From Father George's Desk 1/11/26

Today’s feast of the Baptism of the Lord brings our celebration of the Christmas Season to a close. It is a kind of threshold through which we pass each year from our reflection upon and celebration of the Mystery of the Incarnation—of the Lord’s Nativity and his early manifestations—into Ordinary Time, that part of our calendar “in which no particular aspect of the mystery of Christ is celebrated, but rather the mystery of Christ itself is honored in its fullness….” [Universal Norms, 43] Jesus’ baptism in the River Jordan by John the Baptist is the turning point that marks the end of his early manifestations and the beginning of his public ministry. From here he will begin his work of proclaiming the Good News and gathering disciples to himself. May our celebration of this last feast of Christmastide be a reminder of the call we have received in baptism to follow the Lord all the days of our lives and to continue the work he has commissioned his disciples to do: to proclaim the Good News and to build the Kingdom of God. What is the Good News that Jesus begins proclaiming from his baptism? Pope Francis wrote: “Faced with a vision of justice as the mere observance of the law that judges people simply by dividing them into two groups—the just and sinners—Jesus is bent on revealing the great gift of mercy that searches out sinners and offers them pardon and salvation.” [Misericordiae Vultus, #20] As we go forth into this new year, may we who rejoice that we have been sought out and offered this extraordinary gift, share it with the world by our thoughts, words, and deeds. As the late Holy Father reminds us, mercy must always be placed at the center of our lives as disciples. We’ve been working around a lot of early bulletin publication deadlines for the past several weeks so this is actually the first bulletin article I’ve written since we celebrated Christmas and I finally have the opportunity to send out a big “thank you” to everyone who helped make our celebration of Christmastide so joyous and wonderful. I wish to thank everyone who showed me such great generosity for all of the beautiful cards, gifts, and goodies. Your warm wishes, kind words, and generous spirit are very much appreciated. To all who sent greetings or remembered my mom and family in prayer this Christmas Season, thank you for your kindness. Please be assured of my continued prayers for all of you throughout this new year! Thanks to the volunteers who turned out to decorate and prepare our churches for Christmas. I have received many compliments on how nice they look; your labors are very much appreciated. Thanks to the liturgical ministers for exercising your ministries over the Christmas season; we are grateful for sharing your time and talent with our parish family all year long. A big thanks to those in music ministry who added so much to the liturgies of this wonderful season; all of your preparation and practice was appreciated and enjoyed by all who gathered for worship. Finally, thanks to all of you for your presence at the liturgies of Christmas Day and the Season. I pray that the joy-filled spirit of prayer and praise present this Christmastide will continue to resound in our parish throughout this new year! Finally, I recently received the following note of thanks from the Catholic Near East Welfare Association & Pontifical Mission for special Gaza Appeal collection we took last fall: Dear Father Saletrik, Thank you very much for your most generous donation of $2128.50 from Holy Family Parish and $871.00 from St. John the Evangelist Parish, in response to the national appeal launched by His Excellency, Archbishop Timothy Broglio, President of the USCCB, on behalf of the ongoing crisis in Gaza…. CNEWA & Pontifical Mission, with its office in Jerusalem, and in collaboration with well-established partnerships will continue to work to bring humanitarian and psychosocial assistance to the suffering people. We join with all our partners in the hope that soon safe corridors of passage will enable the needed amounts of such assistance to reach all who are suffering, in search of clean water, starving, in need of medical assistance, displaced, without hope. Father, CNEWA thanks you and your most generous people for their sacrifice and solidarity with the people of Gaza at this hour. Respectfully, Msgr. Peter I. Vaccari, President CNEWA & Pontifical Mission