I hope to see many of you in just ten days (!) for Christmas! Consider inviting someone to join us for that beautiful time of prayer. Our Christmas Mass schedule is the same as last year: 4pm Christmas Eve at SJB; 5pm Christmas Eve at SSP; 10pm Christmas Eve at IHM; 8am Christmas Day at SJB; 10am Christmas Day at SSP. Many thanks to our staff, volunteers, musicians, and clergy for all they have been doing to prepare for that joyous day!
 
      The feast day for St. Stephen the Protomartyr (that means, the first martyr, see Acts of the Apostles chapter 6 and 7) comes immediately after Christmas on December 26. We’ll have a low-key but high-fun celebration of our parish feast day with Mass at 8am at SSP (only, no 6:30am at SJB that day) followed by sweets and beverages and conversation in the SSP parish hall. At 10am we’ll transition to my kind of fun: cards and board games! We’ll continue the celebration until noon. 
      
      Finally, our Saint Vincent de Paul Society will be hosting a food collection for the weekend of December 29-30. We’re trying out having these food collections whenever there are five Sundays in a month. The collection benefits the local food pantries that work with us to help our neighbors in need. 

God bless you!