Letter from the Pastor: November 2021

Dear Faithful,

The Church’s calendar is filled with a year-long treasury of so many time-honored practices. As you well know, the month of November bids us to pray for the souls of the faithful departed. Largely forgotten, even dishonored by other “Christians,” this practice carried on by Catholics hearkens back even to the days before the Redemption: 

It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins. (2 Machabees xii, 46)

Also this month, we have two other practices which are but a small part of the expansive panoply of Catholic culture:

• November 12: St. Martin’s Lent
• November 28: Liturgical New Year

Many of you have courageously decided to take up the ancient practice of St. Martin’s Lent. Hopefully you picked up your devotional booklet already, and I include here some other pieces of information for you (including this litany).

Then on the 1st Sunday of Advent, we will celebrate the Liturgical New Year after the 10am Mass. This is certainly something to celebrate in your homes, but this year, we are happy to provide a lamb feast in honor of the eternal Agnus Dei! It will be generously provided by a new parishioner who raises the lamb and sheep himself! Signup to come.

As we draw near to Advent and Christmas, we also count down the days to our church opening on December 24! May this beautiful time of the year and the expectation of that joyous day fill us with an ever-increasing desire to become more like Christ, the Divine Head of the Church. To that end, as promised on November 1, I link here a book on the Beatitudes — the road map which Our Lord Himself has pointed out to us. (The author is not a traditional Catholic, so a few things might sound slightly off, but he does present a meditation of the Beatitudes that is quite good and worth taking slowly.) Since fasting aids contemplation, maybe this book will help you to reach new heights during St. Martin’s Lent!

God bless,
Fr. Deister