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Streaming Mass and Announcements for the week of 24 December 2023

Today's Live-Streamed Mass

Worship Aid for the Fourth Sunday of Advent

Christmas Vigil Mass

Christmas Midnight/Dawn/Day

 

 CELEBRATING the CHRISTMAS SEASON

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 24 * CHRISTMAS EVE VIGIL MASSES
4:30pm, 8:30pm (preceded by Contemporary
Choir Carol Prelude at 8pm)
Midnight Mass • 12am (preceded by Saint
Bernadette Choir Prelude of Carols at 11:30pm)

MONDAY, DECEMBER 25 * CHRISTMAS DAY MASSES
(Midnight Mass)
7, 9, 11am & 1pm (en español)
Note: There is NO 5:30pm Mass on Christmas Day

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 31 * FEAST of the HOLY FAMILY
We will follow the regular Saturday Vigil and Sunday Mass schedule for the parish

MONDAY, JANUARY 1 * Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God
NOT a Holy Day of Obligation this year
Regular Holy Day schedule: 7 & 9am, Noon,
7:30pm (bilingual)

SUNDAY, JANUARY 7 * SOLEMNITY of the EPIPHANY of the LORD
We will follow the regular Saturday Vigil and Sunday Mass schedule for the parish

MONDAY, JANUARY 8 * The BAPTISM of the LORD
The Christmas season ends today with our regular daily Mass schedule.

 

fleur cross logo Our Parish office will be closed from December 25th-January 2nd, in observance of the Christmas Holiday.

fleur cross logo Join fellow parishioners at the March for Life on Friday, January 19, in Washington, D.C. Saint Bernadette will provide a bus if there is enough interest. Sign up here or call the office to reserve your seat by January 2nd.



Streaming Mass and Announcements for the week of 17 December 2023

Today's Live-Streamed Mass

Worship Aid for the Third Sunday of Advent

 CELEBRATING the CHRISTMAS SEASON

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 24 * CHRISTMAS EVE VIGIL MASSES
4:30pm, 8:30pm (preceded by Contemporary
Choir Carol Prelude at 8pm)
Midnight Mass • 12am (preceded by Saint
Bernadette Choir Prelude of Carols at 11:30pm)

MONDAY, DECEMBER 25 * CHRISTMAS DAY MASSES
(Midnight Mass)
7, 9, 11am & 1pm (en español)
Note: There is NO 5:30pm Mass on Christmas Day

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 31 * FEAST of the HOLY FAMILY
We will follow the regular Saturday Vigil and Sunday Mass schedule for the parish

MONDAY, JANUARY 1 * Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God
NOT a Holy Day of Obligation this year
Regular Holy Day schedule: 7 & 9am, Noon,
7:30pm (bilingual)

SUNDAY, JANUARY 7 * SOLEMNITY of the EPIPHANY of the LORD
We will follow the regular Saturday Vigil and Sunday Mass schedule for the parish

MONDAY, JANUARY 8 * The BAPTISM of the LORD
The Christmas season ends today with our regular daily Mass schedule.

fleur cross logo All young men and women interested in learning to serve at the Mass as Altar Servers, 4th grade through high school, are invited to contact the parish office. We are planning a training in January.

fleur cross logo Our Advent Parish Penance Service will be held on Tuesday, December 19, at 6:30 pm. Please join us for a special evening service of reconciliation with 16 visiting priests. 

fleur cross logo All are invited to the Filipino traditional Simbang Gabi Mass on Saturday, December 23, at 7 pm. 

fleur cross logo Join fellow parishioners at the March for Life on Friday, January 19, in Washington, D.C. Saint Bernadette will provide a bus if there is enough interest. Sign up here or call the office to reserve your seat by January 2nd.



Fr. Don's Weekly Letter ~ 17 December 2023

Dear Good People of Saint Bernadette,

Usually, when I have the same conversations with various people, I recognize that there are things on people’s minds that we should talk about. Recently I have spoken with a number of people who are dreading the holidays because their children openly criticize and even speak against the Church that they love so much. What is deeply a religious feast for them has no sacred significance for others in their family. It can make for a difficult holiday. Again, it is sad when the best you can hope for is coexistence where embrace could be.

Pope Francis: Many today say: “Christ, yes, the Church, no.” Like those who say, “I believe in God but not in priests. But it is the Church herself which brings Christ to us and which brings us to God. The Church is the great family of God’s children. Of course, she also has human aspects. In those who make up the Church, pastors and faithful, there are shortcomings, imperfections and sins. The Pope has these too — and many of them; but what is beautiful is that when we realize we are sinners we encounter the mercy of God who always forgives. Never forget it: God always pardons.”

In a catechesis from May of 2013, Pope Francis recalled that God’s plan “is to make of us all a single family of his children, in which each person feels that God is close and feels loved by him.” The Church is not an institution that bureaucrats cooked up, though in many instances, it seems exclusivity and clericalism are coming back in style. The Church “is not an organization established by an agreement between a few people,” but “she is a work of God”, she is born “from the supreme act of love of the Cross, from the pierced side of Jesus from which flowed blood and water, a symbol of the sacrament of the Eucharist and of Baptism.” The Church “became manifest when the gift of the Holy Spirit filled the heart of the Apostles and spurred them to go out and begin their journey to proclaim the Gospel, spreading God’s love.”

“In the end,” said the Pope, “the Church is our mother because she brings us to new life and leads us to Christ. So we must love her, even when we see her face marred by human frailty and sin, and we must help to make her ever more beautiful and radiant so that she can bear witness to God’s love in the world” (Pope Francis, 2019 World Day of Prayer for Vocations).

If you encounter such a conflict this Christmas, show the loving face of the Church to those who may have such opposition because the Church did not show a loving face to them when they needed it most. I think this is a vital opportunity when turning the other cheek can be powerful. Do not return rejection for rejection, but show that it is only love which will endure.

Isn’t that the message of the coming celebration of the birth of Christ? Without knowing him, faith, hope and love are only concepts, and illogical ones at best.

Advent is so short this year! For those of you traveling who will not be with us next weekend, go with blessing and our warm wishes for a wonderful holiday of family and friends, and the deep satisfaction of knowing that God is with us, and himself is the heart of the Church.

The Lord be with you,

Streaming Mass and Announcements for the week of 10 December 2023

Today's Live-Streamed Mass

Worship Aid for the Second Sunday of Advent

 CELEBRATING the CHRISTMAS SEASON

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 24 * CHRISTMAS EVE VIGIL MASSES
4:30pm, 8:30pm (preceded by Contemporary
Choir Carol Prelude at 8pm)
Midnight Mass • 12am (preceded by Saint
Bernadette Choir Prelude of Carols at 11:30pm)

MONDAY, DECEMBER 25 * CHRISTMAS DAY MASSES
(Midnight Mass)
7, 9, 11am & 1pm (en español)
Note: There is NO 5:30pm Mass on Christmas Day

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 31 * FEAST of the HOLY FAMILY
We will follow the regular Saturday Vigil and Sunday Mass schedule for the parish

MONDAY, JANUARY 1 * Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God
NOT a Holy Day of Obligation this year
Regular Holy Day schedule: 7 & 9am, Noon,
7:30pm (bilingual)

SUNDAY, JANUARY 7 * SOLEMNITY of the EPIPHANY of the LORD
We will follow the regular Saturday Vigil and Sunday Mass schedule for the parish

MONDAY, JANUARY 8 * The BAPTISM of the LORD
The Christmas season ends today with our regular daily Mass schedule.

fleur cross logo All young men and women interested in learning to serve at the Mass as Altar Servers, 4th grade through high school, are invited to contact the parish office. We are planning a training in January.

fleur cross logo The Knights of Columbus continue to sell their Christmas trees through December 17th. The tree lot will be open weekdays from 5-9 pm and weekends from 9 am-9 pm.

fleur cross logo Concerts at Saint Bernadette presents Advent Lessons and Carols this Sunday, December 10, at 7:30 pm. Saint Bernadette Music Ministry, featuring our adult and young people’s choirs, and Lector Ministry, present hymns, choral music, and scripture readings from the rich treasury of the Advent Season. The event is free and open to all. A free-will offering will be accepted for ECHO.

fleur cross logo Shop our Christmas Bake Sale after Masses this weekend. Thank you for your support!

fleur cross logo Our celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe is on Tuesday with a procession at 7 pm, Mass at 7:30 pm, and a light reception. All are encouraged to bring a rose to honor our Lady. You can leave your roses in the vestibule starting at 6:30 PM. Please call the parish office if you can volunteer for the reception or sign up here.

fleur cross logo Our Advent Parish Penance Service will be held on Tuesday, December 19, at 6:30 pm. Please join us for a special evening service of reconciliation with 15 visiting priests. 

fleur cross logo All are invited to the Filipino traditional Simbang Gabi Mass on Saturday, December 23, at 7 pm. 

fleur cross logo Join fellow parishioners at the March for Life on Friday, January 19, in Washington, D.C. Saint Bernadette will provide a bus if there is enough interest. Sign up here or call the office to reserve your seat by January 2nd.



Fr. Don's Weekly Letter ~ 10 December 2023

Dear Good People of Saint Bernadette,

Advent is back again! As you take your inventory of the past year and think of all the good things you hope to do again, and some of the errors you hope not to repeat, hopefully you feel you are in a different place even though the calendar seems the same.

The liturgical year calendar is an essentially cyclical unfolding of time that each year visits the same sequence of the events of the Paschal Mystery through the lens of Jesus himself, or maybe Mary and the Apostles. But it is far from just a re-telling of the same story received by the same you. I like to compare it driving up a mountain (particularly Mount Tabor) where you begin at sea level and start to go up, spiraling upward, facing north, then west, then south, then east. At each turn you can look further down at where you have been, and you can look out as the horizon gets broader and broader. You experience the beauty of the scene, thinking it can’t get better than this! But it does. You are filled with wonder. Sometimes it is beautiful and view is endless, other times it might be raining and the vista is limited. When you get high up, you can’t believe how much you could not see back when you were in the valley.

We are back at the beginning of Advent, and we find ourselves back at north, continuing the climb. Even though our celebrations throughout the year seem circular, repeating again, hopefully you find yourself in a different, higher, more rarefied place today. This is my best explanation of the spiritual life.

Advent is a time of waiting with informed hope. It is extremely spiritual, (though it seems often to be overwhelmed by commercialism and consumerism). We are not strangers to the view, we’ve seen it before—only this time it is more, wider, more to discover. We are watching and waiting. “Watch!”, Jesus said in last week’s Gospel. Be a people who are looking for God. So many people are looking for God, but maybe in the wrong places or even not really knowing what to be looking for, what is truly good for them. God isn’t in the driving wind, nor the earthquake. He is in the silence.

I was really happy with my homily last week. It was about how we begin this season imagining what the world was like, with all it’s suffering and danger, before the hope of knowing Christ. It was a time of unknowing. We pride ourselves on how much we know, don’t we? Still, we don’t know what we don’t know. I spoke about a book I read in seminary, “The Cloud of Unknowing” from the latter part of the 14th century, an anonymous work. The writer says that we must abandon our impressions and ideas about God (they are wrong and insufficient, anyway), not focus on his particular activities and attributes, and be courageous enough to surrender your mind and ego to “unknowing,” at which point you can glimpse the nature of God.

Seek God NOT through knowledge and intellect, but through intense contemplation, simply being with God and aware of God. He is your best friend who doesn’t need conversation but simply delights in being together. No words needed. Don’t try to see God by the light of your understanding, but by his light which calls forth the sweetness of love in your feelings. For God can well be loved, but he cannot be thought... he can be grasped and held by love, but not by thought.

With patient love, wait. The horizon is more immense than we ever imagined.

The Lord be with you,

Fr. Don's Weekly Letter ~ 3 December 2023

Dear Good People of Saint Bernadette,

After organizing ecumenical and interreligious events for many years nationally, it was most satisfying to attend the interfaith Thanksgiving prayer service of our local community last week at Burke United Methodist Church. It was a rainy, messy night, which made the gathering seem warmer and friendlier than many such gatherings I have attended. The interfaith choir was really big (a number from our parish) and sang selections from Christian and Jewish traditions. A Sufi group played an instrumental. People stayed long afterward at a reception in their parish hall adjacent to the church -- longer than people usually stay -- and we got to know each other. If you can make it next year, it is a rare and wonderful event when people care enough to get together outside of the regular routines of individual congregations.

As we begin the season of Advent, I was wondering what might be a simple point of meditation for us every day as we begin the season. It came to me at Mass this week; it is probably the most perfect prayer that is so familiar to all of us. At the conclusion of the Eucharistic Prayer, the priest recites this doxology for the Great Amen: “Through him, with him and in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours, almighty Father, forever and ever. Amen.” In Advent, it is good to pray, “Come, Lord Jesus,” but we are living in a time of waiting, not as if Jesus is not already here. He is the one who has come and made this prayer possible -- that it is precisely through him, with him, and in him that our offering to God is valuable, and what we offer is ourselves. He is the one who orients our attention on the Father, not on himself. He is the gift we offer to the Father.

A dozen or so years ago, there was a group of people who thought we should add a solemn feast day to the Church calendar in honor of the Father, as we do with Jesus in his mysteries, with Mary and the saints. But, you see, every Mass is glory and honor to the Father, in Jesus and through him.

The Amen that follows, called the “Great Amen,” is the people’s response to this action of offering as you offer yourselves with that bread and wine to be transformed into the Body of Christ. That AMEN should be the loudest word or sung response in the entire Mass!

Also, this season of Advent comes with a great deal of emphasis on generously giving not only ourselves but also the treasure that we have, as with our Catholic Charities Collection next weekend. It is the season of so many charities. The mailbox is full (and the email box!) with requests for generous giving. A few people have expressed giving fatigue even with our second collections at the parish, not to mention our Capital Campaign and the Bishop’s Lenten Appeal.

Our season for our Parish Hall Capital Campaign will end at the end of this calendar year. Bishop Burbidge will be announcing a diocesan Capital Campaign (interestingly also called, “Behold, I make all things new), and we will no longer be able to solicit gifts for our own Capital Campaign. If you have plans for any end-of-year giving, we could cross the finish line with strength and then just not talk about it anymore. Help! For all who have given generously, I am grateful. Maybe in a couple of years, we will be able to host the Thanksgiving interfaith service for our local community ourselves!

 

The Lord be with you,

 

Streaming Masses and Announcements for the week of 3 December 2023

Today's Live-Streamed Mass

Worship Aid for - First Sunday of Advent

Worship Aid for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception

 

fleur cross logo Any boys or girls interested in learning to serve at the Mass as Altar Servers in 4th grade through high school, please contact the parish office. We are planning a training in December.

fleur cross logo All women are invited to an Advent Evening of Reflection on December 9 from 7-9 pm in the school Gym. This event is free, and registrations aren’t required but greatly appreciated. RSVP here.

fleur cross logo This is the last week for our 2023 Giving Tree. Please consider taking a tag and helping make someone’s Christmas special this year. You can also click here

fleur cross logo The Knights of Columbus will begin their Christmas tree sale on November 25th. The tree lot will be open weekdays from 5-9 pm and weekends from 9 am-9 pm.

fleur cross logo Friday, December 8, is the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, Patroness of our nation. It is a Holy Day of Obligation for all. We will offer Masses on Thursday evening with a Vigil at 7:30 pm, and on Friday at 7 and 9 am, noon, and 7:30 pm (bilingual).

fleur cross logo Concerts at Saint Bernadette presents Advent Lessons and Carols on Sunday, December 10 at 7:30 pm. Saint Bernadette Music Ministry, featuring our adult and young people’s choirs, and Lector Ministry, present hymns, choral music, and scripture readings from the rich treasury of the Advent Season. The event is free and open to all. A free-will offering will be accepted for ECHO.

fleur cross logo Shop our Christmas Bake Sale after Masses on December 9 & 10. Thank you for your support!

fleur cross logo Don’t miss our special bilingual Mass for Our Lady of Guadalupe, Patroness of the Americas and the unborn, on Tuesday, December 12th. The celebration will start with a reading on the history of the miracle and a procession around the campus at 7 pm followed by Mass at 7:30 pm, and a light reception in the Bradican Room. All are encouraged to bring a rose to leave at the feet of our Lady.

fleur cross logo All are invited to the Filipino traditional Simbang Gabi Mass on Saturday, December 23, at 7 pm. 

Streaming Masses and Announcements for the week of 26 November 2023

Today's Live-Streamed Mass

Worship Aid for The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe

 .

fleur cross logo Any boys or girls interested in learning to serve at the Mass as Altar Servers in 4th grade through high school, please contact the parish office. We are planning a training in December.

fleur cross logo Keep Christ in Christmas! The Knights of Columbus will be selling Christmas cards in the vestibule after all Masses on the weekends of November 18-19 and November 25-26. You may contact Mike Candalor at mcandalor@cox.net to get information or arrange another opportunity to view/purchase cards.

fleur cross logo All women are invited to an Advent Evening of Reflection on December 9 from 7-9 pm in the school Gym. This event is free, and registrations aren’t required but greatly appreciated. Please see the bulletin for more information.

fleur cross logo Our 2023 Giving Tree is now in the vestibule. Please consider taking a tag and helping make someone’s Christmas special this year. You can also click here

fleur cross logo The Knights of Columbus will begin their Christmas tree sale on November 25th. The tree lot will be open weekdays from 5-9pm and weekends from 9am-9pm.

fleur cross logo Friday, December 8 is the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, Patroness of our nation. It is a Holy Day of Obligation for all. We will offer Masses on Thursday evening with a Vigil at 7:30pm, and on Friday at 7 and 9am, noon, and 7:30pm (bilingual).

fleur cross logo Concerts at Saint Bernadette presents Advent Lessons and Carols, on Sunday, December 10 at 7:30pm. Saint Bernadette Music Ministry, featuring our adult and young people’s choirs, and Lector Ministry present hymns, choral music, and scripture readings from the rich treasury of the Advent Season. The event is free and open to all. A free-will offering will be accepted for ECHO.

fleur cross logo Shop our Christmas Bake Sale after Masses the weekend of December 9 & 10. Thank you for your support!

Fr. Don's Weekly Letter ~ 26 November 2023

Dear Good People of Saint Bernadette,

Many say that the pathway to the spiritual life -- to any kind of peace, really -- is the pathway of thanksgiving. You focus on what you are thankful for, and prayer begins. Healing begins. It is the cornerstone of any 12-step program; it begins to reorder behavior and change people’s lives. It opens the channel of communication between you and God, especially in times when it seems too hard.

Well, you might say, “I have nothing to be thankful for.” I suppose there might be such suffering and difficulty in life that it might seem impossible to be grateful for it. After all, the One to whom we would be grateful, might be the One we blame for that suffering. How can I be thankful to him?

This kind of thinking, however, twists reality. God is the author of all that is good, and he is exactly the One whom we need to turn to at such times to help us to see the many things we are thankful for. If thankfulness is the remedy, we are allowing our difficulties to be the distraction that keeps us from healing.

Looking around the world today, we can see so many ways we can be grateful because we aren’t in a war; we aren’t suffering senseless suffering of terrorism and violence on a scale the world has seldom seen. Still, our country is plagued with many forms of suffering which we need to be delivered from -- these record numbers of mass shootings in our country are only a symptom of a sickness that pervades our society. But even here, thankfulness is the key that can turn the hearts of those who are committing these crimes of anger and hopelessness. We need to teach each other how to be thankful.

Our country pauses for a moment this weekend under the title of Thanksgiving Day. Hopefully, there will be moments of loving kindness and service to others, maybe even the opportunity to get together with loved ones for a special shared meal. I know this letter is a little late for Thanksgiving Day itself, but it is never too late to intentionally add thankfulness to our Thanksgiving Day weekend. It is far from a rote custom that serves up the same menu every year. Take some moments to actually exercise your gratitude power and be truly thankful. Then, when we find ourselves in darker times or circumstances, we can remember the many things that matter for which we are thankful.

The simplest place to start is where you are right now. If your usual daily prayer includes “grace” before meals, add a quick prayer at the end of the meal. “We give you thanks, almighty God, for these and all the gifts we have received from your bounty through Christ, our Lord.” It provides a second bookend that completes the meal and acknowledges our dependence on God. In our house growing up, we added, “May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.” Do you see how that happened? Your gratitude just suddenly grew into a spiritual work of mercy, to pray for the dead, for those who are waiting on our help to find their way to heaven but they can’t pray for themselves. Let’s be grateful for us -- and for them -- while there is time.

 

The Lord be with you,

 

Fr. Don's Weekly Letter ~ 19 November 2023

Dear Good People of Saint Bernadette,

When you read this, we will already be back from the parish pilgrimage to Portugal and Spain. I have included a few photos later in this bulletin of some of my favorite along the way.

Each stop along the way allowed us to consider the reality of pilgrimage more deeply and how you don’t have to fly to a distant place to make the journey of life in companionship with God.

We started at the Basilica of Saint Anthony of Padua. Yes, that is correct, he was born in Lisbon, Portugal. We reflected on his life of how he followed God’s call which took him to surprising and unexpected places in his life, which was a pilgrimage.

Then we visited Fatima, literally one of the principal pilgrimage destinations in Christianity. It is a place where people go, mostly, to say thanks to God for his gifts, the most important of these is our Mother, Mary, who loves us.

Santiago de Compostela. Another pilgrimage destination in a town that still has buildings dating to the 700s. Our readings at Mass challenged us as the dwelling places of God we are, to see ourselves as the tabernacles of the Holy Spirit. Consider all the beauty we have seen already, and have yet to experience in this trip and in life, and try to remember as best we can that God has made us even more beautiful, destinations where people on their pilgrimages can encounter God in us. These churches and holy shrines are only human attempts (though truly incredible) to express the mystery of how God dwells in us. You are more precious and more beautiful than the greatest of these holy places and monuments because you are made by God, in his image.

Our next stop was the Cathedral of Leon, whose patroness is Saint Mary of Regla, a local Madonna venerated since the time of Saint Augustine, the 5th century statue of whom was at the altar where we celebrated Mass. The feast is the same as the Nativity of Mary, and we reflected on how the pilgrimage of the Blessed Virgin Mary was set in motion by her Immaculate Conception and how her “yes” allowed our salvation to unfold.

In Avila, we talked about how Saint Teresa of Jesus’ pilgrimage was both outward and inward. Answering the call to reform the Carmelite order to its original simplicity and poverty, she founded 17 convents and at the same time explored what she called the “interior castle,” a pilgrimage of discovery within herself where she went deeper and deeper into the relationship she had with God, as if discovering new rooms where she learned something always new. Her spiritual director, Saint John of the Cross, also a reformer of the men’s Carmelite order, experienced much suffering and persecution for his efforts, out of which came a new understanding of living the reality of the cross. His pilgrimage was one that took him through the “dark night of the soul” (his cross), literally a spiritual pilgrimage that took him through the real experience of death to new life. His poetry is considered one of the greatest treasures of Spain. We celebrated his feast today in Toledo.

If you haven’t figured out where I’m going with this, we will continue through Seville, Cordoba, Barcelona and Montserrat. Know this: all is pilgrimage until we are home with God -- and the good news is he doesn’t wait on us. He joins us all along the way.

 

The Lord be with you,