Advent is Coming!

This morning we woke up to much colder weather and also probably the first snow.  This is a sure sign that the season of Advent and Christmas is just around the corner.  Advent is a very busy time for anyone who works in the church, but it is a beautiful time.  The music is soft and reflective and speaks to the readings of the Advent Sunday.  We hear of the end times, and of John the Baptist, and especially of Mary during the last two weeks of Advent.

Mark your calendars for a very special event being presented for the first time at St. Therese. A Festival of Lessons and Carols is Monday evening, December 19th, at 7PM with string quintet music at 6:45PM.

Lessons and Carols is a beautiful candle-lit service which is presented around the time of Christmas.  It has a long history, beginning in England in the early 1800s, and continued to this day.

Lessons and Carols is not precisely a Christmas Concert, although you will experience beautiful Advent/Christmas music. 

The audience is invited to sing throughout,

but it is not a Christmas Carol sing-a long either.

The lessons are six readings from the Old Testament and the New Testament, concluding with the reading of Joseph taking Mary into his home. 

After each lesson, there is music:  solos and also Advent/Christmas hymns for you to sing with the choirs and instrumentalists.

After A FESTIVAL OF Lessons and Carols,

you are invited to a reception in the Parish Hall.

No charge, but a free will offering will be taken up

to benefit the Saint Vincent de Paul Society of Saint Therese Parish.

Mark Your Calendar!

Come and bring your family and friends!

Our Liturgy Is One Large Prayer for Peace

During these times of terrorist attacks….innocents being killed of every race and religion…and the latest being an 85 year old priest in France who was killed by ISIS during the celebration of Mass,
we pray at every Mass for peace.  In Eucharistic Prayer 3 we pray "May this Sacrifice of our reconciliation, we pray, O Lord, advance the peace and salvation of all the world".  After the Lord's Prayer Fr. Lawrence prays "Deliver us, Lord, we pray, from every evil, graciously grant peace in our days that by the help of your mercy, we may be always free from sin and safe from all distress…".
We extend the Sign of Peace and wish each other "Peace".

The music chosen for Mass always reflects the readings of the day (First Reading, Second Reading and Gospel), but also we are choosing music that prays especially for peace in our world and calls us to be instruments of peace.  These are difficult times and God is with us.

A special thank you to all Music Ministers of St. Therese.   You give so much of your time and talent to bring the prayer and beautiful of music into our liturgy.

This year we will have a special Advent/Christmas event that is called "Lessons and Carols".  Be sure and reserve December 19th at 7PM on your calendar for a beautiful time of song and scripture featuring all of the musicians of St. Therese parish.

Good morning on a very frosty January morning.  We have completed the season of Christmas and are now walking through a few weeks of Ordinary Time.  I want to thank all of the musicians who gave so much of their time and talent to bring beautiful music to St. Therese during the Christmas season.  Thank you!

During this Ordinary time, the church celebrates the manifestation of the light of Christ in the world.  The light of Christ manifests in us when we say "yes", and through us into the world.  The musical selections are our prayer that we can be servants in spreading this light of Christ.  Last weekend you sang "Christ Be Our Light", "We Are Many Parts" and "We Are Called".  If you go to the hymnals and read the text to these hymns, you will understand why you sang them at Mass last Sunday.

Soon, it will Lent.  Beginning with the First Sunday of Lent, February 14th, we will start singing the official hymn of the Year of Mercy.  The title is drawn from John 6:36, Be Merciful, As Your Father is merciful.  The hymn is written with the refrain in Latin for the assembly:  Misericordes sicut Pater! In English:  The Father is merciful!  The second refrain, sung after each phrase of the verses is also in Latin:  in aeternum misericordia eius.   In English this means:  "For eternity you are merciful."

The verses are sung by the cantor:

1. Give thanks to the Father, for he is good.  He created the world with wisdom. He leads his people throughout history, He pardons and welcomes his children.

2. Give thanks to the Son, Light of the Nations. He loved us with a heart of flesh.
As we receive from him, let us also give to him; hearts open to those who hunger and thirst.

3. Let us ask the Spirit for the seven holy gifts, Fount of all goodness and the sweetest relief.
Comforted by him, let us offer comfort; love hope and bears all things.

4. Let us ask for peace from the God of all peace. The earth waits for the Good News of the Kingdom.
Joy and pardon in the hearts of the little ones; the heavens and the earth will be renewed.

Blessings to all.