December 9, 2018

My Dear Parishioners,
   This Saturday, December 8th is the Holy Mass of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a Holy Day of Obligation.  Our Saturday 4pm Mass does not fulfill this obligation.  Holy Day Masses are Friday, December 7th at 6:30pm and Saturday December 8th at 8am & 9:30am.  Please know that our Blessed Mother loves you and she will pray for you until you are in heaven with her.  Mary is our spiritual Mother and dearest intercessor.  Let us love her dearly. 
   Christmas is coming, and we would love to have you join our Christmas choir to sing praise to God at our Christmas Masses.  Surely, God would love to hear from your voice and heart.  Please contact Sandy for more information.  Also, to prepare your heart and soul to celebrate the birthday of Jesus, please consider going to confession during this time of Advent.  I normally hear confessions about 20 minutes before every weekend Mass in the west confessional.  Our parish penance service with guest priests will be Sunday, December 16th from 4pm to 5pm.  Come & go as you wish.  So that people don’t have to stay in line for a long time, please say your Act of Contrition before entering for your confession.  We will have priests who can speak English, Spanish and Vietnamese.  I will post their names at their stations.  When you go in, first close the door for privacy, then tell the priest your last confession and sins.  Confession is your opportunity to ask for God’s mercy and forgiveness.  Please be sure to thank your confessor for his ministry.  Please know that no priest will be available to hear confessions on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. 
   Vietnamese Parishioners: Please join me for the memorial Mass for Father Augustine Nguyen Huy Tuong at St. Anthony’s, Sunday, December 9th at 3pm.  Father Tuong passed to eternal life on November 21st in Dallas, TX.  He shepherded and helped many Vietnamese refugees and Catholics in the 1980’s at St. Patrick’s, Wichita.  We thank God for his life and ministry in our diocese.  May he and all the faithful departed rest in peace eternally with God.
   RCIA: We welcome and congratulate the following:  Melissa Martinez, Kathy Palacios, Joseph Wales, Qian Xie, Dieu Vuong, William Dudula, & Melissa Courtright into our church family.  These candidates will become Catholics at the Easter Vigil.  Please keep our candidates in your prayer. 
   Building Fund: Our goal is $170,000.  Thankfully we are blessed with $84,157 from parishioners and non-parishioners.  We will continue to thank God for them and for their generous gifts.  Soon, we will recognize them in the bulletin.  If you wish to remain anonymous, please let Barb, our bookkeeper know.  For confidentiality, we will never reveal the donation dollar amount of individuals, only the total sum.  If you have not contributed yet, please know that we are waiting for your gift.  Thank you!
   Thank You:  To all parishioners and non-parishioners for helping with our food sales last weekend.  We were blessed with your hard work and donations to our parish.  May God bless you and your loved ones.  We profited $12,500 toward our building fund.  Again, our parish would love to have more parishioners or organizations help us with different types of fund raising.  We are a church family that eats together, prays together and shares our lives with each other. 

God is with us in our ministry, Fr. Hien