St. Jude Church was truly blessed in hosting the First Class relic of St. Jude last Monday. We were grateful to be chosen and being able to bring our prayers to St. Jude for his powerful intercession. I want to thank Fr. Carlos Martins for orchestrating the event with us and celebrating Mass in honor of St. Jude. Yes, it was a remarkable and very special day for all of us.
When a parish hosts such an event it needs the help of volunteers who will not only set it up and break it down, but also to be ushers and security throughout the day. This also included volunteers to help assist in providing the religious articles for sale. The reason it was such a wonderful experience for all was because of these volunteers, our parishioners from the St. Jude Shrine Knights of Columbus. Thank you so much!!! You guys were there setting it up at 11:00 in the morning, ushers during the whole day, and then breaking it down at 10:00 in the evening. Yes, thanks to you St. Jude Church shined ever so brightly on that special sacred day honoring our patron saint. And also it is with heartfelt gratitude to our St. Jude Rosary Altar Society for providing the needed assistance in making the day so beautiful.
Here we are now in the Advent season, the extraordinary liturgical time of the Church’s calendar year where we experience the two-fold Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. These first two weeks will be reminders for each of us to give a self examination of our conscience in how well prepared are we in the Second Coming of our Lord. Are we prepared for that encounter?
We don’t know the day or hour as Jesus tells us, and so we are called to take these first days of Advent as a sacred time of reflection and prayer with the hope of being strengthened in faith and a more intimate relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ who loves us and gives us his peace.
St. Jude, pray for us ~
Blessings,
Fr. Ryan