My friend’s baby is getting baptized this week. It is their firstborn, and it is a boy. Welcoming this child of God into our church, during this time of year, is truly a blessing to me. The look in the new parents’ eyes as they bring a child to the Baptismal font is a look of true joy and of great hope.
For us as a parish family, this is a season for true joy and great hope as well. The past year has brought us great struggles and great triumphs. We have mostly walked hand in hand through this pandemic and seen our lives turned upside down. It was a year of trials, changing plans and routines, and of loss. Yet here we are. We arrive at another Christmas and the dawning of a new year with great hope.
A newborn child gives us that great hope. A newborn babe in a manger gave us all that hope 2,000 years ago and still does today. We are a people of great hope.
As a child, I hoped for the perfect present. As a parent, I hoped for my children to be healthy, happy and in love with our Lord. As a member of St. Francis parish, I pray and hope for all our members of our parish family. I am hopeful we continue to grow, flourish and be renewed in God our Father and Jesus His Son, and that we dwell in the Holy Spirit.
To my friend’s newly baptized son, Diego Joseph, I say welcome! This is a world and a church of constant change and motion. Yet we are a people of great joy and great hope.
May your family and our parish family be blessed by that newborn’s birth over 2,000 years ago. Jesus is the answer to every question, every struggle, and every challenge in every season. May Jesus bless my family, your family, and our parish family both now and in the coming year. Jesus is the reason for our hope and our great joy.
See you at Mass. St. Francis of Assisi, pray for us.
Pat Burns, Director of Stewardship & Finance