cultural recovery of the region’s tidal wave survivors. The project is being funded in large measure by a $19 million grant from the overseas development agency of the Catholic Church in Germany , and $2 million from Development and Peace.

AN ATTEMPT TO RETRIEVE THE SEASON OF ADVENT:
That is a challenge! And yet Christmas can come to mean so much more, at least in the Christian sense, when we observe the season of advent.

We may have some vague sense of what Advent is meant to be all about. .The next two Sundays the Bulletin will have an insert that we hope you will find time to read. The first insert has the title “Entering the Spirit of Advent,” and the second insert will be entitled ‘Bringing Advent to life.”

Our Parish Pastoral Council (PPC) has worked with these two articles on Advent in an attempt to see how all four areas of parish (liturgy, faith formation, fellowship, transformation) can be serious about Advent. This is the hope that we can work towards a parish-wide advent experience. We won’t be reminded of Advent when we come to Church, bur we hope to find modest steps to observe Advent at home. Our Christian celebration of Christmas may be the richer for it. Stay tuned----

YES, WE HAVE AN EXTRA PRIEST FOR CHRISTMAS EVE:
It took some time, but we finally succeeded in finding a priest who is free and interested in presiding at the two Masses on Christmas Eve. 7:00 p.m. at St. Aloysius and 9:30 at St. Columban.

Why mention that here as it does not seem to affect us here at O.L.V. and St Malachy? But it would have affected us if the other priest had not surfaced. In that case we would have had to re-arrange the schedule of Christmas Masses for all four parishes I am supposed to serve. Now we can manage without much disturbance.

BAPTISM IN JESUS’ NAME (6)
There are many aspects to Baptism. That stands to reason. Together with the Eucharist it is one of the two basic sacraments of the Christian faith, of our Christian identity. Yes, we have seven sacraments, but the other five really flow from and lead to Baptism and Eucharist. You could call them spin-offs from Baptism and Eucharist.

The last time we reflected on Moses who led captive Israel to freedom through Christ Jesus who as the New Moses leads us through the waters of the Red Sea . The Moses of the Old Testament is really a foreshadowing of Jesus. Christ who as the New Moses leads us through hostile power of sin and death to life in communion with God. Christ does that through his death and resurrection.

That also affects our understanding of the baptism font. In the earlier centuries they spoke of the baptism font either as womb or tomb. That is interesting. It has to do with what text of the New Testament one uses.

In the Gospel of John we hear Jesus speak of being born of God, being born of water and the Spirit (John3). That way of speaking of baptism led to looking at the baptism font as the womb of the church, the womb of God. Through the prayer of the church over the baptismal water it would be filled with the life-giving power of the Spirit. Hence, being bathed in that water and being drawn from that Spirit-filled water makes us being born of god. Naturally, Mothers may have a better feel for the evocative power of that image.

In his letter to the Romans (Chapter 6) the Apostle Paul speaks of baptism as a dying with Chris, as being buried with Christ so as to be raised with Christ to a life of holiness and friendship with God. This way of speaking about baptism gave rise to looking at the baptism font as a tomb in which we are buried and from which we are drawn, all this through Christ.

Which way of speaking of baptism is the right-one? That is the wrong question to ask. Both are right. Neither one of them can be rejected or excluded. It is a perfect example of the fact that baptism is so overwhelmingly rich that one way of speaking about it cannot do justice to it. Womb and tomb, being born of God and being buried with Christ Jesus capture the life-giving significance of being bathed in the baptismal font.

MEETINGS:
         PPC - Wednesday, November 16 at 7:15 p.m.
Wardens - Thursday, November 17 at 7:00 p.m.

CONGRATULATIONS & BEST WISHES TO:
 - Kay Delcourt who will celebrate her birthday on November 13th
 - Louis & Rose Weatherdon who will celebrate their 66th Wedding Anniversary on November 16th

UPCOMING EVENTS : 50 YEARS
Dominic Darcy will celebrate his 50 th Anniversary of musical entertainment on November 25 th at Lakeside Gardens . The show will start at 7:30 p.m. For more information, please see the poster at the Church entrance.