The 10:30 Mass will be celebrated at St. Mary Magdalen Church.

The Mass at St. Joseph’s, Rileyville has been cancelled.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

     Today we hear St. Luke’s version of the Beatitudes.  We are more familiar with the Eight Beatitudes from St Matthew, which clearly lay out for us the moral code of Christian living.  St. Luke’s are a bit more circumspect.  Nonetheless both versions provide us with the compass we need to navigate the turbulent waters of life and keep us focused on where we are headed, namely the kingdom of God.

     It is necessary of course to keep in mind that the ascent to and the entrance into the Kingdom of God is not far off and unattainable until our departure from this earth.  As Our Lord reminds us as He had begun His ministry, “the Kingdom of God is at hand.”   So how do we affect the Kingdom here and now?  Live the Commandments and the Beatitudes! Easy to say, but a challenge to do.

That, of course, is where grace comes in and that grace is always and readily available to us through the Sacraments of the Church.  Our Savior never expects us to accomplish the moral life and the building up of His Kingdom on our own.  It is the grace of the Sacraments that strengthens us to do the work at hand.  The Sacraments are always augmented by prayer, meditation and catechesis.  The catechesis or instructional component is also readily available to us as we read the Sacred Scriptures and the Catechism of the Church, which bears the Sacred Tradition as passed down to us from the Apostles and affirmed and explained through the Magisterium of the Church.

      In order to expand our Faith and intellect an excellent resource is FORMED.  We have for the past several years carried an annual subscription for our parishioners in order to grow more deeply connected to the Faith. Regularly in our bulletin we inform you how to access and hopefully utilize this important source for formation.  In recent years we see that it does not receive the attention that it deserves.  Please consider making FORMED a par of your spiritual growth especially as we begin preparing for the Holy Season of Lent

With Blessings,

Father Langan

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

       With our commemoration of the Baptism of Christ we bring our Christmastide celebrations to a close and begin Ordinary (or counted) Time for eight weeks.  Then Lent will be upon us.  Happily, this year Easter is later and so we have time to catch our breath before we begin the disciplines of Lent.  Just because we take down our trees and put away lights and ornaments doesn’t mean we pack away Christmas for another year.  Rather we continue to mull over the graciousness of God’s gifts to us and grow daily in appreciation of His Presence in our lives.

     Look at the graciousness the Lord offers in today’s Gospel, the first of His many signs/miracles.  Surely our Lord is not an advocate of inebriation but He does provide a copious amount of wine so that a young new couple does not suffer embarrassment. And we hope that the celebrators were moderate in their consumption, but there is indeed more to the story here. It is a reminder to us that God lavishes His goodness upon us.  It is only an ungrateful heart that fails to recognize this truth.  Unceasingly we raise our thanks to God because ultimately He knows what is best for us and too often we tell Him what we think is best for us.  Sometimes this could be to our own detriment and we do not even realize it.  Perhaps one of the best prayers we could say is simply: “whatever You want Lord”  That brief expression could be very easy or extremely difficult and that is the crux of our spiritual lives.  Why?  Because of the consequences it brings and are we ready for the Lord’s response?

    In the next several weeks we will be hearing from the Knights of Columbus  through this message.  These men accomplish a great deal of good for our parish and community and yet they are very reluctant to “toot their horn”.  I have asked them to take this opportunity to do so in order that more men and families understand what they are all about.  Kindly need their message and hopefully more men in our parish will come to inquire and find their place amongst this rank of good men.

With Blessings,

Father Langan

Dear Brothers and Sisters in  Christ, 

We have come to the glorious feast of the Epiphany wherein The God-man, Jesus Christ our Lord reveals Himself to all  the nations of the world. The Magi, who are known to us as  Balthazar, Melchior and Gaspar,  come from the far corners of  

the earth representing all the various peoples on this  planet. Christ comes for all but unfortunately many  still do not recognize Him. 

We sang the beautiful Advent hymn, “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” frequently during Advent, but now  is the time for the world to come, to come to Him.  What star may they follow to lead them to their Savior? Stars are objects that shine brightly, especially in  the night sky. We cringe on dark, lightless and dreary  nights, but when there is a panoply of stars our spirits  are lifted. Many people are in the dark and dreary.  Maybe you can be the star they need to steer them  in the right direction. Anyone making that effort to  come to Christ is rightfully a pilgrim. Pilgrims are all  at different stages on their journey, but always they  need the encouragement necessary to stay on the  right path and keep on going even when the going is  difficult. 

The Magi knew this only too well. Nonetheless,  they pursued, perdured and found the treasure that  satisfied their longing. They also brought prophetic  gifts indicating Who this newborn King was. Gold for  royalty, Frankincense for Divinity, and Myrrh for One  Who would die like the rest of us in order to conquer death itself. 

Speaking of gifts, I wish to express my heartfelt  thanks to all of you who have been so very kind and  generous in your personal gifts to me, your lovely  cards and especially for the many Masses and the Spiritual Bouquet.  

We all are grateful to those who gave so much of  their time and talent to make our Christmas celebration beautiful and uplifting once again, our choirs,  both adult and children, instrumentalists (have you  noticed the new saxophonist?); our decorators; our  custodial staff who attack the snow immediately; our  office staff and anyone else who out of love for God  and parish made this a most joyful season. 

 A Blessed Epiphany, 

   Father Langan

The Mass Schedule for the Solemnity of Mary is as follows:

4:00 (vigil)                St. Bernard

5:30 (vigil)                St. Mary Magdalen

7:30 (Wed)               St. Mary Magdalen

9:00                            St. Joseph

10:30                         St. John the Evangelist

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

        We have come to the final stretch of our Advent preparations and perhaps you are like me in wishing there was more time.  Before this holy season I intended to do a number of things to emulate the season but none materialized only because there was always the unexpected that took precedence.  Only thing , however, that was consistent with the season was the overwhelming mail requests to contribute to this, that and the other cause,  each one stating how very important it was.  This brings me to issuing a caution, if not a warning,regarding the choice of your generosity  this Christmastime. 

    The reason for my concern is that this past week I found out that a particular charity that I was contributing to for some time was funneling funds to an organization incompatible with our Catholic Faith.  I was flabbergasted and immediately discontinued my contributions.  The American Life League brought this to my attention and I am very grateful that it did.  I highly recommend contacting them should you have misgivings about where your funds are going.

     In light of this you may want to consider helping out, as many of you have already done, our “sister” parish in Ghana, St. Anthony’s .  They have made great progress in the construction of their church but have recently stalled for lack of funds.  Fr. Dominic will be returning to his homeland in early February after a two year absence and it would be a great blessing for him to bring new contributions to the parish in order to resume construction.

      Always we want to recognize and be thankful to those who are generous to our parish.  Once again there have mysteriously arrived two beautiful live wreaths which are hanging on the front doors of St. Mary Magdalen.. We never know where they came from but I hope that the mystery-maker knows how very much we appreciate their kindness and generosity.  Also we are grateful to Hessling-Murray funeral home for the spiritually uplifting calendars that will grace our homes and offices in the coming year. A thousand thanks.

       Finally and most importantly May the grace of Christmas dispel all sadness and darkness in your lives.  The Savior has come , He is here and so desires that you allow Him to be reborn in your hearts.  We especially reach out to those who have drifted away.  The baby Jesus has His arms extended wordlessly pleading “come back to Me.” Where else could we possibly go other than His loving embrace!

   A blessed and holy Christmas to you and yours,

Father Langan