Happy Feast of the Holy Family! Forty days have passed since Mary, still but a teenager, gave birth to her first-born, a son, in a stable (according to St Luke), with shepherds coming in from the fields with a tale of a choir of angels singing about the newborn Messiah. She has come to the temple with Joseph and her baby to complete her purification by the poor’s ritual sacrifice of two turtledoves. There the family meets two prophets, Anna and Simeon, who declare the babe to be the “glory of your people Israel” and the “redeemer of Israel.’ Joseph and Mary are amazed. But Simeon warns Mary that being the mother of the Messiah is going to be difficult, and so it will be. In Luke’s next scene, Jesus is twelve, the family is back in the temple, and Jesus tries to stay behind with the scribes. In his ministry, Jesus ignores the presence of Mary and other family members and declares his true family to be those who believes his word. And that’s before she watches his execution as a revolutionary. Only the full of grace can survive such a life. We are nearing the end of the calendar year. As you can see from the numbers below, we are falling short of our budget. In addition, the Christmas collections are vitally important for the financial health of every parish everywhere, and St Therese is no exception. Of course, this year we won’t have the contributions of our extra Christmas visitors. Please be extra generous! If you haven’t made a pledge for next year, please go online st-therese.cc, click on Give on the banner, and then choose “Stewardship of Treasure Commitment Form.” The Stewardship Commission hosted a Holiday Recipe Exchange. It was sparsely attended but a good time was had by all. We learned that Jim Yearby has some serious baking skills with his “Heart Attack Cake”, and Trisha Tinsley shared her “Two-hour Chocolate Meditation” (all courtesy of yours truly.) Don’t miss our next event! We need some help! Nicole needs someone to learn how to run the livestream at mass. Contact Nicole at nicoles@st-therese.cc. A parish gardener! Zach Mayer, who developed the garden as a school class, is moving out of the area. He has suggested that we continue the garden as a support for St Mary’s food bank. If you know something about growing vegetables and can lead a team, we can recruit more folks to help you. Contact me at jvrussell85@gmail.com. Diane would like someone to sanitize the Parish Center mid-week. Contact paa@st-therese.cc if you’re interested.