STREAMING SUNDAY AND WEEKDAY MASSES

Today's Live-Streamed Mass

Worship Aid for Second Sunday of Advent
Worship Aid for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception 

 Our annual celebration of Advent Lessons and Carols will be Sunday, December 12 at 7:30pm. Everyone is welcome! 

 Plan Advent Confessions. Our Parish Advent Penance Service is scheduled for Monday, December 13 at 6:30pm. Join us for a special evening service of reconciliation will be offered with 15 visiting priests.  Opportunities for confessions in the days before Christmas will be limited, so plan to join us December 13. 

 The Springfield Council of the Knights of Columbus is selling Christmas trees in the lower parking lot through December 19.  Please support the charitable work of the Council by purchasing your tree from the Knights. The lot is open from 5pm to 9pm on weekdays and 9am to 9pm on weekends. 

 Based on the guidance of the CDC, we recommend that everyone, including those fully vaccinated, wear a mask in public indoor settings

Dear Good People of Saint Bernadette,

I read this short article from CNA (Hannah Brockhaus) and it seemed to me a very beautiful message for all of us this Advent.

Pope Francis met participants and organizers of a Christmas songwriting contest at the Vatican on November 22.  He told participating young adults and teens to hold onto the hope, beauty, and love present in the season which celebrates Christ’s birth.

“I am happy to meet you, now at the doors of Advent, the period which every year introduces us to Christmas and its Mystery,” the Pope said.

“This year too its lights will be subdued due to the consequences of the pandemic, which still weighs on our time,” he noted. “All the more reason we are called to examine ourselves and not to lose hope.”

“The feast of the Birth of Christ does not clash with the trial we are experiencing, because it is the feast of compassion, of tenderness par excellence. Its beauty is humble and full of human warmth,” Pope Francis told the contestants and its organizers.

He added: “I like to repeat the words of Saint Paul VI: ‘This world in which we live needs beauty in order not to fall into despair.’ What kind of beauty? Not the false one made up of appearance and earthly wealth, which is empty and generates emptiness. No.”

“But that [beauty] of a God who became flesh, that of faces, of stories; that of the creatures who form our common home and who – as St. Francis teaches us – participate in the praise of the Most High,” he said.
Pope Francis said “the beauty of Christmas shines through in the sharing of small gestures of concrete love. It is not alienating, is not superficial, is not evasive; on the contrary, it widens the heart, opens it to give freely – you artists know – opens it to the gift of self, and can also generate cultural, social and educational dynamics...”

Advent always seems so short, almost a pause, between Thanksgiving and all the preparations for Christmas.  You can let it slip past without considering the beauty that Pope Francis talks about, not a sentimental, subjective kind of beauty, but the kind of real truth that is startling if you only take a moment to think about it.  All this was done out of love.  And, more startling, all of this was done out of love for me.  Once realized, we know that we have no option other than to love each other in the same way.  To give without considering the cost, to care.

The proof of this real truth is the way in which our hearts turn to so many in need at this time.  Advent, if you think about it, is the season of giving.  Countless charities reach out to immense need, a need that seems to be growing greater with each day.  We recognize our obligation, we who are so fortunate, to do our part and reveal the beauty of the face of Christ to others.

The Lord be with you,

STREAMING SUNDAY AND WEEKDAY MASSES

Today's Live-Streamed Mass

Worship Aid for Thanksgiving Day
Worship Aid for First Sunday of Advent

 Our second collection next week is for Parish Special Needs. Thank you for your generosity.  And don’t forget the Catholic Charities Christmas Collection is the following weekend, December 12, a great way to remember the poor and those in need at Christmas time. 

 Remember today / tomorrow we will celebrate Evening Prayer (Vespers) here at Saint Bernadette at 4pm, continuing what Bishop Burbidge began last Sunday inaugurating the first jubilee preparation year. All are invited. 

 Wednesday, Dec. 8 is the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, a holy day of obligation.  A Vigil Mass will be offered at 7:30pm on Tuesday evening; Wednesday, Masses will be offered at 7 and 9am, Noon, 6:30pm, and 8pm in Spanish. We invite you to join us! 

 Our annual celebration of Advent Lessons and Carols will be Sunday, December 12 at 7pm. Everyone is welcome! 

 Plan Advent Confessions. Our Parish Advent Penance Service is scheduled for Monday, December 13 at 6:30pm. Join us for a special evening service of reconciliation will be offered with 15 visiting priests.  Opportunities for confessions in the days before Christmas will be limited, so plan to join us December 13. 

 Our Giving Tree Program has moved entirely ONLINE again. Please visit our announcements page to see a list of the organizations and instructions on how to donate. No items will be accepted here at the Church. Plan to make your donation/ gift available by noon on Dec. 9 to ensure delivery by Christmas. 

 The Springfield Council of the Knights of Columbus is selling Christmas trees in the lower parking lot through December 19.  Please support the charitable work of the Council by purchasing your tree from the Knights. The lot is open from 5pm to 9pm on weekdays and 9am to 9pm on weekends. 

 Based on the guidance of the CDC, we recommend that everyone, including those fully vaccinated, wear a mask in public indoor settings

Dear Good People of Saint Bernadette,

Last weekend we were able to use our new Gather hymnals for the first time!  It feels good to have them in the pews.  As David said in his introductions at most Masses, how vital and significant it is to have a dignified, noble resource like this to help us improve our worship with song!  We reviewed a lot of hymnals, and found this one to be the best compilation of what is good, old and new, with many familiar liturgical songs as well as a lot of new music that we will learn to deepen our repertoire as a community.  And in the long term it will cost a lot less.

One of the best things about coming out of the worst of the pandemic was that we could sing again.  It is particularly beautiful to hear you sing again.  It will be even better when we don't have masks – but it is, in fact, the masks that are making singing possible.  Singing dramatically multiplies the virus circulation, so we remain careful.

Likewise, it was just really good to hear the choirs again.  But don't forget – YOU are the primary choir.  Our choirs' only purpose is to support you, and inspire you to sing, not to wow or entertain.  They enhance your experience of you singing, as we gather and pray together in song.  Many churches have forgotten this and have gone with more of a show band approach.  Remember, Saint Augustine said those who sing pray twice, not those who listen!

It seems to me that we are close to being back to our attendance levels pre-pandemic, with an obvious increase in just the past few weeks.  I was anxious to learn the results of our October count of Mass attendance.  In October 2021 we averaged about 1,700 people per Sunday, down by about 870, which means in October we were about two-thirds the attendance level in October 2019.  Attendance in November has been noticeably higher – hopefully the availability of vaccines for children and the booster will boost not only immunity, but confidence as well.  I continue to hear from so many people that they feel safe at our parish because we care to be careful, for each other, even though it seems that cases are climbing again in Fairfax County.

Several people have asked me where we are with regard to obligation to attend Mass, as the dispensation was withdrawn a while ago.  There still seems to be some confusion.  As in the time before all of this, anyone who is ill, or homebound, or unable to get to church is not obligated.  It isn't really that the Mass on TV "counts," but it does provide something which is better than nothing.  This inability to come to Mass includes any inability due to anxiety or necessary caution to avoid infection with underlying conditions which could put you at risk.  It was always the case that elderly or people at risk could stay home during the flu season.  Now, however, there is no option just to stay home if you would rather not get out of your pajamas!  As with singing together, the Mass cannot be considered a private devotion that you get in when convenient.  Literally, we must come together to be the Body of Christ, together, in full and visible communion.  Liturgy is not something we experience; it is praise and thanksgiving we do together as a community.

The Lord be with you,